Lost all settings

I hope I have posted this question in the correct forum. Earlier this morning my toddler managed to drag all the files out of the Library file and resdistribute them around the desktop and into other folders in the HD including my user area. I realised the full extent of the damage when my e mail wouldn't work and my iphone couldn't pick up my music library when I tried to use the remote.
On further investigation the Library folder seems to have duplicated itself and added files to itself - the computer will not let me put the original back - it says I do not have sufficient authority.
I called the technical support line but they were not very helpful and said 'don't muck about with your library'.
I have managed to get my email working again but cannot retrieve saved emails.
I have managed to get the music back in itunes but still cannot get the iphone to work remotely which suggests that it is not all in the right place.
More alarmingly following a restart of the computer it has lost all of our settings - no personal documents, photos etc any more. Can still use itunes and mail but not remotely.
Can I restore anything by doing a disk repair or am I barking up the wrong tree? To be honest I would just like itunes to work properly again but am concerned the problem is hiding more problems.
Please, any suggestions welcome. We know we have been silly and when this is resolved we will start to back stuff up and also put on a password to protect our stuff from little fingers - we were so proud of her mouse skills ....

Hi, see if this helps or could be the case...
Return to default desktop, apparent "loss" of home directory...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107854
ChangeShortName 10.4 only...
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/16620
Tough call on the Repairs, which I normally recommend, but in this instance I'd wait.

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FHMXa lost all settings

For some bizarre reason, I launched FHMXa (on WinXP SP2) to
find that it had lost all my preferences and settings, including
toolbar locations. The application would not even let me regenerate
the toolbars, so I had to uninstall, remove all preferences, and
reinstall. After painstakingly setting everything up to how I like
it again, all seems well.
However, to avoid this from happening again in the future,
does anyone know where FHMXa stores its preferences file on a
WindowsXP computer please? I was hoping to back this file up
somewhere, so that if the problem happens again in the future, I
can quickly restore all my settings. Many thanks in advance.

Bowlando wrote:
> For some bizarre reason, I launched FHMXa (on WinXP SP2)
to find that it had
> lost all my preferences and settings, including toolbar
locations. The
> application would not even let me regenerate the
toolbars, so I had to
> uninstall, remove all preferences, and reinstall. After
painstakingly setting
> everything up to how I like it again, all seems well.
>
> However, to avoid this from happening again in the
future, does anyone know
> where FHMXa stores its preferences file on a WindowsXP
computer please? I was
> hoping to back this file up somewhere, so that if the
problem happens again in
> the future, I can quickly restore all my settings. Many
thanks in advance.
>
I found this 'fhprefs.txt' on my XP machine. Can't say with
all
certainty that it is the file you need to back up but, this
is where it is.
C:\Documents and Settings\'User Nmae'\Application
Data\Macromedia\FreeHand MX\11\English\Settings\fhprefs.txt
Substitute the correct 'User Name' for your machine.
There is a 'fhmxxmgr.txt' file that may also hold some
settings.
SKB

6101 lost all settings and numbers

I've had my 6101 about a year. When I turned it on this morning I discovered that I had lost all of my setting and phone numbers. I tested the SIM card - that wasn't to blame. Strangely some of my games are there plus SMS' I had sent, but no phone numbers, and everything else - wall paper, ring tone, etc had returned to factory settings.
I have spent the morning trying to put my phone back as it was, but am affair I have now lost some numbers permanently. I realise I should have backed-up my phone, but haven’t done so for quite some time.
The battery is fine, still lasts about 4 days, so that can't be it. Can anyone tell me what happened? How I could prevent it from happening again and is there anyway I can return it to the way it was?

@ wendio2007
Hi,
That's really strange .. Try to
1.) remove the battery leave it out for a while,
2.) turn on the phone
3.) restore factory settings
4.) create a new contact and check ot see if it stays.
see if it helps.. of not, maybe you could have the phone checked at a Nokia Service Center..
Cheers
Let me be a ripple in the silent stream of your memory ~ Viveca

Lost all settings for Mail, setting up new account causes Mail to crash

Not sure if this problem is related to a recent archive and install or the recent 10.4.8 update, but a user's email on my G5 apparently lost all her mail, settings, etc. When Mail was clicked on, a series of new account windows appeared, which I filled out with the relevant info, but when i clicked Done, I get the prompt: A keychain cannot be found to store "user's name." It gives me the option to set to default or cancel. When I click on cancel, a summary of all the relevant info appears in a window, but when I attempt to open Mail it always crashes. Not sure where to go from here?
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Nol longer relevant since updating to Leopard.

Mail lost all settings and does not allow to see old messages

One day I launched mail and it appeared as if it was starting for the first time. I aborted the procedure, rebooted and relaunched mail but again. So I regave all the necessary parameters. Then I noticed that Mail had actually kept all the previously custom folders but would not show -a part from the most recent ones- all older messages in Inbox. I looked into Library/Mail/mailboxes and found the missing messages but whenever trying to reimport them into mail got the message that Mail could not find messages in a format acceptable to Mac OS. Actually the messages can be opened with the Mail (but not imported) and have extension .emlx
As an addtional info, the problem appeared shortly after I had switched hosting service but I do not see how this could have affected mails sitting in my hard disk.
It should also be noted that I am receiving and reading new mails without problem.
Any suggestion on how to recover my messages and have them again accessible in my Inbox?
Thanks.
Stefano

What you’ve described could be the result of having set up the account differently and Mail not recognizing the account folder already present in ~/Library/Mail/ — see below a more thorough description of this particular issue. If this is a POP account, the most recent messages in Inbox might appear to have been preserved because they were still on the server and Mail downloaded them again as if you had never set up this account in Mail before.
Under some circumstances (e.g. lack of available disk space, filesystem corruption, repeated crashes), Mail may discard the current ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist preferences file and create a new one. This file is where all the account settings are stored. As a result, all your non-.Mac account settings (but not the messages themselves) are lost. If you had a .Mac account, its settings would appear to have been preserved because Mail would set up that account automatically using the System Preferences > .Mac settings.
Verify/repair the startup disk (not just permissions), as described here:
The Repair functions of Disk Utility: what’s it all about?
After having fixed all the filesystem issues, if any, and ensuring that there’s enough space available on the startup disk (a few GB, plus the space needed to make a backup copy of the Mail folder), quit Mail if it’s running, and make a backup copy of the ~/Library/Mail folder, e.g. by dragging it to the Desktop while holding the Option (Alt) key down, just in case something else goes wrong while trying to solve the problem. This is where all your mail is stored.
There are three ways you could have solved this problem (#2 is what you did):
(1) Restore ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist from a backup if you have one. Mail shouldn’t be running while you do this.
(2) Set up your mail accounts again. If given the option to import existing mailboxes or something like that, don’t. Just enter the account information and Mail will automagically rediscover the data in ~/Library/Mail/ when done. You’ll also have to re-configure most of your settings in Mail > Preferences. For spam-related security reasons, the first thing you should do is go to Preferences > Viewing and disable Display remote images in HTML messages if it’s enabled.
(3) Mail may have renamed the old preferences file to com.apple.mail.plist.saved. If that’s the case, you may try trashing the new com.apple.mail.plist and renaming the old com.apple.mail.plist.saved back to com.apple.mail.plist. Again, be sure Mail isn’t running while doing this. Given the circumstances, I would expect com.apple.mail.plist.saved to be corrupt, but apparently that often is not the case and the settings can indeed be restored by just renaming it back to com.apple.mail.plist.
Note: For those not familiarized with the ~/ notation, it refers to the user’s home folder. That is, ~/Library is the Library folder within the user’s home folder, i.e. /Users/username/Library.
<hr>
For each mail account, Mail creates a folder in ~/Library/Mail/ whose name starts with the account type (POP, IMAP, Mac), followed by the account username and the incoming mail server.
When re-creating com.apple.mail.plist, setting up an account with a username and an incoming mail server that exactly match one of the already existing account folders in ~/Library/Mail/ causes Mail to automatically recognize and reuse that account folder. If the username and/or the incoming mail server are different and don’t match an already existing account folder, however, a new account folder is created from scratch, that account behaves as if it had never been set up in Mail before, the old account folder is simply ignored, and the messages it contains become inaccessible other than by manually importing them or setting up the account again.
If you have more account folders in ~/Library/Mail/ than accounts in Mail > Preferences > Accounts, that means some of the account folders have been created anew whereas others are being ignored by Mail (and hence, you don’t have access to the mailboxes and messages stored within them). You can, however, import their contents doing File > Import Mailboxes, choosing Mail for Mac OS X as the data format, and following the instructions. You can get rid of the unused account folders afterwards.
Pay attention to the instructions that Mail displays when choosing Mail for Mac OS X as the data format. In the next step, Mail wants you to select the folder that contains the mailboxes to be imported (i.e. the folder where the *.mbox folders to be imported reside), not the *.mbox folders themselves nor the Messages folders within them. If you select the wrong folder, Mail says “No valid Mail for Mac OS X files were found” because it cannot find any *.mbox folders within the folder you’re selecting.
Alternatively, you may try re-creating com.apple.mail.plist again and this time use the exact same username and incoming mail server that Mail used to name the old account folder.

Lost all settings in Tiger

I was trying to send an email and needed to resize a photo that I was adding as an attachment. Then all of a sudden, my settings seemed to change and I was having a hard time sending mail. So I tried restarting which usually resets things. Only now I seem to have lost my iCal, all mail, mail accounts and mail rules. Even my icon tray at the bottom of the screen has different settings and two question marks appear for to software I no longer have on my computer, iPhoto and iMovie.
What happened? Could this be a virus on a Mac? I did backup last month and was able to restore my mail accounts and an older set of mail boxes. But I can't restore the mail rules and my schedule would be out of date. Anyway to find my most recent lost iCal schedule and restore it and add mail rules?
KiwiMe

Look at /Users and see if there is another user folder there. I have seen it before in Tiger where this occurs, it moves all your data to another user folder. If it is there then you can begin the pain in the butt task of moving all your data back.
Not sure why this occurs. Anyone have advice on that?

I Renamed Home Folder and lost all settings, jpgs, mp3s, photos etc. HELP!

First off, have a MacBook, 2.4GHz Intel Core Duo w/4GBs of RAM OS 10.5.8
I followed what I thought were proper procedures to change the name of the Home Folder from "macbook" to "rocki"
I followed the instructions at Mac OS X v10.6 and earlier: How to change user account name or home directory name
For Mac OS X 10.5 or later
1. Enable the root user.
2. Log in as root.
3. Navigate to the /Users folder.
4. Select the Home folder with the short name you want to change, and rename it just like you would rename any folder. Keep in mind that the shortname must be all lowercase, with no spaces, and only contain letters.
At this point I skipped steps 5 & 6 Since I already had a user named the name I wanted "Rocki" I thought I didn't need to do this. So went onto Steps 7-9, and NO everything was NOT there.
5. Use the Accounts pane in System Preferences to create a new user with the Account name or Short Name that you used in the previous step.
6. Click OK when "A folder in the Users folder already has the name 'account name'. Would you like to use that folder as the Home folder for this user account?" Note: This will correct the ownership of all files in the Home folder, and avoid permissions issues with the contents.
7. Choose Log Out from the Apple menu.
8. Log in as the newly created user. You should be able to access all of your original files (on the desktop, in Documents, and in the other folders of this Home).
9. After verifying that your data is as expected, you can delete the original user account via the Accounts pane of System Preferences. At this point I skipped step 10 b/c nothing was there as usual.
10. Disable the root user.
All my data and settings were not there. So I went back logged in as Root, navigated to the Users folder, and saw that there were two folders, one said "macbook" even though I previously just named it and there was also another folder named "rocki" there. Seeing two folders and wanting to return back to normal I deleted that "rocki" folder, I had just created, and logged back out of root and logged back into the only user I had, which was also named "rocki" which is the admin and the user that had all my files and settings originally before I tried to change the name of the home folder. And no change, everything is gone and missing.
To clarify, originally, I had a home folder named MacBook and a user named Rocki. Everything was cool and worked great! But I wanted to change that home folder name to match the user name. Whoops!
What can I do to go back to normal?!?!?!!?!? Please help me!! I'm so screwed. If I can't go back to normal, how do I find all the missing files and what not?!?
Thanks so much in advance!

Apparent 'Loss' of Home Folder:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107854

Lost all settings after reboot (not restore)

Man, was this frustrating. I needed to reboot my iPhone 4 today due it acting unusually sluggish, and after I did so, it acted as though it was a brand new phone, showing me the message about editing the home screen icons when it turned back on. In addition, certain settings were lost, including push notifications, wallpaper, and I think a few others. Mail and calendar accounts stayed,though contacts were messed up (e.g., some records merged for some reason). Very bizarre.
While I'm okay because I have a recent backup, this causes me some concern down the road. What if I don't have a recent backup? Has anyone else experienced this issue?
Again, in a nutshell, rebooting caused my phone's settings to reset, and I lost some crucial items, such as pictures and contacts. I'm scared that this will happen again, and I won't be so lucky as to have a recent backup. On top of that, restoring to the MOST recent backup was no good either, since it just restored the incorrect settings.

I have an iPhone 4 I've had since it's release... Running 4.3. I had been told several months back by an Apple Care rep that it was good to do a hard reset (holding down the lock and home buttons until the Apple symbol appeared) every few weeks. This is the first time I had done it since 4.2 came out though (but again, I'm on 4.3 now).
So I first noticed my friend's picture was messed up when he called... Then I noticed the main ringtone was back to default... And my battery percentage is now gone as well.
Some unrelated (possibly) things: I just got an iPad 2 and it is synced using the same account with the same computer. Ever since getting the iPad 2 every time I get a new app on one of the devices it will appear on the other device after I sync it...I also had an app I had deleted from my iPhone reappear after syncing. I don't know if that's normal or not.
The main reason I'm writing is that since 4.3 has come out and most of you posted about this before it coming out... I wanted to document it was still a problem.
Lastly... My phone had not frozen, But it was locked when I did the reset. Hope this helps

Only have finder after upgrade - lost all settings

I have a 4 month old iMac. I had the automatic update on, and it downloaded and installed. After rebooting I now dont have a desktop, dock etc. I only have a blue screen with Finder and the apple icon on the top right hand corner does not allow me to do anything - help? any suggestions

See:
* http://kb.mozillazine.org/Lost_bookmarks
* http://kb.mozillazine.org/Locked_or_damaged_places.sqlite
You can delete the files extensions.* (extensions.rdf, extensions.cache, extensions.ini, extensions.sqlite) and compatibility.ini in the Firefox [[Profiles|profile folder]] to reset the extensions registry. New files will be created when required.
See "Corrupt extension files": http://kb.mozillazine.org/Unable_to_install_themes_or_extensions
If you see disabled extensions that are not compatible on the next start in "Tools > Add-ons > Extensions" then click the "Find Updates" button to do a compatibility check.
You may also need to "Reset all user preferences to Firefox defaults" on the [[Safe mode]] start window.

BTHH3 lost all settings

I had port forwarding etc set up and i have lost everyting. i had a backup bthub3.conf but when i try to restore i get
Invalid file
The file selected is not a valid configuration file for your BT Home Hub.

As a guess, the HH3 firmware has been upgraded, and the old config file is no longer compatible.
There are some useful help pages here, for BT Broadband customers only, on my personal website.
BT Broadband customers - help with broadband, WiFi, networking, e-mail and phones.

Lost all settings doing install

OK, I'm a seasoned user... I had to re-install the OS yesterday. I have iSync however and need to download the files from the "cloud" to my mac. But before I do this, I want to make sure I don't delete what I've stored in my cloud. (I recall a long time ago I did that and my files disappeared.
So easy Q, how do I get the cloud back on my "new" mac?
Thanks,
Pat

iSync doesn't have anything to do with files in the "cloud". iSync is only for syncing non-Apple mobile phones via a USB or Bluetooth connection.
Are you in fact referring to the MobileMe "cloud"?
If so, the MobileMe forums start here: http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=116

Lost all contents and settings during 'routine' update to v1.1

Hi all,
Not too sure what went wrong, but I lost all settings and data during what I thought would be a routine firmware update.
In the middle of the update, the phone hung, and the PC gave me the error message that it needed to restore to what turns out to be factory settings. All settings, data, notes and pictures were gone! (no warning given!)
Since I didn't have a chance to download these before I got started, I'm not too sure what to say - if you see a way of backing up your phone before you update the firmware, I'd recommend that you do it.
I've updated a lot of firmware in my life - I'd have to say this is the worst and the first time ever that I've lost data.
In case anyone from Apple monitors this site - is there a way to seperate the data and the firmware area, so that if this kind of thing happens, you only wipe the firmware area?
The phone even initially told me I had to re-register and only offered me a way to make an emergency call ...
-R

Have you docked your Iphone in before updating? If so your contacts and settings should be saved. Yes your picture's are going to gone because you have to manually save them. According to this post http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1069906&tstart=0 it looks like the activation is down with ATT so this is why you are having problems getting all your contacts and settings and having to reactivate.
Message was edited by: XFaega

Lost Wifi settings

Since upgrading my husbands phone it has now lost all settings for wifi. It started off with not locating any wifi connections including the one in the house and now the wifi option on the phone is completely greyed out and cannot be chosen at all. When you look into it further in settings it shows wifi as N/A. Anyone else had this issue and is Apple going to do anything about this problem which seems to be a big issue and not charge for it seeing as these phones cost a packet anyway!! Tried everything from clearing network settings to rebooting phone and restoring as a new phone but nothing works now going to have to phone Apple to see what they say about the matter. I think we may need to start a complaint about all these issues.

The iPhone includes a one year warranty and if the AppleCare extended warranty is available in your country, the standard one year warranty can be extended by another year.
If no change after resetting network settings on the iPhone and after restoring the iPhone with iTunes as a new iPhone or not from the iPhone's backup, more than likely the iPhone has a hardware problem with the wireless card or with something else.
The wireless card with my 3G failed when the iPhone was about a year and a half old. I purchased the AppleCare extended warranty for the iPhone before the standard one year warranty expired since I planned on using the 3G for two years, which I did. Made an appointment at an Apple store where is was confirmed the wireless card had failed and the iPhone was exchanged under warranty. I was in and out of the store in less than 30 minutes.
If your iPhone is no longer under warranty and your iPhone has a hardware failure, Apple is not going to pay for it.

HT1495 we have 2 I phones and when I tried to sync my I phone to the computer for a back up(have only 1 account) i lost all my phone contents and my phone has all the contacts/messages etc of my daughter's phone. I had ok'd to "restore settings" in the

we have 2 I phones and when I tried to sync my I phone to the computer for a back up(have only 1 account) i lost all my phone contents and my phone has all the contacts/messages etc of my daughter's phone. I had ok'd to "restore settings" in the process. How do get all the contents/contacts of my phone back?

Correct. When you update via iTunes all synced media that is not in your iTunes library will be lost.
As IO said before:
You can redownload most iTunes pruchases by:
Downloading past purchases from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store
I do not think it included audio books.

Hello people, I lost all my contacts on my iPhone. Facebook contacts integration is turned off. When I got to know that I have no contacts on my iPhone. I checked my settings and iCloud backup and contacts on iCloud (in settings) were off. Is there a solu

hi me kashif Hello people,
I lost all my contacts on my iPhone. Facebook contacts integration is turned off. When I got to know that I have no contacts on my iPhone. I checked my settings and iCloud backup and contacts on iCloud (in settings) were off.
Is there a solution to get all my contacts back? Please help me. I want my contacts back, as soon as possible.
Thank you in advance.
iPhone 4S, iOS 7.0.4

Unless as part of a backup, or stored somewhere else, they are gone.
Your son needs his own Apple ID for iCloud, FaceTime & iMessage. He can continue to use yours for iTunes content, but for everything else, he needs his own.
When you did what you did, as far as iCloud knows, this is the same person with multiple devices, and that's they way things are supposed to work: keep everything in sync.

Lost all settings

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