Choosing an account to log into.

When we first got her new M4 Mac Mini we had the option of accessing my account or my wife's account to login on initial start up. This option seems to have disappeared. Now the only way my wife can login is to log into my account then switch it to her account. How do I return it to the previous option of being able to log into one or the other account upon initial start up?

Thx


Posted on Sep 24, 2025 11:41 AM

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Posted on Sep 26, 2025 9:22 AM

Check to see if Filevault is enabled. If Filevault is enabled, then you will need to add your wife's user account to Filevault so she can unlock the Mac when booting & logging in.


See specifically the last paragraph under Item #4 where you can click "Enable Users" button to add your wife to the list to use Filevault:

Protect data on your Mac with FileVault - Apple Support


FYI, If you upgraded to macOS Tahoe, then macOS automatically enabled Filevault if an AppleID is associated with an admin user account.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 26, 2025 9:22 AM in response to werdup

Check to see if Filevault is enabled. If Filevault is enabled, then you will need to add your wife's user account to Filevault so she can unlock the Mac when booting & logging in.


See specifically the last paragraph under Item #4 where you can click "Enable Users" button to add your wife to the list to use Filevault:

Protect data on your Mac with FileVault - Apple Support


FYI, If you upgraded to macOS Tahoe, then macOS automatically enabled Filevault if an AppleID is associated with an admin user account.

Sep 24, 2025 2:18 PM in response to werdup

When you shut down the computer, it's asking for the password as a way of saying, "Hey! Did you check to see if you saved everything in the other account?"


What do you see on the lock screen when you're logging in? Do you just see one avatar? If so hover over that with your cursor and the other one(s) should pop up.


If it were me, I'd skip both the logging out and the shutting down. But, people very often have strong feelings about one or both of those things.

Sep 24, 2025 12:55 PM in response to werdup

The setting is on "List of Users" already. However when I went to shut the computer down it asks me for my admin information to save changes (whatever that is). I switched to her account and logged her out. Since her account was not logged out so what does she need to do to shut down the computer if both our accounts are logged-in? If she shuts the computer off without logging out will my account be the only one to show up on restart? Once I logged her out and rebooted, the account options was available again.


Sequence of events:

  1. I used the computer and my account yesterday and shut the computer off however I believe I accessed her account but didn't log her out of her account before shutting down.
  2. Today when she started the computer the only option was to log into my account.


What went wrong in this sequence of events? I want to know how both account options along with 'guest' show up on start-up.

Thx

Choosing an account to log into.

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