System not correctly shutting down/restarting during update (?), resulting in a broken session

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This issue occurs when system updates are loaded with Discover at the beginning of a session and then left to sit there while other apps are used. When at the end of that session, ‘Update and Restart’ is selected, the update is applied and the user is returned to login normally. When now any user tries to log in, after entering the correct password, the screen goes black for a while, then returns the user to the login screen. This affects all users and re-entering the password has the same effect as first time. Selecting ‘Shutdown’ or forcefully shutting down the machine resolves the issue.

This has happened multiple times to me on my AMD Thinkpad, however neither consistently nor predictably.

I suspect this is due to not shutting down correctly, since it only seems to happen when updating and restarting, and NOT when the system is formally powered off. I am, however, not experienced enough to say for sure.

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I suspect this may be due to the currently logged in user at the time of the update may still be using the package version that was active at that time.

A new login may see discrepancies in the apps & libraries that now have a discrepancy in the older (not yet updated) version and the already installed (and loaded into memory) libraries for the newer versions.

It is generally a very good practice to perform updates then immediately restart (reboot, not just log out then back in) so everything running is at the same version and does not have some lingering library & app content that is still in memory.

What you are seeing is quite often the case when having apps open while doing the update and what is in memory no longer matches what is currently installed on the drive.

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