MacBook Air Not Working

[Philip Fisher]

I have a MBA 2020 (non M1) model running Catalina. The teacher asked me to look at it. After she signs in, she is getting the spinning beach ball and nothing else. She has a Standard local account.

I took the computer and signed in as her, it takes me to the desktop but I cannot click on anything except I noticed it was "indexing" and I can't do anything else.

After I restarted the computer I created a 2nd local account but that appears to be slow as it is "indexing" as well.

I ran diagnostics and didn't find any hardware issues. The only account that appears to work is the -localadmin - account.

I am not sure if I should let it finish the long "indexing" process or perform a recovery on it.

 

[EdwinG]

Is this a professional computer joined to an organizational directory?

It might be trying to locate a file server that it can’t reach, and it is locking up.

Edit:
To check if the Mac is organization joined, the easiest method is to check in System Settings, choose Users & Groups and go to Login Options.

If it is directory-joined, there will be a name beside Network Account Server. In my screenshot, my computer is not directory joined.

The alternative method is to start the Directory Utility app and select Search Policy in the toolbar.

A directory-joined computer will have items different from /Local/Default.