Q: I reset admin name. All my files are gone after restarting but applications and Safari bookmarks still available. How do I restore my files?!

Did you change “Home directory” name?

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201548

Do you have a TimeMachine or CCC backup?

You are not supposed to edit those settings unless you understand what they will do as the red warning suggests. Backups are essential if you value your data.

Open /Users (use the Finders 'Go menu > Go to Folder…' to open that location). It may have all your old files still within the home directory inside that folder. See if you can see the old home directory - please do not try to remove or edit items in there - you won't have permission for most of those files & changing the permissions may damage any future attempts to undo the damage.

If you can see the old home folder let us know, you may be able to create a new user with that data. It would also help to know what the name of that old home folder is.

Do you still have an admin account on this Mac?

I don't know what actually happened but if you cannot find any copy of the original home folder you are out of luck. You can't just change a username by randomly editing settings - there is a specific set of steps to take otherwise bad things can happen. Double, triple check that you can't see anything that looks familiar in /Users.

You can take it to a professional data recovery company & explain what you did, they may be able to help by scouring the disk for any old files. You can also do that via various third party data recovery apps, however I'd leave it up to the professionals - it is your best hope of getting any data but they can be expensive. The type of disk & how much new data is written can effect how much is recovered so you must stop using the disk ASAP if you hope to recover any data - otherwise files may be overwritten by new ones, ruining the chance of recovery.

I don't know what the blurry background image is, it sounds like it could be a low resolution image that may be in a system cache, frankly that sounds useless to you.

I'm sorry this has happened, but you need to take responsibility & decide how much you can spend to get some of the data back. Take it to an Apple store if you want some additional advice, but I think they may only repeat what has been said here.

Thank you , that was very helpful!!! I did the same thing, changed my name and all was gone. But now i can see all the folders under my other name, i can even open them. Could you help me to figure out what to do next so all my files, music and other stuff go back to where they were, but under my new name?

Thanks very much!

Please explain how you changed the name, it may alter how you need to resolve it, especially if you changed any other values in the advanced panel, or by some other means.

Gather some info you will need…

In the Finder 'Go menu > Go to folder', enter /Users and click 'Go'.

In the window that opens make a note the name of the old user account on paper (the one with all your important files). Be sure you have the correct home folder.

I'd suggest you make a backup, it seems like your data is OK, but it can help to be safe - if you can create a full copy of the Mac it would protect you from any more mistakes.

Do you have an external disk to do that?

Do you have any form of backup? You do not want to delete any older backups to make the new one.

I did the same thing and read your advice and found all of my files!! Thanks so much!

SOLVED:

1. go to users and group in settings,

2. on the admin account hold Ctrl then hold click,move to "advanced  options"

3.  in the box click on change button,

4. now choose your old admin,

5. accept restarting your computer and all will be back