How do you repair a user acct?

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How do you repair a user acct?

I seem to have a corrupt admin user acct.

I created another admin acct and the problem does not re-occur. I can open it by Command O and also clicking the finder.

All other GUI mouse functions appear to be working properly. This problem also exhibits itself on a Jump drive if it is mounted.

Additionally the "A" icon on the Applications folder mysteriously disappeared. It now displays just a plain folder.

I am on a MBP running 10.6.8

Thank you all in advance

Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Oct 3, 2011 7:04 AM

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Answer 1

otmu Author

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Oct 3, 2011 7:05 AM in response to otmu

I forget to mention I have reparied permissions a few times

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Answer 2

WZZZ

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Oct 3, 2011 7:50 AM in response to otmu

Permissions repair won't affect user accounts. What are the Permissions on the "corrupt" account?

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Answer 3

otmu Author

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Oct 3, 2011 7:57 AM in response to WZZZ

WZZZ

Thanks for the quick reply.

That is what I learned when researching this on my own

I have full permissions.

This shows when I info the HD and check permissions.

This user is set to be an admin

Is there something I am missing?

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Answer 4

WZZZ

Level 6

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Oct 3, 2011 8:37 AM in response to otmu

While logged in to the affected account, open Terminal in Applications>Utilities and copy/paste

ls -la

Important, leave a space after -la. Then drag the home folder icon (the little house) from the root folder (Macintosh HD) in to the Teminal window. Please post the output.

Besides not seeing the A icon for the applications folder (you mean the applications folder is still there just minus the A inside the icon?) what else seems to be wrong with this account?

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Answer 5

otmu Author

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Oct 3, 2011 8:51 AM in response to WZZZ

Everything else seems to be working fine.

I opened terminal and something is puzzling

it says:

bryinc-g5:~ bgould$

This seems to refer to an older mac I have in my office.

It's not even on nor has it been for sometime.

My MBP that I am experiencing this issue with was never on the network when the G5 was in use.

The user name is what the G5 had but is not what this mac is using.

Very weird

I am not sure I understood what you meant by dragging the house Icon from the root folder also

This is what I have so far

Last login: Mon Oct 3 08:48:55 on console

bryinc-g5:~ bgould$ ls -la

total 40

drwxr-xr-x+ 17 bgould staff 578 Oct 3 08:48 .

drwxr-xr-x 7 root admin 238 Oct 1 17:59 ..

-rw------- 1 bgould staff 3 Sep 8 17:55 .CFUserTextEncoding

-rw-r--r--@ 1 bgould staff 12292 Oct 2 21:56 .DS_Store

drwx------ 2 bgould staff 68 Oct 3 08:48 .Trash

-rw------- 1 bgould staff 219 Oct 2 20:25 .bash_history

drwx------ 3 bgould staff 102 Sep 11 12:39 .cups

drwx------+ 6 bgould staff 204 Oct 2 22:17 Desktop

drwx------+ 12 bgould staff 408 Sep 26 12:02 Documents

drwx------+ 15 bgould staff 510 Sep 26 09:28 Downloads

drwx------+ 38 bgould staff 1292 Oct 2 21:13 Library

drwx------+ 4 bgould staff 136 Sep 20 13:39 Movies

drwx------+ 4 bgould staff 136 Sep 23 17:27 Music

drwx------+ 5 bgould staff 170 Sep 10 12:30 Pictures

drwxr-xr-x+ 5 bgould staff 170 Sep 8 17:55 Public

drwxr-xr-x+ 5 bgould staff 170 Sep 8 17:55 Sites

drwxr-xr-x 7 bgould staff 238 Oct 1 17:58 untitled folder

bryinc-g5:~ bgould$ /Users/bgould

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Answer 6

WZZZ

Level 6

13,226 points

Oct 3, 2011 9:46 AM in response to otmu

Those Permissions look fine. Not sure why Terminal is bringing up the old User, though. Did you migrate over from that G5?

Anyway, if that's the only problem, the default Applications Folder icon is located here

System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle->Contents/Resources

Right click on CoreTypes.bundle> Show Package Contents. Open Contents>Resources and scroll down until you find

ApplicationsFolderIcon.icns

Except, I'm not certain how you copy that back to the Applications Folder with the missing A. It must not be difficult but someone else will have to step in at this point.

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Answer 7

WZZZ

Level 6

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Oct 3, 2011 12:48 PM in response to WZZZ

Get info (command I) (for the Applications Folder) click on icon in top left corner, Command X should revert it to its original icon.

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=356272

Or click on the small icon in the Get Info and just try hitting Delete.

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Answer 8

otmu Author

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Oct 3, 2011 12:48 PM in response to WZZZ

Nope didn't migrate anything over from the G5.

Matter of fact it is UNPLUGGED!

I did however install Fusion VM ware and migrated over a PC that I had on the network that did connect with the G5 but looong ago.

I played around with preferences by coping the new admin user files over to the corrupted user.

The "A" icon is back.

I still have the problem of not being able to click open the HD icon.

I enabled fast switching to go between corrupted user and newly created user (that works fine)

It is strange when I completely log out of corrupted user and go to new user everything works.

When I am logged in to corrupted user and then fast switch to the new user, I now cannot click open the HD icon there as well.

If I log out of corrupted user restart all is fine again with the new user.

I also checked Terminal in the new user and it also has the old G5 reference

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Answer 9

WZZZ

Level 6

13,226 points

Oct 3, 2011 12:59 PM in response to otmu

Run the same Terminal command as earlier, but this time drag the HD Folder (when it's not opening) into the window. Someone more Terminal savvy than I will have to help with the Terminal prompt issue. For the time being, it seems to be giving you accurate results. Maybe make that a separate thread, at some point.

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Answer 10

otmu Author

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Oct 3, 2011 1:03 PM in response to WZZZ

Here it is again but I do not know how to drag the HD icon over?

Last login: Mon Oct 3 14:30:12 on ttys000

bryinc-g5:~ bgould$ ls -la

total 40

drwxr-xr-x+ 17 bgould staff 578 Oct 3 13:42 .

drwxr-xr-x 7 root admin 238 Oct 3 13:42 ..

-rw------- 1 bgould staff 3 Sep 8 17:55 .CFUserTextEncoding

-rw-r--r--@ 1 bgould staff 12292 Oct 3 10:44 .DS_Store

drwx------ 2 bgould staff 68 Oct 3 13:42 .Trash

-rw------- 1 bgould staff 227 Oct 3 13:28 .bash_history

drwx------ 3 bgould staff 102 Sep 11 12:39 .cups

drwx------+ 6 bgould staff 204 Oct 2 22:17 Desktop

drwx------+ 12 bgould staff 408 Sep 26 12:02 Documents

drwx------+ 15 bgould staff 510 Sep 26 09:28 Downloads

drwx------+ 38 bgould staff 1292 Oct 2 21:13 Library

drwx------+ 4 bgould staff 136 Sep 20 13:39 Movies

drwx------+ 4 bgould staff 136 Sep 23 17:27 Music

drwx------+ 5 bgould staff 170 Sep 10 12:30 Pictures

drwxr-xr-x+ 5 bgould staff 170 Sep 8 17:55 Public

drwxr-xr-x+ 5 bgould staff 170 Sep 8 17:55 Sites

drwxr-xr-x 7 bgould staff 238 Oct 1 17:58 untitled folder

bryinc-g5:~ bgould$ /

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Answer 11

WZZZ

Level 6

13,226 points

Oct 3, 2011 3:21 PM in response to otmu

Click on the HD folder, hold the click and drag it into the Terminal window and release the mouse. It will look like this. The / represents the root of the drive.

Not sure what you don't understand about doing that. It won't permanently remove it. It will just tell Terminal that you want to check Permissions for the root directory. But, again, make sure you leave a space after -la.

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