Screen Not Locking with authenticate-session-owner-or-admin in Screensaver

Question

Screen Not Locking with authenticate-session-owner-or-admin in Screensaver

I modified the system.login.screensaver rule in the authorization database to use authenticate-session-owner-or-admin instead of use-login-window-ui to display a custom authentication plugin view when the screensaver starts or the screen locks.

However, I noticed an issue when the "Require Password after Display is Turned Off" setting is set to 5 minutes:

If I close my Mac’s lid and reopen it within 5 minutes, my authentication plugin view is displayed as expected.
However, the screen is not in a locked state—the desktop remains accessible, and the black background that typically appears behind the lock screen is missing.

This behavior differs from the default lock screen behavior, where the screen remains fully locked, and the desktop is hidden.

Has anyone encountered this issue before? Is there a way to ensure the screen properly locks when using authenticate-session-owner-or-admin in the screensaver rule?

Posted on Apr 1, 2025 4:08 AM

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Answer 1

HWTech

Level 9

68,708 points

Apr 14, 2025 7:18 PM in response to Venkatasatishb

Those posts are from 2015. macOS has changed a lot in 10 years. Even those older posts seem to indicate some issues. Unless Apple posts documentation about these settings somewhere, then they are unsupported "options". Even when some of these options are discovered by people, they can sometimes have unknown secondary side effects.

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Answer 2

Apr 1, 2025 9:11 AM in response to Venkatasatishb

Venkatasatishb wrote:

I modified the system.login.screensaver rule in the authorization database to use authenticate-session-owner-or-admin

instead of use-login-window-ui to display a custom authentication plugin view when the screensaver starts or the screen locks.

Lets hear the details how you went about this...and where(?)

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Answer 3

Apr 2, 2025 3:37 AM in response to leroydouglas

I read an article online that mentioned changing the rule in system.login.screensaver within the authorizationdb. I followed the steps to modify the rule using a command and successfully changed it. However, I encountered an issue:

When I close the lid of my MacBook Pro, it goes into sleep mode. My lock screen setting is configured to require a password after a 5-minute delay once the display turns off. If I open my Mac within 5 minutes, the password prompt appears, but the black background does not show, and the desktop remains accessible.

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Answer 4

HWTech

Level 9

68,708 points

Apr 2, 2025 10:31 AM in response to Venkatasatishb

I think @leroydouglas wanted the specific commands you used to make these modifications. Having a link to the instructions you followed would also be useful as a reference. We have no idea what modification was made. I've never heard of this modification before. Some modifications may even have some unexpected side effects.

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Answer 5

Apr 7, 2025 6:29 AM in response to leroydouglas

https://community.jamf.com/t5/jamf-pro/system-login-screensaver/m-p/79696

This the one of the reference link, which I have checked.

And one more thing I have noticed this issue in latest macOS versions 15.0 and Above

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