OS X Lion: Cannot Login to Mac After Automatic Sleep Mode

Are you unable to login to your user account after your Mac went into automatic sleep mode?

It happened to me, I left my MacBook Pro for a minutes, came back, and was surprised that my password didn’t work. I tried again, again, again… you get the picture. I was 100% sure my password was right, and I had not changed it. What was going on? Had I been hacked? No, the answer was simple.

Here’s how I solved it:

It turns out that since I had been doing some web development work for a foreign client, I had changed my Mac’s input source language to Czech to be able to use their accented characters (such as š, í, and ě) for a website).

Different input sources on a Mac.

Let’s move on. I don’t keep it a secret that my password has some numbers in it, and on a default Czech keyboard, the number buttons are primarily the characters I mentioned above — to get a number, you have to hold down Shift.

The Czech language keyboard layout on a Mac.

Luckily, I was able to remember which input source language I had switched to before I left my Mac and it went into sleep. The solution is simple: try to remember what input source you changed to, and find out what keyboard layout it has. Then type your password as it would be in that language, and hopefully it should work.

How do you avoid something like this happening again? For example, if the input source would have been Russian, there’s no way I could have logged in (with nothing but letters like з, п, р, ц, д, and я at my disposal).

Note: click any of the thumbnails below to see a larger version of the screenshot.

1. Open up System Preferences:

   

2. When it opens, click on Users & Groups:

   

3. Once you’re there, on the bottom-left of the screen click Login Options, and when that opens, click the lock icon and enter your password to make changes:

   

4. When all the greyed-out fields become active, make sure to check the box next to “Show Input menu in login window”:

   

5. Next time, when you try login or wake your computer from sleep, you’ll see a flag in the top-right corner of the screen, where you change the input source to suit that of your password… you’ll need that until Apple fixes this.

Please let me know if this worked for you, and if you have any suggestions for this guide.

Facebook Error: Username & Confirming Email Address Thru Resend

In the past few hours, Facebook users that have been trying to create a ‘vanity URL’ (or username) for their Facebook Pages have been faced with an error.

By going to www.facebook.com/username we see a message saying:

Before you can set your username, you need to confirm your email address. Don’t see the confirmation email? Click the button below to resend.

You are not alone! To many others, it is a common sight:

Currently on Facebook's 'Username' page.

The problem is that when you click the button to “Resend Email”, then you’re simply told “An error has occurred”.

Without any guidance or explanation from Facebook’s part, this can be very frustrating for users that have recently accumulated the 25 ‘Likes’ required to set a username for their Facebook Page:

Error message when clicking "Resend Email" on Facebook's 'Username' page.

Many users assumed it was due to their internet connection, or a different problem on their side – browser incompatibility, errors with their Facebook account, problems with their email client, an unverified account, etc. But in reality, it seems that there is an error with Facebook. So hang on in there.

We will post the solution as soon as we find out, so to get the updates ASAP click here to subscribe (via RSS feed). (Or go to the very bottom of our website for easy-subscribing!)

Also, other users may have noticed that if you click on the “Resend Email” button too much, you will eventually get a message saying: “Block! You are engaging in behavior that may be considered annoying or abusive by other users.”

Facebook Block on 'Username' page when confirming email (too much).

So don’t click repeatedly! It won’t help. It will just delay your chances of getting your desired Facebook Page vanity URL, as you could be blocked for several days:

You have been blocked from confirming your email because you repeatedly misused this feature. This block will last anywhere from a few hours to a few days. When you are allowed to reuse this feature, please proceed with caution. Further misuse may result in your account being permanently disabled. For further information, please visit our FAQ page.

So stay tuned with BaumDesign!

Update: The problem has been solved! Simply go to www.facebook.com/username and proceed normally.