Home folder lost - user account restored to default

I installed SL last weekend, no major problems but many annoying bugs. This morning when I woke up the computer had hung - screen saver was frozen. I held down the power key to shutdown. Turned the computer back on, clicked on my user account icon, and it was like I'd just picked up a new computer... my home folder had been replaced with a "straight out of the box" home folder. Standard desktop, standard dock, nothing in my documents folder, standard library. My entire home folder is gone.
All apps are still available - they are on a different partition with the OS.
The partition where my home folder lives is now virtually empty. I used stellar pheonix to try to recover the files from my home folder, but it did not find them as lost not as deleted files. It gave me the option of recovering about 40GB of deleted files, but they were legitimately deleted files.
I have repaired the disk - no problems. Any suggestions would be appreciated...

After Dubaidan and tcnsdca I am the third person in this thread who has experienced this 'wipe home directory' bug. I upgraded from Leopard to Snow Leopard last week. By accident I clicked on the 'guest login' icon on my MBP thirty minutes ago. After about 1 minute it automatically returned to the login screen, without showing up the guest desktop, so I decided to click on the 'guest login' again. This went pretty smooth and when I logged out the message appeared that all the 'guest login data' wouldn't be saved, but returned to normal.
When logging in to my regular account everything was gone. I don't use filevault. Nothing has been renamed to something else. My home-directory still exists under /Users/username but it is just empty.
Apple should have noticed this bug report already. It doesn't feel right that Apple doesn't take immediate measures when someone reports such a bug with a high potential data loss.
I would suggest to everyone to disable the guest login option IMMEDIATELY until Apple has addressed this. I hope that Apple will come up with a swift response and a nice gesture to victims of this bug.

Similar Messages

Help with understanding the Home Folder plus User Accounts

I just got the IMac (replacing an ageing...that is an understatement...Grape iMac from long ago) and this is my first go at the OSX. My previous iMac had OS9.2
I am having a problem understanding the Home folder and the Users to a point. The concepts are fine, it is the changing of names that is the problem. When I first started the iMac and went through the set-up and finally looked at the file structure, there was the Home Folder with a name, which i guess was pre-entered during set-up since I did not enter it (lets call it JOE). There was also 1 User, JOE with all the iLife folders. Since I did not like the name, i went to the Systems Preferences, into Accounts and found that JOE is an Admin. So, I changed the name to, lets say BILL, who still is an Admin. I also changed some settings and made BILL the auto log account. OK so far I am happy. I go back to the HD and find that now there are 2 users (folders), BILL and JOE, and that the Home Folder is still named JOE butall the iLife files are now under BILL.
So I went and also renamed the Home Folder to BILL, so everything looks fine. But when I restarted the iMac latter it lost all the settings (mouse, etc.) This is really getting confusing.
Here is what I want to do (after some reasearch):
I want to change the Short Name (JOE) but so far I have read that you can not do that. Where did this name come from (basically my first initial and my last name) because I don't want my Home Folder to be named that. I found somewhere that the only way to do that is an Erase and Install. I am willing to do that since I have a backup of all the iLife files on an external disk anyways and I have not put anything new yet.
Can someone enlighten me as to what would be the best course of action....this Short Name thing is frustrating.
iMac 20" 2.33MHz Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Welcome To Discussions kapklo!
First you need to sort out the extra Home folder issue, that was created by changing the Short Names.
The info in one or more of the articles linked to below, will help you with that.
Return to Default Desktop, Apparent "Loss" of Home Directory
My home folder and desktop are different than before
Recover from renaming your Home folder, authored by Dr Smoke
Then you can change the Short Name using this Change Short Name The Easy Way.
Or you could do an Erase & Install, making sure you enter your preferred Short Name, during the setup process.
ali b

User Account restored to default

I had the guest account enabled on my computer - I accidentally clicked on that when I went to log in. It took a few minutes to log in then after I had logged out of that account and back into mine my enter home directory had been wiped. All of doc, musics, etc gone. How can I recover that back? I had a lot of files, work related etc

G'day sumachaa,
That sounds like an old error that was fixed some time ago (10.6.2 if I remember correctly). Anyhow, [try these instructions|http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-10356505-263.html] to recover your home folders.
Cheers,
Rodney

How can I share the home folder with different accounts on the same mac?

Hi, here's a question:
How can I share the home folder with different accounts on the same mac?
The whole point being not to have to install all my apps, and move all my files each time between users.
The second thing would be to be able to modify one document on one account, and have it changed on the other account without having to copy it.
I would like to have a pro and a private account on my mac.
Thanks for you answers,
Doug

Your apps should not be installed in your home folder--they should be in /Applications where every user can access them.
If you want to share things between users on the same Mac, use the /Users/Shared folder. Keep your home folder private. Trying to defeat the protections on the home folder subfolders just gets messy. I've never bothered to figure out all of the problems associated with it so I can't explain how to do it.
Even with using Shared, you would need to alter the ACLs on the shared folder in order to allow both users to modify the documents.
You must create a Group in Users & Groups and put each user in that group. Then create a folder inside /Users/Shared where you want to share the various files.
Then, add an ACL to the shared folder that gives the group special permissions. on that folder.
sudo chmod -R +a "<sharinggroup> allow delete,chown,list,search,add_file,add_subdirectory,delete_child,file_inherit,directory_inherit" /Users/Shared/<sharing folder>
Replace <sharinggroup> and <sharingfolder> with the name of your group and your folder. Then, run the command in the Terminal.
With that ACL, each user in <sharinggroup> will be able to alter the files created by any user in the group in that <sharingfolder>.
Essentially, the client OS is not designed for true file sharing among the individual users. It is designed to isolate each user account from the others.

The home folder for user isn't located in the usual place......

....or can't be accessed.
Ok so I have trawled the internet and found this to be a known problem, however mine has an extra twist.
Ok, my Mac has a local admin account, lets call it Admin, but the account I use is a network account called PBN.
This network account does not create a home folder path to the server, as such it stores a user folder in Macintosh HD/Users/.
Since buying this mac this has been working fine, no issues, but today when I log onto the machine it gets the error "The home folder for <user> isn't located in the usual place or can't be accessed", whats more is that its created a new folder labelled "~".
Things I have tried:
1) repair permissions and repair disk while booted into SL DVD
2) Right clicking while in System Pref - Users to get to advanced options to check the home drive path (Can't do this because its a network account although the profile is stored locally)
3) xattr -d com.apple.FinderInfo / on problematic machine
Couldn't do this on the PBN account as it has no permissions (although it is a domain admin)
attr file no found error the admin account
4) xattr -d com.apple.FinderInfo /volumes/users/ while booted into another machine with broken machine in target disk mode.
So, I am at a major loss and would really preciate any help

The error messages regarding network homes really don't offer any specific clues as to what's wrong. The error message you're getting means one of several things - you've done something wrong setting up your server, you've done something wrong setting up your clients, your server has hardware/software issues, or your network infrastructure is bad. I'm honestly not trying to give you a bad time here, just going over possibilities.
DNS, which you mentioned, is a good place to start. You mentioned that forward/reverse lookups work, and that's a good sign. But just to be sure, have you run sudo changeip -checkhostname
If that reports back that the names match and there is nothing to change, then it's pretty certain that DNS is not the issue. Just to be sure, your clients are using your OS X Server, or whatever server is hosting DNS records for your setup?
The next step is to double-check permissions on the shares where user homes are located. The clients should also have accurate date&time settings.
The logs on the clients and server can also offer clues, however cryptic they may be, be sure to look at them if you haven't.
Also, has this setup worked before, if not, can you describe how you set everything up? I've been stymied by OS X Server myself, so I get where you're at, but the more details you provide, the better chance that Tony, Mr. Hoffman, or other folks here can offer a few more clues/suggestions.
hth
Jeff

"home folder for user "....." is not located in the usual... (help)

I accidentally ran Disk Utility (repair permissions and disk) from the panther disk that came with my computer instead of from my Tiger disk. Now things are really screwed up. I can't open any user accounts and no files seem available. Most Apps seem to be there. But i can't open or even locate any formerly existing documents.
The message i'm getting is: *Home Folder for user "me" is not located in the usual place and can not be accessed*
Does anyone have any idea what can be done?
I would appreciate any advice,
Syncsailor

You must repair the HD, your best bets are DiskWarrior from Alsoft...
http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/
Data Rescue II...
http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data_rescue.php

Can I change the Home Folder of users with Group Policy (or in another centralized way)?

I know how to change the Home folder of users from AD Users & Computers -> their Properties -> Profile tab. But this is not very practical when one has users spread across many OUs, and with users being added and removed often.
So I am wondering whether there is a way to do the same with a GPO. The closest thing I found was Folder Redirection, with which I can change the location of particular profile folders for each user, but not the location of the whole profile.
Is there a way to redirect the entire location of users in a centralized way, using a GPO or some other mean?

I would recommend reading that about the management of roaming profiles: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc784961(v=ws.10).aspx
You can involve the use of Powershell scripts for the management of roaming profiles:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/12460.powershell-automate-roaming-profile-folder-permissions.aspx
http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/Check-if-an-AD-user-has-a-45ed5d1c
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees , and confers no rights.
Get Active Directory User Last Logon
Create an Active Directory test domain similar to the production one
Management of test accounts in an Active Directory production domain - Part I
Management of test accounts in an Active Directory production domain - Part II
Management of test accounts in an Active Directory production domain - Part III
Reset Active Directory user password

How to best restore lost User Accounts after server crash?

Our late 2005 G5 froze sometime overnight in the middle of a Time Machine backup. We had to do a hard reboot the next morning.
When OS X Server 10.5.8 came back up, none of our users could log in including our administrator accounts. Unable to log in as root, we used the utility on the installation disc to reset the root password. We were able to log in as root to see that our data and server disks still were intact and navigable. However, we could not see any user accounts defined. We then were able to log in as Server Administrator. Same thing.
We are unfamiliar with restoring anything from Time Machine backups other than user files. Is there a way to restore user accounts from Time Machine and how?
More info: we tried restoring some system files and the library folder but no luck. Not sure how to go about restoring Keychain if that got corrupted...We had about 10 accounts defined before the crash.
Carl

I believe the easiest approach would be:
- Install the same OS on the new servers
- Install OS pre-req software and packages for your EBS instance
- Restore from cold backup (if the crash happened directly after this backup and you haven't lost any data)
OR,
- Restore from hot backup (if the crash happened after your cold backup and you have data that wasn't part of the cold backup)
I assume that no changes to the hostname, domainname, IP Address, port numbers, directory structure, ..etc is taking place in this restore.
Thanks,
Hussein

Missing Home Folder in Users Folder

I have a very strange situation where my Home folder (short name "Peter") does not appear in my "Users" Folder. It appears on the Finder sidebar and if i do a search it is found by the finder in the "Users" folder. I can access it from either of these two methods but I can not go to the "Users" folder and find it (I only have one other folder in the "Users" folder and that is the folder "Shared")
I have repaired permissions several times and did a disk verify with disk utilities and nothing was found as a problem. I did not change the name of this user at any time and it shows up as a user in the Accounts preferences. I can create a new user and it shows up in the "Users" folder and is removed once I delete the new user.
This is very wierd. Any help!
Peter
Runing OX10.4.10 on a MacBook (2 GB 667 MHz)

Peter
It is possible that somehow or other the "invisible" bit has got set on your Home folder.
Take a look at Francine's article on invisible volumes/folders and see if that helps.

Lost user account applications/settings

A friend partitioned the hard drive and create 2 separate user accounts. An application was not working on my account (Account 1) and I was also not able to access pictures and music on the second user account (Account 2). I logged into the second user account (Account 2) and dragged and dropped the entired user into the shared folder, figuring this would give my user account access (Account 1) to everything. Instead now I have lost all settings, applications, etc. on the second user account (Account 2). What have I done? How can I fix it?
G4 Power Book 17" Mac OS X (10.4)

Log back into the second user account and open the Users folder. From here, rename the folder with the house icon to something else. Next, open the Shared folder and hold down the Option key while dragging your old folder back to the top level of the Users folder. Select the copy you left in the Shared folder and choose Get Info from the File menu. Under Ownership & Permissions, set all three access settings to Read & Write.
(10201)

Unable to save home folder while deleting account

Hi there:
I am trying to delete a user account from a 10.6.8 MBP. I want to save the user's home folder to a DMG, like I always do. There is 201.42GB free on the HD. I get an error when trying to delete the account, however, that:
"The home folder cannot be saved. To save the folder, you need 57.6GB of free disk space." (Well, it's not really an error. The "save folder" option is greyed out, with that explanation).
LIke I mentioned, there is over 200GB free on the drive. I tried repairing permissions and rebooting. Verified disk. No help.
Can anyone advise?
Thanks!

Grrr...Never mind. Once I took ownership of the user's folder, OSX started reporting the correct size. There is not, in fact, enough room on the HD, so I'll figure something else out.
Thanks.

Lost user account in Users file

I just bought and installed the new MacBookPro and installed Parallels and Office 2007 etc.
Suddenly today I could not find my user account anymore. There still is sysadmin and Shared as accounts. However in the little house on the left I can still see my useraccountname and I have access to the files when I click on the house.
How can I restore the user account in the user folder under MacintoshProHD?
Anybody any suggestions? Thanks

Daaniel wrote:
thank you very much; this did the trick!
You are welcome!
Now the question is of course what caused this little discomfort
This usually happens because spotlight messes something up, usually because of the presence of extended attributes. If the problem reoccurs enter
*xattr -d com.apple.metadata:kMDItemFinderComment ~*
in terminal and then run the first command I gave you again.
*chflags nohidden ~*
look at this [page|http://www.pinkmutant.com/articles/invisible.html] for more details.

Lost user account after upgrading to Mavericks

Hi there,
I've just upgraded from ML 10.8.5 to Mavericks 10.9 using the Mavericks install app downloaded in another computer and after restarting, I got the setup screen.
I restarted the computer in single user mode and notice that the user accounts are still in there so I created the .AppleSetupDone file manually. After restarting, I couldn't login using any of the accounts.
I restarted on the Recovery partition and tried to reset the users passwords, but the only user available was the root user. I created a password for the root so I can at least login on the system.
After loging in as root, I can't find my users in System Preferences and in their home folders, the only folder is the Library folder, all the other folders were deleted.
I work in a school and want to deploy Mavericks to all computers soon, but I don't want that teachers or students have the same problem.
Does anybody have a solution for it?
Thanks,
Luis

I got the setup screen.
That shouldn't have happened. Either the directory database was corrupt to begin with, or something else went wrong with the installation. It's not a normal occurrence.

Change Home folder for AD accounts to a separate NAS

Hi,
We're running a large Windows network at a school with all pupils having individual Windows domain logins. Most of the subjects use Windows based PC's (Win 7). However, a small number of departments (Art, Music etc) have a number of Macs.
We have the Macs running fine on the network with pupils able to log in on the Macs via their AD accounts (all Mac workstations joined to both OD and AD - running 10.9.4). They have access to their "Windows" home folder on the dock and also a separate Home folder created locally on the mac they log into. Until now that has been fine. However, we want to move to having all the Mac home folders on one NAS, giving greater flexibility for pupils to move from Mac to Mac and keep the same files, and also retain separate access to their AD folders too (although this last bit isn't essential)
I gather I can edit their AD accounts to change the Windows home folder to point to the NAS used for the Mac Home folders, which will fix the problem when they log onto the Macs. But of course this is of no use as they will still need to be connecting to their Windows home folder whenever they log onto a PC.
On the Mac server (running 3.1.2) the ability to change the Home folder is grayed out for AD accounts. Similarly when I try and change the Home path in Workgroup Manager (10.9) the process errors - "Error of type eDSNoStdMappingAvailable (-14140) on line 1351 of /SourceCache/WorkgroupManager/WorkgroupManager-421/Plugins/UserAccounts/UserVol umesPluginView.mm"
Finally, I have also gone into the Directory Utility and tried changing the NFSHomeDirectory to the correct path manually, but again when I try and save I get an error "An invalid attribute type was not provided".
Just to get to the nub of the problem - can I set up a separate networked home folder location for AD users logging onto my Macs, independent of the Windows home directory. Ideally as I have well over 1000 student accounts this is something I'd like to be able to sort en mass rather than individually, but will take any suggestions at this point!
Cheers,
LSDWho

Hi,
Could still do with trying to work out if this is possible. If anyone has any ideas / suggestions it would be much appreciated.
Cheers,
LSDWho

Sharing music folder between user accounts?

I would like to have my music library available for my wife on a different user account on my iMac under Lion.
The music library is on an external drive on my LAN
When I try to select it as the source of music in my wife's account, there are no errors, but nothing happens, the music is not added to her iTunes, it just stays in the welcome screen, where to find music, etc.
I read a tutorial on moving the library to a shared folder, but I am hoping I do not have to do that. The drive is available to her library, just that nothing happens after I select it.
I imagine I am not seeing something obvious?
THansk,
Henry

check for file permissions witin your shared iTunes folder and make sure your wife's account have both read AND write privileges and that the privileges are applied not only to the folder but all the files and sub directories within that folder.

Home folder lost - user account restored to default

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