Rescuing my home folder by creating a new name

Please, I need help.
For the longest time my home folder was called, "Pappa Moosie". That's right: two caps and a space. Everything worked fine, but within the last few months my browsers got wonky, and things started crashing. I tried a backup and a reinstall, but still having problems. Now I can't access my home folder because of the irregularity of the naming of it. Can you give me a way (step-by-step preferred: I'm an older gent) to change the name of my home folder from "Pappa Moosie" to "pappamoosie"?
My system is really a mess right now. Thank goodness for my iPad.
Thanks in advance.

Everything worked fine, but within the last few months my browsers got wonky, and things started crashing.
I tried a backup and a reinstall, but still having problems.
Now I can't access my home folder because of the irregularity of the naming of it.
I don't think that's your problem, you should look here for fixes
..Step by Step to fix your Mac
and even do this if you don't have a easily accessible backup of just your files (not a corrupted TimeMachine or clone which I suspect you have restored from)
Create a data recovery/undelete external boot drive
Most commonly used backup methods

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hi, i know there are about a billion topics in this forum about this same thing, but i still cannot get everything back to normal despite reading a lot of them.
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i've done some things since then, but i can't remember every step i've taken so bare with me! maybe you clever people can figure out what i've missed out/done wrong.
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hello again,
i didn't really dare to delete the blue home folders before, just in case everything went wrong, but now i think i have so little space that i can't afford to lose 2.25gb!
one thing that slightly worries me is the fact that the 'proper' library folder (in the home icon) is 2.09gb, whereas the 'wrong' one (from the blue folder forenamesurname) is 2.24gb - this is the one i would be deleting. just seems odd to delete a larger file than the one i presume i'm using.
"Move everything you want to keep out of the blue folders, and then place both of the folders on your desktop. If everything works properly after a few days, delete both folders. If you are asked for your administrator password at any point or if either folder is copied instead of moved when dragged, don't delete that folder."
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i've put both of the folders on the desktop, it didn't ask for the admin password or try to copy them, so i guess that's good news. what kind of things should i be looking out for to act differently?
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Changing the name of my home folder

okay... ive joined a file sharing network called SolarSeek which i used on my PC as Soulseek and im trying to set up an upload folder for people to download from me. my girl did the initial setup on the Mac and put my whole name in it so when i add the folder to SolarSeek it shows my whole name - /User/myname/Music. i really dont want my full name displayed, id rather use an alias. ive changed my name throught the system but my home folder still shows my full name. is there in way around this?

First, ya need to create a whole new account for yourself by going to System Preferences > Accounts. Set it up the way you like it then click the Apple and choose Log Off. Log into that new account and open the Macintosh HD from the desktop, then open Users. Drag the folder with your full name to your desktop; it will ask for your password to do this. Then all is needed is to put the subfolders into their rightful place and all should be back to how it was in your original account!

Changing the name of home folder

When I set up my machine, I set up the name of my home folder without knowing some of the ramifications of using it. I reviewed the steps in http://www.macworld.com/article/132693/2008/03/changeshortusername.html which seemed reasonably straight forward.
I created another user called limited, and logged out of my administrators account, and into the newly created "limited" account.
All of the steps, up to step 10, went smoothly - modified the short name, and Home directory to the desired new name.
Step 10 required changing the folder name using the following sudo command syntax:
sudo mv /Users/oldusername /Users/newusername
I received the following error after I entered the password:
"limited is not in the sudoers file."
The only thing I could think of was that the account I created, "limited", was not set up with admin rights - so I went in and selected the "Allow user to administer this computer" checkbox for this account. However, a warning saying the change won't take affect until I logout and back in. I'm reluctant to do this, in case something happens where the Mac requires shutting down before all steps have been completed. I'm thinking of changing the short name and home directory settings (in the Account Preferences) back so they agree with the home folder name, and then redo the process once I know the "sudo" command will work. *Does this seem like a reasonable precaution?* I want to avoid having half the job done in case something happens and the Mac has to be restarted.
At this point, I don't know if my assumption is correct about the failure to execute the sudo command. Will adding the Admin rights to the account "limited" insert "limited" into the sudoers file? If not, what do I need to do to resolve that problem.
I've included the steps below:
============================================
1. If Automatic Login is enabled (in Accounts preferences) for the account you’re modifying, disable it. Similarly, if File Vault is enabled (in Security preferences), disable it. You can re-enable these features, if desired, after completing the procedure.
2. Log in as a different user than the one you want to modify; make sure the account you want to modify is not logged in.
3. Open the Accounts pane of System Preferences.
4. If the lock icon in the lower-left of the Accounts window is “locked,” click on it and provide an administrative username and password; this allows you to make changes.
5. In the list of accounts on the left, right-click (or Control-click) on the name of the account you want to modify; choose Advanced Options from the resulting menu.
6. In the Advanced Options screen, delete your current short username in the Short Name field, and then type in your desired new short username.
7. In the Home Directory field, change /Users/oldusername to /Users/newusername, where oldusername is your original short username and newusername is your new short username. Make note of the original and new paths.
8. Click on OK and close System Preferences.
9. Open Terminal (in /Applications/Utilities).
10. Type the following command, all on one line, and then press Return; when prompted, provide the password of the admin account you’re currently using, and then press Return again:
sudo mv /Users/oldusername /Users/newusername
(These are the original and new Home Directory paths from Step 7; oldusername is your original short username and newusername is your new short username.) This step renames your home folder in the Finder.
11. Restart your Mac.

NibblesNBits wrote:
When I set up my machine, I set up the name of my home folder without knowing some of the ramifications of using it. I reviewed the steps in http://www.macworld.com/article/132693/2008/03/changeshortusername.html which seemed reasonably straight forward.
I created another user called limited, and logged out of my administrators account, and into the newly created "limited" account.
All of the steps, up to step 10, went smoothly - modified the short name, and Home directory to the desired new name.
Step 10 required changing the folder name using the following sudo command syntax:
sudo mv /Users/oldusername /Users/newusername
I received the following error after I entered the password:
"limited is not in the sudoers file."
The only thing I could think of was that the account I created, "limited", was not set up with admin rights - so I went in and selected the "Allow user to administer this computer" checkbox for this account. However, a warning saying the change won't take affect until I logout and back in. I'm reluctant to do this, in case something happens where the Mac requires shutting down before all steps have been completed.
nothing will happen. just log out/in and rerun the command. an account has to be admin to use sudo.
Message was edited by: V.K.

Rescuing my home folder by creating a new name

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