Help--all the files in my user account just disappeared
I have a 10.4 Intel Mac Mini with a few different accounts on it. There are two Administrator accounts, one called "bill" and one called "Administrator". The former is my main account I use daily. All accounts on this machine have File Vault enabled.
I was logged in to "bill" last night. I wasn't doing anything special, just running Firefox and iTunes. I went to bed still logged in with the Login Window up. This morning, when I tried to reenter the account my password was refused. After spending several minutes confirming that I was typing the correct password, the caps lock wasn't on, etc., I power cycled the machine. After booting back up, the account "bill" still erroneously refused my password. So I logged in as "Administrator". I tried to reset the "bill" password through the User Account control panel applet, but the Reset Password button was grayed out. Finally I went into the Finder and looked under /Users/bill and saw that the folder was empty. No Desktop, Documents, etc. folder. There is one hidden file in this directory called .autodiskmounted which is zero bytes long.
The other accounts on this machine are all fine. You can log into them and the files in their home directories are intact.
I didn't do anything obvious to cause this problem. I hadn't upgraded any software, wasn't running any new apps, wasn't deleting a bunch of files. This is clearly not a hardware failure because the other accounts are unaffected.
So obviously this a serious problem. Though I have backups of some stuff, I've still lost data that I won't be able to recover. I'm also now more wary of OS X because I've never seen a user account self-destruct like this before. Not on UNIX, not on Windows, so I'd really like to understand the problem in order to get my trust level in Apple back up.
A few questions:
1. Any ideas what happened?
2. Any ideas on how to recover my data? (Or is it, as I suspect, gone?)
3. Is there any auditing I can do from the "Administrator" account now to figure out what might have happened in my self-immolated "bill" account?
4. The main data loss problem is that I don't have a backup of my iTunes purchases. (I know, I know; I was getting around to buying a backup DVD when this happened.) I've still got all my purchased music on my iPod. Is there a way to transfer this music back to a new account on my Mac Mini?
Thanks.
If you have a backup in iTunes or iCloud, restore form the backup in order to recover your files.
iOS: Back up and restore your iOS device with iCloud or iTunes
Some people recommend using a third party app like this.
http://www.recovery-ipad.com/restore-ipad-from-backup.html
Similar Messages
-
Hi there, I have much files saved on pages ( ios ipad) , I just open it today and did not find .all the files !!!! Just 4!!! Taken in consider that I did not delete or making any wrong action. How I can return the lost files!!!! Help please
its very important files!tis true
I know, I always do that but I was in a rush to get somewhere and I was relying on my thousand dollar Mac to do some kind of recovery or something. I know Microsoft always keeps temporary files (I think Mac does too, part of me asking here in this forum was for someone to tell me where I can find those files) and when you go to open Office Works then it gives you the option of opening the last recent documents, saved or not saved.
I usually copy paste into my emial just in case something goes wrong with the created document but I just didn't have the time to login and do all that My loss, you live and you learn, BUT still if ANYONE got any info on this, PLEASE DO CHIME IN *keeping the hope alive* -
I want to have a replication of Opera mail feature. This feature enables you to aggregate all mail items from across all the e-mail accounts into a single virtual aggregated view.
That is, say, we have 3 different mail accounts. In Mozilla Thunderbird on a daily basis I check if there is something new in the incoming folder for those accs. To do that I click on the corresponding folder for every account. Now, what i want is to click on a single folder where I would have an aggregated virtual view of the incoming folder for all of those 3 accounts. I guess, same thing can be done with different kinds of mails, such as:
* Unread messages (after having viewed the mail item, it automatically goes straight into "Sent messages" aggregate view, listed below)
* Read messages
* Sent messages
* Spam messages
* Drafts, etc
Also there is this cool feature (virtual thing applies here as well) that helps to have a view of all the attachments across all accounts categorized into different descriptions, such as:
* docs (xls, doc, ppt, etc)
* images (jpg, png, etc)
* archives (zip, rar, etc)
More then that, it would still be better to have labling aggregation view feature across all acounts. That is, if we have marked important several messages in, say, 2 accounts, those should be seen in a single aggregated virtual view under name, say, "Important messages". Same can be said with flags, todos, etc.Pop mail accounts can be set up to use a Global Inbox. Imap mail accounts cannot.
However, there are various 'views' in Thunderbird. I would suggest you try 'Unified'. This creates a visual Inbox containing all Inbox messages with sub folders showing individual Inboxes, so you can still see them separately if required.
via Menu Bar;
View > Folders > Unified
Via Menu icon
Menu Icon > Folders > Unified.
This view would show all the 'Important' tagged emails, so you could them sort by Tag. -
User Accounts Just Disappeared After Updates
I just did a security update and now the user accounts are not present. How do I fix this?
I have a similar problem after installing Security update 2015-002. I can see username at login screen, but can't write the password. Nothing happens when I press buttons on the keyboard. I have to reboot multiple times for it to work.
-
I used to have the airplay icon on my iphone and ipod but it has now disappeared. Its an iphone 4.
Hi Home screen swipe up control panel bottom right hand corner turn on Apple TV first. Cheers Brian
-
How do I move all my files from one User Profile (account) into another?
I needed to create a new account and want all of my files accessible in the new one.ok, what you're learning right now is 101 unix, which is good. Unix is a good thing
now: the way unix works, and macos (which uses unix underneath) the files and folders work like a hierarchy.
the start of that tree is /
so, if you were to do:
cd /
(cd means change directory)
it will bring you at the highest branch of the file system.
cd /Users
will bring you to where all the users are.
to see whats in /Users you can use your friend ls command
ls means list files/directories
so:
cd /Users
ls -la
(the -la here means show all (even hidden) and long format (very verbose)) this flag is very optional.
you will see
fred
user2
for example.
if you want to see the desktop of user2 you would change directory to it then list the files.
for example:
cd /Users/user2/Desktop
Note that the files and directory are case sensitive, so, desktop is NOT the same as Desktop, or DESKTOP
ls -la
you should then be able to see everything in users2 desktop
you could have done as well the same thing in smaller steps, for example:
cd /
cd Users
cd user2
cd Desktop
this is the equivalent of cd /Users/user2/Desktop
So, for your file, i don't know where it was, but know that if you log in as user2, it will directly put you in
/Users/user2
which most likely the file you had created from the other user was in /Users/user1
if you copied all the files from /Users/original_user to /Users/secondUser
most likely yes, all your mail, bookmarks etc would be copied over.
so in your case.
sudo chown -R seconduser:staff /Users/secondUser
should work
Remember that if you start a path with the character / it means start from the root of the file system, at the highest top you can ever get.
so
cd /Users/fred
is not the same as
cd Users/fred
unless you were in / already
i know it may be confusing at first but it's actually very logical if you play with it.
to simplify, think of it that / means C:\ on windows
you can't go any higher than C:\ (in a way)
if you're unsure which directory you're currently in, you can always type:
pwd
it will tell you where you are.
for example:
cd /
pwd
this shows /
cd Users
pwd
this now shows /Users
cd /System/Library
pwd will show /System/Library
cd /
cd /Users
cd fred
cd Library
pwd will show /Users/fred/Library
unix can look very scary but it's actually vital and very necessary to do tasks sometimes that would take for ever to do via the windows. This is good learning.
so for the myfile you had created, i can't tell you where it is, at the time you created, if you can do a pwd command you'll know the path,
ls -la (this shows all the files where you are)
if you see myfile in the list
do a pwd
whatever is return, the real location of the file would be:
whatever pwd returned / myfile
I hope that makes sense. -
I have accidentally created another account when using Migration Assistant to a new MBA. I have read that I probably should not have skipped migration in the initial set up and the problem would have been avoided but, alas, here I am. Does anyone know how I can 'migrate' all the files from one of the accounts that has been created to the other, so then I can delete it and have a single user on the computer seeing as I am the only person using it? I have read starting again, if this is the way to go, where is the best place to start 'starting again'?
Yes definitely should see it but its not coming up (I don't think) when I log out of 2nd user and into the main account. Opening finder in the 2nd account, I can obviously find the public folder because thats where I dropped all the files, but when in the main account, it can't be found. The only public folder that comes up is the folder for that account (main account) and it does not display files I'm looking for. Frustrating....
EDIT: Have found it through a round-about way but all music and photo and movie etc files have a red stop sign disallowing them from being transferred. Can you guess what the next question will be? -
Is my website really lost? All the files are in my .Mac account but what?!
I have read several of the threads on the topic and have become quite disillusioned by the thought of having to start from scratch again. HELP!
I originally created my personal website, web.mac.com/username (I've moved the files to a different directory), several months back and had been using the previous edition of iWeb for its creation and maintenance. Since then my former computer, a MacBook, experienced a head crash that left me only with a backup that had been done 3 months prior. Since then, as I have inched my way through updating all of my work files, I have held of on doing anything with my website. I now want to edit it and with the upgrade (10/25/07) to a MacBook Pro and the new iWeb '08, I get that sinking feeling that this isn't going to end well.
My first issue (concern) has to do with how little conclusive and specific information is provided when it comes to the difference between a HomePage site and your other pages, namely when one has created their personal site using the web.mac.com avenue. Why is this process so ridiculously complicated? It really need not be and I wish someone took note of that.
As an avid user of MS FrontPage I was a little leery of using iWeb but was turned on by its ease of use and professional appearing pages and capabilities. However, after having invested all the time in making and publishing the site I am now concerned with the discussion and the seeming reality that I will have to start from scratch. All my files are sitting in my .mac account (I must admit in several locations as I got a bit zealous with ensuring that all the files were there in virtual triplicate) and yet from what I understand there is no way to get iWeb to point to those files so that you can simply begin the editing process again. Is that correct? When I go looking for 'Domain' files or anything of the sort that have been mentioned in discussions on and off this forum, I just don't see it. Is there no way to simply hop back on the train and edit my site again instead of starting from scratch? I'm just annoyed at opening iWeb only to see 'Site' and no other files! If there is a way that someone can share with me how to not have to redo everything, I am not against paying for the 'secret' as I think that the inability to simply 'import' or do anything that seems reasonable here is a bit frustrating. Can you begin again without starting from scratch?
I suppose if I am told that I can't then I will certainly have to turn my back on iWeb as even though MS FrontPage is not the best WYSIWYG, I can at least do directory management and things with manual code that iWeb has yet to incorporate (I do use iWeb Enhancer on my iWeb site to overcome this annoyance). I really need assistance as I would like to edit my website for the first time in over 4 months and as I said before will bail on iWeb if I have to start from scratch. Anyone willing to assist me, I again would be very appreciative. If there is a way, just let me know, I'm savvy enough with these types of things for the consultation process to take very little time at all.
HELP!!!
Message was edited by: davidson_23To say that "everyone says" is a bit like saying "just because." iWeb doesn't instruct, prompt, or even suggest you make a copy of your Domain file. I'm not sure if that policy has changed in the past few months since I last used the program. However, if this file is so important wouldn't one think that it would also be available on the server with all the other files one uploads or backs up to iDisk?! And so for the user of the program to 'not know' or 'know because everyone says' to make a copy of the Domain file is a bit confusing. Again, as I am often careful with website files, that was also the reason why I had made so many copies of the files within the website. I liked using iWeb (and again hope to in the very near future) but because of the limitations I mentioned before, I was only using it to for my personal site. Having used a plethora of other programs I just wanted to be able to keep using iWeb for my own stuff and then as the functionality became available would then use it for others. I should clarify, use it to 'publish' other sites. I'm certainly not going to get into an argument over it and if you'd like to have the last word, that's fine too, I just think that this is a real issue and that if the program worked like others that one could import the files back in, it wouldn't be a problem at all. However, at this present moment I have all the pieces of the puzzle except for the key. I have all the files but am missing a so called Domain file that I didn't even know had existed until this issue reared its head. Again, I'm annoyed at how difficult an otherwise simple issue to address would be. It's almost like saying that I should have known that the hidden 'exe' or 'dmg' file should have been one I thought about when doing any kind of back up and that despite having all the content files, they mean nothing. I will continue to search for the Domain file as I am hopeful that when my IT guy (Network Administrator) backed all my contents prior to the crash, he took every single file and that one should be among them if it is the location as had been previously mentioned. When my Mac crashed, it's as I said, a head crash on the hard drive and so there was no coming back from that. It was truly irreparable as I sent it off to a very reputable data recovery company to save it to no avail. However, I had done a full backup three months prior and am hopeful that the file is somewhere on my work server. If not, as you have pointed out, I'm screwed. And so while I still say that the program is to be blamed for some of its odd idiosyncrasies, I also accept that we'll have to agree to disagree on the issue.
-
One of three user accounts on the same computer appears to not be updating to 8.0.1 correctly. One admin and one none admin user account says it is up-to-date. The other non-admin user account, under Help About Firefox says apply update, but won't.
As long as you installed MS Office into its default location (the top level /Applications folder) it will be available to all user accounts on the Mac.
As far as licensing is concerned you only have to enter the license code once, which you should do right after installing MS Office, in the same admin account you installed it from, by opening any one of the MS Office applications. There is no additional licensing required for additional user accounts on the same Mac.
Each user account is able to run the Office apps. The only thing you will have to do is go through an initial setup screen in each user account (but this setup does NOT involve entering any additional license codes).
You may have problems if you installed MS Office in a particular user account (i.e. NOT in the top level /Applications folder). -
Can you transfer files between two user accounts on the same macbook pro?
Can you transfer files between two user accounts on the same MacBook Pro?
Specifically, I used the Migration Assistant to move music and photos from my old PC to my new MacBook.
Somehow, I missed the fact that it was creating a new user account when it was doing this. So none of music and photos are in the user account I originally set-up. Instead, all these files are now in a different account.
I'd like to consolidate all my files on the one user account and delete the other one.
Is this possible and, if so, how do I do it?
Thank you.you can crop files from one account to another using the Public Dropbox which every user account has. Log into the user that has the files you want to move, then drag the folder you want to the new users' dropbox:
I suggest a small scale test on a few files first before moving gigabytes of files. -
how to transfer file from ipod touch to i tunes. i have files in my ipod , ut itunes is new so its telling if u sync the ipod all the files will be replaced but no files in the itunes.. so kindly help me how to transfer the files from i pod to itunes......
Some of the information below has subsequently appeared in a document by turingtest2: Recovering your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device - https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3991
Your i-device was not designed for unique storage of your media. It is not a backup device and media transfer was designed for you maintaining a master copy of your media on a computer which is itself properly backed up against loss. Syncing is one way, computer to device, updating the device content to the content on the computer, not updating or restoring content on a computer. The exception is iTunes Store purchased content.
iTunes Store: Transferring purchases from your iOS device or iPod to a computer - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1848 - only media purchased from iTunes Store
For transferring other items from an i-device to a computer you will have to use third party commercial software. Examples (check the web for others; this is not an exhaustive listing, nor do I have any idea if they are any good):
- Senuti - http://www.fadingred.com/senuti/
- Phoneview - http://www.ecamm.com/mac/phoneview/
- MusicRescue - http://www.kennettnet.co.uk/products/musicrescue/
- Sharepod (free) - http://download.cnet.com/SharePod/3000-2141_4-10794489.html?tag=mncol;2 - Windows
- Snowfox/iMedia - http://www.mac-videoconverter.com/imedia-transfer-mac.html - Mac & PC
- iexplorer (free) - http://www.macroplant.com/iexplorer/ - Mac&PC
- Yamipod (free) - http://www.yamipod.com/main/modules/downloads/ - PC, Linux, Mac [Still updated for use on newer devices? No edits to site since 2010.]
- 2010 Post by Zevoneer: iPod media recovery options - https://discussions.apple.com/message/11624224 - this is an older post and many of the links are also for old posts, so bear this in mind when reading them.
Syncing to a "New" Computer or replacing a "crashed" Hard Drive - https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3141 - dates from 2008 and some outdated information now.
Copying Content from your iPod to your Computer - The Definitive Guide - http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/copying-music-from-ipod-to-co mputer/ - Information about use in disk mode pertains only to older model iPods.
Get Your Music Off of Your iPod - http://howto.wired.com/wiki/Get_Your_Music_Off_of_Your_iPod - I am not sure but this may only work with some models and not newer Touch, iPhone, or iPad.
Additional information here https://discussions.apple.com/message/18324797 -
How do I merge two accounts into one account that contains all the files from both?
When I was running my MacBook Pro under Snow Leopard, I had one account for business that was encripted and another account that was unencripted for personal. Now, under Lion, the whole disc gets encripted so I don't really need two acounts. How do I merge the accounts together into one account and retain all the files from both?
Thanks,
DaveSomethinkg like these?
-
iCloud in a business.
Do all the computers require the same apple ID to share all the files?? Can i have two apple accounts on one deviceNeither of those Apps allow you to (easily) add iWork documents created or edited on the device to your online storage, you need to be using a webDAV server to be able to do that. In fact pretty much all you can add from the iOS device is photos and video without resorting to convoluted workarounds, intermediate apps or emailing finished documents to yourself. You can on the other hand view most of the content of dropbox/sugarsync through those apps, which in a lot of circumstances is useful, but without it working in both directions these apps are far from an ideal solution.
E.g from the sugarsync website
Yes, this may not be of too much interest to the OP, I was only trying to clarify the situation with iCloud.com/iWork for you.
However that being said, there may be areas of interest for Computer to Computer syncing, given the recent changes made to iCloud.com/iWork. I wouldn't suggest iCloud sharing for archived documents, but for perhaps up to a couple of dozen documents in progress, iCloud sharing is now quite viable. If there is any chance at all of these documents being accessed on an iOS device then iCloud would become a preferred option to dropbox or sugarsync. -
i download a file in the torrent site which is MP4 but unfortunately i tried to delete it but i can not. but all the files that i have is easily to delete only MP4 files i can't delete in the download foldeer please try to help dont know what to do please
Well you can sync your iPod/iPhone to yur computer or laptop then take the photos off of your iPod like taking photos of of a SD card (from a normal camera) or off of a USB..! Good Luck. plz tick this saying This solved my question if it helps you.
-
I had to restore all the files on my pc using carbonite. I reinstalled iTunes and was able to find my music with the help of Apple support. How do I find my podcasts?
This helped, I restored them, but when I go to iTunes they are not there. Is there another step?
Maybe you are looking for
-
Why am I getting fonts issues after upgrading to Mavericks?
After upgrading to Mavericks, many webpages display fonts as dingbats like characters (see attached screenshot). Copy/pasting the URL into a new tab seems to fix the problem sometimes, but not always. The issues seems to happen more in chrome, but al
-
When I attempt to download 'Life of Pi' in HD for 14.99 (using iTunes 11.0.2) it will not works as I get the following error: "If you buy the HD verision, you have to transfer it to an HD-Compatible device in order to watch it. Or you can buy the SD
-
Line shifts when I increase stroke weight
Hi, I'm using strokes in a document. I have a series of lines that are centered on grid lines; however, when I increase the stroke weight, the line moves as if the top edge of the stroke is anchored and not the center of the line. I am unable to find
-
Accessing an APEX aplication behind a proxy
Is there a document explaining a virtual host setup to access an APEX (3.0.1) application behind a proxy server? What parameters should be passed to ProxyPass and ProxyPassReverse? I'm getting this error message: Service Temporarily Unavailable The s
-
Where can I find and download OAS 10g R1?
I'm looking for OAS 10g R1, but I can't seem to find it.