Preferences Error - There was an error in Users & Groups preferences.

Hello sumesh49,

We suggest starting your Mac in safe mode to see if the issue persists. Safe mode will help to isolate the issue and also does a basic check on your Mac. You can find the steps for using safe mode here:

How to use safe mode

Determine whether you're using a Mac with Apple silicon, then follow the appropriate steps:

Apple silicon

1.) Shut down your Mac.

2.) Turn on your Mac and continue to press and hold the power button until you see the startup options window.

3.) Select your startup disk, then press and hold the Shift key while clicking “Continue in Safe Mode.”

4.) Log in to your Mac. You might be asked to log in again.

Intel processor

1.) Turn on or restart your Mac, then immediately press and hold the Shift key as your Mac starts up.

2.) Release the key when you see the login window, then log in to your Mac. 

3.) You might be asked to log in again. On either the first or second login window, you should see ”Safe Boot” in the upper-right corner of the window.

How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support

Let us know if that helps.

Take care.

I just started having this error as well. I tired the above advice to no avail. I have also read similar issues in the past that were solved by removing the com.apple.systempreferemces.plist file and and rebooting letting the mac rebuild it. This also failed to fix the issue. I have also rebooted in recovery mode and runFirst Aid ..also no fix.

I noticed this same error for the first time a week ago. My user account is an Admin level account. Prior to receiving the "Users & Groups preferences" error I noticed one of the other accounts (a Standard user account) had "lost" its icon image on the login screen. This was an account that was migrated when I setup my MacBook Pro (13-inch, M1, 2020). The Macbook Pro is running the Monterey OS, and it is current (v12.6).

Since I no longer use or need the migrated Standard account I decided to remove it from Users & Groups and get it off the login screen. When I attempted to do that (using my Admin account) is when I received the Preferences error.

I have followed all of the Safe Mode instructions given here in this forum thread, to no avail. I also tried moving the .plist file from the Library/Preferences to the Desktop and restarting, as suggested in a separate forum thread. No fix.

Other info: Ironically, when I logged in using the migrated Standard user account and checked "Users & Groups" I received NO error message at all, and could navigate freely everywhere in Preferences, within the limitations of that Standard account.

I only receive the "Users & Groups Preferences" error when using my Admin level account.

What do you suggest as the next level of troubleshooting?

Thanks!

I noticed the icon issue as well..out of the blue! I believe the standard user accounts are the issue. I am going to try a delete them fromTerminal today and I will let you know. Both users are no longer used in my case.

Good luck w/Terminal. And yes, please do report back and let us know what the outcome is. I'm still studying the issue.

I have two other Standard accounts on this Macbook... one belongs to my wife (who almost never uses the machine), and the other is the "faceless" account that was created during the migration at setup. I just need to remove the migrated account.

The core problem, though is the "User & Groups preferences" error when using my own (Admin level) account. If I understand your theory, it may have something to do with the "broken" Standard account... That's interesting, because I noticed the concurrence of the two issues -- the icon image being removed from the migrated Standard account, and the preferences error received by my own account -- in close proximity to one another. So, superstition aside, there may be a connection there.

I'm standing by to hear the results of your Terminal process.

Using the delete commands found here https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/310308/delete-a-standard-user-from-mac-os. I was able to delete the standard accounts. I rebooted and presto all solved!

I did some more dart throwing (google "darts") and found a site that made a little more sense (to me) re using terminal command line:

https://medium.com/macoclock/how-to-delete-a-user-account-on-macos-54623c84f336

I found and used this command to delete the "faceless" standard user on my macbook:

sudo /usr/bin/dscl . -delete /Users/<user name>

I then closed terminal session, shut down the macbook, and powered back on. The faceless user was removed from the login screen, and I am once again able to access Users & Groups from my admin level account without getting a "Users & Groups preferences" error message.

Problem is solved.

Glad you found a fix. Thanks for sharing, but tbh I couldn't make heads or tails out of the info in the link you posted. Guess I'm not computer literate enough to decipher it. So I'm still fishing and throwing darts!