Account Preferences Gone

Question

I discovered today that one of my accounts preferences are gone. None of the files were gone, but when opening applications, especially address book and mail, all of the preferences and all of my contacts were missing.
The only thing that could have changed anything would be that I ended up removing the password from my account. The account that was affected was a different account though. That account was open. Two other accounts on the computer were not affected and were not logged in.
I have searched through the forums and they have not helped me. I have not changed the name of my home account nor do I have FileVault on.
Help is much appreciated.

Answer 1

Open the Users folder on your hard disk and look at the folders inside for the one which contains your account's files. Once you've found it, open it and create another Finder window. Click on the Applications item in the sidebar and then open the NetInfo Manager application in the /Applications/Utilities/ folder. Under the list of properties for your user account, find the home entry.
Once you've done this, you have two options:
1. Go back into the Finder and select the folder you found. Choose Get Info from the File menu and note down what is listed in the Where line under General. Type this into the home property for your account followed by a / and then the name of the folder.
2. Note down the home property, and then choose Go to Folder from the Finder's Go menu. Enter this path in, remove anything after the last /, and go to that folder. Drag the folder you found into this location, and then rename it so that it has the same name as the last part of the property.
In either case, you will now need to log out and back in. Don't alter or delete any other accounts, properties, or groups in the NetInfo Manager.
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