Have Home folders Eric and Eric 1 due to problems with Migration Assistant

Question

Level 1

40 points

Have Home folders Eric and Eric 1 due to problems with Migration Assistant

I have duplicate Home folders for my user accounts after trying several times to copy user data from my old MacBook to my new MacBook Pro. I have deleted the folders labeled "from old Mac" and the non-active Eric folder that were the duplicates from failed migrations. Essentially, I have the short name user Eric but Home folder named Eric 1. The short name is, of course correct, but Mac OS always appends numbers to duplicate folders when creating them and in this case you can't change the folder name to reflect the user name.

There are a number of KB articles detailing how to rename or add new User accounts, but I don't need to do that; I just want my Home folders to not have the appended 1s in their names. Is this fixable without erasing the drive and reinstalling / migrating all over again?

Thanks!

'11 2.2 GHz i7 15" MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.6), 4GB RAM, 750GB HD

Posted on Mar 27, 2011 11:10 AM

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Answer 1

TeenTitan

Level 4

2,640 points

Mar 27, 2011 12:04 PM in response to grtgrfx

if the account has already been migrated, as "Eric 2", and you wish the account to be "Eric." And you already have account "Eric." then you would need to delete or rename account "Eric," and then rename account "Eric 2" to "Eric." Mac OS X: How to change user short name or home directory name.

There is a reason the steps include deleting "Eric", ones you rename "Eric 2" to "Eric", when you create a new account called "Eric" it's going to modify the ownership settings on the folder "Eric" to match the account.

The alternative option is to delete account "Eric" and "Eric 2," and then remigrated the account from the old computer.

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Answer 2

grtgrfx Author

Level 1

40 points

Mar 27, 2011 4:21 PM in response to TeenTitan

I appreciate your reply.

There is only one account, called Eric, however the corresponding Home folder for Eric is called Eric 1. The other folder called Eric was inactive, a duplicate (and deleted). If the migration had gone smoothly, there would have been only one folder, but since Migration Assistant froze during several attempts, I had several partial identity transfers.

The KB article assumes you have an account with the wrong name and a similarly wrong-named Home folder, and that is not the case. I'd want to retain the current user name, and not create a new one. Let's proceed from here.

Thanks, Eric

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Answer 3

jsd2

Level 5

6,245 points

Mar 28, 2011 5:48 PM in response to grtgrfx

Hi,

Assuming you have everything backed up, I think you could try the following steps to change your home folder name from *Eric 1* to Eric:

Proceed with the first three steps advised by the [KB article|http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1428] mentioned earlier:
--------------------------------
For Mac OS X 10.5 or later

1. [Enable the root user|http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1528].
2. Log in as root.
3. Navigate to the /Users folder.
-----------------------

If the inactive Eric folder has not yet been deleted, either delete it now, or rename it to something like Eric.old.

Rename the *Eric 1* folder to Eric.

Still logged in as root, go to System Preferences>Accounts, control-click on the Eric account, and click Advanced Options. On the next screen, change the Home Directory field from */Users/Eric 1* to /Users/Eric, and then click OK.

Then restart, and try to log in normally as Eric. If all goes well, disable the root account.

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Answer 4

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Mar 29, 2011 3:29 PM in response to grtgrfx

Your best bet, by far, is to start over, and use +Setup Assistant.+

See [Setting up a new Mac from an old one or its backups|http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/Setup.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of the +Snow Leopard > Installation and Setup+ forum). Start with the green box there.

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