Computer Saving and Downloading Paths after Home Directory Rename and Change Misconfigured

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Level 1

4 points

Computer Saving and Downloading Paths after Home Directory Rename and Change Misconfigured

After initially resetting my old MacBook Pro for selling I had created an arbitrary username and login settings; which, after finishing initial set up, had created a home directory under that username. Unaware that I may have kept it, I decided to change the username/home directory to match.

This implemented a restart and after that restart I had noticed that all my downloads: Apps, things from all internet sources, and certain pre-installed apps, began to install directly into the partition I created for MacOS only, and were not available on the rest of the free space on the SSD or the separate HDD. I noticed that this made accessing some pre-installed Apps impossible, and when I was downloading anything beyond capacity of the small partition space, I could not download anything to the SSD or HDD wasting the majority of space and allowing essentially nothing to be installed on my computer.

Noticing this, I tried reverting to the exact old username/home directory, and this issue still occurred. It doesn't seem to want to revert itself. I have tried multiple changes, reverts, and so on, but no luck. Also I notice that I cannot enter Recovery Mode on my Mac to even reset the whole thing.

Could this all be due to certain booting or directory glitch all combined?

Posted on Aug 2, 2022 9:08 AM

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Answer 1

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HWTech

Level 9

56,186 points

Aug 2, 2022 10:09 AM in response to teeheetaha

If you are preparing the Mac for sale, then perform a clean install of macOS. When macOS reboots after the install, just quit the Setup Assistant so the new user gets to configure macOS to their liking. You may need to select a language before being able to quit Setup Assistant.

FYI, here is an Apple article on all the steps you should perform when preparing a Mac for sale:

What to do before you sell, give away, or trade in your Mac - Apple Support

FYI, unless you perform all the necessary steps when making modifications to the Advanced settings for a macOS user account, then you will end up with a broken system. This should not affect Recovery Mode unless you are required to authenticate to a valid macOS admin user account, then yes, this mistake may prevent you from accessing Recovery Mode. I believe this should only happen to a 2018+ Mac using the T2 security chip or the M1/M2 CPU, but macOS 11.x+ may also have this requirement as well. If you have a 2018+ Mac, then you can instead restore the firmware which will push the latest compatible version of macOS onto the Mac:

Revive or restore an Intel-based Mac using Apple Configurator - Apple Support

Revive or restore a Mac with Apple silicon using Apple Configurator - Apple Support

FYI, in the future it would help to include the exact model of the Mac and version of macOS since it will allow us to provide a more specific response instead of contributors having to generalize the reply or ask twenty questions.

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Answer 2

teeheetaha Author

Level 1

4 points

Aug 2, 2022 10:38 AM in response to HWTech

Awesome, thank you for this reply! Yes I think I did break the system. Luckily, I have another boot drive with El Capitan in it, and will plug this in so I may do a new Reinstall with the MacOS Catalina Patcher....this computer has given me such a hard time. I suppose I should simply reinstall MacOS Catalina and create settings I will not tamper with before selling.

Thank you! You described my issue perfectly.

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Computer Saving and Downloading Paths after Home Directory Rename and Change Misconfigured

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