How do I change my Home Folder Name?

Question

How do I change my Home Folder Name?

Hello,

I purchased the latest MacBook Pro 17" in March 2012 in Australia. Because of "screen issues" I had to take my computer back to the Apple Store where they reinstalled Lion OS 10.7.3. Using Time Capsule I put retrieved all my information. However, I have noticed that my home folder has my married name and I want it to show my maiden name as I am now divorced. My account name is correct, it is just the home folder name....

Hope I am in the right discussion, if not please advise!

Kind regards,

Becky

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.3)

Posted on May 4, 2012 9:42 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Niel

Level 10

726,923 points

May 4, 2012 9:43 PM in response to beckstarOK_je4

Open the Users & Groups pane of System Preferences, unlock it, control-click your account, choose Advanced Options, and change it.

(66220)

Reply

Answer 2

May 4, 2012 11:13 PM in response to Niel

Hi Niel,

Tried that but it scrubbed all my data, iTunes etc. Time capsule is coming to my rescue.

Kind regards,

Becky

Reply

Answer 3

gracoat

Level 3

673 points

May 5, 2012 9:45 PM in response to beckstarOK_je4

There's a missed step. When you changed your username, the permissions on your home folder needed to be fixed.

In terminal type the following changing the newusername and oldeusername stuff:

sudo chown -R *newusername* /Users/*oldusername*

Restart your compy, and done!

HTH

-Graham

Reply

Answer 4

albalboy

Level 1

5 points

Apr 23, 2014 8:05 PM in response to gracoat

WARNING!!! If you DO NOT have a back up of your data, DO NOT CHANGE YOUR HOME FOLDER NAME. I just did thinking I could just hcange it and I lost ALL my data.

Reply