fs1700

Q: Where is everything on flash storage for my mac?

Ok so I wanted to change the name of the home directory. And to do so, I went to

 

>system preferences
>users & groups

>right clicked on current user that was admin

>edited the "account name" field

>edited the "home directory" to match the new account name

 

What pops up after I pressed ok was something that read: "Are you sure you want to change the path to home folder of user "old name" to /Users/NewName?" If this path doesn't match the actual location of the user's home folder, the user will not be able to log in to this computer."

 

So I then pressed ok and it asked me to restart my computer. Upon restarting it, I was prompted to put in my apple id as if i just bought a new mac. So anyways, after logging in with my old password without any problems.. i am brought to my desktop that looks like a newly bought mac book pro desktop.

 

Everything on my computer was gone. However, when I click on the top left apple sign and click "about this mac" then "more info", I see that my mac's storage hasn't been reset, it STILL has all my old stuff thank god (106 GB in use). But I can't seem to find any of these files on my mac. My finder is practically empty!

 

I want to know where all this stuff is stored and how I can access it. Should I just change the directory name back to what it was before I made all these changes?

 

Thanks in advance

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)

Posted on Sep 29, 2014 5:32 PM

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Q: Where is everything on flash storage for my mac?

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Niel,

    Niel Niel Sep 29, 2014 5:34 PM in response to fs1700
    Level 10 (312,885 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 29, 2014 5:34 PM in response to fs1700

    Open the Users folder on the internal drive and either drag the items inside over or rename folders until your data is in the one which currently has the house icon.

     

    (113870)

  • by BobHarris,

    BobHarris BobHarris Sep 29, 2014 6:40 PM in response to Niel
    Level 6 (19,457 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 29, 2014 6:40 PM in response to Niel

    Dragging stuff from the old account to the new account will have issues, as the old account will have a different User ID associated with every file.

     

    It would be best if the /Users/oldUsername was renamed to the newUsername.  fs1700 will need to be an admin to do this.

     

    Finder -> Go -> Go to folder -> /Users

     

    In the future changing the account information without also doing the change to the file system is what caused this problem.

    OS X: How to change your account name or home directory name

  • by Niel,

    Niel Niel Sep 30, 2014 7:58 AM in response to BobHarris
    Level 10 (312,885 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 30, 2014 7:58 AM in response to BobHarris

    fs1700 didn't create a new account; they just renamed the existing one's home folder.

     

    (113886)

  • by BobHarris,

    BobHarris BobHarris Sep 30, 2014 8:12 AM in response to Niel
    Level 6 (19,457 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 30, 2014 8:12 AM in response to Niel

    I got the impression that the account information was renamed, but the /Users/username folder was NOT renamed.

     

    So I guess I do not understand you suggesting that stuff be dragged?

  • by Niel,

    Niel Niel Sep 30, 2014 8:15 AM in response to BobHarris
    Level 10 (312,885 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 30, 2014 8:15 AM in response to BobHarris

    1. The account name and home folder name were changed, but the numeric User ID wasn't. There's only one Mac OS X user account involved.

    2. It's just the same as moving files from one folder to another. Both the old and new home folders have the same user ID.

     

    (113890)