Lefthand888
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: I updated to OSX 10.9.3 and lost my Users Folder. What Happened?

I updated May 15, 2014 and now I can't see my Users Folder... Does anyone know what happened and how I can fix this?

Posted on May 16, 2014 8:25 AM

by ssls6,Solvedanswer
ssls6 ssls6
Level 4 (2,874 points)
A:

This bug has shown up on some Mac's but not all.  I have friends who've seen it but I updated 4 macs yesterday and didn't see it on any (one of the macs got corrupted finder.plist files but only one).

 

I've seen this solution work for several others....

 

Do a PRAM reset

reboot and at the chime hold the command-option-R-P keys, wait until the screen flashes twice

 

Do a recovery boot

reboot and at the chime hold the Command-R keys....this will boot into recovery mode

 

In recovery repair permissions

After selecting a language, a menu of choices open up, select disk utility and repair permissions on your boot drive (normally called Macintosh HD), close disk utility and open terminal (from top menu)

 

In terminal type the following commands

cd /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD (or whatever your boot drive is named)

chmod 755 Users

chmod 755 Users/Shared

chflags nohidden Users

chflags nohidden Users/Shared

 

Now just restart your Mac as normal

 

Good luck

Posted on May 16, 2014 8:34 AM

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Lefthand888

Q: I updated to OSX 10.9.3 and lost my Users Folder. What Happened?

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  • by Sally Mayer,

    Sally Mayer Sally Mayer May 17, 2014 4:08 AM in response to lkrupp
    Level 1 (5 points)
    iPad
    May 17, 2014 4:08 AM in response to lkrupp

    lkrupp:

     

    God bless you! Sometimes the simplest method is the best. I just installed the iTunes 11.2.1 hasty fix, and my Users folder is back and happily staring back at me on two out of my three computers. On my Desktop (#3, with dual hard drives), I tried the original Lefthand888 solution of zapping the PRAM, cleaning up the permissions under Recovery mode, but got locked out of the Terminal application (which for some reason had been made so secured by the Apple-created software bug that it would not recognize my Admin pwd to make the code fixes). File Matey shareware wouldn't work on the WYSIWYG side either (one of the few times it has failed me), because the bug was so embedded into the core system software update (OSX 10.9.2 with iTunes 11.2.0) that the security protocols prevented it from working. Hopefully, my attempts to fix will not prevent the iTunes 11.2.1 patch from working after I tried the other methods first.

  • by Sally Mayer,

    Sally Mayer Sally Mayer May 17, 2014 6:48 AM in response to lkrupp
    Level 1 (5 points)
    iPad
    May 17, 2014 6:48 AM in response to lkrupp

    Hi Again lkrupp:

     

    I just installed the iTunes 11.2.1 hasty update with sucess on computer #3 (the desktop that I had tried with Lefthand888's solution and then with Filematey to retrieve my Users folder from the "invisibility" penalty box). I am all fixed. Everyone else who has the issue, do install the iTunes 11.2.1 patch fix, because it does work like a charm. Even though it seems anti-intuitive by the naming, the patch also has into it the OSX 10.9.3 coding to restore my Users folder, including all users and Shared folders within it.

     

    Incidently Terminal is working now too. It was doing weird stuff before because the iTunes 11.2.0 original trouble-maker had the unhappy side effect of not allowing my Admin password to be recognized as such. That's why I couldn't log in to it to do what simple scripting fixes I normally able to do as a novice Terminal user.

     

    Thank you again lkrupp and the rest of the Apple blog commuity for saving my software bacon! Give this person 20 points!

  • by itasarah,

    itasarah itasarah May 25, 2014 12:07 PM in response to Allan Eckert
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 25, 2014 12:07 PM in response to Allan Eckert

    Why would Apple make the user folder invisible? I just don't understand why Apple does what it does especially in the past couple years.

  • by lkrupp,

    lkrupp lkrupp May 25, 2014 2:19 PM in response to itasarah
    Level 5 (4,235 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 25, 2014 2:19 PM in response to itasarah

    itasarah wrote:

     

    Why would Apple make the user folder invisible? I just don't understand why Apple does what it does especially in the past couple years.

     

    It was done inadvertently. It was a bug. They fixed it quickly. End of story. It has nothing to do with Steve Jobs being dead. Get over it.

  • by itasarah,

    itasarah itasarah May 25, 2014 3:24 PM in response to lkrupp
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 25, 2014 3:24 PM in response to lkrupp

    I didn't say anything about Steve Jobs. Why do you have to be so snippy!  I'm glad they fixed it. I'll wait probably until they fix some of the other issues people have written about. 

  • by MadMacs0,

    MadMacs0 MadMacs0 May 25, 2014 3:35 PM in response to itasarah
    Level 5 (4,791 points)
    May 25, 2014 3:35 PM in response to itasarah

    itasarah wrote:

     

    I'll wait probably until they fix some of the other issues people have written about. 

    Note that the hidden User folder was not a 10.9.3 issue at all. The only things I have read about 10.9.3 are issues that previously existed and still aren't fixed. I don't think I've seen a single new issue unless it involved third party software.

     

    If you aren't having any problems with 10.9.2 that were fixed then I guess it's OK to wait since all of it's security updates were also contained in Security Update 2014-002. Apparently you can't get any of the Security fixes you get with a Safari 7.0.4 update until you are at 10.9.3.

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