Setup Assistant on Every Restart with macOS Golden Gate (27.0.1)

If Setup Assistant is popping up every time you restart your Mac after updating to macOS 27.0.1, something is causing macOS to launch part of the initial setup process again. 

Apple describes Setup Assistant as the process used when setting up a Mac, including signing in with an Apple Account. (support.apple.com)

There is a recent user report describing this same behaviour after macOS 27.

The workaround below reportedly fixed it for that user. It is worth trying, but it is a community-reported workaround rather than an Apple-documented fix.

Open Terminal and enter:  defaults -currentHost read com.apple.loginwindow MiniBuddyLaunch

If the result is 1, make a quick backup first:

Again in Terminal  this command mkdir -p ~/Desktop/setup-backup && cp ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.loginwindow.*.plist ~/Desktop/setup-backup/

Then remove the MiniBuddyLaunch setting: Terminal command  defaults -currentHost delete com.apple.loginwindow MiniBuddyLaunch

Restart your Mac and see whether Setup Assistant comes back.

If the first command does not return 1, do not remove the setting.

If this is a work or school Mac, also check System Settings >> General >> Device Management. 

Apple notes that device-management settings can control Setup Assistant and the panes it displays. (support.apple.com)

For reference, Apple's documentation on Setup Assistant is here, and its documentation on managing Setup Assistant is here.

I had an external drive that I booted with. I got the setup every time I booted until I went through all the initial steps of logging into iCloud, setting up Touch ID, etc. Needed to complete all the usual initial setup requests before it stopped the repeated setup assistant.

Wow. This worked like magic. Thank you so much. I was going crazy trying all sorts of different commands and restarts, safeboot, etc. I can now boot straight to the desktop.

You are welcome and thank you for the feedback

🦉-53