Paco el Alpaco

Q: Change the account name and home directory

Hi all,

 

I renamed my home directory following Apple's official tutorial. I followed the instructions attentively and double checked every step.

However, when I logged back into my (renamed) user I found it reset to default preferences (i.e. Library was erased).

Following other messages on this forum, I renamed my home directory back to its original name. It sort of worked.

My preferences reappeared... except for the sidebar of the finder (and maybe something else I haven't noticed yet).

I have two questions:

1) Since I have the same preferences (for the finder sidebar) in another computer (from which I migrated into this one), is there a library file that I can simply copy to restore the preferences? 

2) Is the apple procedure unsafe (i.e. should I avoid trying to do this again?)

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Yosemite (10.10.4)

Posted on Jul 14, 2015 10:31 AM

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Q: Change the account name and home directory

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  • by Eric Root,Helpful

    Eric Root Eric Root Jul 14, 2015 11:59 AM in response to Paco el Alpaco
    Level 9 (71,487 points)
    iTunes
    Jul 14, 2015 11:59 AM in response to Paco el Alpaco
    for the sidebar of the finder (a

     

    Have you tried Finder/View/Show Sidebar?

     

    To copy the .plist, go to Finder and select your user/home folder. With that Finder window as the front window, either select Finder/View/Show View options or go command - J.  When the View options opens, check ’Show Library Folder’. That should make your user library folder visible in your user/home folder.  Select Library. Then go to Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist.

     

    The Apple procedure is safe. It sounds like your user permissions needed to be reset.

     

    User File Ownership - Reset   see post by Linc Davis


    and possibly your ACLs.


    You may need to rebuild permissions on your user account. To do this,boot to your Recovery partition (holding down the Command and R keys while booting) and open Terminal from the Utilities menu. In Terminal, type:  ‘resetpassword’ (without the ’s), hit return, and select the admin user. You are not going to reset your password. Click on the icon for your Macs hard drive at the top. From the drop down below it select the user account which is having issues. At the bottom of the window, you'll see an area labeled Restore Home Directory Permissions and ACLs. Click the reset button there. The process takes a few minutes. When complete, restart.   

     

    Repair User Permissions

  • by Paco el Alpaco,

    Paco el Alpaco Paco el Alpaco Jul 15, 2015 7:06 AM in response to Eric Root
    Level 1 (26 points)
    Notebooks
    Jul 15, 2015 7:06 AM in response to Eric Root

    Eric Root wrote:

     

    for the sidebar of the finder (a

     

    Have you tried Finder/View/Show Sidebar?

    Well, it's not like I don't see the sidebar… I see it and my favorites are not there (and my colored labels have lost their names)

    The Apple procedure is safe. It sounds like your user permissions needed to be reset.

     

    User File Ownership - Reset   see post by Linc Davis


    and possibly your ACLs.


    You may need to rebuild permissions on your user account. To do this,boot to your Recovery partition (holding down the Command and R keys while booting) and open Terminal from the Utilities menu. In Terminal, type:  ‘resetpassword’ (without the ’s), hit return, and select the admin user. You are not going to reset your password. Click on the icon for your Macs hard drive at the top. From the drop down below it select the user account which is having issues. At the bottom of the window, you'll see an area labeled Restore Home Directory Permissions and ACLs. Click the reset button there. The process takes a few minutes. When complete, restart.  

     

    Repair User Permissions

     

    Thanks, I'll try to follow your procedure.

    The computer is new though, I just did a clean reinstall.

    Could this be due to the migration I did from the previous macbook? And if it is so, is migrating a risky procedure?

  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Jul 15, 2015 7:27 AM in response to Paco el Alpaco
    Level 9 (71,487 points)
    iTunes
    Jul 15, 2015 7:27 AM in response to Paco el Alpaco

    You are welcome. Migration normally isn't risky. If the previous MacBook was operating normally, I doubt the migration is the cause of the problem.

  • by Paco el Alpaco,

    Paco el Alpaco Paco el Alpaco Jul 16, 2015 4:30 PM in response to Eric Root
    Level 1 (26 points)
    Notebooks
    Jul 16, 2015 4:30 PM in response to Eric Root

    Update: the procedure does not work – copypasting the file didn't restore my finder preferences.

    Do you think there is any alternative procedure for this?

     

    As to your remark on migration, the previous macbook was not operating normally at all (it was really messed up).

    Considered that I am now experiencing other problems, would it be advisable doing a clean install again on this computer?

     

    Thanks again!

  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Jul 17, 2015 5:16 PM in response to Paco el Alpaco
    Level 9 (71,487 points)
    iTunes
    Jul 17, 2015 5:16 PM in response to Paco el Alpaco

    You are welcome. Worth a try if you have the time. Not much sense in importing problems.