Home Forums Peripherals & Multimedia Peripherals Force eject sign always coming up

What loophole? The technician at the Apple Store will never ask for your account password, nor should you ever give it to them. This denies them access to your keychain, KeePass, or password-protected files or volumes. All you have to do is deactivate automatic login — it is already deactivated if the boot drive is encrypted — and either activate the guest account or create a temporary user account for their use.

The logon process is not on the boot volume (Macintosh HD), it is on the Preboot volume. So, even in the case where the boot drive is encrypted, the only password they need is the boot drive password. But unless that is the same as the account password, they still cannot access the user's keychain, KeePass, or password protected volumes. If the boot drive password is in your keychain, it unlocks automatically when you log on your account, and the log on only requires the account password (or the presence of your unlocked Apple Watch). You will need the boot volume password any time you boot to the Recovery drive. (note: YMMV on an Intel Mac)

I very clearly remember being asked for my password, but it was a bunch of years ago, and I'm not certain whether it was at an Apple Store, 3rd party repair facility, or both.

Encryption or disabling/changing automatic login is, of course, the answer, and thinking about it, Apple is seriously remiss in not not making a point about protecting your passwords, same as they do about backing up your data, when you bring your Mac in for service. I wonder what percentage of Macs left for service are vulnerable to password theft? (I brought this subject up with an AppleCare tech once, and he didn't even think of the obvious answer.)

(Rhetorical) Why on Earth does Keychain Access show options to lock your keychains when, to the best of my knowledge, they've NEVER worked?

I can't vouch for your Apple store, but if memory serves I have been asked to enter my password while I was sitting at the Genius Bar, and I have been asked to create a temporary account before sending a MacBook to Austin for second or third level repairs, but I have never been asked for my password at any Apple Store in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. It should also be pointed out security has been significanty enhanced in Monterey and Ventura and apparently on Macs with Apple Silicon.


I was once called and asked if I had a good backup or did I want to pay an additional charge not covered by AppleCare because Apple was going to erase or replace my drive, but I was assured that the restoration would be a bit for bit copy (akin to the clone utility used in CCC?) so they would not actually open or read anything.


I vaguely remember those from OS X and they made sense at the time, because of the way Keychain worked. But keychain functionality has changed significantly since then and If those options still exist in macOS 12.5 (Monterey) or macOS 13.0 (Ventura), I can't find them.

It would be nice if it were the case, but I guess we can't expect every "Genius" in every Apple Store to be equally well educated and fastidious.

There really shouldn't be any, but...

Here they are.