"show fast user switching menu" checkbox cleared between boots Mac OS Lion

In a fresh Mountain Lion install (10.8.3), all OS and apps up to date.
It appears that the checkbox under Login Options gets cleared between boots even though I save and lock after making my selection and saving/locking again.
Is there a work around? Do I need to make/save the desired settting on all users even though I logout/boot

I don't believe so..

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Why is the "show fast user switching" option grey?

My MacBook has only ever had one account on it until now. I noticed that the Fast User Switching option wasn't showing up in my menu bar, so I went to System Preferences > Accounts > Login Options to enable it. However, the option to "Show fast user switching menu" is grey and I cannot select the checkbox next to it. Yes, I am using an admin account and yes, I have clicked the lock to make changes in the Accounts preferences pane.

I have the same problem- I have three accounts on this machine.
The option is greyed out. I tried zapping PRAM, and restarts but no joy.
It coincided with a forced shut-down after an HP update installation hung all day on one of the accounts. "turning off may harm your computer"...
Any clues to a fix would be welcome.
Thanks.

Why are deleted user accounts showing up in login window and fast user switching menu?

There are several old user accounts, just test accounts when I was studying for ACSA that I deleted, which continue to show up in the login window and the fast user switcher menu. I deleted them before upgrading to Lion (I think it was before). The accounts do not exsist in the /Users folder, nor even the /Users/Deleated Users folder. Additionally they do not show up in the list of users in System Preferences. Can anyone give some advice on how to remove these "ghost" accounts from the login window and drop down menu?
Thanks
dc

Hi. Thanks for the link. Sorry it took me a while to get to this, the problem is not a show stopper, so to speak, so tried your advice when I had the time. Unfortunatly it did not work. Any other suggestions? Thanks.

Fast user switching menu - how do I have icons for all users?

I'm setting up a new computer for three users. I have enabled the fast user switching menu. I set the menu to 'Icon'. However, it only shows the icon for myself, the admin. For the other two accounts, when they log in it remains as their (rather long) real names. The same thing happens if I select 'Account Name': it only shows the 'Account Name' for myself. When I switch to the other users, it is still their real name.
How can I have icons (or account names) for ALL users??

See CCK Wizard: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/cck/
You can use a mozilla.cfg file in the Firefox program folder to lock prefs or specify new (default) values.
Place a file local-settings.js in the defaults\pref folder where you also find the file channel-prefs.js to specify using mozilla.cfg.
pref("general.config.filename", "mozilla.cfg");
pref("general.config.obscure_value", 0); // use this to disable the byte-shift
See:
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Locking_preferences
These functions can be used in the mozilla.cfg file:
defaultPref(); // set new default value
pref(); // set pref, but allow changes in current session
lockPref(); // lock pref, disallow changes

Fast User Switching Menu Disappears

On my G4 PowerBook 17", the fast users switching menu keeps "disappearing" in my standard account. This means that I have to go into preferences with my admin user and just open the fast user switch preference section and it is already checked and it will appear. Anybody else seen this and know a fix?
John

I think I might have been the first one to notice weird interactions in Tiger between menu extras, Spotlight, and SystemUIServer, sending Dr. Smoke into "serious investigation" mode on the issue. I finally ended my major problems by deleting dang near everything, except wClock, Scripts and Input menu. Now it no longer hangs Spotlight, but often the items are rearranged upon restart. At first I kept a copy of com.apple.systemuiserver.plist, that had everything listed and arranged correctly, in a folder on my desktop. When I restarted and things up there were wrong I would put the "good" copy in the Prefs folder and then use Activity Monitor to force quit SystemUIServer, which would then immediately restart and consult the correct plist, thus displaying the items I wanted in the order I wanted. I have since discovered that it isn't even necessary to swap out the plist file--simply restarting SystemUIServer does the trick. It is almost as if it does not always consult its own plist file when starting, but when restarting it does.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

Add Network Users to Fast User Switching Menu

Local users appear in the *Fast User Switching menu* on our Macs. How can we add users with *Network accounts* on our bound Mac OS X Servers so they appear in the Fast User Switching menu w/out already being logged into the client machine?

Demetrios wrote:
Local users appear in the *Fast User Switching menu* on our Macs. How can we add users with *Network accounts* on our bound Mac OS X Servers so they appear in the Fast User Switching menu w/out already being logged into the client machine?
It did not use to be possible to have two (or more) network users logged in on a machine (via fast switching) as the normal method of accessing network home directories, i.e. via AFP had limitations that prevented this.
If you want to try this, I suggest you first need to setup your home directories so they are shared via NFS rather than AFP. I found I had to actually turn AFP off for that share rather than merely setting the autoshare to be NFS as if it was shared by both AFP and NFS the clients seemed to prefer using AFP and would use that instead.
I am not using fast user switching myself for this, but I have a Terminal Server running on a Mac Server which allows multiple clients to be logged in at the same time and accessing their home directories via NFS.

How to enable fast user switching in OS X 10.8.1?

How do I enable fast user switching in OS X 10.8.1?

go to System Preferences > Users & Groups
Login Options (underneath the list of users)
Tick "Show fast user switching menu as .."

Disable fast user switching

Am using Lion on an older Mac Book Pro and Fast User Switching seems to make the system very unresponsive.
Is there a way to disable FUS, other than via
Settings > Users & Groups > Login Options > Show Fast User Switching Menu ... ?
There doesn't seem to be a control for this anywhere else.
Thanks.

I don't believe so..

Apps do not launch after fast user switch; requires restart

I have 3 users accounts on a mid-2010 with 12 GB RAM; two with parental controls - the kids.
The kids like to play games (particuarally Minecraft), so will log in a play for a while. Typcially when one is done playing they will use the fast user switch menu to go back to the "Login Window..." They are pretty good about shutting down the apps afterwards due to previous performance issues.
When the second user logs in, the only application that seems to work is Finder. Clicking on an app in the dock results in the "Denied"sound. Tyring to launch from Finder or from the dock using "Open" results in nothing happening. It just seems to ignore it - not even the spinny wheel.
It is almost like everything is locked for the second user and the restart clears it. Generally it is responsive for the upper menu items so it does not seem to be a memory or CPU issue. Activity montor does not show anything out of the ordinary.
This does not occur on my accout which I am currently running as an admin. (I shouldn't but am). I can login and run all the applications but if I switch to the second user nothing launches.
I have re-installed Mavericks, and ran both the file and permissions repair on disk. I cleared all of the old cahce. The only thing that seems to work reliably is to restart the system.
It also seems that if the first user logs out then when the second user tries to log in the system just seems to hang after trying to log into the second account. It swtiches to the user screen but gets stuck with the spinny wheel; this requires the one finger force reboot.

Generally yes, they will keep running. You can confirm this by running the "Activity Monitor" app to see their CPU usage.

Home Sharing stops working with fast user switching

I have a late 2013 iMac running Mavericks. The main account has my iTunes library with Home Sharing enabled. The AppleTVs and IOS devices can see the Home Share and it works well. But, it stops working when user accounts are accessed on the Mac.
For instance, as soon as I select "Login Window..." from the fast user switching menu, the share is lost. I did not log out, iTunes is still running. I simply showed the login window. All IOS and ATVs loose the share. Switching to another user also stops the share. It's as if iTunes is completed halted and not allowed to run in the background.
When moving from the login screen back to the user account where the iTunes library is located, the home share is restored. Likewise, moving from a 2nd user account back to the main account where iTunes is runnning restores the home share.
I have a MacPro running Mountain Lion, and it works fine. The iTunes library is always available for the devices, even if multiple users are signed into the Mac, or if the Mac is on the login screen.
Any work around for Mavericks? It competely breaks the entire media ecosystem if every device looses the home share if someone tries to use their account on the Mac.

And just like that I may have found the solution! IT suddenly occured to me that one of the settings that got changed when we imported my wife's profile was a change to the sleep settings. Previously, I had had my iMac set to never go to sleep, since it shares our media with the rest of the house and runs eyeTV to record TV shows and such. For a little while after my wife's account was imported the settings to changes so that the computer would go to sleep after 15 minutes. I'm not totally sure why, but I think having that set up somehow meant that when we switched accounts my other account just "went to sleep" and therefore stopped sharing the iTunes library. After I noticed the change and switched the computer back to "never" for sleep the problem seems to have stopped.
So perhaps check your sleep settings? That seems to be the only change I can think of that got things working correclty for me. I'll keep digging though and see if I can find any more helpful info. Good luck!

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.

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.

Scanners usable with Fast User Switching

Which mid-range scanner operates with multiple logged users?
Manufacturers seem poorly equipped to answer this, since they test their products with only one user logged in—their support people come up empty-handed. I work in a small but busy office where fast user switching is considered a basic part of the Mac OS, and I feel that if a product doesn't work with multiple users logged the maker shouldn't be allowed to state, without caveat, that it works with OS X.
We recently tried two scanners and found them lacking: first, the HP Color LaserJet 2840 all-in-one. After six months of support calls that often involved switching users, HP happened to mention that user switching with any of their scanners is unsupported. (Good-bye, HP.) Next, the Epson 4490. Ditto—zero support.
My intent was to use the 4490 as a replacement for the color laserjet's function as a copier. We don't want to mess with another multi-function machine, as the makers don't seem to have their act together when it comes to drivers for those. We miss our color laser, but we can get by with an inkjet. In the meantime, everyone in the office needs access to a copier, and I see no reason a printer plus a scanner (with its scan-to-printer button) can't be that copier.
Do you know of a scanner that's fully functional, buttons and all, under OS X—that is, ALL of OS X, including fast user switching?
G4 and G5 iMacs Mac OS X (10.4.6) FileMaker, Toon Boom Studio

Audio output is squelched when fast user switching. Under Panther, audio playing in one user account would continue to play after fast user switching to another account. Under Tiger, the actual process continues, but the sound is muted.
Same thing goes for audio input. I learned this the hard way by setting up an app to record a two hour radio program through the built-in audio input jack. During the recording I switched to another account for an hour. When I later went to listen to the recording, there was an hour of silence corresponding to the time I was in the other account.
I really wish Apple would fix this.

Issues with Fast User Switching, language pref, greyed out menu options

I have only one user logged in to my Macbook. If i want to select the other user using Fast User Switching and clicking on the username in top right corner of screen, nothing happens. The other user at this time is still logged out.
Incidentally, when i click on the airport symbol, the wireless networks are often greyed out and i can't change networks unless in go into network prefs.
One more thing - i have english and spanish selected as languages in international preferences. I ca not switch back to english at all - by clicking on the flag in the menu bar or by going into sys prefs. When n battery power, power characteristics are also greyed out and unable to select a different profile.
any help welcome.
thanks

It sounds like everything in your menu bar is florfed.
Can you log in to the other user account from the login window instead of by fast user switching? If so, does that account have the same problems with the menu bar?

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!

"show fast user switching menu" checkbox cleared between boots Mac OS Lion

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