Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Level 1

0 points

Home folder lost - user account restored to default

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

Posted on Sep 3, 2009 12:11 PM

95 replies

Sep 8, 2009 7:47 AM in response to dubaidan

This just happened to me. My home folder was completely wiped after logging into Guest Account and then into my normal account. I am going to attempt to restore my files with Time Machine when I get home from work. This is an incredibly inconvenient, real bug that needs to be fixed immediately.

mehran2

Level 1

0 points

Sep 8, 2009 11:08 AM in response to Adam Strock

I had exactly the same problem. I had some other files on the MacDisk that were preserved because they were not in the User folder. Plus it would not accept my keychain password.

ubernaut

Level 1

78 points

Sep 11, 2009 8:14 AM in response to mehran2

any word on whether 10.6.1 addresses this issue?

ASnare

Level 1

0 points

Sep 14, 2009 8:50 AM in response to ubernaut

ubernaut wrote:
any word on whether 10.6.1 addresses this issue?

It doesn't.

It just happened to me. I'd write more, but fear I lack the self-restraint to not violate forum rules.

- Andrew

ubernaut

Level 1

78 points

Sep 14, 2009 9:26 AM in response to ASnare

unbelievable not what i usually expect from apple. i am reminded of 10.3 when the update nuked a bunch of peoples externals except for 3 things:

1) the 10.3 wasn't really apples fault only certain drive manufacturers were affected.

2) the 10.6 bug is way worse hard to make a call between losing my home folder and everything on my external but i would have to say the home would be more crippling.

3) the 10.3.1 update fixed the bug.

looks like holding off on snow leo was a good idea.

Message was edited by: ubernaut (sorry panther not tiger was the one with that problem for those of you who happened to read the first version of this post)

rusto

Level 2

220 points

Sep 22, 2009 3:14 PM in response to dubaidan

Just got nailed by this bug today.

a brody

Level 10

82,991 points

Sep 25, 2009 12:05 PM in response to ubernaut

3) the 10.3.1 update fixed the bug.

Actually it only made it less noticeable. The bug still appears in 10.6 for Firewire. Just other drives are affected. I wrote a FAQ* on that bug:

http://www.macmaps.com/firewirebug2.html

- * Links to my pages may give me compensation.

Sep 30, 2009 1:52 PM in response to a brody

Wow

RIP 9.30.09 all of my business / school files. Irreplaceable client files for my media business.

GJ Apple

ubernaut

Level 1

78 points

Sep 30, 2009 1:57 PM in response to emperoroflove

wow indeed. i still can't believe apple's prolonged silence about this. this has got to be one the most severe bugs ever. do we know is this occurs in every case or has anyone experienced a case where using guest login under snow leopard did not wipe out the 501 home directory?

(i'm assuming thats the home folder that gets wiped)

a brody

Level 10

82,991 points

Sep 30, 2009 2:04 PM in response to dubaidan

This kind of reminds me of this bug:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1876?viewlocale=en_US

I recommend looking over it, and seeing if it isn't some varient thereof which can be recovered. Data recovery software is recommended on my backup FAQ*:

http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html

Which may also be able to recover your data, if your hard drive hasn't been written over multiple times.

Regardless, Apple has made it abundantly clear that backing up is essential to preserving your data, both in readmes and license agreements. Disregard them at your own peril.

Good luck!

- * Links to my pages may give me compensation.

Sep 30, 2009 2:08 PM in response to emperoroflove

After this happened to me, I used a data recovery program (File Salvage) that was able to recover some of the things I thought I'd lost (like emails and other docs). It was a long and a little messy of a process to go through, but might be worth while if it recovers something you think you've lost forever.

Oct 1, 2009 12:59 PM in response to ubernaut

This is absolutely disgusting! it just happened to me - fortunately I did a hard shut down when the beach ball came up on guest login as i realised something was not right.

as a result it only deleted my documents folder which i backed up!!!

I cannot beieve that this has not received the publicity it deserves!!!

Dogcow-Moof

Level 8

36,227 points

Oct 2, 2009 2:51 AM in response to Ivan Clarke1

The bottom line is, if any of you can figure out a way to reproduce this at will, please post here.

Several of us (fellow users, not Apple employees) have been trying to reproduce it using the information here and have failed so far.

Oct 2, 2009 4:53 AM in response to Dogcow-Moof

Are you completely nuts or just stupid? why would anyone want to reproduce this BUG I have just spend 4 hours reauthorising plugins for my studio because of this ridiculous situation!

Bottom line - NO-ONE in there right mind would want to reproduce this.

The FACT is it happened! and it happened the way it has been described on this page!

rusto

Level 2

220 points

Oct 2, 2009 5:07 AM in response to Ivan Clarke1

Some of us who help others with their Macs have "test bed" units available to do just that: attempt to reproduce errors. Try to refrain from ad-hominem attacks on other posters, it helps no one.

Meanwhile, I read somewhere else that the critical part of being able to reproduce this problem is that FIRST you have to have had Guest account active in 10.5 BEFORE you updated to SL. If you updated to SL then activated the Guest account, this should not bite you. I HAVE NOT TESTED THIS TO CONFIRM.

See this article on Cnet/MacFixit: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-10356505-263.html

Home folder lost - user account restored to default