change useraccount name

[Littleboo]

can you change the user account name? I opened up preferences and changed the name and I got an error that said the name was already taken and it still shows up in finder as the old name.

 

[FunkyMonkey]

You can change the name as long as there isn't another user with the same name.

 

[sawmaster]

You can change the name as long as there isn't another user with the same name..

anybody have your same name? he's gotta be right

 

[Littleboo]

you mean in the whole wide world only one name can be used? Oh my good thing my name isn't john smith.

 

[FunkyMonkey]

you mean in the whole wide world only one name can be used? Oh my good thing my name isn't john smith.

LOL, no just on your computer. Go into your Users folder and look at the names of the users there. Then change your name accordingly.

 

[johto]

DO NOT RENAME YOUR HOME FOLDER under finder!

Your "full name" is differend than your "username"

fullname = John Smith
username = jsmith
username = homefolder name

If you are trying to change your username, you need to make a new account and then transfer your stuff under your homedirectory to the newly created user's homedir.

Before you do any of these, make a NEW ADMIN account, eg, named "admin" with good password.
This way if you foobar your account(s), there is at least one working account which you can use to troubleshoot!

 

[Littleboo]

How do I move everything to a new user? that sounds scary!

 

[johto]

How do I move everything to a new user? that sounds scary!

You dont if you dont know what you are doing!

I have done it by using third account(admin) ...
If you transfer your files, make sure you file permissions are reflecting the current right user afterwards