what is the ~username folder in my root folder?

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what is the ~username folder in my root folder?

So in my root folder on my MBP, I have the standard 4 visible folders (Application, Library, System, Users). It has been like this since forever. Today after the update, there is a new folder ~username. In that folder I can see a couple of subfolders all leading to : ~username/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports

I have turn on to show hidden folders and files and the whole thing is just this empty folders. Can't remove them, not even in terminal using sudo.

So what are they? Is this something new?

MacBook Pro

Posted on Oct 7, 2020 10:58 AM

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Answer 1

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JernejCG Author

Level 1

38 points

Oct 17, 2020 8:21 AM in response to JernejCG

Thank you for the suggestions, I have done exactly that. Restarted in recover mode to remove the folder. It is a bit more convoluted that one would expect, since the Macintosh HD drive is not mounted and if using DiskVault also locked.

I used the guide found here https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/236206/backup-files-from-terminal-in-recovery-mode to unlock and mount the drive.

Using the command, to unlock the drive:

diskutil apfs unlock "Macintosh HD"

then I proceeded to go in the ~user folder as deep as it goes and step by step removed the folders with rmdir, to be sure that the folder were in fact empty. The computer booted normally and the folder is gone.

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Answer 2

HWTech

Level 9

60,578 points

Oct 8, 2020 8:26 PM in response to JernejCG

I have no idea, but I believe I saw another post a while back about having this "~username" folder on the root of the drive. I don't believe this folder should exist on the root volume so it should be safe to delete, but you should definitely perform a thorough investigation to be sure. I recommend you have good backup before deleting the folder.

Catalina makes the boot volume read-only.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210650

You will need to boot into Recovery Mode, most likely will need to disable System Integrity Protection (SIP) using the command line, then delete the folder & its contents using the command line. Just remember to re-enable SIP or bad things might happen to macOS.

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Answer 3

Barney-15E

Level 10

116,758 points

Oct 8, 2020 8:58 PM in response to JernejCG

I seem to remember someone else linking it to Migration. Did you migrate any data during setup or after using Migration assistant?

They are just remnants of that or some other process that should have been cleaned up.

Since they are at the root of the read only volume, there is no way to delete them while booted from that drive. To delete you will either need to boot from another drive or boot into Recovery and use Terminal to delete the folder.

Or, you can just ignore it which is the safest thing to do.

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Answer 4

HWTech

Level 9

60,578 points

Oct 17, 2020 11:19 AM in response to JernejCG

Thanks for the update. I'm glad everything is working correctly.

Did you remember to re-enable System Integrity Protection (SIP)? To do so run the following command in the Terminal app:

sudo  csrutil  enable

You can check the status with:

sudo  csrutil  status

I think you can re-enable SIP while booted into macOS, but if not, then boot into Recovery Mode to run the command without "sudo":

csrutil  enable

For other users reading your post: users need to be aware that using the Terminal command line utilities "rm" & "rmdir" are very dangerous as it very easy to make a mistake and delete everything on the drive.

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Answer 5

JernejCG Author

Level 1

38 points

Oct 18, 2020 3:22 AM in response to HWTech

Thank you for reminding me about SIP (that is really appreciated!), but there was no need to disable it at all. So I haven't done that step, which was a relief since I am not to comfortable with disabling SIP in the first place.

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what is the ~username folder in my root folder?

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