User won't load after High Sierra update

[carmen617]

Client machine, 2012 MacBook Pro with Retina Display and 120GB flash storage, was a bit of a mess with a completely full drive, running Yosemite. At an onsite visit I deleted a bloated Gmail account, removed an unused user profile, and ran a disk repair, recovering almost half the disk space. I did a Time Machine backup prior to the disk repair, but am concerned that it didn't take as long as it should have and am not sure I trust the TM backup.

After leaving, client updated system to High Sierra. Upgrade seemed to go fine, then at reboot the system hung for over 4 hours. Client called me and I instructed client to restart the system. Now what happens is that the system boots to the user screen where she has 2 user and one guest accounts. System can load the guest account, but when either of the two real user accounts are selected the system accepts the user password, then just sits on a screen with the user name and icon and a blurred background - it never gets to the user account.

I have the system here now, and here's what I've tried so far:
Booting into Safe mode - same result but screen flashes when I try to load user
Booting into Recovery and running disk First Aid - no problems found
Resetting SMC and PRAM - no improvement
Booting into Diagnostics - AHT reports no trouble found

Any suggestions? She has an appointment to take the machine to the "genius bar" tomorrow but I'm concerned they'll just try to restore from the TM backup that I don't trust.

 

[BrianofNazareth]

DiskWarrior. Boot from an external & rebuild the User Directory.

 

[cyabro]

Can you actually see the data on the device?
Otherwise could be a file vault issue.
We see many devices come in with failed updates and the common thing seems to be file vault.
We disable that now on every Mac that has it enabled, unless the customer actually knows what it is and wants it left enabled.

 

[Markverhyden]

I'd think if the Guest account works it might not be a File Vault issue. Corrupted accounts, unfortunately, are very difficult to deal with. You can try booting to Recovery mode, command + r, select re-install macOS and it'll refresh the OS but that may not fix the profiles issue.

Another technique is to force it to run Setup Assistant again. Boot into single user mode, command + s. If filevault is enabled you'll be prompted to put in the password. If not you'll just drop to a shell window. Then...

fsck -fy . <enter>
mount -uw /
rm /private/var/db/.AppleSetupDone
reboot

This will keep the other accounts but create a new admin account. Once you have that you can take control of the other accounts to move data, etc. Just be aware it's a huge permissions thing to deal with since you cannot directly log into the other accounts.

 

[carmen617]

Thanks all. Mark, I restored from the time machine backup onto a bench system and it came up fine, so restored with TM on customer's system. After redoing the permissions/disk repair, I am trying the High Sierra upgrade again. It's doing the same thing it did with her - is stalled for over 2 hours on the final restart with about 95% of the bar filled in. How long do you suggest I wait it out before I see if a forced shutdown and restart has the same effect? If I can't get it to load this second time, I'll just restore and give it back to her with Yosemite, but I'm pretty annoyed that it won't upgrade.

 

[Markverhyden]

Thanks all. Mark, I restored from the time machine backup onto a bench system and it came up fine, so restored with TM on customer's system. After redoing the permissions/disk repair, I am trying the High Sierra upgrade again. It's doing the same thing it did with her - is stalled for over 2 hours on the final restart with about 95% of the bar filled in. How long do you suggest I wait it out before I see if a forced shutdown and restart has the same effect? If I can't get it to load this second time, I'll just restore and give it back to her with Yosemite, but I'm pretty annoyed that it won't upgrade.

Well, if the TM worked on something else then it's fairly certain it's good and it's probably an issue with the patient. If you boot into recovery mode it may not load the original OS, it might load High Sierra, either way I'd format the disk. But you should still be able to recover files from TM once the machine is booting by going into TM from System Preferences. And don't get rid of that other restore just yet that you did since that is your backup!

 

[carmen617]

Oh don't worry - that restored bench system won't be touched while the patient is in my hands.

Surfing the web, I see plenty of High Sierra upgrades with stuck progress bars. Since the TM restore worked on the bench (could load her user account with no issues) and her system rebooted fine after the TM restore, it's clearly some incompatibility with something on her system and High Sierra. Are you suggesting that I format her system, clean install High Sierra, and then do a migration from Time Machine?

 

[Markverhyden]

Ahh... Misunderstood one thing, thought a TM restore to her's did not work. in that case I'd download 10.13 on her machine as the update. Cancel the install, and make a bootable USB. One link below, you can also search yourself. Once you have the bootable USB, boot from it, format the disk, then install. Upon first run you'll get the Setup Assistant which should let you bring over the TM backup. If not then just run the Migration Wizard in the Utilities folder after setup is complete. Just be aware if you use the later your first account should be something other than her's as the migration wiz will re-create her account. However it's important to make sure when the migration is complete you turn off the TM device. You don't want it to backup until you hare happy with the results. Best of luck!

https://www.macworld.com/article/32...otable-macos-high-sierra-installer-drive.html

 

[carmen617]

Actually already have a High Sierra bootable USB from a project a few weeks ago. Currently installing, think I'll create a dummy user account and make sure the OS loads properly before I do the migration.

Thanks for the help!

 

[carmen617]

Just as a follow-up - erased system drive, installed High Sierra from the USB, migrated users - and problem was back. Something in this system just doesn't want to load a user profile with High Sierra OS. So I restored back to Yosemite. I could try upgrading to El Capitan, but I'm out of time. Client needs system back today (it wasn't supposed to be out of her hands, she's a heavy user) so I'm planning to tell her that it's a 2012 system - she can keep it at Yosemite and replace it when Apple stops issuing OS updates.

 

[carmen617]

Resurrecting this thread because - well, problem is back. The client got a new MacBook Pro to replace the original machine and dropped them both off with me to migrate. I did a simple Time Machine migration onto the new MacBook and, same problem on the new machine. Profile comes up, I put in password, and the system stalls on the user icon, never loading into the desktop.

I formatted the new machine, installed a fresh copy of High Sierra, and tried a network system migration from old to new. The new system immediately saw the old, but when I told it to migrate, it said it couldn't make a connection.

So I redid the TM restore, but this time only brought over data and settings, hoping it might be some app she had on the old system that was interfering with High Sierra loading. No joy. Clearly, something in her settings keeps High Sierra from loading.

The client specifically asked me to migrate settings - she wants all her favorites and passwords to be intact when she gets her system back. I have it for a few days, and it's a nice fast system, so I can attempt a few different approaches. Anybody have any suggestions for me?

 

[nerd2u]

Is it throwing a specific error?

Sent from my SM-G870W using Tapatalk

 

[sapphirescales]

@ only 120GB it's going to be a CONSTANT battle trying to wrestle free space from whatever is using it, now matter how much you clean up today. I would have upgraded to at least a 250gb SSD and done a fresh install of Mac OS and been done with it. I'd just tell them that it's best to do a fresh install of High Sierra and that I highly suggest upgrading the SSD while you're at it to avoid problems like this in the future.

 

[carmen617]

@ only 120GB it's going to be a CONSTANT battle trying to wrestle free space from whatever is using it, now matter how much you clean up today. I would have upgraded to at least a 250gb SSD and done a fresh install of Mac OS and been done with it. I'd just tell them that it's best to do a fresh install of High Sierra and that I highly suggest upgrading the SSD while you're at it to avoid problems like this in the future.

No - sorry - I should have started a new thread and referenced this one. The problem is back, but now it's on a brand new 2018 MacBook Pro with a 500GB SSD and the latest version of High Sierra. I am attempting to migrate the user from her old system to her new one.

When I transfer the user settings via Time Machine, I get the same problem I got with the old system when I tried to upgrade her to High Sierra. The user profile doesn't load. This particular system has 3 user profiles, one specifically for photos, one for her son, and the "main" user profile for the owner. When the system boots (and this is the same with the old one with a High Sierra upgrade, or the new one with a fresh install of High Sierra and the user accounts migrated using Time Machine) I can put the password into the main user account. The system then spins for a moment as if it's going to load the account, but then stalls, leaving me with a picture of the user icon and a blurred image of the desktop background.

The photos user account, and the son's user account (which is not an administrator) load fine. It's the main user account that doesn't load in High Sierra, which leads me to believe it's a settings issue within her user profile. Which is a problem because she specifically wants her bookmarks, browser history, and passwords to be migrated to the new system. Is there an easy way to just migrate those, and leave other settings behind? Because I use Migration Assistant or Time Machine to migrate old to new Macs all the time, but I haven't done this manually.

 

[carmen617]

Is it throwing a specific error?

Sent from my SM-G870W using Tapatalk

No error, just won't load the desktop.

 

[Markverhyden]

I'm not aware of some other standalone tool to migrate individual settings. Obviously you can move the browser things over following the instructions for each on. One catch though is Safari dos not use it's own password file, it uses the system one. I do know you can move the keychain over to a new system. On the old one open Keychain and select export, then copy the file over the new machine and import. It does create a separate keychain but it's accessible.

Out of curiosity, on the new machine did you go ahead and set it up before migrating things over? Are those two other accounts admin level or not?

 

[carmen617]

I'm not aware of some other standalone tool to migrate individual settings. Obviously you can move the browser things over following the instructions for each on. One catch though is Safari dos not use it's own password file, it uses the system one. I do know you can move the keychain over to a new system. On the old one open Keychain and select export, then copy the file over the new machine and import. It does create a separate keychain but it's accessible.

Out of curiosity, on the new machine did you go ahead and set it up before migrating things over? Are those two other accounts admin level or not?

I'm working through the manual migratio now. She has an Apple ID and a Google account, so simply logging into those accounts on both systems moves over the passwords, history and bookmarks. Interestingly, although I told Gmail to sync contacts, they are not showing up on the new computer. Not sure what the problem is but I will figure it out one way or another. My biggest concern is forgetting something, because she's also asked me to wipe the old system to donate to a student she knows. I know I can always get the data from the TM backup, but if it's not going to work then I really have to be thorough and not miss something. It's just a lot easier when the automated Apple system works and I don't have to think so hard! Plus I quoted a flat rate for this job, and it's taking WAY more time than it should.

When she dropped off the systems, she had booted the new computer and created a user account on it with no data. My first TM migration attempt was to that set up. But when it failed, I erased the drive, reinstalled High Sierra, and attempted the migration from a completely new install. Her account and the photos account are both admins, I had to make the son's account an admin or remember an assigned password.

Am I right to think this is weird, Mark?

 

[Markverhyden]

I'm working through the manual migratio now. She has an Apple ID and a Google account, so simply logging into those accounts on both systems moves over the passwords, history and bookmarks. Interestingly, although I told Gmail to sync contacts, they are not showing up on the new computer. Not sure what the problem is but I will figure it out one way or another. My biggest concern is forgetting something, because she's also asked me to wipe the old system to donate to a student she knows. I know I can always get the data from the TM backup, but if it's not going to work then I really have to be thorough and not miss something. It's just a lot easier when the automated Apple system works and I don't have to think so hard! Plus I quoted a flat rate for this job, and it's taking WAY more time than it should.

When she dropped off the systems, she had booted the new computer and created a user account on it with no data. My first TM migration attempt was to that set up. But when it failed, I erased the drive, reinstalled High Sierra, and attempted the migration from a completely new install. Her account and the photos account are both admins, I had to make the son's account an admin or remember an assigned password.

Am I right to think this is weird, Mark?

Yes, it is very weird Julie. But it does happen on occasion. As far as wiping. If you enable Time Vault, making sure it has completed the encryption process, you will have effectively wiped the drive when you do a clean re-install without Time Vault enabled.

As far as her old HD contents. I'd have her get an external drive and then make a copy to that for her to keep. You don't really want to get into the data warehousing business outside of typical backups during repairs.

Best of luck!

 

[Philippe]

I had success once deleting old / non-standard Kernel Extensions...