Snow Leopard - Freezes at Log Out

when i click "Log Out", the hard drive and folder icons dissappear, but the dock and toolbar dont. when i put the cursor on the tool bar, it's the spinning colorful ball. the only way i can stop it is to unplug the computer. i'm unable to log out. how can i fix this??

Well, your the first one i have seen that has this problem, glad to see ya, i was beginning to think that i was nuts as i have almost the same problem. The minute i installed Snow Leopard my reboot and shutdown would no longer work. Difference is my desktop disappears ok, but it is replaced with a blue screen and the little round rotating thing that you see when you boot up under the apple logo. It just sits there going round and round. I have let it run for over an hour and the only way to stop it is cut the power.

After finally getting Mail to work again the shutdown problem is still there. Everything else works just fine and quite a bit faster. I spent an hour on the phone with apple support about the problem and they are clueless. 10.6.1 didn't fix anything for me.

the same happens to me too

since upgrading to snow leopard is hangs on logout and user switching

I have found out today this only seems happens if the mail app is launched

I will post further info when I have found a solution

I think I have resolved this issue

I downloaded the 10.6.1 update from apple and after a fresh boot of the mac, reinstalled the 10.6.1 update, restarted the mac and everything appears to be working as it should

I can now launch mail, restart finder, use fast user switching and logout / shutdown without any issues

update - issue has returned, not sure what is causing it

Just so you know you're not alone - I've had the same issue pertaining to Mail preventing a shut down for ... well, since I've had my Mac I think.

Never have investigated the issue because I just don't notice it but once in a great while. I don't use fast user switching, never log out and never shut down my Mac (or any other computer I own) except when required to do so by some update.

I got into the habit of closing Mail prior to a shutdown for quite awhile. A reboot during a system update seems not to be affected by it on mine.

Have never experienced the issue when allowing it to go to sleep or closing the lid to put it to sleep and my system does require a log in to get back in.