Posts:
8
From:
Dubai
Registered:
Sep 3, 2009
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Home folder lost - user account restored to default
Posted:
Sep 3, 2009 12:11 PM
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I installed SL last weekend, no major problems but many annoying bugs. This morning when I woke up the computer had hung - screen saver was frozen. I held down the power key to shutdown. Turned the computer back on, clicked on my user account icon, and it was like I'd just picked up a new computer... my home folder had been replaced with a "straight out of the box" home folder. Standard desktop, standard dock, nothing in my documents folder, standard library. My entire home folder is gone.
All apps are still available - they are on a different partition with the OS.
The partition where my home folder lives is now virtually empty. I used stellar pheonix to try to recover the files from my home folder, but it did not find them as lost not as deleted files. It gave me the option of recovering about 40GB of deleted files, but they were legitimately deleted files.
I have repaired the disk - no problems. Any suggestions would be appreciated...
MacBookPro5,1
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Posts:
10,452
From:
The Big Apple
Registered:
Aug 18, 2003
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Posts:
3
Registered:
Oct 21, 2006
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Re: Home folder lost - user account restored to default
Posted:
Sep 3, 2009 9:24 PM
in response to: dubaidan
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I had something very similar happen. I had the guest account enabled on my MBP - I accidentally clicked on that when I went to log in. It took a few minutes to log in then after I had logged out of that account and back into mine my enter home directory had been wiped. All of doc, musics, etc gone.
Mac Pro
Mac OS X (10.4.8)
MacBook Pro
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Posts:
8
From:
Dubai
Registered:
Sep 3, 2009
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Re: Home folder lost - user account restored to default
Posted:
Sep 3, 2009 9:57 PM
in response to: tcnsdca
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tcnsdca - that is exactly what happened to me also. I thought I might have accidentally clicked the Guest Account, but I'm not so sure - I think I clicked on my own account, but it acted as though my account was a guest account.
My computer name now has (2) after it.
MacBookPro5,1
Mac OS X (10.6)
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Posts:
8
From:
Dubai
Registered:
Sep 3, 2009
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Re: Home folder lost - user account restored to default
Posted:
Sep 3, 2009 10:15 PM
in response to: macjack
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macjack, unfortunately WhatSize could not see my original home folder. I had not tried to rename my home folder, and I was not using FileVault.
MacBookPro5,1
Mac OS X (10.6)
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Posts:
3,382
From:
California
Registered:
Jul 18, 2001
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Re: Home folder lost - user account restored to default
Posted:
Sep 3, 2009 10:17 PM
in response to: dubaidan
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Is your old home folder on the drive in the /Users directory? Has the size of the drive changed, indicating files have been deleted?
PM G5 dual 2.5GHz (10.5.8), PB G4 1GHz DVI (10.5.8), MBP 17" 2.66GHz (10.6.0)
Mac OS X (10.6)
Computers are....yummeh!
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Posts:
8
From:
Dubai
Registered:
Sep 3, 2009
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Re: Home folder lost - user account restored to default
Posted:
Sep 3, 2009 10:27 PM
in response to: Topher Kessler
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It's not in the /Users directory, and the size of the drive has changed. It's as though SL has treated my home folder as a guest account, and deleted it.
My Home folder was not on the same partition as the system files. I think I moved it to a different partition in 10.4.
Now I have a /Users directory in the system partition, and another /Users directory in my data partition.
MacBookPro5,1 2.53GHz, 4GB
Mac OS X (10.6)
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Posts:
126
Registered:
Feb 22, 2008
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Re: Home folder lost - user account restored to default
Posted:
Sep 3, 2009 11:12 PM
in response to: dubaidan
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Are you using Time Machine? If so, does it show up there?
iMac
Mac OS X (10.6)
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Posts:
8
From:
Dubai
Registered:
Sep 3, 2009
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Re: Home folder lost - user account restored to default
Posted:
Sep 3, 2009 11:40 PM
in response to: NewYorkYogi
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So I am using Time Machine - my home folder (except the exceptions) is there.
Looking through TM I found something interesting, which gives further weight to my suspicion that this is related to the guest account. A day before the crash there was no Guest account folder in the /Users directory. Just prior to the crash a Guest account folder appeared in the /Users directory on my start-up disk (not the partition my home folder is stored on). Post crash that Guest folder has disappeared again. I have NOT used the guest account since installing SL.
MacBookPro5,1 2.53GHz, 4GB
Mac OS X (10.6)
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Posts:
10,452
From:
The Big Apple
Registered:
Aug 18, 2003
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Re: Home folder lost - user account restored to default
Posted:
Sep 4, 2009 4:10 AM
in response to: dubaidan
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The Guest account is created by default.
Did you "check the /Users folder to see if the missing home directory is present and simply renamed"?
EDIT: Sorry, that already been answered...
I think your best bet at this point would be to reinstall Snow and only choose your Documents to Migrate + Apps, if you have any third party.
-mj
Message was edited by: macjack
iMac 24" 2.16 GHz 3GB RAM/22" external HP display
Mac OS X (10.6)
iMac G4 17" 800 MHz 768MB/ iMac 333MHz 256 MB / LaCie d2s/ APC-UPS
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Posts:
8
From:
Dubai
Registered:
Sep 3, 2009
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Re: Home folder lost - user account restored to default
Posted:
Sep 4, 2009 4:14 AM
in response to: macjack
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My old home folder is not in the /Users directory on either partition.
The Guest folder was not in the /Users directory 24 hours before the crash. It was there just before the crash. It is not there now. Since installing SL I have not changed any settings re the guest account, nor have I used it.
MacBookPro5,1 2.53GHz, 4GB
Mac OS X (10.6)
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Posts:
10,452
From:
The Big Apple
Registered:
Aug 18, 2003
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Re: Home folder lost - user account restored to default
Posted:
Sep 4, 2009 4:16 AM
in response to: dubaidan
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Yes, Dubaidan. I edited but I was not fast enough 
-mj
iMac 24" 2.16 GHz 3GB RAM/22" external HP display
Mac OS X (10.6)
iMac G4 17" 800 MHz 768MB/ iMac 333MHz 256 MB / LaCie d2s/ APC-UPS
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Posts:
2
Registered:
Sep 5, 2009
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Re: Home folder lost - user account restored to default
Posted:
Sep 5, 2009 7:08 AM
in response to: tcnsdca
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After Dubaidan and tcnsdca I am the third person in this thread who has experienced this 'wipe home directory' bug. I upgraded from Leopard to Snow Leopard last week. By accident I clicked on the 'guest login' icon on my MBP thirty minutes ago. After about 1 minute it automatically returned to the login screen, without showing up the guest desktop, so I decided to click on the 'guest login' again. This went pretty smooth and when I logged out the message appeared that all the 'guest login data' wouldn't be saved, but returned to normal.
When logging in to my regular account everything was gone. I don't use filevault. Nothing has been renamed to something else. My home-directory still exists under /Users/username but it is just empty.
Apple should have noticed this bug report already. It doesn't feel right that Apple doesn't take immediate measures when someone reports such a bug with a high potential data loss.
I would suggest to everyone to disable the guest login option IMMEDIATELY until Apple has addressed this. I hope that Apple will come up with a swift response and a nice gesture to victims of this bug.
Macbook Pro
Mac OS X (10.6)
Macbook Pro
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Posts:
10,452
From:
The Big Apple
Registered:
Aug 18, 2003
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Re: Home folder lost - user account restored to default
Posted:
Sep 5, 2009 7:35 AM
in response to: Bas B
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Welcome to Apple Discussions, Bas B.
Have you filed Mac OS X Feedback on the issue?
Also, if you join ADC (it's free) you can file a bug report on ADC . If you're unfamiliar with bug reports please make sure to read this page first.
-mj
iMac 24" 2.16 GHz 3GB RAM/22" external HP display
Mac OS X (10.6)
iMac G4 17" 800 MHz 768MB/ iMac 333MHz 256 MB / LaCie d2s/ APC-UPS
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Posts:
2
Registered:
Sep 5, 2009
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Re: Home folder lost - user account restored to default
Posted:
Sep 5, 2009 9:33 AM
in response to: macjack
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Thanks for the welcome. I already reported the bug through the Mac OS X Feedback functionality.
I tried the bug reporting system, but that is broken at the moment. When I login it shows an error screen (both with FF and Safari latest versions). This has been reported to appledev.
Macbook Pro
Mac OS X (10.6)
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