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I've got an iMac Pro with Mojave and I need to use an external hard drive for my data storage. With my prior Macs, I just changed the home folder to the external hard disk in the Users & Groups section of the System Preferences. This totally failed with the new computer and I've ended up locked out of that account.
Does anyone know if it is still possible to use a second (non-boot) drive for your home folder location?
iMac Pro
It doesn't matter if it had nothing in it. You have to copy that folder on the external. It must find the folder at login time and if it doesn't it does what you saw.
You can tell Photos to store its library on the external.
You can create a new Sidebar shortcut to your new Documents.
It doesn't matter if it had nothing in it. You have to copy that folder on the external. It must find the folder at login time and if it doesn't it does what you saw.
You can tell Photos to store its library on the external.
You can create a new Sidebar shortcut to your new Documents.
Did you copy your home folder over to the external hard drive or create a new home folder at the path you entered?
Is your external drive mounting in time for login? This seems similar: Trouble with user account on separate dri… - Apple Community
You have to make those changes from another admin-capable account.
If you do it from the account you are changing, you will have all sorts of problems including possibly losing the admin credentials.
If you don't have another admin account, you may have to use this to create one:
https://www.lifewire.com/create-new-admin-account-for-login-issues-2259976
This is what I tried. I set up another account called "admin" along with a password. I logged out of my account and into the "admin" account and then went to Users & Groups for my intended main account (not "admin"). Right clicking on that user, I unlocked the advanced options to change the path to the Home folder to the external hard disc. I believe this is the correct procedure. When I tried to log into my intended main account I was presented with a whole series of errors asking for my password to rebuild a library. No matter how many times I entered this password (25x or more) the message kept popping up. As I said in the original posting, I have used this procedure with other Macs and earlier versions of the OS. No luck on Mojave. I have even reinstalled the OS from a network boot (command-option-R) to no avail.
Maybe Mojave does not permit this???
Ross
Thanks very much for your comments. This was a new computer with nothing in the home folder. The external drive was from my older iMac that failed. It is readable on another Mac and passes a Disk Utility scan.
For now I've given up and just use the external hard drive as is. This works but since it is not the location of my Home folder, the built in shortcuts for Photos, Documents and so on do not work.
Once again, I appreciate your suggestions.
Thank you. I will give that a try tomorrow.
Mojave-changing the home folder to an external hard drive
