RENAMED SHORT NAME!!! HELP HELP HELP HELP

ok. i did a very stupid thing today..
for some reason i decided to 'apple i' my home folder..
essentially my shortname. and change it..
my powerbook didn't like that.
so, it created a new user and has 'lost data'.
simply meaning all my files are in a username 'rob'.
is this making sense?
anybody out there can help an idiot?
thanks

Yes, as you have learned this is a big oops!
Go here for Apple's advice.
Hope this helps...

Similar Messages

Change (rename) short names on existing Users

Working on the Workgroup Manager with the Apple XServer 10.4.10, and I wonder if there was a code or script to change the “short name” of the users accounts as well as having the new (rename)“short name” stay the default short name. I don’t want the “old” short name to exist on the user account. Is there a process through the terminal program I can make this change?
Thank you,

The simple answer is 'no.' But if you're really bent on it, Apple documents the process of creating a new user and integrating the old user's files. http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106824 (updated 2005 so i assume the process has not changed)
I believe this is targeted at OS X client, as a standalone. The process for an OpenDirectory account may differ.
Also, there is a utility called ChangeShortName that supposedly automates this process at www.danfrakes.com. I haven't run it and I believe it's intended for standalone OS X clients -- I have no idea what it'd do on a server. I think it's one of those "run at your own risk" things.

Short name help

The short name on my computer accidently got renamed and now all the permissions changed, I can't access certain fonts, my computer doesn't show up on the network, and my mail is all changed. All of the information is there and I can see that my old short name has a folder under the users folder but I can't switch the name back because it says it is already in use. HELP!

Hi
See if this helps:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107854
Steve

Rename short name or switch main user identity

Hi fellow mac users!
I recently have taken over a new G5 at work and want to personalize it to my new user identity. How do I change the existing 'short name' or delete the existing user and make myself the main user?
I'm trying to avoid a whole system re-install since apps and files already exist from the previous user.
Is there a technique that I can try?
thanks in advance.

If you don't need anything from the previous user's home folder, you can simply create a new admin account in SystemPreferences>Accounts and then delete the previous user's account.

Botched short name change attempt has left me with no permissions! Help!

Early on, my MacBook Pro's hard drive ground to a halt and I had to fork out to get it restored. When it came back, my administrative account was no longer named "Will", but "macbookpro".
I changed the username simply, but was always bothered by the home folder being called "macbookpro". After buying a WD MyBook and backing up my "macbookpro" user folder with the WD Anywhere application, I (stupidly) decided to follow an outdated Apple guide ( http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1428 ) on how to change the short name via Terminal and root - something I now realise is no longer necessary in Leopard.
When adding the new account to replace "macbookpro" with, I couldn't, as the existing account had the username I wanted already, just not the short name. I changed what I thought was the username for what I thought was a temporary amount of time from "Will" to "William", so they had different names and I could proceed.
I followed the rest of the guide up to the point where I log on as new user. Forgetting I wasn't finished, I fired up Adium - which acted like it had never seen me before (something I don't really mind), and to this moment it has refused to sign in to MSN, but does AIM perfectly.
After being puzzled by Adium I continued the process, finding not "the keychain, which should still have the short name of the original user", but "login.keychain" - I left it.
Giving up and continuing to use my computer, I attempted to update Camino by downloading the latest version whilst simultaneously resetting all of my Application preferences to how they were before.
On dragging Camino to Applications, I was told I did not have sufficient privileges to do anything but view it. Everything except what is in my new home folder is read-only.
Sharing and Permissions shows me that macbookpro is the only account with jurisdiction over Applications - Read & Write, whereas groups "admin" and "everyone" are Read only.
For most other files, "system" and "admin" have Read & Write permissions, except in the System folder where only system has, whilst "wheel" and "everyone" can only read.
In my panic, I renamed "William" to "macbookpro" again, meaning that when I log onto my (now completely reset and devoid of preferences) original macbookpro account, I have my permissions mostly back.
You'd think I would then simply revert to using macbookpro and changing all my preferences, using the Leopard short name change - but "macbookpro" doesn't seem to be able to open ANY applications. At all. For no good reason.
Short of going through every single file on the hard drive manually and changing the permissions to allow "Will" to read and write, I can't solve this!
This puts a massive hindrance on my use of this computer, and I don't want to edit permissions on each file as I need it and then discover the only solution is to completely restart!
Please, somebody help!

If anybody ever has a similar problem, here's how I solved it as best as I could:
http://www.macchampion.com/arbysoft/Welcome.html BatChmod is a tool for batch editing file permissions.
It fixed my Applications and Library, and I can now read and write to both folders.
I dragged solely the contents of Application Support from my backup over the existing Application Support folder within my user's library, and that restored a few, but not all, of my Application Preferences.

I follow all the instructions to change my "short" name, but when I log back in to my account, it's like starting over from scratch, help?

I follow all the instructions to change my "short" name, but when I log back in to my account, it's like starting over from scratch, help?

https://discussions.apple.com/message/6164451#6164451

Forms popup help - module implementation name must equal module short name.

I don't know if this was blatanly obvious, or if it has been already stated, but just in case it wasn't, I'll state it here.
Here is something that I noticed while trying to make the help system work. I found that the module's short name is stored in the CG_FORM_HELP (or any alternative name that one may use) table. However, when the form is generated, the key-help trigger sends the module's implementation name (only on property palette) to the procedure which calls the help form. I had modules with short names differing from the implementation name, and was forced to change the implementation name to match the short name in order to make the help system work correctly.
If anyone has problems with the user/help text from their modules, module components, and items not displaying (and maybe just the user/help text from the base tables showing up), then you may want to look into this.

I forgot to state that I was using Designer 6.0 Patchset 4 (6.0.3.8).

Right or Wrong? help: user account short name has Capital First Letter

Hello
I have the same issue as a post in the Mountain Lion discussion group. It doesn't seem to be getting an answer. So I thought I would post it here, being that I do have Snow Leopard.
The Mountain Lion post is here: https://discussions.apple.com/message/21665861#21665861
Here is MY question::
Can anyone answer this? I have this same thing. I've had this Mac since 2010, too, I think, at least two years. I don't remember being asked to use lowercase, nor actually typing in the Capital letter. I stumbled upon the realization when I was using my Macbook and my user name whille different does use all lowercase. The Macbook is newer.
I've been running this Mac with the first letter Capital for the short name with no problems that I know of. I do have Time Machine backups that I don't really want to lose access to.
What are the benefits and pitfalls of using the method etresoft explains to change it to all lowercase?? Should I do it just to do it and be in line with Apple's guidelines or should I leave well enough alone?? Which way will cause me MORE problems? Running with the Capital letter or going through the process of changing it to lowercase??
What kind of problems will I run into if I change it or don't change it???
Where "oldshortname" is your old user name and "newshortname" is the user name you want to change it to. Keep in mind that both oldshortname and newshortname must be all lowercase, with no spaces, and only contain letters or numbers.
And, Padgreen has an excellent point -- how do we do this change process if our Old Shortname is Shortname?? How can we type "shortname" for the "oldshortname" if our shortname is not all lowercase??
etresoft -- are you around??
Or someone else? Thanks!!
(the only thing I can even think of as a problem is when I copy files/folders over to my Macbook - it sometimes makes "nobody" the owner of the file/folder and I find out when I try to edit or move the file. I can usually just change the owner and everything is fine. I don't know if this is related or not.)

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1428 states:
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.

Short name password- no clue! Help!

Well, my short name has a password to change anything in the domain- don't have a CLUE what it is!
Any tricks for this? My hint is meaningless to me...

Yes, I'm Administrator, it's the domain password which I probably shouldn't be screwing around in anyway, all indications found digging around post-post are that it should be my master password but it doesn't work, and of COURSE I have my original install discs! But an archival reinstall keeps problems along with one's music collection sometimes...
If I were hacking Macs I'd attach my trouble to vacation pics, not the root operating system. What gets kept? And I have to reload the OS, a run of Tech Tool says it's time. I just don't care to save any hacker's little secrets in a fresh new install.

I would like to change my Short Name. But no edit menu in the directory to choose root.

Like the title says, pretty self explanatory. I bought this MacBook from a friend of mine and her name is still on the Home Icon (short name). I get the idea of how to change it but once I get to the Directory Utility to enable the Root User, I find that there is NO edit menu. So now I'm somewhat at an impasse on how to do this so I've decided to come here for some help. Sorry if this has been asked a million times, I've gone through some other topics somewhat similar and nothing remotely came close to this issue. I find it odd that I don't have an Edit Menu in the DU. If there is a different way to this then please let me know, if not then please walk me through this. Thanks!

Have a look at this link - hopefully it sorts it out for you...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1428
http://www.cultofmac.com/126621/how-to-move-or-rename-your-mac-home-folder-macrx /

Tried to change short name..and now it's weird.

I apologize if this is in the wrong area, and I hope it's not. I'm new here.
So I read on how to change the Short name, and it says I had to enable root account but because the mac Update awhile ago disabled being able to manage the enable/disable option under the disc utility, I had to use Terminal to type the "sudo passwd root. After that, I logged out of my admin account and into my root account, and I went in "users", clicked the name under the "home" icon {my short name} and changed it to something else. But it didn't really "delete" my old one. All it did when I logged back on is simply removed all the files from the "home" under Places and a new folder is created.
I don't know if it makes sense. You know the little "home" icon with your short name under it? I want to change the name for that, but changing it just creates a new folder, and now I don't know how to disable root again. Any help would be great thanks!

BabyBoss wrote:
All it did when I logged back on is simply removed all the files from the "home" under Places and a new folder is created.
Welcome to Apple's discussion groups.
If all you did was to change the name of that user in the Accounts panel, then you didn't do the whole job, as (I believe) that account's home folder would still have the old short name. I'd log into "root" again and navigate to the /Users folder. Rename the "new" folder to something else to get it out of the way, then rename the old home folder to the new short name. Now see if things are the way you want them.

Why not change the Macintosh HD to a shorter name.

I have a friend that picked up a Mac mini with OS X 10.5.8 and one for the first things
I noticed was the previous owner had changed the name of the single drive from Macintosh HD
to a shorter name
I recall reading somewhere that it is not a good idea to change the name of the primary
hard drive from Macintosh HD and I cannot remember why.
Can someone point me to a document that describes why the primary hard drive should not be renamed?

{Usually the problem occurs when a user changes the Short Name of the
computer where it affects how it is then seen in a network, and does this
improperly so the computer can't be networked until this issue is fixed.}
• Mac OS X: How to change user short name or home directory name:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1428
• Mac OS X (10.4) Help: What's my computer's name and address?
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.4/en/mh632.html
• How do I change the Owner's Name on my Mac?
http://www.askdavetaylor.com/howto_change_owners_name_applemac.html
And if you change the Short Name (account user, etc) then KeyChain
access and other items may well be a real problem to weed out & fix.
Note the comments, after the basic info in this thread:
• Changing Names - Root - Mac Gems - MacWorld:
http://www.macworld.com/article/41481/2004/12/changeshortname.html
Or, if a user changes the name of their User Account, improperly, then the
account won't match the password and other issues will result; unless it
is fixed or the problem of changing the name incorrectly in the first place
is avoided; since there is a proper way to change the short name of the
computer (not that on the icon of the hard disk drive, btw) and a correct
way, a process, to change the user account name.
It is not advised to change the User name on an account or that of the
Computer's name where it is seen on a network. That aside, the name
change of the computer's Hard Disk Drive, at the icon on the desktop,
can be avoided by using Dock preferences to Hide the HDD so it will
not appear on the desktop at all. (Kids in schools change the HDD icon's
name frequently, when it is available and the computer not set up to
work under the Parental Controls or lower user account privilege access.)
+You can change the name of the Hard Disk Drive and that won't make+
+much difference; except in those cases where you have an Alias of the+
+original name, since it would no longer activate access to the Mac HD.+
I got over the urge to change the HDD name some time ago. However
if you partition the original hard disk drive so you have two icons on the
Desktop, you could have fair reason to change the names if you like.
(Just remember, if you make a clone, or do any complete computer drive
backup to some external device, the name change could affect the result.)
If you have an Intel-based Mac running Windows, you may have a different
matter in re-naming the hard disk drive; since Windows may require another
avenue into the means to rename that drive. And then, that may be a problem.
*You can change the Mac HD to any name.* In previous Mac OS (pre-x) versions
it was also common for users to change the hard drive icon to some other one,
and if they'd named the computer (a monster name, for example) a new image
for the icon could easily be applied through a copy-paste. In fact, that may still
be something one may be able to do, through a different agency in OS X.
And, when installing an all-new OS X, you can also change the name of the Mac HD
in Disk Utility, since the name is blank after choosing a partition scheme & reformat.
The real issue revolve around changing the computer's short name, and changing
the user's account name(s) since this is where problems begin that are harder to fix.
If the rules are followed in regard to these two, going into the situation, problems
are more readily avoided. I just don't change those things, since I'm too busy.
Good luck & happy computing!
{ edited 2x }

Changing 'short name' in Admin account?

I'm using a computer at work that was previously used and administered by a former employee who has since left the company. I need everything to maintain exactly the same settings since I need to work on this computer in the same fashion as the former user. I was provided with the old password and I've changed the account (the only one on the machine) to now have my user ID and password etc. but the 'short name' is still this other person's name. I don't see any way to change this short of creating a new admin account and then deleting the old one, but then I loose all the settings, prefs etc. from the existing account which I really can't do since I need all of those settings to get my work done on this machine.
Is there any work-around that I can use to modify the short name in the existing admin account, or alternately is there a way to duplicate an entire account with it's settings intact so that I can rename it with my own user name, short name and password?
Thanks a lot for any help you can provide!
Sherill
Dual 1.8 Ghz PowerPC G5 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Hi, 3Sherill3. This may help:
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/16620

How to change the short name????

i bought this iBook G4 off a friend and i was only able to change the name and pass on the account part and was not able to change the short name... it a chicks name so i dont want that to show on there,, does anybody know how to change that ??? thanks

Just a general reply this, but I had to click on 'Reply' to someone's post...
It strikes me as very strange that something with such devastating consequences is even provided as an option in Finder. How many posts have there been saying "Help, all my settings/docs/music have gone!" or similar, and the poster having to be walked through the remedial steps? What useful purpose can there be to being able to rename the 'short name', and therefore the 'Home' folder, with a control-click?
Dr Smoke has a 'Recovering from Re-naming you Home folder', and presumably there is a Knowledge base # for it too. Surely the simplest thing to do would be, in a future SW Update, to remove that Finder option entirely. If it's necessary for some diagnostic purposes to rename, then let there be a more arcane way of doing it, surely.
Just my humble opinion, of course...
& yes Jon, my reply to Ozzman was curt, unhelpful and non instructive. I apologise for that. It was late & I'd been up since 5am. I should have left well alone if I wasn't prepared to more helpful.
An Apple a day...
Adrian

How could I change the name of Short Name?

I have some trouble on name creation on 10.4. I am a computer admin in my company. Everytime we bought new Mac, I will give a Short Name to the computer which is a part of new system setting. My difficulity is, I need to change the name frequently when the machine swap to a new user. How should I change the Short Name instead of reinstall the system?
Thanks a lot for your help!
Felix

To change an account's short name, log in from an administrator account and then open the NetInfo Manager application in the /Applications/Utilities/ folder. Change the old name to the new name in the admin group, as well as that user account's name and home properties; don't alter or delete any other accounts, groups, or properties. Next, open the /Users/ folder in the Finder and rename that account's home folder so that it has the new short name. Log out and back in.
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RENAMED SHORT NAME!!! HELP HELP HELP HELP

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