14 DAY TRIAL // Apple’s Support forums have become filled with users' complaints of a Snow Leopard bug eating away their data when they would log into the 'guest' account, then log back out of the account and back into their normal one to find that their account has been fully reset with all data wiped.
Many are reporting that not only are their settings reset, but, in most cases, all data is gone. Still, the home directory still exists under "/Users/username," but it is completely empty. Users claim their data becomes unrecoverable, in some cases, and cannot be found / accessed anywhere on the hard drive. Only a few lucky cases are reported where the user has backed up the data. It appears that the issue had been plaguing them since day one, with reports of the bug being posted mere days after Mac OS X Snow Leopard had been released.
Moreover, it is not clear exactly how many users are affected, since not every Mac user has an Apple Discussions account, or the certainty that Apple is to blame for a system wipeout. It does seem, however, that anyone who performed the upgrade from OS X 10.5 Leopard and had the guest account enabled is affected.
Apple has been quiet so far, but a CNet report now reveals that the Mac maker has acknowledged the bug, claiming to be working on a fix. Apple also claims that the issue appears not to be widespread.
"We are aware of the issue, which occurs only in extremely rare cases, and we are working on a fix," an Apple representative said in a prepared statement on Monday, according to CNet. The site adds more fuel to the fire pinpointing that, "Snow Leopard has been plagued with bugs since its release, including problems with the Finder hanging or crashing, incompatibility with certain apps, and the AirPort connection dropping."