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I have removed the "guest user" account by: System Preferences → Users & groups → Guest User → Remove.

It still remains as an option under users (but states disabled).

It still shows up on login screen and if selected allows guest to logon to computer.

How do I remove guest login completely so that is is not even an option at login?

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  • Do you have the Find My Mac service (part of iCLoud) enabled? – Gordon Davisson Feb 1 '15 at 6:07
  • I do not have find my mac enabled. – Jim Feb 1 '15 at 19:25
  • delete the account? – OzzieSpin Oct 4 '16 at 9:14
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How to disable that “Guest User” from appearing at the OS X login screen

For modern versions of OS X, disabling Guest account is done as follows:


(I have provided a screenshot from El Capitan, but Yosemite is very similar)

  1. Open System Preferences

  2. Go to “Users & Groups” and click the unlock icon

  3. Click on “Guest User”

  4. Uncheck the box for ‘Allow guests to log in to this computer’

enter image description here The key here is everything must be disabled. Once you completely disable the account, it will no longer show up on the login screen.

If you have older versions of OS X, follow the instructions below:

Disabling Guest User in OS X Lion, Mountain Lion

  1. Click on “Security & Privacy”
  2. Click the lock in the lower corner and type in your administrative password to unlock the control panel
  3. Check the box next to “Disable restarting to Safari when screen is locked”
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sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.AppleFileServer guestAccess -bool NO sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.smb.server AllowGuestAccess -bool NO

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I just tested this on 2 iMacs one from 2012 and one from 2009 both running Mac OS 10.13 and both have 2 login possibilities: the user's login button and an "Other" login button which asked for inputs for user name and password.

The true culprit here is whether “root user” is enabled or disabled. Here is how to check and disable root user if necessary:

  • Go to the users & groups pref pane and unlock it with an admin password. Click on “login options” in that pane.
  • Click the edit or join button a dropdown will appear
  • Click on the Open Directory Utility button. That takes you to the Directory Utility pref panel and you need to unlock that with an admin password.
  • Once that is unlocked from the Directory Utility Menu Bar at the top of screen select edit. If you see “Disable Root User” click on that and it will change to “enable root user” meaning the root user is not logged onto the system.
  • Back-track your steps and re-lock each pref.pane.
  • In Users & Groups you should have already turned off Guest User. Double check that the Guest User check boxes are still unchecked and now the selection for Guest User should be completely grey.
  • Go ahead and log off your user id under the Apple Menu and the resulting action should bring a login screen with the primary login name and password ONLY.

When Root User is enabled your login screens will always present an “Other” login button. Root user should only be active under special circumstances. Keep it disabled as the norm.

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I no longer have an OS 10.8 Mavericks system to test on, but I think from your description that you had a real user account named "Guest" and deleted it. That enables the special Guest account, the one that's automatically created on each login and destroyed on each logout.

To disable that one, go back to System Preferences → Users & Groups → Guest User (he's baaack...), and uncheck "Allow guests to log in to this computer".

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  • Unchecked and it is still showing up on login screen – Jim Feb 1 '15 at 19:08
  • Then let's turn it around. Maybe you do have a normal user named Guest and haven't deleted it. In Terminal, the command id guest should return something that begins with id=201(Guest gid=201(_guest) groups=.... If you get a different id, one bigger than 500, then the Guest user you're seeing is a regular user. Also, if you're using FileVault, the list you see is the list of users who can decrypt the boot disk. That may include users who no longer exist. What happens if you log in as Guest? What do you see when Fast User Switching? – ganbustein Feb 2 '15 at 20:28
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If disabling won’t work, then you can also delete the account. The account does not exist in a default installation, but is only created when it is first enabled in Users & Groups.

sudo dscl . -delete /Users/Guest
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Use the below command on terminal:

sudo fdesetup remove -user Guest and tap Enter.

It will ask for the admin password. Enter that password and the Guest user login will be removed.

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I have High Sierra and this worked for me.

Go to users and groups.

Unlock the page.

Go to Logon Options.

Join Network Account Server.

Open Directory Utility.

Unlock Directory.

Go to menu bar and open Edit dropdown.

Disable Root User.

Lock and close all windows.

Restart.

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  • That's not the Guest User, that's the root user. Very different things. – JMY1000 Dec 2 '17 at 1:37
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If you want to remove the Guest User from the login screen ,you should visit this site. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204012 It has instructions on how to enable and disable the Guest User.

-From the Apple menu choose System Preferences.
-From the View menu choose Users & Groups.
-Click on the lock and authenticate with an administrator account.
-Click Login Options.
-Click the Edit button or Join button.
-Click the Open Directory Utility button.
-Click the lock in the Directory Utility window.
-Enter an administrator account name and password, then click OK.
-Choose Disable Root User from the Edit menu.
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  • That link takes you to Enabling and Using the ROOT user account not the guest account like was asked in the OP – Allan Mar 12 '16 at 15:46
  • Yes,if you follow the instructions it disables the "Guest User" form appearing on the login screen ,which that is the question."Guest User" is the small white icon with the 3 persons in the login screen.Wasn't that the question? – user3430128 Mar 12 '16 at 15:49
  • The root user and the guest user are two completely different accounts – Allan Mar 12 '16 at 16:15
  • Even though enabling the root user may disable the guest account as well (I didn't try myself), this is in this case merely a side effect. Enabling the root user has its own issues, I wouldn't recommend to do this only you really need the functionality. – nohillside♦ Mar 12 '16 at 16:20
  • I was talking about enabling the root user, i was talking about disabling. – user3430128 Mar 12 '16 at 16:30

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