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Major Snow Leopard Bug Said To Delete User Data

Posted by kdawson on from the clean-as-the-driven-snow dept.

inglishmayjer was one of several readers to send in the news of a major bug in Apple's new OS, 10.6 Snow Leopard, that can wipe out all user data for the administrator account. It is said to be triggered — not every time — by logging in to the Guest account and then back in to the admin account. Some users are reporting that all settings have been reset and most data is gone. The article links to a number of Apple forum threads up to a month old bemoaning the problem. MacFixIt suggests disabling login on the Guest account and, if you need that functionality, creating a non-administrative account named something like Visitor. (The Guest account is special in that its settings are wiped clean after logout.) CNet reports that Apple has acknowledged the bug and is working on a fix.

11 of 353 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Apple.... by cjfs · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Well since the only apparent critics are anon cowards I'll just assume that they are all MS fan boys out to get their cockroach bites while the getting is good.

    I don't think it takes a Microsoft fan boy to be critical of a production OS bug that results in complete data loss.

  2. Re:Apple.... by Anonymous+Psychopath · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm not a fanboi of any particular OS and use all the major ones at home (Win7, Macbook Pro, Ubuntu, Debian, BSD, etc.). They're just tools and they all have their strengths and weaknesses.

    But this is a serious bug, and based on the past I'm certain there would be many posts from smug Apple fanbois if it had been a Windows bug. I don't use my Guest account either, but that doesn't mean it would have sucked major ass if I had lost all my data because I did. The user could not possibly predict that just using the Guest account would incur this kind of risk.

    It doesn't make sense to be an apologist. I cannot understand why Apple seems to get a free pass from their user community when this sort of thing happens to them. It's not enough to point out that the other developers have problems, too. Get pissed off and help them be better next time.

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  3. Re:This is a bad bug, yes, but... by Huntr · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm not one for the holy wars and I hate to sound like I'm defending Microsoft, but if this happened in Windows, people would be at their door with pitchforks and torches. For sure, no one would be admonishing the users.

    See ya, karma. :(

  4. Re:Apple.... by cjfs · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I cannot understand why Apple seems to get a free pass from their user community when this sort of thing happens to them..

    Never underestimate the power of shiny.

  5. Oh man. Nightmare. by istartedi · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If one thing has been burned into my brain as a programmer, it's this:

    Crash all you want, but never, ever, ever harm, corrupt and by all that's holy, NEVER delete the user's data.

    The data is sacred. The data is life.

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    For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
  6. Re:I don't want to feed the trolls but... by CAIMLAS · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm sorry, but there's no way this should've fallen through QA cracks, because it should not have made it to QA in the first place. This kind of thing should never have been possible in the first place due to a clear segregation of permissions between "Admin" and everything else - particularly "guest".

    The fact that this is even possible suggests a much deeper flaw in the security mechanisms of OS X.

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  7. Can you take legal action? by HockeyPuck · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When will software/computer/IT companies be held to the same standards that other engineers (Civil, Electrical, Mechanical) are? If a bridge is built and it collapses due to a poor design, or a gadget catches fire or brakes are poorly designed, people head to their local courthouse and sue.

    In the computer world, people just accept that "All my photographs, resume, music, documents, tax returns, whatever" being lost forever is par for the course.

    How do you measure the value of data? You can't assign $/KB of data, as one couldn't equate a 20MB Stephen King unpublished manuscript to be equivalent to 4 hi-res pictures of my wife's flower garden. However, I'm not a fan or Stephen King, but my wife loves her flower garden.

    Should computers (or electric devices in general) with persistent storage carry a huge warning label on them that says,

    "Not guaranteed to maintain data integrity, always back up your data. Use at your own risk."

    1. Re:Can you take legal action? by raddan · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Software is held to the same standards, but you're comparing apples and oranges. Bridges and gadgets catching fire can kill you. Your wife losing a few photos is regrettable, but... come on.

      There is software which can kill you if it malfunctions. Avionics software (which spawned all kinds of guidelines, laws, and specialized programming languages), industrial control software, power network software, and so on. I assure you that people can be sued over poor design in these areas.

    2. Re:Can you take legal action? by slamb · · Score: 4, Insightful

      When will software/computer/IT companies be held to the same standards that other engineers (Civil, Electrical, Mechanical) are? If a bridge is built and it collapses due to a poor design, or a gadget catches fire or brakes are poorly designed, people head to their local courthouse and sue.

      When consumers are willing to wait (much) longer, pay (much) more, and/or get (much) less powerful software for the "not warranted for any particular purpose" to be removed from the license text. Don't hold your breath.

      It's entirely possible to make software that is rock-solid and that people will legally stand behind. But something has to be sacrificed to do so, and I don't imagine consumers will want that trade-off any time soon for the software on their desktop. Rather, people just complain about software developers not taking responsibility without really understanding what that would mean. It's like the old adage - good, fast, cheap, pick any two (if you're lucky). Unless the developers are just incompetent (which theoretically in non-monopolies the market will correct), it's hard to improve in one way without sacrificing something else. Software development is cumulative, so there's some hope of improvement over time - essentially you can mitigate the sacrifice of development speed through reuse - but that only takes you so far.

      Should computers (or electric devices in general) with persistent storage carry a huge warning label on them that says,

      What difference would it make? I think that it's common knowledge that you should take backups. Would putting that in warning label form make it more likely for people to actually do so?

    3. Re:Can you take legal action? by SoupIsGoodFood_42 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      When will software/computer/IT companies be held to the same standards that other engineers (Civil, Electrical, Mechanical) are?

      When you start paying $100,000 for an operating system?

  8. Re:I don't want to feed the trolls but... by davek · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm sorry, but there's no way this should've fallen through QA cracks, because it should not have made it to QA in the first place....

    So your solution to software quality problems is "don't make mistakes in the first place."? Have you ever released a production-level application before?

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