Avoid Data Loss – Don’t use Guest Account login
10.31.09 update
The easy way to avoid the bug: if you have Guest account enabled in Leopard, do away with it before you install the Snow Leopard upgrade. Then, *after* you have upgraded to Snow Leopard, re-enable the Guest account. You won’t have a problem.
original post:
This is a huge bug in Snow Leopard, at least for some users. If you accidentally click on “guest account” at login (if you have it enabled), when you log in again to your regular account, there is a chance of LOSING ALL YOUR DATA! Please be careful and make sure that you don’t use the guest account.
This does not seem to be a wide-spread problem. As of yesterday, there were less than 100 posts in various discussion threads but it is potentially a serious issue for any particular user.
backup, backup backup
This is yet another great reason to have a current backup. With Time Machine there is no excuse for not having one. If you do have a current backup it is easy, if a bit time-consuming, to restore your data.
Possible Fixes
Apple has acknowledged this problem, and are working on a fix. Recovery is possible… One solution has been posted by cnet here, restoring the entire system from Time Machine, or only restoring the home folder.
Here is a solution reported by Gary Robinson. If you are not familiar with Terminal use this solution with care. Get your Mac consultant or tech to help you. If you don’t have anyone available, feel free to email or call me.
The files were still in /Users,
recovery was not too difficult.
- su in terminal
- mv username username.old
- create account username
- mv username username.new
- mv usermane.old username
- chown -R username username
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