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renamed home folder...gone...

puckhead193

puckhead193

macrumors G3
Original poster
May 25, 2004
9,582
874
NY
I renamed my homefold from my .mac account name to my real name and now everything is messed up... my itunes is gone, my bookmarks are gone... my iphoto library is gone... how do i go back.... :confused: :eek:

i tried to retype in my .mac account but it says its already been taken....
 
anyone.. now my desktop is gone and all my preferenecs are gona... slowly... i better not loose my documents.....
 
Do you mean the folder in /Users or a folder online in .Mac?

If the one on your computer at /Users that was a bad idea, causes lots of trouble as you have found out. What I think is happening in that case is that the computer looks for your files under the folder with your short user name. Since you changed the name it wasn't there so it probably made a new one but if you don't see it maybe it is invisible? So you are probably running from a blank account or worse half from each.

To fix might be trickier. First I would make sure that all your files are indeed in the folder that you think they should be in and back them up. Then I would create a new user so that you can mess with the user account you normally use. Try to change the folder with your real name back to what it was before. If it gives you that error you may need to delete the folder that has your old name in it. If it is invisible you can use the command line or there are some programs the allow you to see invisible files.

Someone else will probably correct me on one or more points.
 
OK, well, that'll be the last time you rename the home folder, right? ;)

First of all, it's unlikely that any of your files are gone.

However, if you go to "Macintosh HD"/Users, do you see your (renamed) folder and one with your .Mac name?
 
yippy said:
Someone else will probably correct me on one or more points.
Click to expand...
No, those are all great suggestions.

If you can find the "new" user folder with your .Mac name, pretty much all you should have to do is copy everything from the "old" folder into it.

However, yes, please backup everything first, and please create that other user account just in case (you can delete it later) - just don't name it your .Mac name or your real name!
 
i'm confused....
if i go to user folder and click my name my songs pictures etc all seem to be their... but their not in itunes/iphoto......

I see "Josh" which has the house picture thing... then their are two folders puckhead193 ( my dot mac account) and other folder shared...
 
As the chance that something is invisible is high I thought I should give you some help there.

This guide will tell you all the terminal commands you need to know to do it.

*Warning**Mandatory disclaimer*
When using terminal commands be very careful. Before using sudo or rm double or triple check that the command is correct AND that it is indeed what you want to do as it is very powerful and irreversible.

If that makes you uncomfortable then use a a program like this to show them in the finder.
 
Were both folders there before you changed the name of anything?

If not then my above directions should work although they seem to be a bit confusing.

Basically what you need to do is delete the folder that does not have your files in it and make sure the folder with your files in it has its original name.

But back up both folders first if you can so at the very least you can't mess things up any more and loose all of your data.

However, I cannot guaranty that this will fix it due to some invisible binding things that unix does with user folders. If it doesn't get fixed someone with more technical knowledge will have to help you.
 
jsw said:
However, if you go to "Macintosh HD"/Users, do you see your (renamed) folder and one with your .Mac name?
Click to expand...
yea, my folder i renamed seems to have my files in it, but the puckhead folder has all these files in it
 

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update

I figured i would update this cause it will probably happen again to someone...
I brought it the apple store just because i don't want to mess things up and i need my computer for school.....
He created a new account and i named it differently. Then delete my old account, but didn't delete immediately option. If you do it this way you get a disk image so you can always go back... From their he just dropped the new from the old and it was back to normal, except i have a new user account. THe genius also typed something in terminal to verify my data...

The only thing is i can't find where the iphoto library preference is. When i open it up i get a window saying my library could not be found and either create a new library or find library where to i go to find the file that saves my library...
 
puckhead193 said:
The only thing is i can't find where the iphoto library preference is. When i open it up i get a window saying my library could not be found and either create a new library or find library where to i go to find the file that saves my library...
Click to expand...

Just move your iPhoto library back into your 'working' home folder's Pictures folder... If that doesn't work, pick 'Choose Library', then browse to the correct 'iPhoto Library' folder.
 
The best solution might have been to change your home directory in NetInfo Manager to the new name. Am I right?
 
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