"Users" folder missing on Macintosh HD

Kevin,

Thanks for your temporary work aroun on making the User folder visible. My question is will this work around cause any problems? Particularly when Apple gets around to fixing this issue. Can I just delete the symbolic links?

Thanks.

John

Thanks for your workaround. It worked with me.

Now I have my /Users and /Users/Shared Folder back visible, even after restart.

Piero

Wondering if this is intential? User folder is hidden on some of our systems after update, (mine included) and not others. Various types of computers. It's hidden on computers with one user and guest account enabled, but NO shared folder, or multiple users. The ones with shared folders or multiple users, the users folder is visable. Not sure if it's just coincidence. I hope apple comments on it quickly to ease concern.

I don't think so. I've 3 Macs. And none is affected by this issue.

Jedi Dude wrote:

Wondering if this is intential? User folder is hidden on some of our systems after update, (mine included) and not others. Various types of computers. It's hidden on computers with one user and guest account enabled, but NO shared folder, or multiple users. The ones with shared folders or multiple users, the users folder is visable. Not sure if it's just coincidence. I hope apple comments on it quickly to ease concern.

Guest account disabled. I have 2 user accounts on my mbp which i am using and i am still affected. It's a bug - not an intential move. I wouldn't consider as a crucial bug as there is a couple temporarily workarounds but still IMHO it's a bug.

Do you use "Paralells" or "VMware"?

What I did as a workaround was in Finder/Go/Go to Folder type Users. That made the User folder visible. I created an alias of the folder and put it in Finder's Sidebar. Repeated procedure typing Shared, making an alias, and putting it in the Sidebar. Restarted and the alias links will take you there even after a restart.

Send Apple feedback. They won't answer, but at least will know there is a problem. If enough people send feedback, it may get the problem solved sooner.

Feedback

Here's what's worked for me on three seperate computers. Booted up with recovery disk, ran disk utilities, repaired permissions, repaird hard disk. Then restarted, ran terminal, ran "sudo chflags nohidden /Users" command. After doing it in that order, the users folder has remained visable on all three of these computers even after restarts.

On one computer, didn't repair permission first, or disk aid, and user folder disappeared after a restart, but after doing in in the order above it seems to stick after restarts. Worked for me, hope this may help others until apple fixes issue.

I have 3 Macs (late 2009 macbook, mid 2010 macbook pro 13, mid 2012 iMac 21,5"), all of them with upgraded mountain lions to mavericks, all of them with hidden users folders

trying now the fix

It appears that some people have their Users folders still visible after installing the 10.9.3 update. However, it also appears that when they are visible that the permissions are set for universal Read and Write which is not secure.

With this in mind even those that have their Users folders visible you should still boot into the recovery HD and change the permissions.

Here are the steps for both scenarios to fix this issue.

If the Users folder is visible. Start your computer while holding down the Command and R keys.

From the Utilities menu select Terminal.

In the Terminal type in the following commands:

cd /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD (or the name of your partition)

chmod 755 Users

chmod 755 Users/Shared

Quit the Terminal and restart your Mac.

====================================================

If the Users folder is not visible. Start your computer while holding down the Command and R keys.

From the Utilities menu select Terminal.

In the Terminal type in the following commands:

cd /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD (or the name of your partition)

chmod 755 Users

chmod 755 Users/Shared

chflags nohidden Users

chflags nohidden Users/Shared

Quit the Terminal and restart your Mac.

Entered command "sudo ln -s /Users /Users\ Folder; ln -s /Users/Shared /Users/Shared\ Folder" followed by password per instructions. AND... It worked!

Many thanks for your time, Kevin! 😀

Using a mid 2012 MBP. Two user accounts, no guest account, FWIW.

Read thru posts here, noting that others can get to the Users folder thru the Go menu in Finder. Said folder isn't shown in the menu pull-down, nor can it be accessed thru Go to Folder... selection on this particular MBP. However, can get to it thru Recent Folders or Sidebar. Very strange...

As this condition seems to vary so much, would have to agree w/those who contend it's a bug, not critical as one stated, but a bug none-the-less.

Note to Apple, PLEASE FIX THIS, ASAP.

Thanks to all. Signing out...

As far as I know the problem is not OS X 10.9.3 but iTunes 11.2 and "Find my Mac". If you have iTunes 11.2 installed and Find my Mac is activated your user folder will disappear.

Source: http://www.mcelhearn.com/os-x-10-9-3-why-is-the-users-folder-hidden-for-some-use rs-but-not-all-users/

So that is most of us then?

I have iTunes 11.2 installed, deactivated Find My Mac, reboted; no joy,still no Users folder!

Update to post immediately above.

After using the terminal command - sudo chflags nohidden /Users (and deactivating Find My Mac) then rebooting the Users folder is back and seems to survive a reboot.