Hide a user account from the login screen of macOS Catalina

Question

I have a Mac running macOS Catalina that has two users accounts, 'foo' and 'admin'. Both appear on the login screen. I'd like to hide the 'admin' account from the login screen.

The following tricks that used to work on earlier versions of macOS aren't working anymore:

• sudo dscl . create /Users/admin IsHidden 1

• sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow HiddenUsersList -array-add admin

Answer 1

The trick still works in Catalina:

1. Log out as admin (below "admin" is meant as name of the admin user account - adapt accordingly) and login as foo.

2. Open the Terminal and enter:

   su admin
   sudo dscl . create /Users/admin IsHidden 1
   

3. If you want to remove the login screen's "Others..." option, which appears after disabling the admin account, enter:

   sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow SHOWOTHERUSERS_MANAGED -bool FALSE
   

4. To reverse the hidden admin user and enable "Others..." again enter:

   su admin
   sudo dscl . create /Users/admin IsHidden 0
   sudo defaults delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow SHOWOTHERUSERS_MANAGED
   

---

Tested in a Catalina VM. This might not work for T2-equipped Macs and definitely not if FileVault is enabled.

---

To remove the user admin from the login screen on a filevaulted Mac you can simply remove this account from the FileVault enabled users:

1. Log out as admin and login as foo

2. Open the Terminal and enter:

   su admin
   

   List all users to be sure that user admin and foo are FV enabled:

   sudo fdesetup list
   sudo fdesetup remove -user admin
   

   After removing admin only one user is left to unlock the system volume!

3. To remove the user admin from the intermediate login screen (i.e. volume still unlocked and after logging out as foo)

   su admin
   sudo dscl . create /Users/admin IsHidden 1
   sudo defaults delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow SHOWOTHERUSERS_MANAGED
   

Use at your own risk! Tested in a Catalina VM. This might not work for T2-equipped Macs.