How do i assign the Home folder to a hard disc other than the boot disc?

I just installed a new 1TB disc drive. My original 500GB boot drive is full of all my operating system files and folders as well as all my data. A person in the MacPro community suggested that I separate the Home folder from my other boot folders and place it on the 1TB drive and keep all my operating system files on the original 500GB drives.
Does Apple support this approach? If so, is there a defined methodology to effect this outcome?
Jim Simpson

Go into
 > System Preferences... > Users & Groups
Click the padlock at the bottom and enter your password to open it.
Hold 'control' and click your account name. Choose 'Advanced Options...'
In the dialogue that opens, you can tell the OS where to look for your home folder.

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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

Can CC apps be downloaded to, and run from, a hard drive other than the OS drive?

Can CC apps be downloaded to, and run from, a hard drive other than the OS drive?

Yes. You can define alternate locations in teh application manager. just be aware that some components will always end up on your system root drive no matter what.
Mylenium

"The home folder...isn't located in the usual place or can't be accessed" after 10.9 AD bind.

Okay a little backstory here because I'm trying to eliminate or identify what I feel might be a bug in OS X Mountain Lion and Mavericks. Just FYI, I'm not our institution's AD admin, I just have rights to bind and query for this and that, but I can't make changes or really investigate our AD domain server/s:
So we're an educational institution with lots of adjuncts that come and go each year. Recently in August, I had about 5 cases where these adjuncts couldn't log in because of a cryptic "login failed" error. I have my macs setup to create mobile accounts without confirmation. I don't want ANY syncing going on just local user accounts created, but something in the profile creation process demands access to their network home folder. Well these 5 users were brand spanking new and somehow didn't have permissions to their own network home folders that everyone else hasn't had a problem with before. I had our admins fix the permissions, and they were able to login thereafter. Our admins are still looking for what might have caused this, but still don't know....
Recently I've been testing the same AD bind script I've always used on Mavericks. It's a simple bash "dsconfigad" customized for our institution. It seems to work successfully but on the login screen I get no usual "arrow" that allows me to back out and click "Other" and login to AD. I reseated the Ethernet cord and checked the AD configuration in Directory Utility - it was all set correctly as per the script parameters. When I clicked OK and exited out to the login screen, the Other option was working correctly. I was able to login with my own credentials just fine.
I needed to tweak my image a little so I wiped and reloaded the machine with the new image (nothing relevant to binding and users was changed). Got the same "no arrow" issue and tried the same steps, which again worked after some monkeying around. I tried to login with my credentials - failed. Now I get "The home folder for user 'my username' isn't located in the usual place or can't be located." I went into a local user admin account and tried to add my home folder manually, nogo. I logged onto a windows machine and tried to mount the same home folder in Windows - access denied - this is the SAME type of thing that ended up happening to my adjuncts. I don't know if they are related but it's certainly a strange coincidence.
How could testing AD binds change my home folder permissions, or possibly even corrupt the folder altogether? The network share/home folder that our macs smb communicate with as per the bind settings are on a windows server (to the best of my knowledge). My guess previously with the adjuncts error is that despite the fact that I don't need or want the profiles created to sync, the default options turns this on for mobile accounts even though it doesn't select any actual folders for syncing, but because it still tries some sort of "handshake" or something initially, first logins fail without network home folder permissions. Now it seems like something in the initial profile creation process might actually be corrupting the network home folder or changing its permissions.
I would post the bind script but I'm not sure it's relevant, as another mac admin in a different area ran into the same error with one of his new users and he bound manually, not with a script.
I'm kind of new to this sysadmin stuff, so does anyone have any ideas or suggestions to track down the cause of this and possibly fix it? The network share admin can fix my permissions, but if I could break it when it was working once, I foresee this happening again.

Here's the script I used previously that is not connecting to AD "completely" that causes the errors mentioned (I'm replacing institution info with "xxx"):
echo -n "This computer needs to be renamed and bound to Active Directory. Please enter the XXX Inventory Number from the affixed XXX label on the machine: "
    read userinput
    echo -n "Enter the XXXAdmin password (you will still be asked to enter this for system configuration changes): "
    read -s xxxpassword
    scutil --set ComputerName $userinput
    scutil --set LocalHostName $userinput
# Active Directory Bind Script For OS X Client
    # Modified by Wade Wei according to previous popular bind script
    # Adapted for xxx by xxx
    echo "Binding to Active Directory…"
    echo -n "Enter AD admin username: "
    read adusername
    echo -n "Enter AD admin password (please wait after password submitted, do not press any keys): "
    read -s adpassword
    #Basic parameters
    computerid=$userinput
    fqdn="ad.xxx.edu"
    username=$adusername
    password=$adpassword
    #Advanced parameters
    alldomains="enable"
    localhome="enable"
    protocol="smb"
    mobile="enable"
    mobileconfirm="disable"
    useuncpath="enable"
    user_shell="/bin/bash"
    admingroups="domain admins,enterprise admins,xxx,xxx"
    namespace="domain"
    packetsign="require"
    packetencrypt="require"
    localuser="XXXAdmin"
    localpassword=$xxxpassword
    # Bind to AD
    echo "Binding to AD - do not interrupt…"
    dsconfigad -add $fqdn -username $username -password "$password" -computer $computerid -force -packetencrypt $packetencrypt -localuser $localuser -localpassword $localpassword
    sleep 5
    #Configure advanced options
    echo "Configuring AD for Mac OS X…"
    dsconfigad -localuser $localuser -localpassword $localpassword -alldomains $alldomains -localhome $localhome -groups "$admingroups" -mobile $mobile -mobileconfirm $mobileconfirm -namespace $namespace -packetsign $packetsign -useuncpath $useuncpath -protocol $protocol -shell $user_shell -nopreferred
Can anyone tell me if I need to update the script for Mavericks, and how? Or should this be working and the bug is in Mavericks itself?

Does Lion support having the applications folder and the User folders on a separate disk (other than the startup disk)?

Is it possible to Install Lion while having the Application Folder and/or the User Folder on separate drives (other than the startup disk) Leopard didn't really support this as it would have errors with e-mail and other services that where not stored directly on the startup disk.

It's possible, but don't put the Applications folder elsewhere, and keep at least a miminal Admin account on your startup drive (so you can still log on to do troubleshooting, etc., if there's a problem with the other drive).
Many apps are expected to be in the Applications folder on the OSX drive; they may not work on a different drive and/or may not be found or updated when updates are available. Apple and Adobe apps, especially, are subject to this. Don't put them in folders, either, as similar things may happen.
Besides, apps don't take up much space anyway, it's the data that may.
It's often better to keep the home folders on the OSX drive, but put large data folders on a separate drive, such as iPhoto, iTunes, or large video collections.

TS1550 can time machine back up discs other than the start up disc

My question is, can Time Machine backup your entire system. By entire system I mean my startup disk and all my internal hard drives and the 3 or 4 external hard drives I have hooked up to my computer. I'm working a lot with videos, pictures and music which is very space intensive, so I need to back up all my information not just start up disk. Can Time Machine take care of that?

To answer you question directly, I don't think so.
To offer my $.02, don't rely on TM. It puts all your data into one big file. When it works, it's great, when it fails, even just a little, it's useless.
You may want to look at SuperDuper or CarbnCopyCloner. They cost a little bit, but you can make bootable backups, schedule backups, easily backup more than one HD, and the backups will be readable on any Mac. Your backups will be individual files, not just one large file that can only be read by TM.

I have apple TV and i am trying to connect it to the TV, it tells me to turn on the homesharing, but under the home sharing shows a different email address than the actual itunes account. how do i fixthanks it?

i just got an Apple TV. i am trying to connect my itunes to the tv, it tells me to turn on the homesharing on my computer but when i try it show up a different email address than my itunes account, how do i fix so i can do homesharing?

It is quite possible to have a different iCLoud AppleID from the iTunes one - have you set up maybe Phot Stream using an non-iTunes AppleID?

How do I sync my iPhone 4s with a different computer other than the original one that I used initally?

How do I change computers for syncing my iPhone 4s? The original laptop that I used to sync with died and I can not get my iPhone to sync with my desktop.

can't if you do not have access to the old library (the usual workaround is to backup the old library and import it to the new itunes)
for important data...
sync your existing contacts with icloud, your text messages will not be disrupted, music will sync with whatever music you have on your new itunes, photos shoud still be in the camera roll (I would sync them to photostream before you sync, just in case). Any photos on your phone that are not in camera roll or photostream... if you lost those pictures with the computer crash I would take screen shots (lock button + home button at the same time) of each photo so they show up in the camera roll. App data may or may not be lost. In my experience, it depends on the app. Some of the apps recognize your apple ID and sync data over the internet with servers, some do not. I would take note of important data (such as passwords in a password keeper if you have such an app) just in case if you lose that data.

How do I create a Calendar custom repeat or custom alert other than the choices given?

I would like to create a custom repeat for my calendar such as every 6 weeks or, every other month or whatever choice - - the only choices are "Every Day, Every week, every 2 weeks, every month, every year"? I would also like to create a custom alert for 2 weeks before or 10 days, etc and there is no "custom" option???

Whenever you find out let me know. I wanted to assign a text tone to someone and now in iOS 7 i can't. Or I haven't figured this out yet.

HT1338 my sound has a permenant mute selected i went to the system preferences and it is not checked in the box and i have no sound other than the sound that comes on when i restart my computer

After some updates i noticed my sound not working. it has the symbol of mute but the mute button is not selected in the menu the out put says no devise selected what can i do to get my sound to work again.

Seems to be hardware but try:
PRAM RESET. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379
and still not working
re update the machine. Download this and re update 10.7.4( if you are 10.7.4) http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1524

How do I restore the user to the home folder permissions?

I just got an iMac from a friend and had changed the username and password for the administrator user. Then I was going to change the home folder name. I was looking at the info on the home folder (which at this point is still tied to the old user). I inadvertantly removed the user from the permissions before adding the new username or even allowing all users to access the home folder. Now I cannot access the home folder at all. How do I restore the permissions to the home folder or add the user back to the allowed users with access to the home folder?

dalefromdallas,
First you should do a clean install of the computer, while your friend may have included apps, they do not belong to you unless your friend gave y ou the install media and license codes. Considering the machine is also running 10.9.2. this machine will be forever tied to his AppleID which exposes him financially. You should get the 10.6.X DVD from your friend (I'm assuming he upgrade from 10.6.x at some point) and do an erase and install, then update it to 10.6.8 then upgrade yourself to 10.9.2 Mavericks. Then you will have a clean system, otherwise you will be working with a pretty kludged system that will probably be trouble.

How to change name on Home folder?

I have an Apple iBook PPC G4 1.33 GHz running Leopard OS X version 10.5.8 and with 1 GB Memory. I just purchased this machine, which is in excellent condition, but I have a problem. It is not earthshattering and doesn't threaten the life of the machine in any way, but it is my machine and I would like the Home directory to reflect that.
The name in the System Preferences for Administrator is "gdavies", which is myself, but the Home Folder in the Finder sidebar is named "macuser". I went in as root user and came close to complete disaster, but got out in time. Having me named as administrator in Accounts but not on the Home directory is unusual. If both were called "macuser" I believe I could fix it, but this requires a greater level of expertise than I have.
Any ideas how to make home folder read "gdavies"? I just bought this iBook and it came with the Home folder named as "macuser". I changed the computer's name in "Sharing" in system prefs and I believe I may have changed the name in the Accounts. I know I should not have done it that way, but it doesn't help changing it back.
When I open the Users folder in the Mac HD there are there folders, one called "gdavies" with 10 items, most empty, such as desktop, downloads and so on, though dropbox is there.
The next folder is the house icon for the Home directory named "macuser" with 38 items and is the working folder. Then there is a folder called "shared", which contains no items.
How do I change the Home directory name in the Finder window sidebar to "gdavies'?

Kappy, you are indeed working overtime to help me and I just want you to know how appreciative I am.
Now, I shall take your answer step by step.
1. Log into Accounts using the admin password for "macuser". That password and the "other" admin password for gadvies is one and the same. However, done.
2. Click on Login Options, done - verify gdavies has admin status - done - answer "yes, gadvies has admin status".
3. Turn off Auto login - done.
4. Logged out then logged into "gdavies".
5. Returned to Accounts pane authenticating with "gdavies" password - done. But remember that the admin password is one and the same for "macuser" and "gdavies". Now, I did *not* set it up like that. It just seemed to happen. do I :- ) or do I :- ( ???
6. Select "macuser" account and using Login options delete. Select the option to remove completely.
I am sorry Kappy, but this pesky "macuser" sits in the home directory without any account in Accounts. So there is no "macuser" account to delete.
I went through all the motions and I was sort of hoping that a "macuser" account would *appear* in the Accounts pane beneath the Guest account so that I could delete it, but no such luck. You know, sometimes things like that do happen.
Thanks a heap for the try, Kappy, I do appreciate you exercising on my behalf "those little grey cells" as Hercule Poirot would say - my favorite Private Eye (Agatha Christie).
Cheers, Gareth

Portable home directory error "Home folder...is not located in the usual p"

I have a small handful of users with portable home directories. Of these, one is getting an error every time she logs onto the workstation: "The home folder for user ~ is not located in the usual place...". Her profile loads just fine, but I suspect it's only the local copy. Last week she didn't mention this mesasge, but did tell me about a problem with her mail; we ended up having to remove and re-create her imap account.
Her workstation is running OS X 10.5.8, as is the server. They're on the same subnet (and even the same switch). Once her profile loads, she can access everything just fine, including her folders and documents.
1. Is there any way to tell whether her local copy is synced with the server? (I'm worried that she's been doing this for several days and they're no longer in sync.)
2. How can I correct this for the future?
3. If the local and server copies are out-of-sync, how do I re-sync them (with the local copy overwriting the server copy)?
Thanks so much!
-Matthew

I encountered this issue recently. My solution was to configure a network home folder for the user, log in at the workstation with the network user account, then turn off and delete the user's home folder on the server.
Note: In my setup, our network users are configured as mobile user accounts so that a local home folder is created at login on the workstation.
Bryan Dulock
Apple Consultants Network
Houston, TX

Keychain services API and dealing with Keychains other than the default

Hello,
So I've been doing some C work with the Keychain services API. But I can't figure out how to set the Keychain for a function to something other than the default, which is set by passing NULL.
For example,
status = SecKeychainAddGenericPassword (
*NULL, // default keychain*
10, // length of service name
"SurfWriter", // service name
10, // length of account name
"MyUserAcct", // account name
passwordLength, // length of password
password, // pointer to password data
NULL // the item reference
This function is defined here:
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Security/Reference/keychainservices/Ref erence/reference.html#//apple_ref/c/func/SecKeychainAddGenericPassword
and the data type for the Keychain is here:
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Security/Reference/keychainservices/Ref erence/reference.html#//appleref/doc/cref/SecKeychainRef
But neither helps me at all for being able to edit a keychain that isn't the default Keychain.
I appreciate any help, thanks.
Message was edited by: Smerky

http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Security/Reference/keychainservices/Ref erence/reference.html#//apple_ref/c/func/SecKeychainOpen

I traded for a mac; how can I change the home folder name?

Well I traded a PC for my first iMac and well...... I love it.
1. I'm running into a little problem though; I can't seem to change the home folder name to my name. Although I know it doesn't affect any of the operation of the system or my settings, it psychologically upsets me.
2. Also, is there a way to assign my Apple ID to the computer or does that not matter either?
3. I also see a little lag when trying to connect to the web, but once I do get on it seems pretty beefy, any suggestable reasons?
4. And the final question, did I make the right decision? I traded a Sony Vaio S series tablet (laptop/PC) with an Intel core i5 @ 2.30ghz for an iMac with an Intel Duo Core processor @ 3.06ghz. I've heard the numbers don't really matter but some clarification would help.

Trying to address some of your questions:
You state you are running Mountain Lion? Was that the original OS on the Mac? That is very important because:
a) if it was, the seller/trader needed to transfer the Mountain Lion license to you or it will stay with his Apple ID;
b) if he purchased ML, he is required to uninstall it before selling the machine because the license is not transferable, which means - again - that it is tied to his Apple ID (along with the machine ID).
Both/either can present some problems for you since ML is now tied to someone else's Apple ID. If you manage to "introduce" your Apple ID, it will no longer match the records MAS (Mac App Store) has, so updates or other purchases may present problems.
I would suggest that you either call Apple or book an appointment at the nearest Genius Bar and ask them how to proceed - that way you may be able to set up your own Apple ID on the machine as well as get ML registered as yours (although, as explained above, they may require you to purchase it for yourself).
Whether or not you made the right decision - well, I've never owned a Windows machine, so I can't answer your question since I have nothing to compare it with. Obviously, I use Macs...... you should be able to run your own test: just do what you normally do and see if it appears to take about the same time, is faster, or is slower.

How do i assign the Home folder to a hard disc other than the boot disc?

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