The Home folder is still in the name of the previous owner.

Hello.
I have recently purchased a second hand iMac.The Home folder is still in the name of the previous owner and I keep getting asked for his passwords. All his applications are still on there, so I would like to do a clean install and start again. Lion was already installed so I do not have any discs to re-install. How do I do that without any discs etc?
I appreciate your help.

You are in a bit of a jam. You cannot reinstall Lion because you do not have the previous owner's Apple ID and password which would be needed. You have to buy your own copy of Lion. If you don't already own a copy of the Snow Leopard DVD then you must purchase the Snow Leopard DVD from Apple's Online Store - $29.00, install it and update it to 10.6.8 to access the Mac App Store. Sign into the App Store with your Apple ID and password, purchase and download the Lion installer - $30.00. Or go to your local Apple retailer and purchase the Apple USB Flash Drive Lion installer - $69.00 that you can then use to erase the drive and install. This latter option is your only alternative if the computer came with Lion pre-installed.
The Lion license is not transferrable because it is associated with the purchaser/owner's Apple ID.

Similar Messages

I bought a MacBook Pro off of someone and the home folder is still in their name...is there any way I can change it without losing all of my stuff?

So I recently bought a MacBook Pro off of someone so I can use it for school. The home folder is still in the previous owners name and I was wondering if there is any way I could change it without losing all of my stuff that is on the MacBook Pro?? Thanks for your help!

See Changing user account short name

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

"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?

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.

Help with understanding the Home Folder plus User Accounts

I just got the IMac (replacing an ageing...that is an understatement...Grape iMac from long ago) and this is my first go at the OSX. My previous iMac had OS9.2
I am having a problem understanding the Home folder and the Users to a point. The concepts are fine, it is the changing of names that is the problem. When I first started the iMac and went through the set-up and finally looked at the file structure, there was the Home Folder with a name, which i guess was pre-entered during set-up since I did not enter it (lets call it JOE). There was also 1 User, JOE with all the iLife folders. Since I did not like the name, i went to the Systems Preferences, into Accounts and found that JOE is an Admin. So, I changed the name to, lets say BILL, who still is an Admin. I also changed some settings and made BILL the auto log account. OK so far I am happy. I go back to the HD and find that now there are 2 users (folders), BILL and JOE, and that the Home Folder is still named JOE butall the iLife files are now under BILL.
So I went and also renamed the Home Folder to BILL, so everything looks fine. But when I restarted the iMac latter it lost all the settings (mouse, etc.) This is really getting confusing.
Here is what I want to do (after some reasearch):
I want to change the Short Name (JOE) but so far I have read that you can not do that. Where did this name come from (basically my first initial and my last name) because I don't want my Home Folder to be named that. I found somewhere that the only way to do that is an Erase and Install. I am willing to do that since I have a backup of all the iLife files on an external disk anyways and I have not put anything new yet.
Can someone enlighten me as to what would be the best course of action....this Short Name thing is frustrating.
iMac 20" 2.33MHz Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Welcome To Discussions kapklo!
First you need to sort out the extra Home folder issue, that was created by changing the Short Names.
The info in one or more of the articles linked to below, will help you with that.
Return to Default Desktop, Apparent "Loss" of Home Directory
My home folder and desktop are different than before
Recover from renaming your Home folder, authored by Dr Smoke
Then you can change the Short Name using this Change Short Name The Easy Way.
Or you could do an Erase & Install, making sure you enter your preferred Short Name, during the setup process.
ali b

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

HT2470 I need to change the home folder name. I just bought this mac today and my cousin put his name in because he had to back up his phone while we were still at the store so he could get a new phone and now my brand new imac says his name in the home f

I need to change the home folder name. I just bought this mac today and my cousin put his name in because he had to back up his phone while we were still at the store so he could get a new phone and now my brand new imac says his name in the home folder. This is very frustrating. I would not have let him put his name in there if I didn't think you could change it. Someone please help!

Delete his user account and create your own, using your name.

"The home folder could not be created because the network name cannot be found" error in AD users and computers

Our home folders are stored on a non-windows NAS device and with Windows XP and 2003 we've always got the above error when creating or modifying users home folders, even when the shares were al ready created and being used.
However this was never really a big issue as the error that popped up was really for information and finshed with a "we've modified the user properties anyway, please create the share manually" type message.
Unfortunately now we are moving to windows 7 and 2008R2, this last part of the the message is missing and it won't accept the correct value.
This issue may be in the way that the NAS device shares the folder, as only the username that matches the folder name can access the share. This behaviour can't be modified.
Is there a way to get Windows 7/2008R2 AD users and computers to behave the same way that Windows XP/2003 does , i.e. don't try and create the share just set the value in the user properties ?
The AD is still at 2003 level and we can still use Windows XP/2003 clients to make the changes but this is a bit of a limitation.

The KB article is almost what we have apart from theitalic underlined
part
Consider the following scenario:
You use a domain administrator account to log on to a computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2.
You use the Active Directory Users and Computers Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in to connect to a domain controller.
You open the Properties dialog box of a user account.
The user account has sole access to a shared folder path that cannot be accessed by the administrator account.
You set the Remote Desktop Services Home Folderattribute to the shared folder path.
NoteThis attribute is located on the
Remote Desktop Services Profiletab.
You click Apply or OK.
In this scenario, you receive the following error message:
The home folder could not be created because: The network name cannot be found.
Note If you click Apply or OK again, no error message is returned. However, the setting is not saved.
I think the important bit is
The user account has sole access to a shared folder path that cannot be accessed by the administrator account.
We manually create the shares on our NAS and then just want to enter the path in the profile tab, I suppose the question is how to we stop it trying to create the shares ?

How do I change the name of the Home folder OSX 10.9

Hi there,
I am trying to change the name of the Home folder on my Macbook Pro running OSX 10.9 I had a clean install of 10.9, and used migration assistant to restore my settings from a Time Machine Backup.
The problem is that the Home folder for my user is now named "Cody 1" when it used to be "Cody". This seems like a minor issue, but all the programs that reference data in the old location, are forcing me to go and find the data manually. Everything from iPhoto to VirtualBox, all files have to be found manually.
I have tried the instructions set forth in this article, http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1428, but the dialog that should, according to the article, allow me to redirect the account to the existing folder, returns an error saying that the user name is already in use. There is no option to use the existing folder. I have tried re-naming the folder to something different, to no avail.
Ideas?
Thanks in advance.
-Cody

The Apple Support document you referenced is cumbersome, outdated, buggy, and too likely to result in the sort of problems you described.
It may be too late now but see the following:
Niel's post here: How to change name of home folder
and:
Apple Support Communities contributor Pondini found an astonishingly simple way to accomplish what you seek. etresoft distilled that information into the following User Tip:
Changing user account short name
Note that he writes it has been tested on Mountain Lion but the procedure appears sound and should work equally well with Mavericks.
Back up your system before doing either one.
To fix what happened might be possible in Single user mode. I don't have specific instructions but you should be able to find and delete user accounts in the /Users directory.
Type carefully and don't proceed without knowing the risks.

How do you change the name of the Home Folder?

I would like to change the name of the Home Folder.
How do you do this?

Hold command r keys and boot the computer into Lion Recovery Partition.
From there you can erase the Lion OS X Partition using Disk Utility and download and install a new copy of Lion from Apple's Servers.
Upon rebooting normally you will go through the setup and can set whatever name on the machine as you wish.
All files and third party programs will be removed, so save your files off the machine and resintall programs from fresh sources, download iLife from the AppStore again if you need it.
Sorry this is the only way it can be done to remove a previous owner entirely from the machine, you can delete a use from the System Preferences> accounts, but not the owner unless you do a total reinstall.
copy from another post...

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 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 do I install OSX onto a new SSD (in the place of my optical drive) without transferring all data across. However, with the applications, system and library on the SSD to improve the speed, but keep non essential items (the home folder) on the HDD

I have a mid 2009 13 inch unibody 2.53GHz MacBook Pro. I'm finding that it doesn't run as quickly as it used to.
A genius in the Apple store suggested that I replace my optical drive with an SSD, however only use the SSD for OSX, applications, system and library. Keep all documents, pictures, music etc on the current hard drive.
I would be grateful if someone could help me with:
1) installing OSX on the SSD without copying across data from the current hard drive
2) transferring applications, system and library folders across to the SSD so that they still function
3) changing my settings so that OSX reads the home folder from the current hard drive, as well as all the applications' data (documents, music etc...)
However, I would like to run iMovie, with all events etc solely from the SSD to speed up the process of editing movies.
If anyone could help with this, it would be much appreciated.

If you got the data transfer cable with your SSD, the procedure should be pretty simple - and there should be step-by-step instructions in the box. You're simply going to remove the bottom case of your computer (using a Phillips #00 screwdriver), take out the two screws in the bracket holding the hard drive into place (using same screwdriver), remove the drive and (use a Torx 6 screwdriver) remove the four screws that hold the hard drive in place. Then put in the SSD and reassemble the machine.
Then you'll plug up the old hard drive by using the SATA to USB cable and use the option key to boot from the old drive. I don't know what data transfer software Crucial provides, but I would recommend formatting the SSD using Disk Utility from your old drive ("Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" with a single GUID partition) and then use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone your old drive to your new SSD (see this user tip for cloning - https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4122). You needn't worry about getting an enclosure since you have the data transfer cable and you don't want to use your old hard drive.
There are a number of videos on YouTube that take you step-by-step through this procedure - many specific to Crucial SSDs and their data transfer kit - do a little searching there if you're unsure of how to procede.
Clinton

How can I share the home folder with different accounts on the same mac?

Hi, here's a question:
How can I share the home folder with different accounts on the same mac?
The whole point being not to have to install all my apps, and move all my files each time between users.
The second thing would be to be able to modify one document on one account, and have it changed on the other account without having to copy it.
I would like to have a pro and a private account on my mac.
Thanks for you answers,
Doug

Your apps should not be installed in your home folder--they should be in /Applications where every user can access them.
If you want to share things between users on the same Mac, use the /Users/Shared folder. Keep your home folder private. Trying to defeat the protections on the home folder subfolders just gets messy. I've never bothered to figure out all of the problems associated with it so I can't explain how to do it.
Even with using Shared, you would need to alter the ACLs on the shared folder in order to allow both users to modify the documents.
You must create a Group in Users & Groups and put each user in that group. Then create a folder inside /Users/Shared where you want to share the various files.
Then, add an ACL to the shared folder that gives the group special permissions. on that folder.
sudo chmod -R +a "<sharinggroup> allow delete,chown,list,search,add_file,add_subdirectory,delete_child,file_inherit,directory_inherit" /Users/Shared/<sharing folder>
Replace <sharinggroup> and <sharingfolder> with the name of your group and your folder. Then, run the command in the Terminal.
With that ACL, each user in <sharinggroup> will be able to alter the files created by any user in the group in that <sharingfolder>.
Essentially, the client OS is not designed for true file sharing among the individual users. It is designed to isolate each user account from the others.

The Home folder is still in the name of the previous owner.

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