Restart after Power outage

duss
duss
edited June 25 in General

On the rare occurrence that we have a power failure, and everything shuts down... my MAC will restart after power is restored but Security Spy does not. This always seems to happen when I'm not at home. As a result, I have to manually restart Security Spy. I believe I have it set up in the MAC to restart SS, but only after I login again. But I can't do this if I'm not there. Is there something else I could do? Thanks

Comments

  • chadchr
    chadchr

    On your Mac, search setup for "Log in automatically". You can specify a user to login as.

    I would also recommend getting a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply). My Mac mini will stay powered for quite a long time using my cheap UPS. I also have another UPS on my network equipment.

  • palware
    palware

    Thanks for the info, Chadchr. I was wondering the same thing as Duss.

    About the “Log in automatically” option, do you know if there’s any security risk with enabling auto-login? I’m a bit hesitant to leave my Mac set to log in without a password, especially since SecuritySpy is dealing with security cameras.

    Also, good point about the UPS. I’m thinking of getting one just to avoid the whole shutdown issue in the first place. How long does yours keep your Mac mini running during an outage?

  • chadchr
    chadchr
    edited June 27

    It certainly is a security risk automatically logging in. It is all about trade offs. If you do have the user automatically log in, I would use a standard user without administrative rights. After I posted, I double checked my setup and I do not have it set to automatically login. I am relying on my UPS.

    My 1500VA UPS says it will keep my mini running 186 minutes currently. I have never really tested it since we typically don't lose power that often for that long.

  • Marty
    Marty

    We have SecuritySpy running on an M1 Max Studio Pro and when it does reboot, the screen is locked by password but SecuritySpy still opens up in the background. On your Mac, go to Settings and search for Open at Login. On the right there is a + sign and add SecuritySpy to that list. That way, SecuritySpy will open but your Mac will still be locked.

    In SecuritySpy settings, make sure under General you have "Reopen automatically after a crash" on.

    These settings should open SecuritySpy after any reboot but without any having your Mac unlocked.

    Marty

  • duss
    duss

    Thanks for all the comments..

    So I did/do have (1) SecuritySpy to Open at Login, (2) SecuritySpy set to "Reopen automatically after a crash" and (3) a UPS.

    My last power outage lasted for a day or so, so I'm sure my UPS ran down - but I do have my MAC set to turn off if the UPS gets to a certain level.

    So, I've been testing with RESTARTING my mac. So when I do eventually login, SS is running, so that's good. What I believe may be the issue is "Tailscale". I've been using it for some time. And when I restart my mac (prior to Logging in), I can not see my cameras on my phone and Tailscale on my phone is not seeing my MAC. Once I do login on my MAC, Tailscale connects and all is fine. So I wonder of Tailscale is my issue.

    Any other users of Tailscale? If not, what is your setup to reliably view your SS cameras remotely on your iphone?

    Thanks

  • duss
    duss

    Just found this on a Tailscale page...

    https://tailscale.com/kb/1088/run-unattended -- "On macOS, there's no ability to run as the system just yet"

    So maybe this is my problem

  • Marty
    Marty

    Just to follow up, after a reboot the cameras are totally accessible from other devices before logging on at all. If you still have issues, post back and maybe we can narrow down the differences between here and there and get it working that way for you. Tailscale is probably a good place to start by removing it or disabling. I'll be interested to know what you find out.

  • duss
    duss

    Ok, follow up..

    Every time I had restarted my MAC it will would go to the Login Prompt. My issue I believe. So Tailscale wouldn't work (I think), because technically I wasn't logged in.

    So, I checked the Users & Groups settings and I had it correct with "Automatically log in as" my admin account, but whenever I restarted my MAC I would always get the Login page...

    Well I decided to shut this "off", save and then reset it to "Automatically log in as" with my admin account.

    Well I restarted and my mac and now it went right to my desktop .... no Login screen!!!

    As a result, tailscale connected and I was able to see my cameras on my phone.

    Hopefully this solves my issue

  • Marty
    Marty

    Hopefully you got it. It certainly sounds like you have. I like the reliability of SecuritySpy starting up no matter if there is a reboot or power outage that restarts the system. I do have a UPS on the system, and I don't recall any power outages anyway in over a year or two with the exception of about a 3 second "blip" of the power during a lighting storm.

  • Ben
    Ben

    After automatically logging in, you can configure the Mac using a little applet that we provide to immediately go back to the login screen (with everything still running in the user account behind it). More information can be found here: Setting up SecuritySpy for Autonomous Operation.

  • duss
    duss

    Ben

    I Like it, much thanks. Wish I had read this first. Although it seems my issue MAY have been I had to disable and then re - enable the "Automatically log in as" in my settings. MAYBE it had something a miss from my prior Migration Assistant.

    Jim

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