Add a Message to the Login and Lock Screen in Mac OS X

OS X has a nice new feature to login and lock screens that allow you to display a message underneath the login panel. This is visible to everyone who can see the Mac screen, and it makes for a great place to put either a bit of generic personalization message, or better yet, a lost & found message with some contact and ownership details.

We’ll show you exactly how to set this up on any Mac, it only takes a minute:

How to Add a Login & Lock Screen Message to OS X

Note that for the lock screen message to be displayed you also must have the ‘Require password’ feature turned on in the Security panel, then:

• Open up System Preferences from the  Apple menu and click on the “Security & Privacy” settings panel
• Select the “General” tab and then click the little lock icon in the lower left corner of the window, enter the admin password when asked
• Check the button next to “Show a message when the screen is locked” and type your login and lock screen message in the box below
• Click the lock icon again to set the changes and close out System Preferences

If you want to confirm the change, activate a screen saver with a sleep corner or lock down your Mac screen with a keystroke, just be sure that you require a password or you won’t see your message.

You can see what this looks like in the screenshot above and the closeup image below:

Having a message on your lock screen is a great loss prevention and general anti-theft measure, since anyone who gets the Mac into their hands later will see the message and if they have a conscience, will hopefully call the number you set on the screen. This could also help if you ever accidentally misplaced a Mac laptop, and is a great addition to setting an “If Found” message as the iPhone lock screen wallpaper which was suggested by Apple a few years ago.

This tip works universally on all new Macs with OS X 10.7 Lion, 10.8 Mountain Lion, and OS X Mavericks (10.9), and presumably all future versions of OS X as well. For those wondering, the screenshot background is actually the Fliqlo flip-clock screen saver, which will show itself behind the login and message that is placed.