Why is there a new user account on my laptop?
July 25, 2012 1:36 AM Subscribe
I shut down my Macbook Pro last night and stored it in my locker at uni. When I booted it up this morning there was a new Guest Account option (which is now not an option) and my user icon changed from my personal picture to a baseball. What's going on here?
You can use the console (Command-Space, then type "console" and hit enter) to check your log files for activity on your Mac during the time it was supposed to be shut down.
posted by Philosopher Dirtbike at 2:34 AM on July 25, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by Philosopher Dirtbike at 2:34 AM on July 25, 2012 [2 favorites]
I basically know nothing about modern Macs but I can't help but notice that some MacBooks evidently have a wireless remote boot feature and "it's possible that an EFI update from Apple could add the function to Intel-based systems." Does anyone know if there are security problems with this that would have allowed someone to engage in monkey business without opening the locker?
posted by XMLicious at 2:43 AM on July 25, 2012
posted by XMLicious at 2:43 AM on July 25, 2012
Response by poster: flabdablet, this is the first time I've stored my laptop at uni.
Dirtbike, that doesn't seem to work. I get this "-bash: console: command not found"
posted by iamkimiam at 2:55 AM on July 25, 2012
Dirtbike, that doesn't seem to work. I get this "-bash: console: command not found"
posted by iamkimiam at 2:55 AM on July 25, 2012
this is the first time I've stored my laptop at uni.
Possibly not the first time somebody else has been inside your locker, though.
posted by flabdablet at 3:10 AM on July 25, 2012 [1 favorite]
Possibly not the first time somebody else has been inside your locker, though.
posted by flabdablet at 3:10 AM on July 25, 2012 [1 favorite]
Console is a program. Cmd-Space should have bought up the spotlight window for you to type into to find it. But you can manually find it in Applications / Utilities
posted by outlier at 3:51 AM on July 25, 2012
posted by outlier at 3:51 AM on July 25, 2012
Response by poster: Oh, thanks [feeling sheepish]. So I'm looking through these logs and I have no idea what I'm looking for. Is there a specific log I want to check? And if there is no activity between the time I shut down and booted up...what would that mean?
posted by iamkimiam at 4:39 AM on July 25, 2012
posted by iamkimiam at 4:39 AM on July 25, 2012
Response by poster: Oh, yes! I *did* recently convert to iCloud and perhaps haven't done a full shut down since then (just restarts).
(Why would it change my icon though? Is the baseball the default?)
posted by iamkimiam at 4:42 AM on July 25, 2012
(Why would it change my icon though? Is the baseball the default?)
posted by iamkimiam at 4:42 AM on July 25, 2012
My new Macbook Air changed my adorable penguin icon to the baseball icon twice in the first week that I had it, so I'm guessing it's the default and whatever updates were coming in reset it.
posted by SugarAndSass at 5:12 AM on July 25, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by SugarAndSass at 5:12 AM on July 25, 2012 [1 favorite]
The guest icon is because of iCloud. The same thing happened to me. Drove me crazy trying to figure out why it was there. You probably were not hacked.
posted by ljshapiro at 7:02 AM on July 25, 2012
posted by ljshapiro at 7:02 AM on July 25, 2012
Yeah, I just got a new-to-me Macbook Pro from my employer, and the icon on my account was, indeed, the baseball. I spent most of yesterday afternoon trying to figure out why our IT guy chose that particular icon for my account (WHAT DOES HE KNOW ABOUT ME THAT I DON'T?!). Mystery solved.
Weird!
posted by easy, lucky, free at 7:18 PM on July 25, 2012
Weird!
posted by easy, lucky, free at 7:18 PM on July 25, 2012
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posted by flabdablet at 2:13 AM on July 25, 2012 [2 favorites]