Login Screen even with automatic login

Hi
Sometimes, seemingly randomly, me or members of my family will turn on my Macbook and find a login window, even though I set it to automatically login and not require a password to wake from sleep/ect. I think that this only occurs while shutting down if the screen is closed before the computer completely shuts down, but I haven't confirmed this.

Does anyone know why this is happening and what, if anything, I can do to solve it?

Thank you

well sleep and shutting down are 2 separate things in terms of the processes behind them. Sleeping the macbook (closing the lid or selecting it from the apple menu) will save your settings and then power down. Shutting down the machine entirely will log everyone off and shut the machine down, so next time you start up, the OS will restart and require a password to log on.

To disable this, in system preferences, go to "accounts" and then select "Login Options." There is a drop down menu called "Automatic Login" and then you can have it "disabled" which will require you to log in every time you start the machine up from "off" as opposed to sleep, or you can set it to automatically log in as a selected user. I disabled this feature as a security measure but as a practicality for a family machine I can see your point

I hope this helps and lemme know if it hasn't xD

Dave

Well my comp is set to automatically log in. I don't think I worded my thought correctly. I meant to say that after I chick the "Shut down" button from the window, and the Mac starts to shut down (just shows your background). What I'm trying to say is while its in the background screen, if I close the lid (before the screen and comp turn completely off), then the next time I turn it on, there is no automatic login.

I'm not certain if closing the lid before a complete shut down will cause the login screen to appear, as I just did a test to see (which didn't show the login screen).