Mac OS X 10.5.6 Fast User Switching Freezes Screen

The past two Mac OS X versions (10.5.5 and 10.5.6) result in the screen freezing after initiating Fast User Switching. Version 10.5.4 worked as designed, but 10.5.3 had the same issue. Seems to be video display related. Using a 20" display does not result in the screen freezing. Has anyone else had this issue or have any fix suggestions?

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Fast User Switching Freeze

My wife's Macbook has been having a problem for the past couple of months. If she attempts to switch users (away from my son's account) using the fast user switching, the screen goes blue and just seems to hang there. She usually just forces it to shutdown and restart. She has noticed that she can switch to the login window, then select her account, and all works well.
Has anyone else experienced this? Any fixes out there? Google has not revealed anything on this.

Have same problem now with my iMac -- when I had it in the past, it was due to account privilege issues -- if one of the accounts did not have admin privileges, but another did, system was prone to freezing. I suspect permission problems. I'm not sure this is the current problem on my machine; problem does not occur if I log out of one account before switching back to the first account.
Try making all accounts admin & see what happens...

Fast User Switching From Screen Saver

How can I make my Mac display the login screen (as though I'd selected "Login window" from the fast user switching menu) after the session has been idle for a certain time?
I can make it log out after some amount of inactivity, but I don't want that. I want my programs to continue running.
I can also set the screen saver to require a password, and clicking the "Switch user" button on the password dialog will display the login screen. I'd effectively like to skip that step and go directly to the login screen without having to push the button.
note: I stole the wording of this question directly from here , which was posted 2 1/2 years ago. One solution then was to download a custom Script Saver and use a custom Apple Script, and the other was to purchase a 3-rd party product which costs $50.
The reason I want to do this is because I am setting up an iMac for a family with small children. The iMac will be shared by 4 people, and training the kids to click on the "Switch User" button is a hopeless task, so please don't suggest "train the users to click on the 'Switch User' button".
Also, this is not my computer. I want to keep the solution as simple and fool-proof as possible, becuase I don't want to get called if something breaks (which is why I'm disinclined to use a script or buy a 3-rd party product I don't trust).

PS -- Script Saver has been discontinued.
https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/9599/scriptsaver
So that's not an option anyway.

TS3104 Keyboard viewer appears during Fast User Switching in Mac OS X 10.7

Apple Article TS3104 addresses Keyboard Viewer appearing during Fast User Switching in Mac OS X 10.6. I am running OS X 10.7, Lion, and have the same problem: when logging into a different account, Keyboard Viewer appears several seconds after the Password dialog box appears. However, the solution posted for 10.6 does not work: clicking Hide Keyboard Viewer during Fast User Switching dismisses the password dialog box and then does close the Keyboard Viewer, but the problem recurs the next time an attempt is made to switch users. Any ideas?

As of this evening, the Keyboard viewer problem is no longer appearing. Earlier today I installed updates for AirPort Utility to version 6.3, Safari to version 6.0.5 and iTunes to version 11.0.4: is there some connection? There have been no other recent system changes or software updates.

Mac OS X 10.5: How to enable Fast User Switching

On my iBook G4, I have installed Leopard and retain the ability that I had with Tiger to select my user name on the top bar and then switch users. However, on my dad's iMac, which came preloaded with Leopard, I do not have this same ability. How would I go about making this work?

You have to activate Fast User Switching in System Preferences > Accounts (at the lower left corner you'll find the button Login Options). You can choose whether to display just an icon or your user name in the menu bar. In order to change any of these options you need admin privileges. If the menus are greyed out click on the padlock in the lower left corner of the window.
floba

Fast User Switching Mac OS X 10.5.8

I just updated my iMac-G5 to OS X 10.5.8 and have noticed that when I use fast user switching, the "rotating cube" becomes stuck between accounts. The desktop does eventually go to the correct account, it's just not as "cool" as it was. Anyone else have this problem? Or is it time to retire the iMac G5?
Thanks

Thanks for the reply. I attempted to set up some new user accounts, and now thing are even worse. Before I set up the new user accounts, I deleted some old accounts I no longer needed. I neglected to log out of my other account before trying to switch between the two new accounts. When I attempted to switch to the new user account, the rotating cube got stuck. The new account desktop did show up, but without a menu bar, only the dock, and the icons for my two hard drives. I couldn't switch back to my main account and had to reboot by holding in the power button. Once I had rebooted I attempted to log off of my main account. No login window appeared, only the OS X desktop screen. Again I was forced to reboot by holding down the power button. Once back to my desktop, I checked and repaired permissions. I deleted the two new user accounts, and now when I attempt to switch to the remaining account I have, again, the rotating cube gets stuck and when the new desktop appears for the account, there is no menu bar, only the dock the HD icons. Programs on the dock don't launch either. The dock icons bounce, but that's it. I'm afraid I've done something seriously wrong. Any advice on what might be causing this bizarre behavior?
Thanks!

Sharing one iTunes Library with Fast User Switching

Last year, I started using one MacBook Pro for Office use and Personal Home use, by creating two user accounts on it, and enabling Fast User Switching. I did this when I gave up using two separate desktops macs.
Now I have two rather similar music libraries, taking up too much hard drive space. Once I enabled Music Sharing in my Office iTunes Library, I realized that I could gain access to that Office Music Library when I am on my Personal Home User account. Since my Library on my Office account is the most complete, can I eliminate the iTunes Library on my Personal Home User account, to save hard drive space?
If so, how should I do this?
MBPro17, Pbk17 G4 1.67, Pbk G4 12 1.5, iMac G4, various G4&G5's Mac OS X (10.4.8) Airport Extreme & Express

Glen
Since my Library on my Office account is the most
complete, can I eliminate the iTunes Library on my
Personal Home User account, to save hard drive
space?
Yes.
If so, how should I do this?
Move the iTunes folder in Home/Music on the Personal
Home User Account to the desktop.
Launch iTunes. Unable to locate a library file, it
will create a new one, empty one in a new iTunes
folder at Home/Music.
Connect to your shared library as usual. If
everything is working as expected, trash the iTunes
folder on your desktop.
Regards
TD
My iTunes was created under an admin. user profile that I would like to delete. I created a second profile also with admin privlages but I want to delete the first because I messed up the shortname on the profile. So, if I delete this first profile, will I lose all of my music? Will I lose access to the music?

Bonjour + Fast User switching = messages going to the wrong (inactive) user

We use iChat for Bonjour in our office– fast file transfers etc.
If a user is one of 2 or more logged in on a machine– through the use of fast user switching, we've noticed that incoming messages (initiated by another user on the network) will often go to the switched user (i.e. the inactive user) not the user we're currently logged in as.
We've been able to repeat the issue.
1. Log in as user 1, fast user switch to user 2 (leaving user 1 logged in but inactive)
2. Go to new machine, log in as user 3
3. Send message from user 3 to user 2
4. Look at user 2 screen. No messages
5. Send message from user 2 to user 3. User 3 will receive message, and will be able to send message successfully back to user 2.
6. Log out use 2
7. Log in as user 1
8. Notice all the messages that were going to the 'inactive' user profile.
Has anyone else seen this type of behavior?

HI MAtthew,
Welcome to the Apple Discussion Pages.
I have not seen this (I only have one Mac).
However there is an item in IChat Preferences > General section that can set the staus of the Users account to Offline or Away when using Fast User Switching.
What is yur set to and does it make any difference when changing it ?
Away in normal circumstance menas someone can still Invite you to chats (or Text you)
Ralph

Cannot login to secondary accounts; can't fast user switch

I am on a Macbook, 2 GB RAM, 120 GB hard drive, 10.4.8. Today, I developed a strange problem with logging in. I have auto login set so I log in automatically to my main account, which (thank God) works. However, if I access Fast User Switching to switch to a secondary account I have set up, called Test, the transition starts (the cube rotates) , switching to a solid blue screen...and never goes any further. I cannot seem to find any way to bring up the login screen on startup, either; I must allow my main account to boot up, and then try to switch accounts. If I turn off auto-login, I get the login screen, but login to the other account still fails.
If I select, instead, the Login Window from the Fast User Switching menu, I get that screen. But when I select an account other than my main account, and try to log in, I get that blank blue screen. I've waited many minutes to see if something will eventually happen, but no go. The only way to get control of my Macbook back is to hold down the power button until it shuts down.
I have run Tech Tool diagnostics and have repaired permissions (no errors found). I deleted my Test account, and redefined it; I also defined a second test account, one with admin privs and one without. No problem creating the accounts. However, when I try to log in to those accounts, the computer hangs on the blue screen.
I'm not sure when this problem began because I have not been using my Test account for a couple of weeks. A lot has changed since then.
Any suggestions, anyone?

More info: I turned off auto-login, and was able to log in to my test account. Then, I was able to use fast user switching to switch to my main account. I will try again restarting into my main account and see if I can switch to Test. This failed consistently before I posted here. Perhaps the "sense Mac guru" circuit kicked in and cured the problem. I'm about ready to turn in so won't post a follow-up until tomorrow. Right now, I need to use my two accounts to get the job done (a writing job with screen shots of a new unaltered account). Then, I'll go back to trying to see if the problem still exists when I log in to the main account first.

Passwordless Fast User Switching?

Hello all!
I know it was not possible with earlier Versions of MAC OSX. But may we meanwhile have a way to enable fast user switching without providing a password any time ...
I am maintaining 2 User accounts on my Server Lion. Since I am the only user on that Mac, security is not an issue concering fast user switching. Under certain tasks I desire to do, I need to switch between the 2 accounts rather often and it is annoying to always provide the password. I do not have much applications up and running and therefor fast user switching is almost the same effort as LogOut/LogIn
I would highly appreciate a setup which allows me to switch between the 2 Users just by a mouseclick. But of cause I would like to keep the password protection for a LogIn either remote or local.

This is a terrible idea from the standpoint of security, but to answer your question:
10.7: Keyboard Shortcut for Fast User Switching - Mac OS X Hints

How to get "fast user switching" and network shares playing nice

I've been alternating between banging my head against a wall and reading every forum I could find to try and get a reasonable compromise between using "Fast user switching" and sharing a folder from a file server. It baffles me how the network share/mount model of OSX/AFP is completely killed by fast-user-switching; this is a big problem with Apple requiring users to be actively logged in to share music/video from iTunes which therefore essentially requires fast-user-switching if anyone else wants to use the computer. (anyone find it odd that you can share files without being logged in, but sharing songs requires an active login for each user who is sharing? Apple: time to make iTunes sharing a service!)
For the sake of example, lets just say I want to share my /Groups folder from my desktop and have it be accessible to my laptop. Here are all the things that I tried:
Apple Method 1) Share /Groups in the Server.app on the desktop (running Lion Server), use finder on the laptop and drag the share icon to "Login Items", alternative use a startup Apple script using "mount volume" Both of the options work and will mount the /Groups folder under /Volumes/Groups, of course when the second person logs in via fast-user-switching (and occasionally the first person for no apparent reason), they will get /Volumes/Groups-1 since /Volumes/Groups is already taken. Tomorrow we log in a different order and now the previously /Volumes/Groups-1 user has their mount at /Volumes/Group and vice versa. Any links, aliases, finder sidebar references, and application settings which pointed to yesterday's location are now BROKEN. Not very user friendly to my mother-in-law who is trying to find those pictures of the kids and doesn't know anything about mount points. I also can't reasonably mirror the file location structure on the desktop so that application preferences that are synced between the two (portable home directories) work. fail.
Apple Method 2) Use automounter and set up by hand direct maps for /Groups or an indirect maps for the children of /Groups. Now it will automatically get mounted to /network/servers/SERVER/Groups/ on the laptop and on the desktop it will automatically create a similar symlink structure so that the same path (/network/servers/SERVER/Groups) work both on desktop and laptop. Cool. Except when the second person logs in, the /network/servers/SERVER/Groups/ mountpoint is already owned by the first user and they don't have any permissions to access it. Fail.
Apple Method 3) Use mount_afs and specify directly the mount-points. Have each user have their own startup AppleScript which mounts /Groups to a different location (e.g. /Users/Shared/username/Groups) that way they don't conflict with multiple users. On the desktop, set up symlinks from /Users/Shared/username/Group to /Groups so that it will be the same as the client and applications settings will work when synchronized back/forth by portable-home-directories. Will it work, yes it does, but what a bear to maintain. Is this really what I should expect to do just to have multiple users on my desktop and laptop (which again is essentially required now if I want to do any type of iTunes sharing). This can't be what apple expects.
What I ended up doing - the "not quite apple" solution.
Non-Apple Method 4) After a read of "Autofs: Automatically Mounting Network File Shares in Mac OS X" (http://images.apple.com/business/docs/Autofs.pdf) at the very end there is a single paragraph of "Kerberized NFS": "A Kerberized NFS mount can have multiple connections from multiple users, each using the correct user’s credentials for each transaction. This allows administrators to support multiple users, each authenticated with their own credentials to the same mount point. This is very different from AFP and SMB mounts," (emphasis mine)
It appears that by using good 'ole NFS (abeint with Kerberos for security!) you can actually have multiple users on the same mount point. Roughly following the guidance at https://support.apple.com/kb/TA24986?viewlocale=en_US. What I needed to do was:
1) create /etc/exports on my desktop and add a single line "/Groups -sec=krb5". The existence of /etc/exports triggered a start of nfsd which no longer has any GUI options in Lion.
2) Add a line to /etc/auto_master on my laptop "/- auto_mymounts" to reference a new direct map.
3) Create /etc/auto_mymounts and add a single line "/Groups SERVER:/Groups" to create the direct map.
THAT'S IT. Three lines in three files.
Now when I log into my laptop, there is a /Groups that is a network mount of my desktop's /Groups, same location AND it works for all of my users, even simultaneously.
In the end I'm happy with what I've got, but man was this a difficult path just to support fast-user-switching. In Lion, Apple appears to be getting away from NFS (no longer turned on by default and remove from the GUI controls) but clearly this really useful functionality which doesn't exist in AFP.
I'm really curious, after all this work. Any other ways to accomplish this?

In my example above, yes I chose to mount the share "Groups" to the top of the root since that is where I put it on my server and I wanted to keep them similar; but that was just my preference, it isn't a requirement. You can export and mount from other directories.

Fast User Switching with Mounted Network Drive?

I have a headless G4 Cube running 10.5.8 with a 2TB firewire drive plugged in for storage accessable to any of my macs here at home. I can access it fine with my 2 desktops over ethernet and wirelessly. Recently we decided to consolidate our 2 desktops into one using the muliple users feature. Seems to work fine, and both accounts can access the shared drive. They are logging in with the cube's admin credentials, and the shared drive is set to ignore permissions. I have the drive set to mount on login with a startup item in the system login items prefs. As long as I logout before switching users, everything is good.
The problem arises with Fast User Switching which we'd love to be able to use. I can't figure out how to connect to the drive in one account without the 2nd account then seeing it as a volume without proper permissions, then that account creates a new volume mount for it (which doesn't work with iTunes properly and seems to cause other wierd issues).
Example: So say 'user1' logs in, mounts the drive 'Jukebox'. everything seems OK so far. 'Jukebox' is on the desktop and iTunes finds the music. Now I fast user switch to 'user2' and there is a 'Jukebox' on the desktop with the red minus icon indicating I don't have permissions to access it. If I then browse the network and mount the drive, I end up with ANOTHER 'Jukebox' on the desktop. BUT iTunes doesn't see it properly. If I look in the /Volumes/ folder with the Terminal, I see a mountpoint for 'Jukebox' (with the owner of 'user1' group 'staff') and now a new mountpoint called 'Jukebox-1' (with the owner of 'user2' group 'staff').
It seems when you mount a AFP drive, it creates the Volume with the current user and staff group, but switching to another user then can't access that when it sees it in the /Volumes folder. You try to mount again and it creates a NEW mountpoint, names it with a '-1' at the end and you can use that (but iTunes cant).
So... how does one use a shared drive that you want on BOTH users desktops with Fast User Switching turned on? Is there a way to have the drive mounted BEFORE either user logs in, such that it will be seen as any other local drive (which doesn't have the issue)??
Or is there some other way I can attach to the network volume in each account on login so both have access to music and videos with full permissions?
I'm really stumped here after 2 hrs of googling, searching here and trying things.
TIA

I've not had any luck with the suggestions in the link either.
Here's two other approaches I've tried and failed with:
1. Creating a new share point on the cube itself so that one user can mount it as a different volume. Then the issue is that I still don't have a volume named "Jukebox" available to each user when switching. I DO have access now to the data from both accounts, but under 2 different mount points (volume names) and the xml file for iTunes is hard coded with the path for each mp3 including the "Jukebox" volume name... so no go.
2. Tried figuring out a way I could script a mounting of the share with the terminal thinking I could then run that shell script at startup. Can't seem to get the sytax right. If I create a directory in /Volumes and mount and afp share to it, it takes on the ownership of root/wheel which I can't access in the finder and can't seem to change.
BUT I'll keep playing with both these ideas a bit... the first one might be overcome with a bit of logic and the 2nd if I can get the syntax right to mount the share with afp_mount and give it the correct ownership/permissions such that when a user logs in she/he sees the volume on the desktop and has full r/w access to it.
thanks again. if you offhand know the syntax for that, let me know

Fast user Switching breaks iTunes Library on Drobo FS

Hello, Everyone.
I realize this is a bit of a corner case but what the heck, maybe you can help.
Our home iMac has two main accounts, husband and wife. Connected to it is a Drobo FS. iTunes media is on the Drobo FS. The iMac Husband account is used to power the whole house media from any device:
iPhone
iPad
AppleTV
Mac Mini
When any of these devices wants any content on the iTunes Library from the iMac stored on the Drobo FS they connect using Home Share. Life is good. But life turns bad quickly when Wife logs in on iMac thus automatically causing the Husband account to be logged out. The iTunes connection to Drobo FS breaks and homesharing is disrupted. Finally when fast switching back to the Husband account iTunes and Drobo FS seem to always be broken. The fix is to shut down iTunes and restart it.
Does anyone have tips on how to better this home theatre evironment.
Thanks,
G4M

But I like Fast User Switching! Any better solutions?

10.9.3 = major problem with fast user switching

I've found a major problem with the 10.9.3 update with my 27" iMac, you probably won't see it if your on a laptop. I did all the updates in past few days i.e., 10.9.3 combo update, iTunes 11.2.1.
Afterward I noticed a bug when Fast User Switching i.e. FUS. I have 5 accounts but the bug can be replicated with only 2.
I login to userA have some windows open but you can just open a Finder window. Now make the window at least half the with of the screen and move it to the right side of the screen. Then login in to userB and setup the windows the same way as userA. Now FUS to userA and then back to userB. You will notice that the Finder window has been moved to the upper left corner of the screen. This problem happened's to all user accounts you login to except the first account you logged into.
Since I didn't know what update caused the problem I had to use Time Machine to revert to my last version of 10.9.2. I then double checked the for the bug and sure enough everything was working fine. I now was going to install one update at a time and to see which one was causing the bug. So I installed 10.9.3 first and found the bug immediately.
I now know what's happening. When the switch occurs the screen is resized to about the equivalent of a 13" MBP. At this point the windows that fall some ware outside that size get moved to the upper left corner and resized. Then the screen resizes to normal but it's too late, all the window have moved and been resized to fit the 13" screen size.
You can reproduce this effect by going to System Preferences and selecting Display and then select the Scaled radio button. No select the smallest size, say, 1280 x 720. Now select the Best for display radio button again. You will now see all the windows you have open that were too big no moved and resized to the upper left corner. I know why the Mac moves the windows, it's so you don't have any windows stuck off screen.
Now when I say 13" it could be some other size but it's about that size give or take.

Yes, it's when you user Fast User Switching.
Here's snapshot before the screen resized. Ignore the window in the lower right, I moved it from the upper left before taking the screen shot.
I hate to say it but I'm glad I'm not the only one with this bug.

Logitech Keyboard Issues with Fast User Switching

I'm running OSX 10.4 on an 800 MHz iMac, and using a Logitech Cordless Navigator keyboard. The keyboard's main feature (for me) is the ability to have the function keys (F1-F12) automatically open applications and folders and such. When I have multiple accounts running though, this feature seems to be tied to whichever one I first logged into. If I switch accounts and try to use one of the keyboard shortcuts nothing happens where I am, but when I switch back to the original account I find that the keyboard has opened the program there. The keyboard types fine in the new account, and I can even change the preferences so the function keys do different things in the different accounts, but the extra functionality seems to be only available for whichever account logs in first.
I realize this may just be a Logitech bug, but any ideas how to fix this? (Also even though I'm the only one using my computer this seems like a mild security issue, if theoretically another user could activate programs on my account without the password.)
800 MHz iMac G4 Mac OS X (10.4.3) 768 MB RAM

Logitech support is frustrating:
Dear tajmahall14,
Thank you for your recent inquiry about your Keyboards.
I understand you are having issues with the settings for the function keys becoming non-functional when fast switching from one user account to another.
Depending on the system configuration, the Fast User Switching may or may not work. Unfortunately this is not an issue I can address. You may need to contact Apple to see if they have a possible solution to your problem.

Mac OS X 10.5.6 Fast User Switching Freezes Screen

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