Fast user switching: how to prevent volumes from being unmounted?
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20-12-2020 - |
Question
I have a volume mounted. If I switch to another user, this volume gets dismounted. The problem is that I want this volume to be available for every user (but putting it in their login items is not the solution I'm looking for), so: how can this behavior be prevented? (I'm on Mountain Lion)
Solution
You can stop Mac OS X unmounting user disks on log-out. This behaviour is controlled with a default (preference).
In this discussion on the Apple Support Community, Király shares the appropriate command to issue:
defaults write /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/autodiskmount AutomountDisksWithoutUserLogin -bool YES
This command needs to be entered into Applications > Utilities > Terminal.app. Aftwards you must restart your Mac for the change to take effect.
Note that the autodiskmount
tool has been replaced by automountd
; it is possible Mac OS X 10.8 has migrated this default to another file.
You may also find this Super User question useful, Automount external hard drive on Mac.