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I changed my username and lost all files....BUT

I changed the user acct name on my mac and after a restart all my files and photos are missing. I tried searching the forumn before posting but still wasn't able to find a fix.

Here's the solution I found searching...

In the Finder, go to the /Users folder.
Locate the new home directory, which bears the users' short name.
Add "_new" to the new home directory's name.
Rename the old home directory to the user's correct short name.
Log out and back in with the affected user account.


But when I tried that, there was only one home directory instead of two...

Any help will be greatly appreciated.....

Mac OS X (10.5.1)

Posted on Feb 15, 2009 11:16 AM

Reply
4 replies

Feb 15, 2009 11:44 AM in response to V.K.

I started by going to User pref>Accounts> then I over typed the user name with a new one then I restarted and once I did.....All my old files are gone, so I tried to go back and changed the user name back to the original but it didn't bring my files back.

and then thats when I did these step.....

In the Finder, go to the /Users folder.
Locate the new home directory, which bears the users' short name.
Add "_new" to the new home directory's name.
Rename the old home directory to the user's correct short name.
Log out and back in with the affected user account.

Feb 15, 2009 12:07 PM in response to macuser2009

macuser2009 wrote:
I started by going to User pref>Accounts> then I over typed the user name with a new one then I restarted and once I did.....

did you do it in System preferences->accounts->advanced options? did you change only your user name or also your home directory location?


what exactly do you see in /users now? are there two home directories or just one? if you look inside3, are your files there?

Feb 15, 2009 1:50 PM in response to V.K.

Theres's only one home directory and I don't see files, what's inside3? Also, when I went to system prefences->accounts there isn't an advanced options option. Just user name, password, login options, and login items. And I changed the user name and password and then changed them back once I realized that wasn't how you add an account. But still after I restarted my computer the next day all my files, music, pics were gone.

As for whether or not I changed my home directory location I'm not sure how to do that or if I did by accident. How would I know for sure if I changed it?

I changed my username and lost all files....BUT

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