“Since Mac OS X 10.6 launched in late August, numerous reports online have detailed the issue, which is triggered by logging in and out of a guest account on a Snow Leopard machine. Upon logging back in to their regular account, users will find that it has been wiped of all data,” AppleInsider reports.
“The issue has prompted numerous threads on the Apple Support Discussions, with reports suggesting the issue cannot be reproduced with any exact certainty,” AppleInsider reports. “Apple has yet to publicly acknowledge the issue.”
AppleInsider, “A month ago, CNET detailed a potential fix for the issue, which is reportedly caused when users have had a guest account enabled for login prior to the install of Snow Leopard. The easiest way to avoid the issue is disabling the guest account.”
Full article here.
Note to self: disable Guest account on MacBook after getting home from work!
This kind of thing is why I try to wait for a few point updates before installing a major OS upgrade. This appears to be especially true with all the under-the-hood optimizations and improvements in 10.6.
That’s one more thing OS X copied form Windoze.
Wow, that’s a major bug. Did Apple license Danger code?
This is why you back up folks. I also wonder what the ratio is of persons who do permissions repairs before they update their software. For those not familiar, always, always scan your permissions in disk utility before you update any and all software. ALWAYS!!!!!!
OMG you mean Mac Daily News is actually posting a negative story about Apple which can never do any wrong in their mind !
@Jeff the Trader
You aren’t kidding! I had that exact problem with Windows 7 when I connected it to a domain. It started treating all accounts as guest accounts and deleting everything when the user logged off.
why would you want to keep data on a Guest account? I would think it always did this. If you are going to keep and data on account why not use a regular account?
I really don’t see this as a bug, but as how it should work by default. Sort of like those accounts in college computer labs. You save nothing on the machine and its wiped clean once restarted.
@jarretdailynews
Wise words. Permissions repair both BEFORE and AFTER any software update will avoid many issues.
@ moe – Reportedly, logging out of the Guest account is deleting the non-Guest account’s data. That’s the problem.
This affected me first hand. I had my iMac set up as a photo booth for guests at my wedding. It was a big hit…folks posed for about 200 photos. Once we got back from the honeymoon and tried viewing the photos…THEY WERE GONE! Not a terrible loss, but they sure would have been nice to have. C’mon Apple.
@moe, you are not understanding the issue. I wipes the user’s account, not the guest account. This is a MAJOR bug!! One that if it was found on Windows 7, MDN would be all over it.
Not so much an Apple problem. If this were a bug it would be far more wide spread. A lot of this comes down to users actions. My Dad always says the same things about Windows problems. If you are not cleaning up your system from time to time, you are going to have a major problem sooner or later….. granted, he has no choice but to keep his system cleaned up.
Mutiple accounts are fine, but if you are even enabling guest accounts you have not been using computers long enough. Never enable a guest account…. EVER!!!!!
>For those not familiar, always, always scan your permissions in disk utility before you update any and all software. ALWAYS!!!!!!<
With six exclamation points, you’d think the statement made was of earth shattering importance. You do know what permissions do, don’t you? An errant permission here or there is not going to lead to data loss. Certain things might not work as they should, but it’s an easily fixable problem. Hardly critical.
Sure glad it didn’t happen to me when an Apple tech rep had me log in to a guest account as part of helping me solve a problem. I do back up daily though.
It’s my understanding that the recent OSX updates and upgrade run the repair permissions command as a part of the install package prior to actually beginning to write the update, so it’s really not necessary to run it manually anymore. I don’t think it was like this in the early days of OSX, but has been for the last few years…though I certainly could be wrong. Sorry, don’t have time to look it up right now. However, backing up prior to any OS upgrade is a no brainer. Though some have proved to have a lack of said brains…
When I went to Snow Leopard, it was all clean installs for me. Upgrading leaves too much to chance. It says above this issue only comes up when upgrading. Thus, you avoid the issue by doing a clean install…
here’s how to “LOSE YOUR DATA”
1. enable guest account ( disabled by default, by the way, despite rumors to the contrary)
2. log into guest account using EXACT SAME NAME as your user account (why anyone would do this is beyond me, but there it is)
3. do some dumb things while logged in- move things around in your “guest account” (which really is your user account, since you used the exact same name as a guest, but you didn’t realize this)
4. log out – now, OSX DOES EXACTLY WHAT APPLE TELLS YOU IT WILL DO when you enabled the guest account- go look at the accounts prefpane. your “guest account” – which really was your user account, since you spoofed the OS – is “gone” – although there are ways to get it back, if you can copy/paste some simple terminal commands found easily on the net.
Is the data really wiped out? Can it be retrieved via time capsule or some other file retrieval software?
@ jsnaulty – If that is really the full scope of the issue, it would be a big relief. In that case, at least it is not a random/undiagnosed bug that could hit anyone using a guest account at any time.
If you do a clean install can use migration assistant to bring everything back? If so, would it work with Carbon Copy Cloner?
@jsnaulty:
I have not read the reports of those claiming to be afflicted with this problem, but I suspect that you are onto something. There was another apparently serious claim awhile back that Snow Leopard was wiping out the iPhoto library—not just in users’ account, but on all their backups as well. It was a really outlandish claim that turned out to be the result of installing Snow Leopard on machines running older versions of iPhoto. The missing photos weren’t really missing at all.
In the present case, it may be that people are losing access to their data as the result of some incredibly stupid action on their part. And, as in the case of the missing iPhoto images, users’ data may or may not actually be wiped out.
Nevertheless, if users can’t access their data, even if it’s their own fault, Apple ought to look into what can be done to prevent user actions from causing such a problem.
That’s two thing I know of from doing an in-place upgrade (the other being a sound issue). I think I will stick to clean installs from here on out…
I installed snow leopard on my MacPro and there’s been no end to the problems. Its just not stable; it made hard drives unreadable; it starts up with the wrong drive (even thought I correctly select it; I have spent hours on the phone with apple and they are unable/unwilling to help. I wish there was an easy way to revert to 10.5.8.
i’m glad i didn’t “upgrade” my MacBppk!
jsnaulty makes sense. Anyone know if there are other reproducible causes?
@ ilikemacsbutsnowleopardsucksmnkeynuts: Sorry to hear that. SL has been outstanding for me. And apparently a few million others.