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Deleting an iMac account and creating a new one? What to transfer from the existing home folder?

jaybar

jaybar

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Dec 11, 2008
2,074
640
Hi

For years we shared an Apple ID. Our home folder was large. Lots of stuff. Much unnecessary. My husband wants his own Mac account. He will be using the Apple ID we once shared. Do I need to move anything from the original home folder to the new one? If so how, so I don’t get permission issues.

Thanks

Jay
 
Are you transferring files from your Apple ID or a macOS account? You start off talking about an Apple ID (assuming, iCloud) and then move to "original home folder". These two are not one in the same thing.
 
Let me clarify. For years we shared the same Apple ID This past spring it became time for each of us to have our own Apple ID. My husband maintained the original Apple ID and home holder and account. I created a second account with a new Apple ID. Now he wants his home folder to match his account name. But the home folder has my name. There is no safe way to rename the home folder. The best we can do is create a new account for him and eventually delete the old account. The question is what are the essentials to bring over from his home folder and how best to do it?
 
The best suggestion would be:
  1. Create the new account
  2. Copy the files to a ‘shared’ folder or the public folder
  3. Then login as the new user, and copy those files into place.
I do not have the hierarchy of the home folder in front of me. But go through it and figure out what he wants. Things off the top of my head are:
  • Music
  • Photos
  • Desktop
  • Documents
That covers the MAJORITY of it. Do not carry over the Library folder (should be hidden anyways) as the new user will get their own. But this contains most, if not all of their settings style preferences that will need to be resetup.
 
cwanja's post above gives good advice.

You HAVE TO CREATE THE NEW ACCOUNT FOR YOUR HUSBAND FIRST.

MAKE SURE the account name is "what he wants forever".
This is something that cannot be easily changed later on.
Never, never NEVER "muck with" your account name, user name, etc.
The ONLY thing you should change is the password.

I explained another way to do it in another thread, did you read it?

Remember that the "first level of sub-folders" in ANY account cannot be "moved".
(that means, documents, library, movies, music, pictures).

If you want to "go the public folder route", you have to OPEN these folders, then move things INSIDE THEM to the public folder, and then move things from the public folder into their respective folders in the new account.

When everything is moved, DELETE the original account -- GET RID OF IT.
Then you will have the two "good ones".

Your husband is probably going to have to "re-set" things once in the new account -- re-enter passwords, re-adjust settings, etc.
That is, what it is -- just do what's required.
 
Last edited:
Hi

I am not really understanding this transfer stuff, but it raises a question.

Can my husband create a new account that uses the same Apple ID? In other words can the old account and new account coexist and have the same Apple ID, long enough to transfer files from old to new.

Thanks

Jay
 
You can use the same Apple ID, but I believe you are still confusing an Apple ID with the home folder. And to further answer that question, no you cannot have two accounts with the same home folder name.

It has been outlined above, the best (and multiple) ways to transfer files.
 
I’m not looking to have two accounts with the same home folder name. I am looking to set up a new account, that is associated with the same Apple ID, transfer the files from the old account to the new account and then delete the old account.
 
OP:

You've been provided instructions as to what to do in this thread and in others.

There's no way around "doing what you have to do".
If you can't or won't do this at home, take it to an Apple Store genius bar, perhaps they'll help.

Yes -- it's probably a good suggestion to go into the original (messed up) account and "log out" of online things before you create the new account.
 
Thanks to everyone who has helped. I finally was able to set up the accounts we wanted and delete the old ones. It wasn’t 100% as suggested (but very close). I ended up having to call Apple regarding getting the permissions sorted out. Again, thanks for everyone’s help.
 
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