Change (rename) short names on existing Users

Working on the Workgroup Manager with the Apple XServer 10.4.10, and I wonder if there was a code or script to change the “short name” of the users accounts as well as having the new (rename)“short name” stay the default short name. I don’t want the “old” short name to exist on the user account. Is there a process through the terminal program I can make this change?
Thank you,

The simple answer is 'no.' But if you're really bent on it, Apple documents the process of creating a new user and integrating the old user's files. http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106824 (updated 2005 so i assume the process has not changed)
I believe this is targeted at OS X client, as a standalone. The process for an OpenDirectory account may differ.
Also, there is a utility called ChangeShortName that supposedly automates this process at www.danfrakes.com. I haven't run it and I believe it's intended for standalone OS X clients -- I have no idea what it'd do on a server. I think it's one of those "run at your own risk" things.

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Change Administrator Short Name OSX

I bought a used 12" PowerBook G4. I have configured everything but I cannot change the original owner's Administrator Short Name. I did change the Administrator Account Name. Is there a simple way to change the Short Name? Can I go through the setup again without changing anything but the Short Name? Or is there a secret file somewhere which I can change?

Hi.
There is not a simple way to rename the Home folder. In fact if you try to rename your home folder from the Finder, you'll make a mess.
There's a cumbersome procedure to do it suggested by Apple.
There's also a little program called ChangeShortName.
Nevertheless, I suggest you to create a new account, and transfer all the files you want (documents, pictures, etc) to the new account. Remember anything you move to Users/Shared will be available to any user to copy/move.
Good Luck.

Changing the short name at migration?

Rather than upgrading from Tiger to Leopard, I backed everything up on an external drive in order to do a clean install. When I to migrate I want to change the short name, or somehow bring what was under a previous account into a new one with a different name. Is this possible? Is it a matter of dragging and dropping folder rather than migration? (or would that mean not migrating applications?)
I can provide more details if needed.

No, you cannot change an account name via Migration Assistant. If you want to change the short name do so after migrating. Instructions are here:
How to change user short name or home directory name
Or, download the freeware utility ChangeShortName - VersionTracker or MacUpdate - and use it to change the shortname.
I suggest the latter.
If you create a new user account with the name you prefer and want to get your old account information into the new account then see this article:
How to recover a home folder (directory) .

How to change the "short name (account name?)" and home directory name?

Hi,
I recently purchased a new iMac and migrated account info from my MacBook Pro. I happened to use random account name during migration without knowing it will not be easy to change the short name (account name?) and home directory name. As a result, I am now having extremely confusing short name and home directory name on my new iMac.
I did online search to find out how to change the two names, but I could only found somethig like "enabiling root user and....." I have no idea what it was talking about and I don't want to take risk altering such advance set up manually.
Please advice how I can change the short name and home directory name safely without much PC knowledge.
Thank you very much in advance.

There are a few ways of doing this. The easiest method is logging into the first account and copying everything to an external drive (or flash drive or whatever), which changes the permissions so that others can see the files.
Then, login with the new account and copy the files over. Once they are copied, the correct permissions will be applied again (so other people on your computer can't access them).
If you can't do this method for one reason or other, you can do some terminal commands to change the ownership of the files. Login to the new account. If it is an admin account, open terminal and type the following command:
sudo chown -R -v yourusername:admin /Users/originalaccountnamehere
That should change the ownership of the files from your old account to the new one. At that point, you can simply drag the files into place.

Can not login after changing account short name and home directory

Hi,
I did sth rather stupid while trying a get timemachine working on my iMac 10.5.5.
I changed the short name, login shell and home directory of my account. (didn't listen to the waning that I may not be able to login if I change those information Now I can not log into my account anymore. I tried to use fileVault master password to change the password of my account, but it didn't help. Can anyone tell me how do I fix this problem?
Thanks a lot!

xyz2008 wrote:
No, I still can not log in as that user.
I did as you advised, but it gave the following message:
"attache failed, no such file or directory"
then I suspect you may be entering the command incorrectly. another possibility is this. I noticed you said in one of the previous posts that if you cd into the main user home directory you only see user.sparseimage. It actually should be user.sparsebundle. Or have you upgraded to leopard from tiger with filevault turned on? then it could have remained sparseimage rather than sparsebundle.
run the following in terminal
sudo ls -la /users/username
and post the results.
does it list sparsebundle or sparseimage?
Another thing, when I typed in the command, it didn't take the admin (root) password, but the password of the account I was logged in got me through.
that's what it has to be. it takes the password of the user (it jhas to be an admin user) which is currently logged in.
I am wondering if I can recover the problem user's files from the sparseimage file, then copied all the files to a new user.
Message was edited by: V.K.

Really changing the short name.

Is there an actual method for changing the short name? The methods I've seen involve basically making a new user, just with everything transferred from the old user.
What I really want to do is to change the short name of the admin user on my server. I've used my name for it and I want my name to be a real user, not an admin. You can't take away the admin rights or change the name.
So I installed Tiger server (and it updated to 10.4.8) and then went through the setup process. The admin user name I used was my user name (this was the mistake), now I want my name back.
I went through this with Jaguar server, and my solution then was to reformat and reinstall. I think I'm going to have to do the same again.
PowerBook 12" Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Hello,
If you just want to change the short username in WGM turn on the inspector. (Open preferences and check the "Show "All Records" tab and inspector") Once you click "ok" you will see a bullseye. Click on it select users from the drop down menu. Click on the user you wish to edit click on "RecordName" and change the short username. Once done click save.
If you need to change the short username of a user who is in the Netinfo DB such as local users. Open the Netinfo Manager, authenticate, click users, select the user you wish to edit and change the short username. You should also correct the home folder path. Save your changes and your done.
Hope this helps!
- Barrett

How to change the short name????

i bought this iBook G4 off a friend and i was only able to change the name and pass on the account part and was not able to change the short name... it a chicks name so i dont want that to show on there,, does anybody know how to change that ??? thanks

Just a general reply this, but I had to click on 'Reply' to someone's post...
It strikes me as very strange that something with such devastating consequences is even provided as an option in Finder. How many posts have there been saying "Help, all my settings/docs/music have gone!" or similar, and the poster having to be walked through the remedial steps? What useful purpose can there be to being able to rename the 'short name', and therefore the 'Home' folder, with a control-click?
Dr Smoke has a 'Recovering from Re-naming you Home folder', and presumably there is a Knowledge base # for it too. Surely the simplest thing to do would be, in a future SW Update, to remove that Finder option entirely. If it's necessary for some diagnostic purposes to rename, then let there be a more arcane way of doing it, surely.
Just my humble opinion, of course...
& yes Jon, my reply to Ozzman was curt, unhelpful and non instructive. I apologise for that. It was late & I'd been up since 5am. I should have left well alone if I wasn't prepared to more helpful.
An Apple a day...
Adrian

Cant change the short name

hi
I bought a macbook -already used- but when I reached a User Acount to master my name and short name I can change only my first name but my short name is unchangeable ... i click to the locker and it's the same probleme i cant change the short name ...
and this shortName is for the name of my home icon ... and the name of all the installation path
How I can bit my own parameters?

You can use this information to help. Mac OS X: How to change user short name or home directory name
Or you can use this software to do it. ChangeShortName 1.3

How can I change the "short name" of my account?

I want to change the short name of my account because when my dad bought this computer for me he set up the account with his name as the short name and it has been bothering me ever since.
When I go to system preferences and then accounts my account is listed and when I click on it under password I am able to change my name, but not my short name because it is greyed out and cannot be clicked. Is there any way to change the short name on my account? I can't even delete my account and make a new one because the account delete button is greyed out when I click on my account.
Also, I went to my home folder and changed that from my dad's name to my name. This has reset every program on my computer to default settings! For example when I open my Safari browser a message pops up saying a keychain cannot be found to store Safari and asks me if I want to restore default settings.
So pretty much I've tried to change the short name on my administrative account, I reset everything to default settings and my short name is still my father's name. Can anyone help me out here?

Try this.
Or you could just create a new account and delete the old one.

Changing the short name

Hi,
I have a new mac I just setup an account for. Working on 17 of them and named one of them wrong. Short name.
Anyone know how I can change the short name safely
Thanks

See if this will help. I used it with good success on my MacBook. ChangeShortName 1.3

I follow all the instructions to change my "short" name, but when I log back in to my account, it's like starting over from scratch, help?

I follow all the instructions to change my "short" name, but when I log back in to my account, it's like starting over from scratch, help?

https://discussions.apple.com/message/6164451#6164451

Changed Account 'short name' and cannot now access iPhoto pictures

I have two accounts running on my iMac. The second one I opened because Word didn't run properly on the first. I gave the second one the short name 'test'. Recently I decided that I should change the short name from 'test' to something more appropriate. I then logged out and in again. When I logged back in the short name was back to 'test' but I have lost access to some applications (had to reconnect to the web) and especially my iPhoto pictures. Can someone help?

Thank you very much for the help. I muddled through using the instructions and have managed to find my iPhoto files and some other files too. My Entourage account is still not reenabled, so I will have to set up that account again.
Will it be OK to delete the 'new shortname' as I am now operating on the original 'shortname' and I have moved most of the files away from the profile?

She's arrived.... and... how do you change ur short name?

Upon waking up this morning I did my daily routine of tracking my shipment to my wonderful surprise it had been delivered. I live on the apartment side of campus so if you aren't there they take it to the housing office.
I guess nobody heard the bell because it said they tried at 9 o clock.Anyways, I just came back from there and I'm setting it up now. I love it.
But yea the question is.....
is there a way to change my short name in my account settings. I typed the wrong thing the first time.

Change the short name:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106824.
Or try: http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/16620.

Rename short name or switch main user identity

Hi fellow mac users!
I recently have taken over a new G5 at work and want to personalize it to my new user identity. How do I change the existing 'short name' or delete the existing user and make myself the main user?
I'm trying to avoid a whole system re-install since apps and files already exist from the previous user.
Is there a technique that I can try?
thanks in advance.

If you don't need anything from the previous user's home folder, you can simply create a new admin account in SystemPreferences>Accounts and then delete the previous user's account.

Change display name for existing users

Hi,
We have alot of users in our Active Directory. After an migration our existing users are displaying their name wrong. When we create a new user the display name is set FirstName LastName. But all of our old users have their User logon name as display name.
Is there a way to change the display name of our old users to FirstName LastName instead of the user logon names they are displaying now? Doing this per user is a hell of a job so this really isn't an option.
Example:
Full name: Peter Peterson. User logon name: pepeter. Display name: pepeter. (old user)
Full name: Tom Thompson. User logon name: tothomp. Display name: Tom Thompson. (new user)
Greetz,
Tom

I have found a script for Powershell that may be the answer to my question. There is only one thing that is not in the script. The script runs for all users. The PageSize is set to 2000 so it runs 2000 entries. Is there a way that I can run this script for
all Users in AD that start with the letter "A" or with an other letter. :P
$previewMode = $true #change value to $false ONLY after you have verified the preview!!!
$CurrentDomain = [System.DirectoryServices.ActiveDirectory.Domain]::GetCurrentDomain()
$Domain = [System.DirectoryServices.DirectoryEntry]"LDAP://$CurrentDomain"
$Searcher = New-Object System.DirectoryServices.DirectorySearcher
$Searcher.PageSize = 2000
$Searcher.SearchScope = "Subtree"
$Searcher.Filter = "(&(objectCategory=person)(objectClass=user)(!(objectClass=computer)))"
$Searcher.PropertiesToLoad.Add("userPrincipalName") > $Null
$Searcher.PropertiesToLoad.Add("givenName") > $Null
$Searcher.PropertiesToLoad.Add("sn") > $Null
$Searcher.PropertiesToLoad.Add("distinguishedName") > $Null
$Searcher.SearchRoot = "LDAP://" + $Domain.distinguishedName
$SearchResults = $Searcher.FindAll()
$dnsSuffix = $CurrentDomain.Name
foreach ($Result in $SearchResults){
               $firstName = $Result.Properties.Item("givenName")
               $lastName = $Result.Properties.Item("sn")
               $newLogonName = "$firstName $lastName"
                [System.DirectoryServices.DirectoryEntry]$userObject = $Result.GetDirectoryEntry()
                $oldLogonName = $userObject.sAMAccountName
    Write-Host "Changing $oldLogonName to $newLogonName..."
    try {
        if (!($previewMode)) {
                   $userObject.cn = $newLogonName
           $userObject.CommitChanges()
        Write-Host "$oldLogonName successfully changed to $newLogonName."
    catch{
        Write-Host "Error changing $oldLogonName to $newLogonName."

Change (rename) short names on existing Users

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