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fbx1989

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 7, 2017
36
17
Years ago I vaguely recall moving various folders (Desktop, Download, and a couple others) to new locations (my user acct folder) on my then Mac. I think it was done with some application made to do this, and worked by changing the names of the locations or something similar. I was fine for many years and many computers.

Yesterday I deleted Dropbox (which I hate) after I was assured it would not delete anything on my hard drive. Well it seems to have erased a bunch of things which it was formerly keeping track of (although I careful checked that did not have the subscript to Dropbox that allows it to delete files on my machine when it dates files on its storage. It promised.

Well, somebody didn't get the message and now the folders are gone and I have just the shadow of the folders in my user acct folder.

I have no idea how to recover from this, though I'm sure there's a way. I know it was stupid to move the folders in the first place, and even stupider to trust Dropbox with it's convoluted and ridiculous regulations for quitting Dropbox permanently.

But I would like some help and advice on how to restore from Carbon Copy backups these folders, and, in best case to put them where they originally lived.

Many thanks in advance for any help.
 

Fishrrman

macrumors Penryn
Feb 20, 2009
29,146
13,191
If you have a CCC cloned backup, it will make things MUCH easier.

You say there are "just the shadow of the folders in my user acct folder".
What exactly do you mean by this?

Are they "greyed-out", empty folders?
Or... something else...?
You need to clarify.
Show us a pic.

--------------

Here's how I'd do it, and keep your original username:
WARNING! You MUST be backed up first!
I recommend that you print out this reply for reference.

1. Create a new, temporary user account. Give it a temporary name and password.
Example:
Username "temp502"
password "temp502"
MAKE SURE you give this administrative privileges.

2. Log out of your regular account (the one that is messed up) and into the temp502 account.

3. Go to users and groups and DELETE the regular account completely. Don't "archive" it, DELETE it.

4. Now the only account is "temp502" occupying the UserID space "502" and the UserID space "501" is empty (because you just deleted the account that formerly occupied it). I'd suggest you reboot at this point, and get logged into temp502 again.

5. Create a NEW administrative account. User your original username and password. This should "drop into" the "501" space, just as the old one did.

6. This new account should have all the folders that normally exist in their proper places (i.e., "desktop", "documents", "music", "movies", etc. Of course there will be nothing in them, YET.

7. Connect your cloned backup. Let the disk icon mount on the desktop.
DO NOT OPEN THE ICON YET.

8. Click ONE TIME on the drive icon, then bring up the "get info" box (command-i)

9. At the bottom of get info, click the lock and enter your password (the one you'll be using for your newly-created account).

10. Put a check into "ignore ownership on this volume" (sharing and permissions)

11. Close get info.

Now you can copy almost anything from the backup, and whatever you copy will automatically come under the ownership of your NEW account.

IMPORTANT TO KNOW ABOUT WHAT TO DO NEXT:
You CANNOT copy the "first level of folders" in your [old] account (on the backup) into the new account.
By "first level of folders" I mean those named "desktop", "documents", "music", "movies", etc.
However, you CAN copy stuff that IS INSIDE OF these folders (they can be loose files or folders "nested" inside).

For example, I'll use the desktop folder.
You need to
a. open your user account on the backup, open the desktop folder
b. select items INSIDE OF the desktop folder (can be files or folders)
then
c. copy them into the "desktop" folder on the NEW account on the internal drive.

Once you try this, you will immediately see what I mean.

I would work "one folder at a time".
Copy the stuff, open some things, see that things look ok, then move on to the next folder.

You have a lot of work to do.
Not overly difficult (if it was difficult, I couldn't DO it), but methodical and tedious.
KEEP WRITTEN NOTES.

When done, your new account should be pretty much like the old one was BEFORE you tried moving these things around.

I would recommend that you NEVER again attempt fooling with the arrangement of "primary folders" within your home folder.
Just "let things be".

Good luck.
 

fbx1989

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 7, 2017
36
17
Zounds! That sounds incredibly complicated and way beyond my endurance level. Installing the new iMac 24" I've had plenty of trouble coming from a 2019-20 Intel iMac 27", but the worst of it came when I (1) just copied directly from a CCC drive made with the 27", and somehow (even before messing with Dropbox) the new computer set about deleting files and directories. Couldn't figure why that happened.

So I then set up for a new transfer using Migration Assistant with the two iMacs side-by-side. That took a while but seemed to work ok. So then the 24" was doing OK.

Then I went on Dropbox and carefully checked that I had NOT signed up for the part of that which results in deleting files off your computer when you delete them on Dropbox. It says NO where it asked if I'd signed up for that feature.

Up to that point the new 24" was doing OK.

So then I cancelled Dropbox (because I don't like it and I had Backblaze and easily 6 or 8 external SSDs with full CCC backups in place), and I figured if Dropbox said I could cancel and delete & be fine, well, OK>

Except that when I deleted Dropbox I wasn't. Dropbox deleted all the files from my iMac that I had backed up to Dropbox.

After being stunned etc., I noticed that for some reason Dropbox did NOT (yet) delete the files from the older 27" iMac which on the same internet connection & address. Why I don't know.

So then I made a brand new CCC backup of the old 27" iMac on an SSD, and I used that SSD to copy all files back to the new 24" iMac. That went OK but gave me hundreds of reported errors of some sort. That's where I am now. Don't know what the errors were, but the 24" is now seeming to work fine (and has Dropbox apparently installed, though it's greyed out in the Menu Bar).

Sorry this message is so long, but much appreciate your effort to help. I don't think I have the patience to do what you suggest, so one idea I have is just to keep the 27" iMac and return the new 24". But first I'm going to try using the new one with the backup from the 27". Maybe when it copied everyone from the SSD the error were in the operating system for the 27" being no good on the Apple based 24", and so maybe it just left the M1-based op sys intact. I'm thinking, also might work to reinstall the M1 op sys on the 24" and leaving the information and data as it is now, ferried from the older iMac.

Working on my new book, The Pleasures of Not-Knowing What I'm Doing.
 
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