“You are unable to log in to user account ” ” at this time. Logging in to the account failed because an error occurred.”

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Level 1

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“You are unable to log in to user account ” ” at this time. Logging in to the account failed because an error occurred.”

Mac Pro Tower OS 10.12 Sierra with 4 drive slots

#1 Boot Drive SSD with OS 10.12 Sierra system only on it.

#2 Home Folder was a spinning drive that was slowly dyeing and became unrepairable using First Aid while using the Cmd-R on Boot macOS Utilities - Disk Utility.

I then tried running Restore From Time Machine Backup from an external disk with a recent weekly Time Machine Backup. After booting up, that's where I started to get the error message on booting "You are unable to log in to user account”Mark” at this time. Logging in to the account failed because an error occurred”

My guess is that the somehow the system can’t find the Home Folder which is on drive #2 The Home Folder drive vs my #1 SSD drive which has just the OS on it.

btw: The 2 other drive bays spinning drives with media on them work ok.

I back up weekly to 4 external drives using Carbon Copy Cloner from my 4 internal drives.

I also do a weekly Time Machine back up to a 5th external drive and only info from the Home Folder.

Anyone that can help me with this issue, it would be extremely appreciated.

Thanks

Mark

Mac Pro

Posted on Jul 30, 2022 3:33 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

BDAqua

Level 10

244,817 points

Jul 31, 2022 8:05 PM in response to Mark Scott

What I'm thinking & still not clearly is to rename the New Admin User & then redirect the Home folder of the new User to Marjiscott folder!

Change the name of your macOS user account and home folder - Apple Support (ME)

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Answer 2

BDAqua

Level 10

244,817 points

Jul 30, 2022 7:02 PM in response to Mark Scott

Mark, I'd make a minimal new User...

See if you can create a new administrator account by restarting the Setup Assistant:

Boot into Single User Mode: Start/restart your Mac. As soon as you hear the startup tone, press and hold ⌘ + S until you see a black screen with white lettering. (If you end up back on the login screen after a flash of the black screen with white lettering, enter your password and it will return to the black screen.)
Check and repair the drive by typing /sbin/fsck -fy then ↩ enter - as directed by the on-screen text.
Mount the drive as read-write by typing /sbin/mount -uw / then ↩ enter.
Remove the Apple Setup Done file by typing rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone then ↩ enter.
Reboot by typing reboot then ↩ enter.
Complete the setup process, creating a new admin account.

Be very careful to notice the spaces in those Terminal Commands.

Once you've done that the computer reboots and it's like the first time you used the machine, except all your data will still be there. Your old accounts are all safe. From there you just change all other account passwords in the account preferences!!

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Answer 3

Mark Scott Author

Level 1

9 points

Jul 31, 2022 5:21 PM in response to Mark Scott

BDAqa, Thanks for getting back so quickly.

The Command-S [ Start up in single-user mode] only freezes my computer and makes me Power Button Off to reset.

Command-R recovery mode works well.

Btw I was the only user of the Mac Tower the only other Folder in Users was Shared.

BDAAqua I now have 3 Drives on my newly named MacProTower "Admin's Mac Pro". Highlighted in blue Crucial 512 SSD is the recovery mode new OS running the Mac now. Blue Highlighted D4 BU Home 6tb is my new copy of my crashed D4 Home original . Blue Highlighted Seagate6TB1a is where Time Machine repair went. What I am trying to do with all this mess is to Boot from Blue Highlighted Seagate6TB1a where I tried Command -S and have it look at my Home Folder mess on Blue Highlighted D4 BU HOME6tb. I hope this new info helps. Again THANKS.

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Answer 4

Mark Scott Author

Level 1

9 points

Jul 31, 2022 7:41 PM in response to BDAqua

The Crucial 512 SSD drive had a reinstall of the mac OS during the trouble shooting.through the macOS Utilities during the macOSRecovery system functions. That's how I was able to become the admin on the SSD drive. The 3rd Highlighted drive Seagate6TB1a is what Time Machine initially replaced. The 2nd Highlighted drive D4 BU Home6tb is a copy ie Back UP of the original separate Home dead spinning drive. I just noticed in the lower middle of the opened folders it shows my Original iconed Home Folder of 813GB and is a Remote Volume?

THANKS for your Help !

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Answer 5

Mark Scott Author

Level 1

9 points

Aug 1, 2022 4:33 PM in response to BDAqua

BDAqua, renaming the new User account under the link makes me create another Admin to change the only bootable disc.

That's ok I can deal with that soon. Because I have multiple Macs and this current Mac Pro Tower is now only used for 32 bit apps and I would like to stream line this older computer. Is there a way using Time Machine or Carbon Cloner to rebuild only the apps that are 32 bit and not import certain 32 bit apps? Thanks For Your Help !

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