Deleted user

[novanut]

Somehow I created or deleted this last year and don't know how or how to fix it. It's taking up a lot of room.

Appreciate all thoughts.

 

[DeltaMac]

If the user exists in your Users & Groups pane, choose to Delete that user account.
If it is already deleted, then it may appear in your "Users" folder, in a folder named "Deleted Users"
Drag the deleted user folder to the trash, and empty the trash.

 

[novanut]

This is what shows up and how large the deleted user is. I'm concerned I might lose something from my regular account.

Thanks.

 

[DeltaMac]

But, that is the user folder for a deleted user. That's why it is there.
That folder is not associated with your active users, and (hopefully) has nothing inside that you don't want to delete.
But, that is why the deleted user folder is used, so you don't delete an account accidentally, without hope of retrieving something that you actually want to keep.
Look inside that Deleted User folder, and look through the files and documents that would be part of any user folder. Should not be anything in there that is not part of what you wanted to delete.
(You can sort the files by size, so you can quickly understand where the space is used (and which files are really large -- might be just some cache files, which can grow quite large very quickly. Cache files are almost always easy to trash when you come across files with cache in the name.
(You might find out that you never intended to delete that user, and you can move what appear to be important to you out of that deleted user folder, then drag the rest to the trash - empty the trash, so it's gone.
Let us know how it goes...

 

[novanut]

But, that is the user folder for a deleted user. That's why it is there.
That folder is not associated with your active users, and (hopefully) has nothing inside that you don't want to delete.
But, that is why the deleted user folder is used, so you don't delete an account accidentally, without hope of retrieving something that you actually want to keep.
Look inside that Deleted User folder, and look through the files and documents that would be part of any user folder. Should not be anything in there that is not part of what you wanted to delete.
(You can sort the files by size, so you can quickly understand where the space is used (and which files are really large -- might be just some cache files, which can grow quite large very quickly. Cache files are almost always easy to trash when you come across files with cache in the name.
(You might find out that you never intended to delete that user, and you can move what appear to be important to you out of that deleted user folder, then drag the rest to the trash - empty the trash, so it's gone.
Let us know how it goes...

Thanks Delta,

Not sure how/why all that stuff ended up there in the first place. Does the stuff I delete to trash go there?

I will go through the files and get rid of them thanks to your post.

Film at eleven...

 

[DeltaMac]

When you delete a user account, that folder for the deleted account is transferred to the "Deleted Users" folder, which is created when you delete a user. And, the user name is also deleted (because - well - you are deleting that user.) Nothing else would go into that Deleted Users folder, unless you choose to delete another user on your Mac, nothing else would be added to that old user folder - unless you would choose to do that. (I suspect that you won't have permission by the system to make any changes to a deleted user folder - I don't know for sure on that) A normal move to trash can't go to a deleted user folder (each user account has its own trash folder, there would not be any reason that I know which would cause trash to flow into a deleted user folder.
I suggest that you delete that Deleted Users folder, and be done with it...

 

[novanut]

When you delete a user account, that folder for the deleted account is transferred to the "Deleted Users" folder, which is created when you delete a user. And, the user name is also deleted (because - well - you are deleting that user.) Nothing else would go into that Deleted Users folder, unless you choose to delete another user on your Mac, nothing else would be added to that old user folder - unless you would choose to do that. (I suspect that you won't have permission by the system to make any changes to a deleted user folder - I don't know for sure on that) A normal move to trash can't go to a deleted user folder (each user account has its own trash folder, there would not be any reason that I know which would cause trash to flow into a deleted user folder.
I suggest that you delete that Deleted Users folder, and be done with it...

Whelp, we'll see what happens.

Just deleted all the stuff in the deleted user folder but not the folder itself. All 250+ gb of it... Then emptied the trash.
So far,,, no noticeable change in performance. 🙏

 

[Fishrrman]

"Just deleted all the stuff in the deleted user folder but not the folder itself"

There's no reason to keep the empty folder around.
Delete it, too.

 

[novanut]

"Just deleted all the stuff in the deleted user folder but not the folder itself"

There's no reason to keep the empty folder around.
Delete it, too.

No sooner said then done.

Thanks again!