Hi MacTalkers,

Ok, there has been a post with this name before but I have looked through it and still not found a solution. I want to be able to start my computer up without having to enter a password to login. I only have 1 admin account on this computer.

1. Accounts > login options > automatically login as "name" is checked
2. Security > Disable automatic login is unchecked
3. Utilities > Netinfo Manager > users > "name" > passwd is correct (Is there anything else I need to do here?)
4. I have tried using this fix suggested by apple here. Not sure if this was relevant.

I have tried adding different accounts to auto login but still asks for password. I have had this problem since I changed my password from being blank. Reformatting is not an option. I am on an intel imac running Tiger 10.4.9.

Any suggestions or help much appreciated! thanks in advance.

The fix suggested by Apple seems entirely relevant (from the link you posted):
I assume you followed these instructions to the letter without taking any shortcuts? They specifically ask that you close System Preferences after each change so that those changes are then saved before you take the next step. Even if everything appears to be the way you want it when starting out I'd still follow the procedure that Apple suggest precisely.

Thanks for the reply kim jong il, I followed the instructions exactly to the tee (about 5 times) but still have the problem... I even tried restarting the computer between steps but to no avail.
I need this fixed so I can have my computer automatically startup and automate tasks and also to take advantage of my "offpeak" download time, but my computer won't get passed the login! I there anything else I can do???

Try creating a new user and seeing if it will login to this user automatically?

Yes as mentioned above I gave that a go but it still didn't work, admin or not...

I'm clutching at straws with this suggestion. Working on the assumption that a preference file is somehow broken (I just tried this so I assume it is safe); using the find file command I searched for "login" and came up with three preference files: 1x loginwindow.plist and 1x com.apple.loginwindow.plist in the user directory and 1x com.apple.loginwindow.plist in the root directory. I dumped these preference files (actually I only moved them so I could restore them from a seperate boot volume if it caused issues) and restarted the computer at which point it asked me to login which I did using my standard password. This created a new preference file. Hopefully you might be able to enable automatic login as you wanted with this one just through the System Preferences as you should normally be able to.

Please be mindful that I have not tested this with filevault security enabled (although it should not make a difference) and that I am not an expert. Don't forget your password either as you will need this to login to try to change your login preferences on your next attempt.

It's worth a try.

I'll give this a shot tonight when I get home from work and let you know how I go! *fingers crossed*

Removed the three preference files relating to login as mentioned above and no luck. This problem just won't go away, it seams like something so simple and I have no idea why it is happening, surely it must be a common problem? I was going to delete my account but I dont have 100GB free to restore it. The Automatically log in as is ticked, but not recognising it at all.

In a previous post the problem was in the netInfo Manager. Can anyone tell me how this might help?

Thanks!

manooka, I've never heard of this happening before. My only thought is that you've done something or installed some software that has caused this problem to occur. About all I can suggest is the usual voodoo of repairing permissions (use Disk Utility) as there's a faint chance that it might fix something that's been borked by programs messing with things they shouldn't.

Currawong your a genius! Thank you! I repaired the disk permissions and all fixed. Thanks to Kim Jong too for your suggestions. You guys rock.

I'm telling you, that solves almost anything!