Unable to permanently modify Guest Account in Mavericks

I have modified the Guest Account to customize the dock, set homepages and go through first-run sequences in Mountain Lion in the past, but when I follow the same instructions in Mavericks I run into a rat's nest of hidden folders.
I am also trying to copy settings for a new copy of Final Cut Pro, but I don't believe that was the reason I was unable to successfully overwrite my User Template/English.lproj/Library folder.
Any help out there? I'm willing to execute terminal commands, but not too smart about them, so my question might turn into: Do I muck about a lot with unfamiliar and untried commands in Mavericks or roll back to Mountain Lion and do what I know how to do...

I work in a Public Library and I have been able to customize the Guest User so that:
Homepages for Browsers are set
"First Run" personalization does not need to be done - esp. MS Office
Certain Apple Apps are suppressed (Mail, Contacts etc.)
Icons appear in the dock for software (Adobe Creative Suite, MS Office)
But Mavericks makes many more folders hidden and inaccessible than Mountain Lion did

Similar Messages

Lost all my photos in a guest account after Mavericks upgrade!! Retrievable?

Did the mavericks upgrade last night and I remember having to logout on the guest account and a window popped up that said I would lose all files if I logged out ..
I did not realize that meant all photos in Iphoto...
It was to be a long upgrade so I went to bed ..
This am ,I logged in my admin. acct and everything seemed to be in place including photos..
I logged in to the guest account and opened iphoto and was shocked to see there were no albums or photos there..
I did NOT do a back-up prior to the upgrade ,,,my BAD!!
Is it possible to recover the photos????
If so,could it be explained in total layman's terminology..
Thanks in advance for reading and hopefully helping>>

As you have discovered, the guest account doesn't save files, which is how it is designed to work. To make the library accessible from the guest account, you can move the library to the hard drive level User/Shared folder (see next post), which will make it accessible by all accounts. You will then need to tell iPhoto where to look for the library.
From iPhoto help.
Move your iPhoto library to a new location
You can move your entire iPhoto library to a different computer, a hard disk, or another location on your computer.
Important: Before you move your iPhoto library, it’s a good idea to back it up to a DVD or external hard disk.
Hide
Move your iPhoto library
If you’ve created multiple photo libraries, be sure to move only the library currently displayed when iPhoto is open. To move a different library, you first need to switch to it.
Quit iPhoto.
In the Finder, choose your home folder (it’s usually named after you).
Open the Pictures folder (in the home folder) to locate the iPhoto Library file.
Drag the iPhoto Library file to a new location on your computer.
Open iPhoto.
In the window that appears, select the library you want, and then click Choose.

How can I delete a user or guest account on Mavericks?

I have a guest and another user account set up on my Mac. I tried deleting them, but couldn't.

Yes I did. All the conditions and actions stated by Mende1 above have been done.
I'm getting a feeling that an Adobe software update is involved in some convoluted way. I keep getting an Adobe message at log-in and it brings me to the Guest User log-in page although I have no desire to have any guest user use the Adobe CC software involved in the update.....that's why I don't care to have ANY guest user account. In the rare instance I let someone use my computer, I'm nearby, and they can use my account....but, that's extremely rare.
The default page for log-in after sleep is my account; that is checked in the User & Group Preferences. However, my computer is now opening on the Guest User page despite that.
Message was edited by: Mike Wann1

After upgrading to Lion, and then running fire vault I've lost my guest account from log-in and can't edit it in system preferences!

I upgraded successfully to Lion.
I then decrypted the legacy filevault and started the new firevault.
After this completed I noticed that I no longer have a guest account at log-in.
And I am unable to edit the guest account at system preferences even though I am admin.
(The guest account is unticked in system preferences - allow users to login).
Thanks.

Same here. Looks file FileVault2 disables the possibility to use a Guest Account as it enforces all accounts to have a password. In addition Auto Login is no longer possible. See http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4790 for details.

Permanently Modify Mac OS X Guest Account (Mac) Mountain Lion

Hey All,
i am shure, some of u might know the problem.
So, everytime u close a guest account, all data gets erased. And as well all settings get reset.
So, i searched around quite a bit, and what came out as helping the most is the following:
1. enable guest account
2. enable fast user swithing
3. switch to guest account
3. do ALL ure settings, run all apps and programs, that need registration, and so on. some more often for not asking u stuff again..
Modifiy the Dock, change Desktop, etc...
(dont forget to CLOSE/END all Programs, otherwise they will be started everytime user logs in.)
4. simply fast-change to main account without closing the guest account.
and then the trouble started... coping, giving yourself rights, etc... videos online about it, etc...
easiest thing to to is the following:
5. execute the following command in a terminal window:
sudo cp -r /Users/Guest/ /System/Library/User\ Template/English.lproj/
!!! Importent for other language users then english !!!
when u run ure systems mainly in another language, u need to do it ALSO with that language. OS X seems to be mixing information. so simply past line
AGAIN, but change last language part.
sudo cp -r /Users/Guest/ /System/Library/User\ Template/German.lproj/
some ppl said, it is also possible while logged into the guest account. Doesnt work for me, cause guest account want the
guest-account password. which i dont have, or is somewhere hidden in system files.
And for ppl that what to copie settings across systems, beware, there is a "Keychain"-Folder that messes up the accounts.
u cant copie that one around.
Hope it helps for who every gets the same problem.
And i hope Apples gonna make that a basic feature... kind of still ***** this way...
Cheers, Michael

Hi Michael.Cologne,
You are really confusing this here:
The idea of the Apple Standard Guest access is to let a person use your computer just now for an hour or two without being able to make any lasting changes to your Mac.
He can use your applications, he can save his documents, access webmail etc. etc. And he can then connect to remote servers and store his work there or he can use his email to send his new documents via email.
When he log out again the guest user will be empty, set back to standard and that ready to be lent out to the next user.
IF YOU WANT A PERMANENT ACCOUNT FOR SOMEBODY ELSE - ONE OR MORE PEOPLE SHARING
Create a new account, call it something understandable, like Michaels guests and give the rights to those users you would like to give them. You could even give them access without a password, like with the guest account, although this is definitely not a good advice.
This should, I hope, help.
And you should not have to go to the terminal or use other strange and radical methods to accomplish your goals
Best regards
Carsten

Why does Mail open in guest account but not my account since upgrade to Mavericks?

I've read a lot of threads but not found anything that works for me. The history is this:
I've upgraded to Mavericks 10.9.2. Since then, Mail won't open in my own user account. I only get a very brief error message:
Process:
Mail [1448]
Path:
/Applications/Mail.app/Contents/MacOS/Mail
Identifier:
com.apple.mail
Version:
7.2 (1874)
Build Info:
Mail-1874000000000000~1
Code Type:
X86-64 (Native)
Parent Process: launchd [157]
Responsible:
Mail [1448]
User ID:
I have gone to user/Library/Mail and deleted the contents of the folder Mailboxes + all the other mailboxes. No change - Mail still won't open.
If I switch user accounts to guest user, Mail opens normally (sets up email accounts etc).
Any advice would be much appreciated.

Rebooted in safe mode, repaired disc permissions, rebooted (again in safe mode) but no difference.
There was a bit more detail I could / should have added.
1) Before it crashes, Mail says it is Upgrading your Mail database.
2) I downloaded Mail update but Installer said none of the drives were compatible. (Anyway Mail works fine in Guest Account)
3) I've been through all the tips on this post https://discussions.apple.com/message/23490745#23490745http://
and
looked at Internet accounts in Preferences and none of my email accounts is checked with Mail. It asks for a password for each one but when I provide it I get the message Unable to verify account name or password. And if I try and uncheck iCloud with Mail I get the message that I need to do that from within Mail. (Obviously not possible until I can open Mail).
In Terminal tried defaults delete com.apple.mail ColorQuoterColorList but got the message that it hadn't been done.
Tried to find Envelope.x.x files as per this fix:     Final solution: Go into ~Library/Mail/V2/Mailboxes > Delete all mailboxes. Then go to ~Library/Mail/V2/Maildata and delete 3 or more "Envelope.x.x" files > Restart Mail, and enjoy your success.     but don't have a V2 folder nor Envelope.x.x files. I do have Envelope Index file and Envelope Index - journal
I don't suspect 3rd party applications because I think they are all available in the Guest Account aren't they?
Many thanks for your reply though. Any more ideas?

Can dock items in Guest Account be changed "permanently"?

Is there a way for an administrator to add/delete items to/from the dock in the Guest Account and have those changes become the default? So far everything I change goes disappears with each logout of the Guest Account. I know that this is supposed to happen with the Guest. Thanks!

Okay, I used the information above and was able to make permanent changes to the dock on the user account. I learned the following lesson:
In order to do that you must be logged in as the Guest. The WM software, at least with my limited knowledge of how these things work, does not make permanent changes to the Guest account "remotely" via the administrator account. So it worked for me, and thanks for all the information.
I have another question though: My goal is to allow a Guest to go on the Internet. So I am making Safari available to Guest. I would like to make FireFox available also. But here is the problem:
Each time the two browsers start from scratch because all the cutomized files get deleted when the Guest logs out. This is specially more annoying with Firefox since its barebone lunch requires more steps before it actually begins working.
I want Safari or Firefox to open up in a Google page, and ready to go. What do I need to do to get the settings file get saved?
Thanks in advance.
Farzad

ISE 1.2 unable to create guest accounts after import

Hi,
we are able to import guest accounts, but after clicking on "submit"-button nothing happens. So this is basically what we see:
There is no option to print the guestpasses. Is this a bug or are the guestpasses somewhere else? Furthermore there is no option to go back to main menu. We tried it on IE9 and in Firefox 25.0.1 we see even less after upload.
Here's the console output, when clicking on "Submit" in IE9:
Does anyone has a clue what this could be?
Thanks!
KR,
Renata

have you used correct template ?
Before You Begin
Click Download Template on this page to get a template to use for the import file. Ensure that the file you are importing conforms to the required structure before importing it. Additionally, if the file includes multi-byte characters, you must save the file in UTF-8 format.

WRT160NL - Guest Account cannot be modified

All,
I just installed my WRT160NL. I was able to set it up and also get my storage connected and working. My problem is I cannot update any credentials for the Guest account and the scary part is it is part of the admin group which means super access. How do I get around this issue - Please advise?
Thank You
NR

Follow this link to change the storage user password.
If it is still not working then I think you may need to reset the router and reconfigure it.
Press and hold the reset button on the router for 30 seconds. Release the reset button and wait for 30 seconds. Power cycle the router and then reconfigure it.

How do I permanently delete a guest account?

For some reason the minus sign is greyed out to delete account.

If this is the Guest account installed with OS X, then it's not to be deleted. If you created your own separate guest account, then you can delete it. Just click on the lock icon and enter your admin password. Select the account and click on the Delete [-] button.

Wireless Guest Account Lifetime Limits

We currently have ACS 5.4 and Cisco WLC 5508's deployed. We have wireless lobby admin accounts that can login and successfully create and modify guest wireless accounts. What we are trying to do, however, is give the lobby admins the ability to create wireless accounts with lifetimes longer than 30 days. Currently our setup will only allow the creation of permanent accounts (by entering all 0's in the lifetime fields) or accounts that last up to thirty days.
Does anyone know how to modify this?

Admins can create accounts of just about any length as the lifetime fields seen by lobby admins (days, hours, minutes, seconds) is replaced by just one field (seconds). You can customize the number to any length as an ACS admin but lobby admins are limited to a max of 30 days.

Display color profile bug when using the fast account switch from a guest account to an admin account (and vice versa)

Hey,
I'm sometimes using a guest account on my MBP (unibody late 2008 2,4 GHz Core2Duo, 4GB DDR3 running OSX 10.9.4 on an OCZ 128GB SSD) for a more distraction-free working space and I noticed right away a disturbing bug:
Using the fast account switch (upper right hand corner of the screen) in Mavericks from an admin account to log into a guest account (or vice versa) produces, after the fancy rotating cube animation, some strange distortion of the desktop background happens (lasting approx. 2 sec.). After that the color profile of the display is changed into an usable but ugly one, which is disturbing while working with pictures. When checking the color profile in the pref pane, the standard "display" profile is said to be active (it's the one I use) but still the colors aren't the same. Selecting another profile and re-selcting the desired one doesn't fix the problem. Switching back to the other account with the fast switching leaves the colors altered. Logging out and deleting the guest account seems to the problem for the remaining admin account. Rebooting and logging in to either of the accounts (admin or guest) from the standard account selecting page at booting shows the normal color profile.
Is it a general bug or is their anything a can do to prevent this problem (other than never using the fast switching)?
Thanks for your advice.
Mael

I cannot agree more with your comments! What a way to frustrate your customers!
I have been having an issue with iCloud on Mac where it kept asking me for my password and sometimes would, sometimes would not continue to access my iCloud mail. Today it just refused to connect to iCloud mail.
I looked in the Mail, Contacts and Calendars in my MacBook Pro settings and discovered that 2 iCloud accounts were present. One with my original Apple ID (a gmail address) and a second with my new iCloud email ( an @me.com address). Having deleted the second account, using the new @me.com address everything is working fine.
So from my viewpoint when I moved over to iCloud I was asked to sign in with my Apple ID (the gmail address) then to create an @me.com address. However, as far as I can see all sign ins to the new @me.com account on Macbook, iPhone and iPad need to be done through the old Apple ID (the gmail address). Is that confusing and just plain crazy???
Further, after creating the new @me.com address I soon found out that this is apparently now forever bound to my old Apple ID and cannot be changed. I mean why can't I delete the iCloud account and start anew with a different @me.com address??? Also, as everybody using iCloud must create an @me.com address why on earth can I not get rid of my old gmail address and have my entire Apple ID accessed through the new @me.com address? Creating a whole new Apple ID will not solve this as we are unable to transfer purchases between accounts.
Apple products are great IMHO, but they do seem to not think things through in a very big way sometimes......

Only guest account shows up at start up on Macbook Air

Last night I was updating my Macbook Air, left it alone to do it's update, came back the next morning to turn it on and it was stuck at the apple logo.
After preforming a safe boot, it took me to the login page however only the guest account shows up.
I'm not sure if something went wrong during the update, it was at 70% battery life when i preformed the update so I didn't have it plugged into a power source like recommened, but i've never had a problem with it before.
I've tried enterng control+alt+command+enter which gives me the chance to put in a username and a password.
First I enter my name and passwor, but it was rejected.
So then I tried my apple ID and password, and it was rejected again.
I know I'm entering the right username/password, because it has been the same for my Air, Pro, and iMac.
Now I'm not sure if the account even exsists on my Macbook Air, but the guest account only allowed me to use safari.
I'm not able to access system prefences or anything.
I'm also having trouble with my iMac after updaiting to Mavericks, it work fine until the update and now it's saying my disk is corrupt, but that's a whole other story.
I'm just hoping to fix the problem at home because I really don't want to take two computers down to the Apple store.

If you don't already have a current backup, back up all data, then reinstall the OS. You don't need to erase the startup volume, and you won't need the backup unless something goes wrong. If the system was upgraded from an older version of OS X, you may need the Apple ID and password you used to upgrade.
There are ways to back up a computer that isn't fully functional. Ask if you need guidance.
If you installed the Java runtime distributed by Apple and still need it, you'll have to reinstall it. The same goes for Xcode.

How can I recover files created in the guest account?

I set up a guest account for the kids to use, and my wife then used my Mac to type up a word document (for over 3 hours) and saved it at the end of the evening. The next day she returned, and it had gone! I now read that the "Guest account" deletes all files when the computer is switched off (what idiot decided to make this deletion so immediate and so permanent, I am perplexed, why not at least put them in a temporary folder?).
This document must still be there, surely, just "invisible". Please please, how can I get it back without parting with hundreds of pounds for file recovery document, it is just one file from yesterday!
(I switched from PCs to Mac's when we bought a new Vista laptop at work and couldn't find the "file" and "open" commands on a drop-down menu top-left of screen - the Mac-fans at work promised me that Macs were "so intuitive" and "so much better than a PC". They lied. Macs and PCs are both designed by geeky-types who want more and more complex systems, when all I want is a computer that does what I ask without too much clever stuff (like deleting 3 hours of work because my wife happened to be in the wrong account). I have wasted as long trying to find said file....I'm so depressed.

Paul -
I'm sorry you've lost files, but when you set up an account as Guest, there's a message that clearly states "When a guest user logs out, all information and files in the guest account's home folder are deleted". If you want an account where files are retained, you should create an Admin or Standard type.
You will need to use data recovery techniques to see if your file can be recovered. The more that you use your computer, the greater the risk that the file will be overwritten. You can contact a professional data recovery service such as DriveSavers (which will be expensive, but you can judge the value of the file) or try something like Data Rescue. The latter has a demo which you can install to determine if your file can be recovered, and then, on purchase, you can actually recover the file.
Good luck!
Matt

Password controlled guest accounts on wireless router

I would like to be able to grant guests temporary access to my home network without giving out my permanent WEP ID. Is there anyway that I can create a guest account, with a separate password, which I can then eliminate after their need for access is over? I have the Actiontec MI424-WR router.
If there is no hardware based solution to this, does anyone know of third-party software that could do the trick?
Thanks.
-R88
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Some routers support it but not the Verizon supplied ones.

Unable to permanently modify Guest Account in Mavericks

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