For what it's worth, you *should* not be able to do this unless someone has changed your system's permissions. Is this a brand new Mac? I suspect that for some reason the permissions might have been bad when you first started. This is very unusual.
[quote]Originally posted by alcimedes:
<strong>is there anyway to rename a user while keeping their settings if they're the only user on the machine? Brad?</strong><hr></blockquote>I believe this can be done though some wacky tooling around in the NetInfo manager, but I have never tried myself and would certainly not recommend this to a beginner. The best option is to create a new user account and migrate all the previous user's files into it.
Anyhow, Drew, after you've recovered your home directory (alcimedes' suggestion should work here), I would STRONGLY recommend you open Disk Utility (in your /Applications/Utilities folder) and do the following:
* Select your drive name in the list.
* Click the First Aid tab.
* Click the Repair Disk Permissions button.
It will take a while to complete. What this does is scan all your folders and files to be sure the permissions are correctly set on them. Once finished, you should probably reboot just for safe measure.
digitalandres: I suggest you do that too. Even as an admin user, you should *not* be able to change these folder names.
What can cause your permissions to get messed up? Not many things, really. Permissions usually only get changed by the user himself or by a misbehaving installer. Yes, you read that right. An installer. Some developers STILL seem too stupid to figure out how to properly install things without over-writing your own permissions with their own. This is one reason that most Mac people prefer the drag-and-drop method of installing an app. Fortunately, most apps are just that easy to install. You download it, decompress it, and just put it wherever you like. No fuss, no mess.
Well, this is certainly not a good first impression of Mac OS X for you. <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" /> In all honesty, I cannot say why your permissions got munged and allowed you to change that folder name. The whole permissions system is set up to prevent these kinds of goof ups.
I hope your future dealings with Mac OS X are a tad more pleasant!
I tried renaming the home symbol folder to the original name, deleting the other folder, and restarting. didn't seem to have an effect.
Ownership of "users" is "system"
the only realy pain about all of this is losing my Mail prefs and messages, and losing my Address Book entries--where are those and could I just drag them into some new folder to reinstate them???
If I can do that I will never ever ever rename that Home folder again haha.
<strong>I tried renaming the home symbol folder to the original name, deleting the other folder, and restarting. didn't seem to have an effect.
Ownership of "users" is "system"
the only realy pain about all of this is losing my Mail prefs and messages, and losing my Address Book entries--where are those and could I just drag them into some new folder to reinstate them???
If I can do that I will never ever ever rename that Home folder again haha.
As I said before, you might try just replacing (copy or drag-n-drop) your Preferences folder (and Application Support folder) with the old ones. Might I suggest that you back up your current folders first, just in case...
well i got the address book and mail prefs back. everything works great, and i'm half-way home.
i know they're hiding out somewhere, but i can't find (and searches don't turn up anything) my music and Word, etc. files. However, I can open those files in Word from the list of recently opened files. where can i find these things??? Hard-drive space is what clues me in on them not having been deleted.
Don't worry--as soon as I get those, we can close out this thread and you won't have to deal with me anymore hah
If you can open a file (like in the Recent Docs menu) but don't know where it is on your drive, try this little trick.
If the document shows a proxy icon in the window title bar, hold the apple key and click on the name. A menu will pop up showing the path to the document. Select the folder just below it and it will open in the Finder. This technique works for most apps.
It looks like this when you do it:
Chances are they're in your *original* home folder that you renamed the first time (when this mess started). Dig through it. Your files should still be there.
And lastly, DON'T FORGET that you should run the permission fixer when you're finished.
<strong>well i got the address book and mail prefs back. everything works great, and i'm half-way home.
i know they're hiding out somewhere, but i can't find (and searches don't turn up anything) my music and Word, etc. files. However, I can open those files in Word from the list of recently opened files. where can i find these things??? Hard-drive space is what clues me in on them not having been deleted.
Don't worry--as soon as I get those, we can close out this thread and you won't have to deal with me anymore hah
thanks
drew</strong><hr></blockquote>
If you've been using iTunes, then the mp3 files should be located in
/Users/(user name)/Music/iTunes/
Seems like I've also found them
/Users/(user name)/Documents/
before as well.
I don't personally use Word, but check in
/Users/(user name)/Documents/
Hope this helps.
(tig)
<edit>
Oh yeah, when using search from a Finder window, make sure you are searching the ENTIRE hard drive, not just your home folder. To do this, open a Finder window, click on the 'Computer' icon (which takes you to the root of your hard drive), and THEN do your search for your files. Try entering *.doc in the search window. This should search for all .doc (Word) files. *.mp3 will find all mp3 files as well.
</edit>
[ 10-25-2002: Message edited by: The Grimace ]</p>
Ya I'm in X.2, Just bought the computer a month ago- iMacG4. Like I said- I never much played with the Account settings, beyond giving it a neat icon and such.
But yeah, I just click my home folder and I can rename it whatever. Owner = system.
I guess I'll indeed run that First Aid thing Brad- thanks.
(as for installers, the most exotic things I've downloaded are Duality, some themes, and a few "haxies"- shadowkiller and the like.)
EDIT: Oh Brad you'll love this: I just ran the Permissions Repair from disk utility, restarted, and I can STILL rename my home folder just by clicking on it. (owner still = system).
Ya I'm in X.2, Just bought the computer a month ago- iMacG4. Like I said- I never much played with the Account settings, beyond giving it a neat icon and such.
But yeah, I just click my home folder and I can rename it whatever. Owner = system.
I guess I'll indeed run that First Aid thing Brad- thanks.
(as for installers, the most exotic things I've downloaded are Duality, some themes, and a few "haxies"- shadowkiller and the like.)
EDIT: Oh Brad you'll love this: I just ran the Permissions Repair from disk utility, restarted, and I can STILL rename my home folder just by clicking on it. (owner still = system).
Check Group permissions. Get Info -> Ownership & Permissions. If the Group permissions are set to Read/Write, and your account is of the same Group, then you'd have permission to change it still.
digitalandres, are you logging in as a regular admin user, not root? also, have you ever added your username to any other groups, specifically the "wheel" group?
The priv repair should set the /Users firectory to rwxrwxr-t and owned by system/wheel. I know this because I just tested it. Is that how your /Users directory is set now?
I am positive I am not in root. I am in my regular ol Admin account- the only one on the computer. When I login, my username is Andres, not 'root'. I see no hidden files. I am not in root.
I have no idea weather or not Im part of the "wheel" group. I have no idea what that means, or how I would go about adding myself- but I'd be happy to check if you told me how....
I am positive I am not in root. I am in my regular ol Admin account- the only one on the computer. When I login, my username is Andres, not 'root'. I see no hidden files. I am not in root.
I have no idea weather or not Im part of the "wheel" group. I have no idea what that means, or how I would go about adding myself- but I'd be happy to check if you told me how....</strong><hr></blockquote>
If'n you're using Jaguar, then that info is readily available via 'Get Info'. Select your home folder, 'Get Info', and check what the 'Group' is. If you're part of the group associated with said folder (and you SHOULD be), it'll have the group name plus '(Me)' next to it.
Man, I LOVE Jag's 'Get Info' dialog. Lot's o' power packed into a small package...
Golly- My Bad. This whole time I though we were talking about the Users Folder (because that's what alcimidies said when he brought up all this 'get info' nonsense in the first place )
Comments
[quote]Originally posted by alcimedes:
<strong>is there anyway to rename a user while keeping their settings if they're the only user on the machine? Brad?</strong><hr></blockquote>I believe this can be done though some wacky tooling around in the NetInfo manager, but I have never tried myself and would certainly not recommend this to a beginner. The best option is to create a new user account and migrate all the previous user's files into it.
Anyhow, Drew, after you've recovered your home directory (alcimedes' suggestion should work here), I would STRONGLY recommend you open Disk Utility (in your /Applications/Utilities folder) and do the following:
* Select your drive name in the list.
* Click the First Aid tab.
* Click the Repair Disk Permissions button.
It will take a while to complete. What this does is scan all your folders and files to be sure the permissions are correctly set on them. Once finished, you should probably reboot just for safe measure.
digitalandres: I suggest you do that too. Even as an admin user, you should *not* be able to change these folder names.
What can cause your permissions to get messed up? Not many things, really. Permissions usually only get changed by the user himself or by a misbehaving installer. Yes, you read that right. An installer. Some developers STILL seem too stupid to figure out how to properly install things without over-writing your own permissions with their own. This is one reason that most Mac people prefer the drag-and-drop method of installing an app. Fortunately, most apps are just that easy to install. You download it, decompress it, and just put it wherever you like. No fuss, no mess.
Well, this is certainly not a good first impression of Mac OS X for you. <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" /> In all honesty, I cannot say why your permissions got munged and allowed you to change that folder name. The whole permissions system is set up to prevent these kinds of goof ups.
I hope your future dealings with Mac OS X are a tad more pleasant!
Ownership of "users" is "system"
the only realy pain about all of this is losing my Mail prefs and messages, and losing my Address Book entries--where are those and could I just drag them into some new folder to reinstate them???
If I can do that I will never ever ever rename that Home folder again haha.
Thanks
drew
<strong>I tried renaming the home symbol folder to the original name, deleting the other folder, and restarting. didn't seem to have an effect.
Ownership of "users" is "system"
the only realy pain about all of this is losing my Mail prefs and messages, and losing my Address Book entries--where are those and could I just drag them into some new folder to reinstate them???
If I can do that I will never ever ever rename that Home folder again haha.
Thanks
drew</strong><hr></blockquote>
Address Book data APPEARS to be contained in
/Users/(user name)/Library/Application Support/Address Book/
Preferences and such are in
/Users/(user name)/Library/Preferences/
As I said before, you might try just replacing (copy or drag-n-drop) your Preferences folder (and Application Support folder) with the old ones. Might I suggest that you back up your current folders first, just in case...
Again, Wiser Ones, if'n I'm talking nonsense...
(tig)
i know they're hiding out somewhere, but i can't find (and searches don't turn up anything) my music and Word, etc. files. However, I can open those files in Word from the list of recently opened files. where can i find these things??? Hard-drive space is what clues me in on them not having been deleted.
Don't worry--as soon as I get those, we can close out this thread and you won't have to deal with me anymore hah
thanks
drew
If the document shows a proxy icon in the window title bar, hold the apple key and click on the name. A menu will pop up showing the path to the document. Select the folder just below it and it will open in the Finder. This technique works for most apps.
It looks like this when you do it:
Chances are they're in your *original* home folder that you renamed the first time (when this mess started). Dig through it. Your files should still be there.
And lastly, DON'T FORGET that you should run the permission fixer when you're finished.
[ 10-25-2002: Message edited by: Brad ]</p>
<strong>well i got the address book and mail prefs back. everything works great, and i'm half-way home.
i know they're hiding out somewhere, but i can't find (and searches don't turn up anything) my music and Word, etc. files. However, I can open those files in Word from the list of recently opened files. where can i find these things??? Hard-drive space is what clues me in on them not having been deleted.
Don't worry--as soon as I get those, we can close out this thread and you won't have to deal with me anymore hah
thanks
drew</strong><hr></blockquote>
If you've been using iTunes, then the mp3 files should be located in
/Users/(user name)/Music/iTunes/
Seems like I've also found them
/Users/(user name)/Documents/
before as well.
I don't personally use Word, but check in
/Users/(user name)/Documents/
Hope this helps.
(tig)
<edit>
Oh yeah, when using search from a Finder window, make sure you are searching the ENTIRE hard drive, not just your home folder. To do this, open a Finder window, click on the 'Computer' icon (which takes you to the root of your hard drive), and THEN do your search for your files. Try entering *.doc in the search window. This should search for all .doc (Word) files. *.mp3 will find all mp3 files as well.
</edit>
[ 10-25-2002: Message edited by: The Grimace ]</p>
Ya I'm in X.2, Just bought the computer a month ago- iMacG4. Like I said- I never much played with the Account settings, beyond giving it a neat icon and such.
But yeah, I just click my home folder and I can rename it whatever. Owner = system.
I guess I'll indeed run that First Aid thing Brad- thanks.
(as for installers, the most exotic things I've downloaded are Duality, some themes, and a few "haxies"- shadowkiller and the like.)
EDIT: Oh Brad you'll love this: I just ran the Permissions Repair from disk utility, restarted, and I can STILL rename my home folder just by clicking on it. (owner still = system).
What do ya make of that?
[ 10-25-2002: Message edited by: digitalandres ]</p>
<strong>Lol- very odd.
Ya I'm in X.2, Just bought the computer a month ago- iMacG4. Like I said- I never much played with the Account settings, beyond giving it a neat icon and such.
But yeah, I just click my home folder and I can rename it whatever. Owner = system.
I guess I'll indeed run that First Aid thing Brad- thanks.
(as for installers, the most exotic things I've downloaded are Duality, some themes, and a few "haxies"- shadowkiller and the like.)
EDIT: Oh Brad you'll love this: I just ran the Permissions Repair from disk utility, restarted, and I can STILL rename my home folder just by clicking on it. (owner still = system).
What do ya make of that?
[ 10-25-2002: Message edited by: digitalandres ]</strong><hr></blockquote>
Check Group permissions. Get Info -> Ownership & Permissions. If the Group permissions are set to Read/Write, and your account is of the same Group, then you'd have permission to change it still.
(tig)
The priv repair should set the /Users firectory to rwxrwxr-t and owned by system/wheel. I know this because I just tested it. Is that how your /Users directory is set now?
group; wheel.
I am positive I am not in root. I am in my regular ol Admin account- the only one on the computer. When I login, my username is Andres, not 'root'. I see no hidden files. I am not in root.
I have no idea weather or not Im part of the "wheel" group. I have no idea what that means, or how I would go about adding myself- but I'd be happy to check if you told me how....
<strong>owner; system
group; wheel.
I am positive I am not in root. I am in my regular ol Admin account- the only one on the computer. When I login, my username is Andres, not 'root'. I see no hidden files. I am not in root.
I have no idea weather or not Im part of the "wheel" group. I have no idea what that means, or how I would go about adding myself- but I'd be happy to check if you told me how....</strong><hr></blockquote>
If'n you're using Jaguar, then that info is readily available via 'Get Info'. Select your home folder, 'Get Info', and check what the 'Group' is. If you're part of the group associated with said folder (and you SHOULD be), it'll have the group name plus '(Me)' next to it.
Man, I LOVE Jag's 'Get Info' dialog. Lot's o' power packed into a small package...
(tig)
<strong>In that case, no, Im not part of "wheel". (Clicking on that bar reveals I'm in the group "staff".)</strong><hr></blockquote>
So the next question is: What Group does the 'Users' folder belong to? And what are the Group permissions for said folder?
(tig)
"Users" Folder:
Owner = system
Group = wheel
"UserName" Folder (Inside Users folder):
Owner = "username"
Group = Staff(Me)
That makes a bit more sense now