Missing Original Home Folder Icon

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Missing Original Home Folder Icon

I am the only user of my Mac OS Ventura, but in shortening my login name I messed up with my Home folder in Finder Sidebar. It was missing, then when I found it and dragged it back the icon was different. I am also having trouble with other apps and folders. When I clicked on my Downloads folder I got the message, "Downloads can't be opened because the original can't be found". My question is how do I get my Mac back to the state where it was before I changed user name?

iMac 24″, macOS 13.3

Posted on Apr 10, 2023 4:25 AM

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Answer 1

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HWTech

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70,406 points

Apr 10, 2023 1:41 PM in response to Sprocketbb

Here is an Apple article with instructions for changing the short user name & home folder name....all of the steps are necessary or you will have a broken home folder:

Change the name of your macOS user account and home folder - Apple Support

Did you follow all those steps when you performed the change?

Can you create another admin user account?

Either you deleted the home folder "favorite" from the Finder's sidebar or you didn't follow all the steps in the article I linked. Not sure which one. I don't know if you can toggle the Finder sidebar option for displaying the home folder off & back on to recreate it or not if it is the former issue.

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Answer 2

Sprocketbb Author

Level 1

10 points

Apr 10, 2023 1:12 PM in response to Barney-15E

Thanks for your response. Yes I used a second admin name and deleted it after. The short name I used was my first name, but when checked the short name all I saw was the Library folder and the Home folder, away from the sidebar with contents under my full name I used previously. It did't look right to me. I don't know.

I am Ok now, because I erased the Hard Drive and went back a few days to my backups on Time Machine and restored the settings with my full name.

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Answer 3

Barney-15E

Level 10

122,846 points

Apr 10, 2023 4:34 AM in response to Sprocketbb

Did you use a separate admin user to change the name while logged out of the account you were changing?

Did you change the name to exactly match your short user name?

Both of those are absolutely necessary.

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Answer 4

Sprocketbb Author

Level 1

10 points

Apr 10, 2023 6:52 PM in response to HWTech

I thank you for your helpful pointers. It looks like I omitted something. Where I don't remember, but if I had read it before I erased my HD I might have succeeded. I went back a few days on my Time Machine backups and now have the Home folder with the original icon. Your way would take just a few careful minutes.

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Missing Original Home Folder Icon

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