Snow Leopard users have reported that they've lost all their personal data when they've logged into a "Guest" account after upgrading from Leopard, according to messages on Apple's support forum.
The bug, users said in a well-read thread on Apple's support forum, resets all settings on the Mac, resets all applications' settings and erases the contents of critical folders containing documents, photos and music.
The MacFixIt site first reported the problem more than a month ago.
Users claimed that they lost data when they'd logged into their Macs using a "Guest" account, either purposefully or by accident. Reports of the bug go back to Sept. 3, just six days after Apple launched Snow Leopard , or Mac OS X 10.6. Users who said they'd encountered the bug said that they had upgraded their systems from Mac OS X 10.5, known as Leopard.
Specifically, Snow Leopard's home directory - the one sporting the name of the Mac's primary user -- is replaced with a new, empty copy after users log-in to a Guest account, log out, then log-in to their standard account. All the standard folders - Documents, Downloads, Music, Picture and others - are empty, while the Desktop and Dock have reverted to an "out-of-box" condition.
"I had the Guest account enabled on my MacBook Pro," said a user identified as "tcnsdca" in a message posted Sept. 3. "I accidentally clicked on that when I went to log in. It took a few minutes to log in, then after I had logged out of that account and back into mine, my [entire] home directory had been wiped. All of doc, music, etc. gone."
"Add my parents to the list of people waxed by this bug," added "Ratty Mouse" today on the same thread. "Brand new iMac, less than one month old, EVERYTHING lost. Just as I convinced them to go Mac after years of trying."
On the thread, several users urged others to disable any Guest accounts to prevent any accidental data loss.
Some people were able to restore their Macs using recent Time Machine backups, but others admitted that they had not backed up their machines for weeks or months.
"Just my luck I hadn't made a backup since 11th August," acknowledged "rogerss" on a different support forum thread. "So annoyed now, in the process of restoring from Time Machine, but have lost loads of my work due to this fault."
Others users, however, had neglected to back up their Macs.
"Nooooo!!! This morning I had access to Guest Account and than all my data were lost!!!" bemoaned someone tagged as "carlodituri" last Saturday. "I had 250GB of data without backup and I lost everything: years and years of documents, pictures, video, music!!! Is it possible to recover something? Please help me!!!!"
Not surprisingly, users unaffected by the bug were reluctant to attempt to reproduce the problem. Some, for instance, wondered if the data loss would be triggered on Macs upgraded to Snow Leopard when the Guest account was simply set to "Sharing only," which is the default.
Apple did not respond on Monday to questions about the bug.
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Comments received
Susan Rose said on Tue, 13 Oct 2009
I hate HATE that I bought SNow Leopard
I lost my Parallels 3.0, Have no windows
went to the store and then bought 4.0 first online then from the store. NO ONE told me I would loose windows and have to buy windows, too. I have a iomega hard drive bought at APple stoe - stored everything on that to upload and the iomega hard drive died. Still do not have windows up Where can I send a letter?
Daniel said on Tue, 13 Oct 2009
Feel your loss-but there are two things you ALWAYS have to keep in mind when some software comes:
ALWAYS backup (preferably a bootable backup)
Wait 2-3 months if unsure so that all bugs and error reports come in.
No concellation I know but...
No one can tell you in advance how all programs are going to react, I backed up and upgraded the essential software when needed (Tiffen in my Photoshop stopped but they had a new working version so...)
Charlie said on Tue, 13 Oct 2009
So glad I never upgraded, always wait 6 months. As much as I hate them, M$ had the best idea with an open Beta.
Iain said on Tue, 13 Oct 2009
I got Snow Leopard on release day but managed to curb my enthusiasm to upgrade and decided to wait a few months - glad i have. I never use guest accounts but it only takes one slip of the finger....
Elliot Richards said on Tue, 13 Oct 2009
I feel the pain those who've suffered data loss, especially those who can't get back their data.
Now would be a good time to get a backup strategy in place as nothing is perfect. Personally I use ChronoSync for daily backups of my home folder to an external drive.
It sometimes takes a massive loss of personal data for people to wake up to actually creating regular backups, and backups need not be a chore.
cardy said on Tue, 13 Oct 2009
How can we prevent this? Can we delete the Guest account or remove it from the login screen or put a password on it to prevent accidentally logging in to it?
Andy said on Tue, 13 Oct 2009
Ah, another insane bug. I'm hit by the keyboard bug. It becomes unresponsive to input after a time and can only be addressed by rebooting or killing and restarting the Dock.
gregorsamsa said on Tue, 13 Oct 2009
Oh dear! This is one of the worst OS X bugs I've heard of. Relieved that I've waited before getting SL. As much as we all know that backing up should be a golden rule, I can only sympathize with all those who've lost valuable data. Notwithstanding some bugs are inevitable, this is well below Apple's usual high standard.
Chris M said on Tue, 13 Oct 2009
Not ever used guest accounts on OS X and after this I will steer clear. I have SL and to be honest its been pretty much ok, aside from a couple of quirks in Safari were my mouse clicks dont always close the tab straight away.
Dragonfly said on Tue, 13 Oct 2009
Oops. That's pretty bad ! Programmers working overtime on a fix I guess, and putting the Tablet to one side.
There was no real need to rush Snow Leopard out the door, obviously they hadn't checked it very thoroughly if they didn't test logging in as a guest user, that's a fairly basic test surely ??? I'm surprised the Beta testers missed that one.
They should put a warning on their website and offer that Apple stores will attempt to recover data from machines that users bring in. Apple seem to be a bit blasé about the whole thing so far.
Glad I waited :)
Bryan said on Tue, 13 Oct 2009
Very sympathetic to those who have lost data, but there is contributory negligence if they haven't backed up. It's not as if it's difficult nowadays. I have a daily automatic SuperDuper! backup and Time Machine for incremental changes. Important data is stored remotely with strong encryption and passwords generated by 1Password.
This bug, although very nasty and indefensible, is nothing like as bad as the Microsoft/Sidekick problem where it appears that there was no easy way for users to backup their own data. There appears to be nothing they could have done to stop this happening.
Kurt said on Tue, 13 Oct 2009
I too, feel bad for those who lost data and important content. However, I lack a lot of sympathy for those who did not backup at all, especially the user who lost 250GB worth of content.
What were they thinking? (that's the problem, they weren't!)
Slinky said on Tue, 13 Oct 2009
Much as though this is a bug that should have been caught, and Apple is very much to blame for not catching this, I've also got little sympathy for those who didn't back up.
Your computer could be stolen, hard drive could die, a power surge could fry your Mac. Any of these things could happen at any moment and all you have to do is plug in an external hard drive on a Mac and let Time Machine take care of the rest.
If you've lost years and years of documents then you haven't backed up for years and years, in which case this was an accident waiting to happen.
dave. said on Tue, 13 Oct 2009
Apple would have thought it had covered its ass against this kind of thing with timemachine being bundled with every new mac.....so count yourself lucky that you did have some sort of back up done. Microsoft doesnt do ANY backup software with windows.....had to BUY software for the parents pc.
However, this kind of data loss on a mac is just not acceptable....not in this day and age...regardless of included software. Which is why..ever since i lost the use of photoshop7 by upgrading to leopard, Ill wait for 6 months before upgrading....i belive ill loose the use of dreamweaver mx with snow leopard....so...not sure ill upgrade at all.
Reader said on Tue, 13 Oct 2009
I'm fairly obsessive about backups - ask my wife. What has happened to these people would be my worst nightmare. I've just ordered Snow Leopard to upgrade 1 Tiger and 1 Leopard system, because they've suddenly stopped being able to network and share files. I am nervous though about using CS3 and Word 2004 among other programs given reports of crashes, etc.
MJ said on Tue, 13 Oct 2009
Not enough Beta testing. What comes from being to selective.
Reader said on Tue, 13 Oct 2009
@MJ Yes maybe though it grieves me to say it they should follow MS on the beta testing front. Credit to MS for extending support for Office 2004 until 2012 and also for its Tag software which works really well. This is why we need competition between so companies learn from each other's mistakes and successes.
@reader said on Tue, 13 Oct 2009
You're not the only one who back ups all the time. I have backups of backups just in case. Plus copies of all my iTunes purchases on 3 different backup drives. (Talk about paranoid)
Chris M
Pedr said on Tue, 13 Oct 2009
I upgraded to Snow Leopard and it failed to run the Epsom printer - no help from either Epson or Apple so had to use my Time machine, empty my computer and go back some days and reload everything . Hopeless.
char said on Tue, 13 Oct 2009
I backup to a hard drive too and then realized that if there was ever a house fire while I'm out, there goes the computer AND the backup. I bought another HD and keep a backup at a friends house now in addition to the one at my place.
mark said on Tue, 13 Oct 2009
To Susan Rose,
Why would you purchase a download of Parallels, and not just re-download it again (if the first one was corrupt). Purchasing it TWICE makes no sense (for ONE machine).
And as to losing Windows, you should still have the legal copy of Windows that you installed the first time and just re-install it. (you might have to contact Micro$oft to re-activate it)
Nice said on Tue, 13 Oct 2009
Lol - this bug was present in Leopard and they just blindly converted the code to 64bit without fixing the bug.
Blobby said on Tue, 13 Oct 2009
Got Snow Leopard - only noted one bug so far, with AVCHD footage playback in the new QuickTime. Everything else cool - but just in case backed up fully - both as a bootable clone and in Time machine before updating - as I do everytime before a new install. Anyone who doesn't is asking for trouble.
Dennis Stevenson said on Tue, 13 Oct 2009
One feels for people who lose data even if they didn't back up, just as one feels for sick people who usually eat processed, chemicalized food. The suggestion above that Apple could help recover data is excellent. They could also offer free software or a future upgrade - virtually no cost to them. In business, if we caused a problem, we always made it right with a handsome free service or whatever. It's a joy to make someone happy. It is also superb PR that money can't buy.
Possum said on Tue, 13 Oct 2009
Am still running Tiger, yes I know but I love this system. I have bought SL and am waiting for any bugs to come in. Has anyone made the jump from Tiger? Yes I have backed up everything & a second backup.
BernieF said on Tue, 13 Oct 2009
Upgraded one computer from Tiger to Snow Leopard. So far no problems. Just realised that we do tend to log in as guest on another computer that is still on Leopard. Hmmm. May think twice about upgrading until bug is solved.
JeffA said on Wed, 14 Oct 2009
I am a big Apple fan and have upgraded two Apple M/C to SL without so far any issues. However I agree that Apple not making any public statement on this issue shows a large degree of arogance and shows they are not that far apart corporately from MS. Im sure this is because of legal advise but the damm lawyers get paid with our hard earned cash shame on Apple.
LDouglas said on Wed, 14 Oct 2009
I cannot now scan on my HP all in one scanoffice 1160. A solution was mentioned given in a mac forum but it did not work for me. Any suggestions welcome but this thread is a warning regarding entering as a guest. I have no idea how to do it so I hope I do not do it by mistake. I hav eback up on Time machine which I purchased with my macbook pro but would not really know how to use it.
mg said on Wed, 21 Oct 2009
A problem shared is a problem reduced... NOT THIS TIME. I feel sad reading this. i suffered the same dreadfull loss and thought I had done something wrong. Tons of stuff lost as it erased my Time Capsule.
Rick said on Wed, 04 Nov 2009
I think I found a bug in Mail. If I'm in my inbox and I click to create a new note icon. I can type some text. But if I use the Format menu to Format->Insert->Insert Numbered Lists it asks me if I want to convert to rich text. I say yes, enter more to the note and hit done. After that I can no longer see the note's content and when I click on it the note disappears.
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