I'm currently attempting to set up some shared Mac devices with a guest user through an MDM (Kandji). Ideally, this needs to be done remotely, which can be done through the MacOS terminal. By default, when a guest user is enabled through the terminal, the setting to "Limit Adult Websites" turns on. However, this setting causes some problems with our Guest Wi-Fi captive portal, and needs to be turned off. I have been unable to find a way to change this setting via the terminal. The devices are currently running MacOS 14.4.1. I have attempted running sudo cp /Library/Preferences before, changing the setting manually, running sudo cp /Library/Preferences after and checking for any differences with diff -ur before after but have been unable to find any .plist that is modified. I have also looked at documentation for sysadminctl and parental controls but was unable to find a way to change this setting for the guest user account. Thank you for the assistance!

My 2 terabyte Time Capsule used to allow a guest wifi network but since I had to switch to bridge mode to accommodate my cable internet provider (while installing an Exchange server w/o a static ip address) I no longer have the guest option. Why? Is there a workaround?

I tried to add a guest account to my laptop and when I restarted the computer, the only login option I have is the Guest Account. Choosing this account restarts the computer into the Safari-only configuration. There is no Systems Preferences available in this mode. I did not unchoose my administrator account. How did this happen? And how do I get it back?

After updating from Monterey to Ventura (M1 chip), a guest user account is now showing as the only login option with a password that I do not know - there is no option to switch user (although in recovery mode my user profile is still there). I’ve tried reinstalling Ventura which didn’t work. Upon my 10th time of going into recovery mode I was prompted to reinstall Monterey - when selecting this the macbook told me that I cannot downgrade the software on the disk. As there is no Time Machine backup, my only option now it seems is to somehow disable the guest user from the terminal. I’ve googled around for how to do this and have found nothing helpful. If possible, can someone here tell me exactly what needs to be I texted in the terminal (using -bash) to disable the guest user or better yet force the computer to start in my admin profile?

Is there a way to completely remove the guest login option from macOS Big Sur? Meaning that it even does not appear anymore as an option in the settings or it is so corrupted that it does not work anymore.

I have a macOS system at work that's used by others in the morning before I come in. The guest account is sufficient for their uses, however it's almost always left logged in and I'd like to streamline things as much as possible. Is there any way to schedule a guest account logout on macOS? There's no option to logoff after a period of inactivity with the guest account. I would think it's possible to crontab a script to run at the appropriate time to logout of the account and bypass the prompt warning that the session files will be lost, but this exceeds my current knowledge. Any help would be appreciated.

I'm trying to run a command at login/logout which requires sudo. I've read about LaunchDaemon and LaunchAgent but as I understand it, LaunchDaemon will run the command at startup with root permissions, and LaunchAgent will run it at login but with the current user permissions, which won't always be an administrator. Alternatively, is there a way to run my command without the need of sudo? I'm trying to wipe all files in the home directories (Desktop, Documents etc.) on user login/logout so am currently using sudo rm -rf /users/randomuser/Desktop/* etc. Similar to how a guest account works, but without the account being guest and with a little more control. I'm pretty new to this kind of thing so please explain like I'm 5. More than happy to try out another solution if required. Thanks! EDIT - Thanks for the help so far. Here's a bit more detail about the use case: I have a mac that will be used by myself (admin) and a few other people (second account). I don't want data to persist between logins on this second account, similar to how the Guest Account works. The problem with the guest account is, it resets applications placed in the dock between logins as well as resetting the desktop wallpaper (which I would like to keep the same throughout logins). My solution was to set up a standard account, lock the dock using defaults write com.apple.Dock size-immutable -bool yes and set the wallpaper manually. As for the data, I would like all files that have been downloaded or transferred by the user to be wiped when the user logs out (or equally, when the next user logs in). Alternatively, If there is a way for the Guest Account to not reset the dock and wallpaper on logout, this would also work. Thanks again!

Is there a way to enable the Guest user via the terminal in 10.14.x? I have tried... defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow.plist GuestEnabled -bool YES On machines where the Guest account has been previously enabled and then disabled through the System Preferences -> Users & Groups GUI, this works. However, on a machine where the Guest account has ***never*** been previously enabled, ***this does not seem to work***. On the Users & Groups pane of System Preferences, the Guest account says "Logins Only" instead of enabled, and a Guest user is unable to login. (I am managing a fleet of Macs without the use of a MDM, hence my desire to be able to do this without physically touching 100's of machines.)

I was trying to enable guest account in Mac. When clicking guest account in login screen, the Mac asked for a restart to enter Safari only mode. I have selected yes to restart and the Mac now asks for firmware password after restart. How I can skip this and go back to the old login screen again? *Additional details* In the Mac, these are enabled: - Firmware password - File vault OS : 10.15 Accidentally, I do not remember the firmware password :( and I want to go back to the old login screen. I suspect that the Mac is now trying to boot from some other startup disk for _Safari only Guest mode_? Is there any way to go back to the original startup disk, which will not ask for the firmware password?

We have some systems used as general-purpose systems. We configured the systems to enable the Guest user; periodically, when trying to log into the system, a keychain notification pops up saying it can't access the local keychain. Once logged in, opening applications like Safari gives an error message about not being able to access a keychain ("Do you want to reset to defaults?!") Reboot the system, it acts normal...no keychain errors. I have logged in via ssh as an admin user and verified that when the guest user logs off, the home directory files...and presumably the keychain files...are gone for Guest. Logging in re-creates the Guest's home directory. First thought is something is holding open keychain files even when deleted and not closing the file handle, but I didn't see anything showing up in lsof holding open Guests' files between logins. OS is 10.10.1. My questions are, how can I find out what is caching keychain credentials for Guest? And is there a way to clear whatever is affecting the Guest login without having users "turn it off and back on again?"

I have a mac that will be used by myself (admin) and a few other people (second account). I don't want data to persist between logins on this second account, similar to how the Guest Account works. The problem with the guest account is, it resets applications placed in the dock between logins as well as resetting the desktop wallpaper (which I would like to keep the same throughout logins). My solution was to set up a standard account, lock the dock using defaults write com.apple.Dock size-immutable -bool yes and set the wallpaper manually. As for the data, I would like all files that have been downloaded or transferred by the user to be wiped when the user logs out (or equally, when the next user logs in). Alternatively, If there is a way for the Guest Account to not reset the dock and wallpaper on logout, this would also work. Thanks!

I would like for the Guest Account on the iMacs in my school to automatically launch Google Chrome when the Guest Account is logged into. With normal users, you can accomplish this with the Login Items tab of Users & Groups in System Preferences, but that tab is missing for the Guest User. If I attempt to login to the Guest User and navigate to Login Items, I am able to add Chrome, but when I logout and log back in the login item is deleted. How can I accomplish this?

I have enabled the guest account for all of the iMacs and Macbooks in my school. I would now like to use Profile Manager to trim down the dock for the Guest user, set a custom homepage for Safari and configure Safari to launch new windows with the homepage. I am struggling to find a tutorial for accomplishing this. Any tips?

I've attempted to disable the Guest account using dscl as follows: sudo dscl . -append /Users/Guest AuthenticationAuthority ";DisabledUser;" However, it doesn't seem to work, why? I know, I can disable the Guest account from the GUI, but I like to use the CLI.

The DiskExpert Utility shows 74 GB of disk space allocated to user "Guest", yet Finder only shows less than one GB. Can I reclaim the space, or is DiskExpert "lying"?

I just created a second user in my computer so guests can use my Mac without the need of using my account. I did this through the GUI (Settings → Users → New User). While trying to set up permissions and restrictions. I can see that this new user is shown as owner of some of the Applications in my Mac. - Why is this happening? - Should it be happening at all? - Is this Unix related, or macOS related?

I have an AirPort Extreme (APE) with the Wi-Fi setup for guest account and this works just fine. I was wondering if I could also provide a wired ethernet guest access without letting this user see my computers AND without me having access to his computer while plugged into this network as well. I do have a "switch". Could I plug this into my broadband modem (first) then the APE? Would a switch give the isolation I need?

One of the options in file sharing is whether to include "guest users." Does this mean the "guest account" on another Mac, or does it have some other meaning?

Ever since I upgraded one of our schools student MacBook Airs to Mojave, logging out of the Guest User account is broken. The cursor remains over a blank, black screen and nothing ever happens from there. To get it back I need to force a shut down by holding down the power button. I tried booting into Safe mode to see if that would help. It does not.

Prior to upgrading to Mojave, I had the Guest account enabled, so that if my laptop went missing, the person could at least access Wifi, and I would know the location through Find My Mac. I have the firmware password on, and I had verified this worked as expected. However, when I upgraded this week, I found the Guest account was now turned off. I turned it back on, and went to test that it still worked as expected. However, now, in order to access the Guest account, during the reboot, it asks for the Firmware password. I've tried turning off the firmware password, going into the guest account, and turning the firmware password back on. However, that doesn't work. I'm completely confused, because the -only- way that Find My Mac will work is if the Guest account has access to Wifi.