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MAC OSX Error (needs to repair...) after Changing Short Name

Error: Mac OS X needs to repair your Library to run applications. Type your password to allow this. Name: <my name>. Password: _____, this happened after I renamed my Short Name. I'm running OSX Lion 10.8.4 on my Macbook Air. Please help. Thanks!

MacBook Air, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4)

Posted on Jul 29, 2013 6:26 PM

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17 replies

Jul 29, 2013 6:39 PM in response to semihunk

How did you go about changing your short name?


See etrecheck's user tip : Changing user account short name



"

Apple's support article HT1428: OS X: How to change user account name or home directory name, still refers to the old and buggy support article HT1528: Enabling and using the "root" user in Mac OS X. No one should ever need to enable the root user. This procedure is overly complex and buggy. If you really and truly need to act as the root user, use the Terminal and run the "sudo" command.


Here is a better procedure for changing a user account short name that does not require the root user. This procedure has been successfully tested on Mountain Lion.

"

Jul 29, 2013 8:37 PM in response to semihunk

Back up all data. Don't continue unless you're sure you can restore from a backup, even if you're unable to log in.

This procedure will unlock all your user files (not system files) and reset their ownership and access-control lists to the default. If you've set special values for those attributes on any of your files, they will be reverted. In that case, either stop here, or be prepared to recreate the settings if necessary. Do so only after verifying that those settings didn't cause the problem. If none of this is meaningful to you, you don't need to worry about it.


Step 1

If you have more than one user account, and the one in question is not an administrator account, then temporarily promote it to administrator status in the Users & Groups preference pane. To do that, unlock the preference pane using the credentials of an administrator, check the box marked Allow user to administer this computer, then reboot. You can demote the problem account back to standard status when this step has been completed.

Triple-click the following line on this page to select it. Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C):

{ sudo chflags -R nouchg,nouappnd ~ $TMPDIR.. ; sudo chown -R $UID:staff ~ $_ ; sudo chmod -R u+rwX ~ $_ ; chmod -R -N ~ $_ ; } 2> /dev/null

Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.

Paste into the Terminal window (command-V). You'll be prompted for your login password. Nothing will be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. If you don’t have a login password, you’ll need to set one before you can run the command. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator.


The command will take a noticeable amount of time to run. Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign (“$”) to appear, then quit Terminal.

Step 2 (optional)


Take this step only if you have trouble with Step 1 or if it doesn't solve the problem.

Boot into Recovery. When the OS X Utilities screen appears, select

Utilities Terminal

from the menu bar. A Terminal window will open.

In the Terminal window, type this:

res


Press the tab key. The partial command you typed will automatically be completed to this:

resetpassword


Press return. A Reset Password window will open. You’re not going to reset a password.

Select your boot volume ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name) if not already selected.

Select your username from the menu labeled Select the user account if not already selected.

Under Reset Home Directory Permissions and ACLs, click the Reset button.

Select

Restart

from the menu bar.

Jul 29, 2013 8:51 PM in response to Linc Davis

Hello Mr. Linc Davis,


I only have 2 users in my Mac, Glenn (myself) and user. As of the moment, I am only using the System Administrator login (other) to access my mac.


In Step 1, do you mean, i have to promote the Guest user as Admin while logged in as System Administrator, then do the succeeding steps using the "Guest turned Admin" user?


I only have iWorks and MS Applications in my Mac, I dont have any files in it yet. Do i still have to back them all up? Would the procedure you have provided remove all my paid apps?


I'm a new Mac user, this was given to me and started to personlaize the machine and then i have encountered this error.


Thanks so much! Will be waiting for your reply.



Best Regards!

Jul 29, 2013 9:24 PM in response to Linc Davis

Yes. I have enabled the Root User and logged in as "root". Only in this login I can fully utilize all the features of the Mac. It shows as "System Administrator" on the top right corner of the screen.


When I login using my user profile - i receive the error (MAC OS X needs to repair...), FINDER is frozen as well as the MAIL. I can use Safari though.

Linc Davis wrote:


By the "System Administrator," do you mean the root user or the user that was created when you first set up the computer?

Jul 29, 2013 10:00 PM in response to Linc Davis

Hi Sir,


I don't mean that way. :-(


I wanted to use my own profile, that's why I am searching High and Low to fix this predicament. As of the moment, all the troubleshooting steps I do are being done using the Root login. On my second paragraph, i have described what's happening on my personal user profile. I cannot use the Finder because its frozen. I think that problem also came when I started to have the error message. One of the troubleshooting steps in your Step One requires me to use Finder. and that's what stopping me to go to the next step.

Linc Davis wrote:


"I have enabled the Root User and logged in as "root". Only in this login I can fully utilize all the features of the Mac."


If you believe that, and are not willing to change your opinion, then I don't see how I can help you.

MAC OSX Error (needs to repair...) after Changing Short Name

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