My MacBook Pro made a new user folder instead of going to my old one

terror99 wrote:

Hey yall, I messed up yesterday and tried to rename my user folder as I recently changed my name. I did what the apple article said and made a new user and then changed my old ones file. When my user booted up it was a fresh new profile with no way of getting back to my old one. I learned that my old folder was still in the users folder, but must of been corrupted or something. I worked for hours in the terminal in recovery mode to no avail. Luckily I had a large majority of my drive backed up in iCloud so I have most of my important files, but is there anyway to fix my old user to be able to just go back to my old profile instead of having to hunt for and build it up piece by piece again? The drive says that 700gb is being used for "system data" so I know that all that info is on there somewhere but I can't figure out how to get to it?

Can anyone save me?

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

You can erase and reinstall the macOS and restore your user from one of your backups before you tried to make the change.

Change the name of your macOS user account and home ...

you can call Customer Support (800) MY–APPLE (800–692–7753)

or on line https://getsupport.apple.com/

Outside the USA—Contact Apple for support and service by phone

See a list of Apple phone numbers around the world.

Contact Apple Support - Apple Support

Since we cannot know just what you have done from within Terminal, there is no way for us to know precisely how to guide you to repair the damage.

Renaming the user folder is not a simple task given the protections and permissions that macOS imposes on the user accounts and their associated files and folders, as you've discovered. FYI, this is the guidance you should have used when you changed the name of the old account: Change the name of your macOS user account and home folder - Apple Support

At this point, I would alter the permissions of the old user folder so that I could regain access to my files and folders from my new account.

• Select the old named user folder - or any of the folders within - and Get Info.

• Unlock the Sharing & Permissions of the folder by clicking the lock icon at the bottom and supplying the password.

• Click the "Add" button ( + ) and select the current user from the list presented.

• Select "Read & Write" privileges for that user.

• Click the "Action" button (circled dots) and select "Apply to enclosed items..."

The process may take some time to effect all of those enclosed items, but when it's done you should have access to all as you own in the new user account.

Change permissions for files, folders, or disks on Mac - Apple Support