No "Deleted Users" folder

I used the Migration Assistant to transfer a user's settings and files from one laptop to another. The user's account had already been manually created on the new laptop, and contained some files I wanted to keep.
During the migration, I received a dialog advising that the user to be transferred already existed, and gave the option to save the existing user's files under the "Deleted Users" folder - perfect for my needs.
However after the transfer, I cannot find a Delete Users folder (or anything similar) anywhere on the disk, and cannot locate the files of the existing user account anywhere.
What has happened to the promised backup of the existing user's files??
(Before you criticize my actions too much, yes, I do have an external backup of sorts, but not totally up-to-date. And I launched the Migration Assistant with a view to exploring my options - if it had not suggested moving the existing account to a Deleted Users folders, I would have done something very similar myself maually!!)

Your profile says Leopard. If so, wrong forums. If not, update your info. As for Deleted Users, if created it exists at: "name of boot volume"/Users/Deleted Users/.

Similar Messages

Can We Trash the Deleted Users Folder?

At HD>Users, there's a Deleted Users folder. My 'home' account is 'Dave' and the Deleted User is 'Dave'. I don't recall ever messing with Accounts. Anywho, this folder is 1.33 GB! Can I safely trash it?
Thx!

Well, upon reading it a third time (LOL), it seems Apple has a rather circuitous way of splainin' things...
"...This document describes steps for doing so in Mac OS X 10.0 to 10.1.5...."
But then, "...With Mac OS X 10.2 or later, deleted users' folders are handled differently....Admin users may leave them for reference or simply drag them to the Trash, as desired. The steps below are not necessary..."
I went ahead and trashed it; saved over 2GB.
Thx!

"Deleted Users" Folder Created in Favorites--Delete, or Leave in Place?

After installing Mavericks on my MacBook Pro, a "Deleted Users" folder appears in "Favorites." "Deleted Users" appears to contain data from my former Favorites "home" area. May I delete the "Deleted Users" folder without losing any data?

Yes.

'Deleted Users' folder appeared

Just tonight I noticed a 'Deleted Users' folder in my Finder window, it contains a folder with my user account name. This was not there ever until tonight and I have not deleted any accounts so I have no idea what happened to make this show up.
The files in the deleted user account folder as as new as 08/30/2013, I have my settings locked with an admin password and my machine is never left alone without being asleep or otherwise requiring a password.
Could this have been from a recent software update of some kind? I have only done one non-app store upgrade recently and it was from Avatron's Air Display which I don't suspect.
Has anyone else seen this?

oba wrote:
I still have no idea how this folder made it's way to my sidebar. I'm not sure if there is a way to determine that with Time Machine.
I think I will change my passwords, I'm on a hidden Wi-Fi Network with just family computers and my passwords are obsurd.
I'm going to mark your question as having solved my problem because it appears that it did, at least for the part I was worried about.
Thanks for the help!
What is the new sidebar folder called? It could just be a new feature.
Changing passwords can help if you think things may be compromised, it's best to add really good & unique passwords if possible.
Hidden wifi is a bit of a misnomer. Everytime your Mac sends data the 'hidden' access point is revealed to an extent. There is nothing wrong with it, but don't assume it adds extra security, it just discourages people who try to connect to every visible network. You still need WPA2 encryption if possible (WEP is too easily cracked).
Don't forget to dig out any old files from the old account, there may be some buried treasure

During an aborted migration attempt from old Macbook Pro to new machine running Yosemite my recently installed apps and settings have been placed in a deleted user folder. How do I reinstate them?

During an aborted migration attempt from old Macbook Pro to a new machine running Yosemite my recently installed apps and settings have been placed in a deleted user folder. How do I reinstate them?

I suggest starting over. Boot into Recovery mode, wipe the HD, reinstall the OS, and, on first boot, use the steps in Pondini's Setup New Mac guide to do the migration.'

Damaged SSD, need to delete user folder - permission denied

Hi everyone, this is my first post.
I have installed SL onto my Kingston ssdnow v100 128GB solid-state drive (SSD) and used it as my primary OS drive along side of optibay in my first generation Macbook Pro Core Duo 2.0.
It has been funcioning perfectly until 2 months ago: my laptop would idel at the grey startup screen after a cold start with the progress indicator (circular) running indefinetly. The system files were being loaded but the process never completes. I reinstalled SL fresh a few times, all successfully, but the problem would return the next morning when switched on from cold. Traditional SATA drive was used and did not cause this problem.
I have decided that it was a SSD failure and have arranged it to be sent back to the seller.
SO here is the PROBLEM:
I wish to delete only the USER FOLDER while preserving system files on the SSD drive, so that when the seller tests it he is able to pick up the problem. If I format the entire drive, the seller may not pick up the fault as the drive would install OS fine and appear functional.
So I connected the SSD drive via USB to my other MBP, the Finder pops up and tells me that the SSD drive can not be repaired but can be READ to recover my files. I then try to drag my USER FOLDER to trash but a Finder message pops up and say: It can not be deleted. The info window showed that all listed users are greyed out and clicking on the permission (read & write & read and write) did not bring up any options, just as if you can not click it. I have unlocked the info window to allow changes using admin password.
Is there anyway (maybe via Terminal.app) that I can override file permission and allow me to delete this USER FOLDER that is on the SSD drive?
Thank you for answering.

Hi there! Welcome to the Apple comminity.
In Terminal, this is how you override something: Add "sudo " before your command. Here's an example:
sudo rm -Rf /Volumes/SSDdrive/Users/*
It will then prompt you for a password (if you are an administrator on your computer). Good luck!
Cheers.

A 56 gb .dmg file in my deleted user folder

I have a G5 tower running os 10.3 with 150GB of space. I am running out of room on my had drive because I have a file named melindabeck.dmg (my name) in my deleted users file that is 56 GB.
1. What is this file?
2. Can I get rid of it without endangering my user folder (admin)?
3. How do I delete it?
Thanks, Melinda

Melinda.. it looks like you created a new user account and then deleted the old user account...if everything is ok with the user account you are using...you can delete the old account (drag it to the Trash) ......which is located at....
HD/Users/Deleted (Folder)
Did you do perform similar procedure such as this....
Accounts<Deleting User .... using System Preferences (p29)
• You must be booted up in your Admin account before attempting this.
<a class="jive-link-external-small" href="http://">http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=151625
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106256
IMPORTANT: If the user's account is encrypted (FileVault is turned on), turn FileVault off for the user before you delete the account.
• You can not delete your Admin Account using this method.
1. Choose System Preferences from Apple Menu and click "Accounts"
2. Select the user account you want to delete and click the minus button in the lower pane
3. A window will pop up asking you if you're sure this is what you want to do. It also gives you a choice as to what should be done
4. If you click "Delete Immediately", the user account will removed.
5. If you click "OK", the account will be removed, and a disk image will be created of the contents of the deleted user account. In case you want to
re-instate the user,The path is:..... HD/Users/Deleted (folder)
6. Your last option is "Cancel" , if you change you mind.
george

Deleted User folder in finder, can I delete it?

Hey guys, so I've recently come across a folder in my favorites column in finder called Deleted Users. What is it exactly? and can I delete it? Using omnidisk sweeper I've found it's been taking up 40+gb of space on my HDD. Thanks for the help!

System Preferences gives you the option to keep an user folder when you remove the user, and that's the folder where it is stored. You can remove it from the sidebar without any problem by holding the Command key and dragging it off the Finder sidebar.
That folder should be in /Users, so go there and delete the folder if you don't need the files stored in it

Inadvertently deleted user folder with terminal command - HELP!

Hi
I was using terminal to delete my hosts file using the following command:
sudo rm -rf /Users/xxx/.ssh/known_hosts
Unfortunalely, I misplaced a space after the username, and deleted most of my user files. I thought something weird was happening when all the desktop icons dissappeared, and restarted immediately.
Now I am missing all of my docs, and desktop files. Some things are preserved, like itunes library and iPhoto library. My backup is over 6 months old.
I took out the hdd, put in an external enclosure, and hooked it up to another SL machine. I ran stellar phoenix overnight, but the recovered files all seem to be weird system files, mostly .plist files, nothing recent.
Any suggestions?
Thanks

ro-76 wrote:
Thanks for the reply.
My main backup is over 6 months old.
then I suggest you start backing up regularly. there is no excuse not to do it.
I use dropbox to backup the stuff I'm working on at the moment, but not the older stuff.
I found it strange that I could not recover anything with Stellar Phoenix. Is there something special about deleting using terminal? Does it completely erase the file?
not unless you use srm which you didn't. but NOT data recover software as you tried is perfect nor can it be expected to be. when you delete a file either from finder or from terminal it's unlinked from the directory but the actual space it's stored on the drive is not immediately overwritten by new data. that's what makes data recovery even possible. however, from that moment on it's treated as free space and can be overwritten at any instant. as soon as this happens data recovery becomes impossible. the only true way to protect your data is to *back up*.
I'll try Data Rescue 3.

Not Enough Hard Drive Space on my Mac Mini to Save Deleted User Account Folder: What to do?

I am no longer able to access my original user account on my mac mini because the account is corrupted and won't load. Thanks to the helpful advice I found on the internet, I was able to create a new user account and resume using my mac, but all of my old files are trapped in the old user account.
The plan was to delete the old user account, create a disk image of the old account folders, and then migrate those folders to the new user account. Unfortunately, I don't have enough disc space left on my Mac to do that. I have just under 11gb left after deleting absolutely everything I could, and I need 81gb for the old user files. The back up plan was to select the "don't change the home folder" option, but when I went to delete the account, there was no such option. The message simply read:
"The user's home folder will not be saved. To do so, you need 81.1gb of free disk space. Try emptying the trash or deleting other files on your disk, then deleting the user account. If you do not want to save the user's home folder, click delete immediately."
My only two choices were CANCEL or DELETE IMMEDIATELY. There was no "don't change the home folder" option.
So I am not sure how to proceed. Here are some questions:
1) is there a way to save the disk image directly to an external drive instead of the user's folder on the mac hard drive?
2) If I use the "delete immediately" option, will the files go into a "deleted users" folder where they can be recovered or will they just be erased from the computer and unretrievable?
3) Is there a way to use terminal to change access permission on the original user account files so that I can copy them onto an external drive or integrate them with the new user account without having to first delete the original user account?
4) In the absence of deleting the user account, will using either:
sudo chown -R `id -un` /Users/oldusername
and/or
sudo chmod -R u+rw /Users/oldusername
in Terminal allow the new user account permission to access the original user files and merge them seamlessly into my new user account? Or must I delete the original account first?
5) Is there something else I haven't thought of that would work, would be more efficient, or more effective? This wouldn't be the first time I have overthought a solution...
When considering any solutions, please keep in mind that I cannot launch the original user account as that starts the whole endless loading loop. So, while I have the password for the original user account, any solution would appear to require that I work from the new user account only, without launching the old account. Also I am a complete newbie at this. I've used Macs exclusively for 17 years but this is the first time I've had to do anything like this. Up to now, everything has always "just worked". So please be as detailed with any instructions as possible!
Any help greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Mac Mini 2ghz 1g ram running OS 10.4.11

I think ComputerFixer is correct, you should be able to drag and drop it to another drive, no worries. However, if not, you could create an disk image of it using DiskUtility and create it on a new drive. But again, I don't think that is necessary. If you have administrator rights with your new account, can you simply go into the old user account folder and drag and drop the files you want to save? I have done that as well as copy the older user account to another drive (in my case, another computer on the network) and salgage my files from there. Is that an option for you?

Why did my hard drive fill up after deleting user?

I have been trying to reduce the size of the Mac HD. I had 3 user accounts. I deleted one of them (saving a disk image in Deleted Users and the size of the HD seemed the same as before.
Then I deleted a second one (saving the disk image in the users folder) and I checked Disk Utility. I found that I had much less room than before on the HD.

I checked the Deleted Users folder.
It had two files.
Here is the list:
I presume the discrepancies in size are because "honeybear.dmg" is the account I created when I first got the computer (and I didn't add many files to it before I opened another account) and "yk.dmg" was the account I created by cloning the Mac HD of the other computer and migrating it over.
Why is "honeybear.dmg" labeled as a disk image and "yk.dmg" not labeled as a disk image?

Moving my wife's user folder to my MacPro while her iMac is in the shop

My wife's iMac needs to make yet another trip to the shop, and I was wondering about the best way to move her information to my MacPro while her computer is being serviced. We have TimeMachine backups and copies of her User folder. I tried a straight copy and ran into permission issues. I also tried restoring from her time machine back which was on an external drive but was unsuccessful. At a minimum she needs her email, desktop folders, documents folder, and Firefox and Safari data. In frustration I have deleted the initial user account I created for her. I was also thinking that I probably would not want to copy everything in her user folder because our hardware and software are not exactly the same, but then I would expect that hardware settings are not stored in individual user folders.

William Martin, RM wrote:
I tried a straight copy and ran into permission issues.
Try this:
1. Make sure you have deleted any initial user account that you made for her on your Mac. (There should be no left over home folder with her original account's short name in your root level /Users/ folder or in a "Deleted Users" folder in that folder.)
2. Using the Finder, copy her entire home folder from the copy you made to the root level /Users/ folder of your Mac. You should do this from an admin account & will have to click the "Authenticate" button in the warning dialog to get permission to modify the /Users/ folder. Enter your admin account name if it is not already there in the authentication window & that account's password.
3. Create a new user account for her in System Preferences > Accounts, making sure you use exactly the same short name of that home folder for the *Account Name*, & to keep things simple also enter the same Password & Full Name her account on her Mac used. When you click the "Create Account" button, you should be notified that a home folder already exists for this account name & asked if the new account should use it. Reply that you do & the new account should be good to go.
Your wife should not have any significant problems using this account because of differences between the Macs. The worst that is likely to happen is some windows may open up in unusual positions or sizes, which can usually easily be corrected by just resizing or repositioning the window. For a few odd problems, it might be necessary to delete a related user preference file, but for the most part the OS will disregard inappropriate preference values & replace them with defaults suitable for the Mac it is running on.
Message was edited by: R C-R

Deleted Users Confusion/Worry

I'm not very tech smart but I just opened my finder to look through my computer and on the left side bar, favourites/devices area. I found a 'Deleted Users' file which i've never seen before. I'm confused how they got here and why I never saw it before.
It has two .dmg and one is 'aspnet.dmg' I don't know what that even is?
The other seems to be my older personal user account, lets just say its called 'M.dmg' which I again don't know how it got there. I did transfer my old computer on to this but i don't remember deleting it on my mac or anything about it ending up in this Deleted Users folder.
The user I use on my mac is the first one I made, the user I currently use is called 'M2' so its not the same one I'm using but I'm just worried what these things are and how they got there. They both apparently have 1gb of data but I cant find anything inside them other than a few older personal files in the 'M.dmg'. I transferred my old computer on to this one but I've never seen this Deleted Users file before just worried about touching/deleting them if they're important. I have this computer for about three years now, not sure why I've never seen this.
Sorry I rambled, basically I'm just worried what these are exactly. They both have about 1gb of data but I cant see anything other than a few things in the old user .dmg and I have no idea what aspnet.dmg even is...What are they? Should I delete them? & Why do they seem to have pretty much nothing but say its 1gb each? I'm just confused, Thanks!

oba wrote:
I still have no idea how this folder made it's way to my sidebar. I'm not sure if there is a way to determine that with Time Machine.
I think I will change my passwords, I'm on a hidden Wi-Fi Network with just family computers and my passwords are obsurd.
I'm going to mark your question as having solved my problem because it appears that it did, at least for the part I was worried about.
Thanks for the help!
What is the new sidebar folder called? It could just be a new feature.
Changing passwords can help if you think things may be compromised, it's best to add really good & unique passwords if possible.
Hidden wifi is a bit of a misnomer. Everytime your Mac sends data the 'hidden' access point is revealed to an extent. There is nothing wrong with it, but don't assume it adds extra security, it just discourages people who try to connect to every visible network. You still need WPA2 encryption if possible (WEP is too easily cracked).
Don't forget to dig out any old files from the old account, there may be some buried treasure

Deleted user and his invisible files

A program I was running (SageTV) went into its Screen Saver mode and started showing still images that I can't locate with the Finder. The path was something like: /Users/User1/Pictures/iPhoto Library/picture.jpg. I discovered that 'User1' was in the 'Deleted User' folder. What I'm trying to do is locate these invisible files, move them to my active account, and delete these unused folders. Is there any Finder setting that would give me access to the deleted user's files? I have administrator privileges on this computer.

Clearly when the other user account was removed the option to also remove his files was not chosen, so his entire user directory is most likely still intact and available.
I believe if you remember the exact account name, you can restore it and easily access all the files/folders.
You might also run
ls -al /users
and see if the account is there with some other user name or perhaps the original name.
If it is User1, then you can access the files from the terminal and move the ones you want somewhere else, preferably a temporary folder to begin with to avoid any permissions issues.
If, on the other hand, the user's files were removed along with his account, that is something else and an admin account may not have sufficient privileges to access the images or other files still on the system.
Lastly, if all else fails, you can activate the root account and access all the files on the computer, but that should be a last resort.

Deleting User Name & Data

I have an deleted admin user on my Mac, but need to know if I can permanently delete the user name and the home files data (my son)? When he deleted his account, he didn't delete his files and I don't want to accidently lose my files.

You can remove a deleted user account without losing your files. If the account has already been deleted then navigate to the /Users/ folder and look for a Deleted Users folder. Drag the folder to the trash then empty the trash.
If the account has not yet been deleted then open Accounts preferences from your admin account, click on the lock icon and authenticate, select the account you wish to delete and click on the ,Delete [-] button. Select the option to completely remove the account.

No "Deleted Users" folder

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for