Snow Leopard bug eats user account data


Apparent bug resets user account settings and directories.

Reports have been popping up about an apparent bug inside of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. The issue involves logging into the system's guest account, at which point the user's directory appears to reset. This may result in all settings revert to factory presets and any documents found inside the user directory, such as iTunes music, iPhoto archive, and any saved data, is lost.

MacFixIt has a piece on it with some conditional bug reproduction. The bug may surface depending on whether the computer was upgraded from Mac OS X 10.5 with or without guest log-in enabled.

The best work around for now is to disable guest log on, which should avoid the trigger.

Snow Leopard wiping home directory after guest log-in?