Migrate to a new account with a new name on the same Mac

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Migrate to a new account with a new name on the same Mac

I discovered a problem after migrating to my M2 Mac Studio within that last couple of months. My user folder (maybe my account name?) has a whitespace at the end. "/Users/ACCOUNTNAME "

This is causing some issues. I want to move to another user folder and even user name to get rid of this problem. What is the best way to migrate to a new user and user folder? I have backups and Time Machine. I could nuke and pave and set up as a new Mac but how do I do that with a different account name/folder? I don't think that is a given option when using Migration Assistant or Setup Assistant. Any thoughts?

Posted on Aug 10, 2023 4:36 AM

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Answer 1

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dialabrain

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Aug 10, 2023 4:47 AM in response to WFJ5444

You can just rename your user account to get rid of the space.

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

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Answer 2

WFJ5444 Author

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Aug 10, 2023 6:07 AM in response to dialabrain

Thank you. I have done this once before for another reason and it caused me to have to rebuild from a backup. Not my finest moment. Maybe I missed a step, but it is pretty straightforward. I will give it a try and let folks know.

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Answer 3

WFJ5444 Author

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Aug 10, 2023 6:24 AM in response to dialabrain

So fun times, I renamed the folder, then went to rename the account and set the home folder, in that process Users and Groups threw an exception, and my user is gone. I created a new user pointed to the home folder and it looks pretty good. I have to reset up Apple Pay and my finger print for Touch ID but I think it is ready. That was a bit scary. I obviously had some kind of strange issue there.

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Answer 4

dialabrain

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124,649 points

Aug 10, 2023 6:30 AM in response to WFJ5444

WFJ5444 wrote:

So fun times, I renamed the folder, then went to rename the account and set the home folder

FWIW, that doesn't exactly sound like you followed the instructions or the order. As long as it's working that's all that matters.

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Answer 5

dialabrain

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Aug 10, 2023 6:08 AM in response to WFJ5444

You're welcome.. Be sure to follow the instructions carefully.

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Answer 6

WFJ5444 Author

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Aug 10, 2023 6:51 AM in response to dialabrain

I did. Create a new admin account, log off current user, log in new admin, rename the folder. That went fine. Then step two rename account that's where it went south.

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Answer 7

dialabrain

Level 10

124,649 points

Aug 10, 2023 7:05 AM in response to WFJ5444

WFJ5444 wrote:

I did. Create a new admin account…

That was the part you left out in your precious post. :)

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Migrate to a new account with a new name on the same Mac

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