Set Up a Guest Account on macOS
This article teaches you how to enable the Guest User account on your Mac in order to let your friends temporarily use your computer without a password.
10 Second Summary
1. Click the Apple menu in top-left.
2. Click System Preferences.
3. Click Users & Groups.
4. Click and unlock the lock icon in bottom-left.
5. Click Guest User on the left panel.
6. Check the box next to "Allow guests to log in to this computer".
Steps
- Click the Apple menu on the menu bar. This button looks like the Apple icon in the upper-left corner of your screen.
- Click System Preferences. This will open your System Preferences panel in a new window.
- Click Users & Groups. This option looks like two figureheads in the lower-left corner of the System Preferences panel. It will let you customize your user accounts and login options.
- Unlock the lock icon at the bottom. Click the lock icon in the lower-left corner of the Users & Groups menu, and enter your account password to unlock it. You cannot make any changes in this menu without unlocking the lock icon first.
- You have to be logged into an Admin account to make changes in Users & Groups.
- Click Guest User on the left panel. You will see a Guest User option listed next to a gray figurehead icon at the bottom of the users list. Click on it to make changes.
- Check the box next to Allow guests to log in to this computer. This will enable the guest account on your Mac. Guest users can click on the guest account on the login screen and temporarily use your computer without a password.
- When a guest user logs out, all of their information and files in the guest account will be automatically deleted.
- Click Open Parental Controls. Here you can Enable Parental Controls and limit the capabilities of the guest account. You can choose to limit selected applications, restrict access to certain websites, put content restrictions on store downloads, and impose time limits on account use among other options.
- Check the box next to Allow guest users to connect to shared folders. This option will let the guest account access the shared folders created by the Admin accounts.
- Although this is optional, you might find it useful for sharing content such as photos, videos, and documents between Admin and guest accounts.
