Missing User Account

I am a recent switcher, and cannot seem to figure out what happened to a user account. I had set up 3 users in Leopard. Mine is the admin, and I set up a separate account for my wife and daughter. At the start up log in screen my daughters account photo is no longer visible. Also in the system preferences user screen it does not show an account in her name. However, in the MacIntosh HD / user folder there is a folder of her account name and all her user info is in the folder.

I've tried to create another account in her name and it asks if I want to use the folder already existing as her home folder. I agree but nothing happens. How can I fix this problem. Thanks for any help.

 

Found this on another thread but it seems to have helped with my problem as well. Still have premissions issues with the folders of what was the missing user account.




reboot normally and from your boyfriends account run the following command in terminal


sudo rm /var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/users/short-user-name.plist

Instead of short-user-name put in the above the short name of the your user (not the user of your boyfriend). It's the same as the name of that user's home directory in /Users folder. Please make sure you copy the command EXACTLY as given. it's very important. we don't want to delete the wrong thing here.

Press enter in terminal.

You'll be prompted to enter your boyfriend's admin password (which you won't see as you type it). that's normal.

Restart and log into your boyfriend's account. go to system preferences->accounts. Your account should be gone from there and from fast user switching menu. try creating the account with your old short name. you'll get a popup saying that a home directory by that name already exists and asking if you want to use it. say "yes". this will resurrect your user with a new directory services entry. try logging in.