Deleted user without logging out Drive service. Now immortal object.

Question

Deleted user without logging out Drive service. Now immortal object.

I've deleted a local user (short name temp) without logging out their Drive service. System preferences failed to delete the user folder so I ran

sudo rm -rf /Users/temp

Everything is gone now EXCEPT /Users/temp/Library/CloudStorage/****folder

I've tried just about everything, including erasing from restore partition terminal, I get error "Resource deadlock avoided".

Now I've moved it to a graveyard folder and hopefully this computer won't get transferred with migration assistant when replacing with a new machine in the future.

What's up with immortal objects in deleted user folders?

How am I supposed to remove a user in the future to not get the same problem again?

macOS Tahoe 26.2

[Edited by Moderator]

MacBook Air, macOS 26.2

Posted on Jan 28, 2026 5:48 AM

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Answer 1

HWTech

Level 9

69,488 points

Jan 28, 2026 8:23 AM in response to John Eriksson

Make sure to turn off AppleID & iCloud which is being used by that user before deleting the macOS user account.

If you need to migrate this system at some point using Setup Assistant or Migration Assistant, then just make sure not to select the "temp" account if it is shown and avoid including the folder containing the locked items.

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Answer 2

Jan 28, 2026 8:34 AM in response to HWTech

in this case I know the user wasn't logged in to any apple account, only another drive service. I'm a bit surprised about the situation about immortal objects, if this was a problem apple knew about it should say "don't delete this account before you've logged out of fileprovider apps".

Perhaps this is a bug report to apple?

Thanks for the idea! :)

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Answer 3

Zurarczurx

Level 4

2,600 points

Jan 28, 2026 9:46 AM in response to John Eriksson

I've had a vaguely similar thing happen, although not with removing users. I ended up somehow with an iCloud folder (my account) which I had deleted but which popped up again and again in the Mac's Bin no matter what steps I took to delete it - including a fair bit of Terminal work. I'm a bit OCD about things like that and I put a lot of effort into getting rid of it but in the end I gave up and eventually, after a few months, it just disappeared from the bin. One of its subfolders popped up again a month or so later but that's gone too.

Sorry - no positive help I know - but maybe it's related to the problem you have and might disappear eventually.

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