Skipping the Lion Sign in Page

Three Questions:
What keystrokes do I use when booting so that I can avoid the Lion sign in page?

I use MacMail. Just after I emigrated to the cloud, my iCloud accounts would spontaneously revert to MobileMe. Nice mess because then outgoing mail could not find the server. Naturally. Mac people took all the stuff off my computer and still couldn't find a reason. I think that MobileMe must be shut down because now it's not happening. Anyone else have this issue? (Apple agents weren't sure it wouldn't do it again even after MobileMe had closed up shop.)

Lastly, I back up to TimeMachine. I cannot get TimeMachine to eject from the finder. I use Disk Utilities. Why doesn't the finder do it for me? I forget and just unplug it and cause error message to come onto the screen. Anyone?

1. It's a terribly security risk, since anyone with physical access to your machine can wreak a lot of havoc, but you can adjust your account settings to bypass the sign-in page. I **really** wouldn't do this if you have anyone in the household you don't trust completely.

2. MobileMe is kaput.

3. TimeMachine is software, it is not "ejectable." I think you must be referring to the DRIVE you are using for Time Machine. If it's not ejectable, that means it is IN USE and you should leave it alone. If you keep on "forgetting and unplugging it" you will destroy the drive at some point and lose all your backups. Hopefully that will be enough incentive for you to learn not to do that.

I/omega drive, ejecting

Yes, you're right. I confused the software with the hard drive.

Now my question is, at some point shouldn't this drive quit backing up? Shouldn't I be able to say "Enough for now, and thanks for all the tea, but the day is done and I'll see you tomorrow"? I have it plugged in all day long. And when I go to bed, I want to shut down my computer.

Or, I should be able to get it to stop backing up, right? so that I can eject the i/omega drive. And that's what I have to do from disk utilities. Why can't I do that from the Finder?


Thanks so much for the security warning on bypassing the lion sign in page. Reminded me of how very far off the beaten track I live and which I seldom think about. I have a husband of nearly 40 years(which should be probably be illegal), kids who are grown and elsewhere, and 15 rescue dogs. I do occasionally find the Aussie working the NYT crossword puzzle and the GSDs surf YouTube for Tillman's skateboarding videos! As you may imagine, we don't get much drop in traffic. The UPS man always asks if the dogs have been fed before he hands me the package! I think my computer is safe. And its contents are alas and alack only of serious interest to others in rescue and by no means secret!

Still can't get time machine to eject . I did it though disk utility tonight and got the error message again. Should I be turning if off before ejecting it?

Open Time Machine Preferences (from the Menu bar or System Preferences). This will tell you what Time Machine is currently doing. It sounds like it's either still backing up or is 'stuck' preparing a backup.