how do I rename my account name in mountain lion

omg, thanks Lanny!! I was stuck at process #5 - no box popped up and asked me if I would like to use the same folder, it just won't let me do it and has a red text message under the account name "another user already using this account name". But I used your method, control click and bring up the advance option, manually type in the user folder name, viola!!!

I have to change the dropbox folder path, but whatever... that 1 behind my account name has been driving me nuts for 4 years, finally fixed it! LOL

hi mate,

unfortunately, I made a mess before I found your notes.

If I try to log into the user I set-up with, I can't launch anyhting.

The new user that I added doesn't have any of the docs I want (that I transferred with MA) and I can't seem to gain access to. I could before I did some rename error with Control click in the Accts prefs.

I now have 2 users, post transferring my data via MA to my new MBA from my old Xeon.

The User (long) names are variations of the same.

Would you please advise?

Also I can't figure out what my short names are.

The MBA is currently on 10.7.5, waiitng for ML upgrade from Apple.

I'm trying to use these steps to change the username but it's not working, and now I've lost all my settings and can't get them back! I can see the original "home" folder name is the one I was trying to change, but I can't get the settings. I don't konw what I'm doing wrong and I'm getting extremely frustrated! HELP!

Question:

When I create the new admin account and then log in as that before going into terminal, is that where I use the NEW username I want to use, or am I in essence setting up THREE accounts, and then deleting the old once I get my settings back? When I try to create an account with the new username, it won't let me saying there is one that already exists. It will NOT let me change it or save over it. Am I missing a step? Please help ASAP!

Thanks!

Another thing - should I be getting this warning in terminal when I type in the sudo command?

WARNING: Improper use of the sudo command could lead to data loss

or the deletion of important system files. Please double-check your

typing when using sudo. Type "man sudo" for more information.

I don't understand what happened to my settings... I even went back into terminal and reversed the sudo mv. Does that work?

I suggest you start a new question and explain everything that you did. When I say "everything" I mean precisely everything. Every single keystroke.

If you reverse the "mv" command, then you will need to go back into System Preferences > Users & Groups > select your user > right/control click and choose "Advanced" > change your home directory to "/Users/oldusername".

TatInNM wrote:

When I create the new admin account and then log in as that before going into terminal, is that where I use the NEW username I want to use, or am I in essence setting up THREE accounts, and then deleting the old once I get my settings back?

Yes. However, I strongly advise against deleting anything at this point.

When I try to create an account with the new username, it won't let me saying there is one that already exists. It will NOT let me change it or save over it. Am I missing a step? Please help ASAP!

That should be step #5. What do you mean by "it will NOT let" you? Do you get something other than this?

I don't know if you are missing a step because I don't know what steps you haven't completed. Are you not using Lion or Mountain Lion?

Yes, I'm using Mountain Lion. I'm not getting that alert. When I try to set up the NEW username (the one that I want), it says I can't because one already exists. I tried to create another user here, using info I don't plan on using for any new usernames, just to demonstrate the error I'm getting.

I'm thinking now (that I've slept on it) I may have been doing things in the wrong order. I've already reset all my mailboxes, my dock, my preferences, etc. manually. I'd still like to change the username, however! I purchased this computer from another user, and they apparently neglected to wipe the drive. I didn't want to have to reinstall EVERYTHING.

So, I want to be sure I understand your instructions correctly (although I feel like an idiot since no one else seems to have a problem!)

1. Create a new Administrator account (is this account a temp account that does NOT use the new username I want?)

2. Log in as the new Administrator of this account.

3. Run Terminal.app and enter the following commands:

I didn't have a problem with the commands until I had tried something different since I couldn't get past step 4. Again, the account I create in step 1 does NOT use the new username I WANT to use, correct? I do that in step 4.

Step 4 is where I get the above screen captured error.

I have work to do today on this computer, so I'll have to back burner this for now, but I'll check back on this forum for your reply. Thank you so much!

I'm sure it's something really silly that I'm neglecting to do or not do but I'm banging my head against the wall!

Ooops. My pasted clip didn't take...

TatInNM wrote:

1. Create a new Administrator account (is this account a temp account that does NOT use the new username I want?)

2. Log in as the new Administrator of this account.

3. Run Terminal.app and enter the following commands:

Yes to all.

However, you really shouldn't be doing any of this. Since this is a used computer, the only thing you should do is erase the hard drive and reinstall the OS from scratch. Otherwise, your problems will continue for years. I don't know what model or vintage this computer is. You will likely have to re-purchase the original operating system it came with - perhaps Snow Leopard or Lion, and then purchase Mountain Lion. Your copy of Mountain Lion probably doesn't belong to you. Buying used computers is always a mess.

Yeah, I was thinking about that... 😟

It's a 2010 Mac Pro 2.8 Ghz Quadcore.

I expected it to be wiped since it was coming from a computer refurbishing place. Oh well. I do own my copy of Snow Leopard, and Mountain Lion is only $19.95. There was other software I had already installed on it, so I just didn't want to have to do it all over again.

Thanks for the info!

If I decide to just live with the way the drive is now and just clone it onto my new SSD drive, any advice on that? I know I need to get a cloning app, yes? Or can I use disk utility somehow? I've seen a couple of different ways to do it.

You can clone with Disk Utility. The cloning tools (Carbon Copy Cloner and SuperDuper!) provide more options but none of them are free. If you are going to install onto a new SSD, I would advise a fresh install.

Etresoft-

I tried the steps in your article. I created a new administrator account, gave it a name (call it newaccount for the purpose of posts here), and then went to terminal after logging into newaccount. My old account was "oldaccount", with the home folder users/oldaccount. When I typed the mv command from terminal, "sudo mv oldaccount newaccount", and typed my password, nothing happened ( as expected) on the terminal screen.

I then went to step 4.I was confused about step 4, which again asks to create another user with the account name newaccount, (since that's how I got to the new account in the first place!), and then got the red annotations on each line that this name (of course) exists.

Was I supposed to log out and loig back in?

If so, into which account? oldaccount or newaccount?

So Just to chck, I went back into oldaccount, and it looked just like the unaltered, generic account settings, with the Mac desk backround, and all my personalizations were gone.

So. I gave up, and restored my whole system with time machine.

I really want to get rid of the old account short name, as it is repetitious with my other Mac computer (stupidly named both computer users the same name when I first set them up a couple of years ago), and moving files around into dropbox betwen the computers, and with aliases that point to the wrong folds things get confusing

Hi Etresoft,

I was able to follow your guide successfully. However, in doing so there was collateral damage.

I'm in the process of migrating to a new Mac, and I had my old hard drive plugged in via SATA. The old drive has the exact same username, shortname, and password and I was trying to put on the new drive. So while following your guide fixed my new hard drive, it royally screwed up the permissions on my old hard drive. When I tried to open folders, I got errors telling me I didn't have permission. The work around was to "get info" on each folder, click the little padlock in the lower right, enter my admin password, and add permission to access that folder. I did this six times, then opened up one of the folders only to find many more folders that need the same treatment. Not knowing how far down the rabbit hole this went, I detatched the hard drive and put it back in my old mac. Then I opened "Disk Utility" and clicked on "repair permissions". It repaired many, but I got several errors of unrepaired permissions. Please advise me on how best to deal with the damage done:

Permissions differ on "Library/Application Support/ProApps/Internal Plug-Ins/BrowserKit/iLife.bkplugin/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-rw-r-- , they are lrw-rw-r-- .

Permissions differ on "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/BrowserKit.framework/Versions/A/CodeResources ", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .

Permissions differ on "System/Library/CoreServices/Front Row.app/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .

Permissions differ on "System/Library/CoreServices/Front Row.app/Contents/PlugIns/DVD.frappliance/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .

Permissions differ on "System/Library/CoreServices/Front Row.app/Contents/PlugIns/FRSettings.frappliance/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .

Permissions differ on "System/Library/CoreServices/Front Row.app/Contents/PlugIns/FRSources.frappliance/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .

Permissions differ on "System/Library/CoreServices/Front Row.app/Contents/PlugIns/Movies.frappliance/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .

Permissions differ on "System/Library/CoreServices/Front Row.app/Contents/PlugIns/Music.frappliance/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .

Permissions differ on "System/Library/CoreServices/Front Row.app/Contents/PlugIns/Photos.frappliance/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .

Permissions differ on "System/Library/CoreServices/Front Row.app/Contents/PlugIns/Podcasts.frappliance/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .

Permissions differ on "System/Library/CoreServices/Front Row.app/Contents/PlugIns/TV.frappliance/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .

Permissions differ on "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/BackRow.framework/Versions/A/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .

Permissions differ on "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/ProKit.framework/Versions/A/Resources/Leopard Panels.bundle/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .

Group differs on "private/etc/cups/cupsd.conf", should be 26, group is 4294967294.

Group differs on "private/etc/cups/ppd", should be 26, group is 4294967294.

Group differs on "private/var/spool/cups/cache", should be 26, group is 4294967294.

Group differs on "private/var/spool/cups/tmp", should be 26, group is 4294967294.

Group differs on "private/var/spool/cups", should be 26, group is 4294967294.

Permissions differ on "usr/bin/c++filt", should be -rwxr-xr-x , they are lrwxr-xr-x .

Warning: SUID file "System/Library/Filesystems/AppleShare/afpLoad" has been modified and will not be repaired.

Warning: SUID file "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DiskManagement.framework/Versions/A/Resources /DiskManagementTool" has been modified and will not be repaired.

Warning: SUID file "bin/rcp" has been modified and will not be repaired.

Warning: SUID file "usr/bin/rlogin" has been modified and will not be repaired.

Warning: SUID file "usr/bin/rsh" has been modified and will not be repaired.

Group differs on "private/etc/cups", should be 26, group is 4294967294.

Group differs on "private/var/spool/cups/cache/rss", should be 26, group is 4294967294.

Permissions differ on "private/var/spool/cups/cache/rss", should be drwxr-xr-x , they are drwxrwxr-x .

Permissions differ on "Library/QuickLook/iWork.qlgenerator/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-rw-r-- , they are lrw-rw-r-- .

Warning: SUID file "usr/sbin/pppd" has been modified and will not be repaired.

Warning: SUID file "usr/sbin/vpnd" has been modified and will not be repaired.

Permissions differ on "Library/Spotlight/iWork.mdimporter/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-rw-r-- , they are lrw-rw-r-- .

Thank you!

MacProMan27 wrote:

Etresoft-

I tried the steps in your article. I created a new administrator account, gave it a name (call it newaccount for the purpose of posts here), and then went to terminal after logging into newaccount. My old account was "oldaccount", with the home folder users/oldaccount. When I typed the mv command from terminal, "sudo mv oldaccount newaccount", and typed my password, nothing happened ( as expected) on the terminal screen.

Something happened all right.

I have editing the user tip to try make it more clear.

Piso Mojado wrote:

I'm in the process of migrating to a new Mac, and I had my old hard drive plugged in via SATA. The old drive has the exact same username, shortname, and password and I was trying to put on the new drive. So while following your guide fixed my new hard drive, it royally screwed up the permissions on my old hard drive. When I tried to open folders, I got errors telling me I didn't have permission.

Those instructions only change your user account and home directory on your startup drive. Your external drive was not changed. However, because you now have a new account, it cannot access the old account. That is how it works.

Thank you for your prompt reply! I am very prepared to believe you, because you are an expert and I have no idea what I'm doing. Please tell me what it means when my old computer tells me:

"Warning: SUID file "usr/sbin/pppd" has been modified and will not be repaired."

Is this something I need to worry about? Because I'm worried...