Uppercase letters in short name=bad?

Hello,
I was wondering if having uppercase letters in my short name was in any way detrimental. During Setup I must have changed the suggested name and don't want any instability in the future. I'm new to OS X, but I've used linux frequently in the past and have had no problem with login and home/user folder having uppercase letters in them. Thanks.

Thanks very much! I just got scared seeing people talking about Unix conventions not allowing uppercase letters for login names and home folders. (though this never seemed to be an issue in GNU/linux)

Similar Messages

Problem with uppercase letters in Preferences

The following code [excuse lack of formatting]
----- snip ----
import java.util.prefs.*;
public class PrefTest {
Preferences prefs = Preferences.systemRoot();
public PrefTest() {
public void DoIt() {
Preferences myPref = prefs.node("com/MyCompany/MyPackage");
Preferences prefa = myPref.node("MyClass1/Configuration");
prefa.put("MyString", "MyValue");
public static void main(String[] args) {
PrefTest cfg = new PrefTest ();
cfg.DoIt();
----- snip ----
produces the following registry entries [Wndows XP]
----- snip ----
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\Prefs\com]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\Prefs\com\/My/Company]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\Prefs\com\/My/Company\/My/Package]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\Prefs\com\/My/Company\/My/Package\/My/Class1]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\Prefs\com\/My/Company\/My/Package\/My/Class1\/Configuration]
"/My/String"="/My/Value"
----- snip ----
As you can see, all the uppercase letters are prefixed by a '/'.
I can see nothing in the docs for java.util.prefs which defines
such behaviour. Is this a bug, a feature or what?
Regards, Alan Beale

OK, I'll reply to my own post, as I think I've found the answer
in case anyone else is interested...
From
http://developer.java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/releases/preferences/
-- snip --
You'll see the result of running the code above under J2SE Beta 1.4 for Windows in Figure 1. Note that WML is encoded as /W/M/L, and PreferredChannel as /Preferred/Channel because Preferences has case-sensitive keys and node-names, while the backing store of choice (in this case Windows Registry) does not.
-- snip --
This implies that reading back the prefs should work OK, although the
data in the registry looks ugly. If this is the case [haven't tested
it yet] then it's not a problem.

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 ROOT

Please help,
I have Ibook g3, it was working fine, and I was running 10.4.3 so I wanted to do updated it through apple, but I forgot the password of my user name. So I restarted from tiger, then I reset the password and I updated the system, when I restarted, I couldn’t restart . I follow some vague advices, and I restart with pressing on (s) as I remembered, and I wrote codes that took me to the root user or super user, so now I can see the desktop empty except from the hard disk. There is no dock or anything that I can change in the preference. There is admin user, and I can’t see my user name in the list of user names even thou that I can see it in the folder called users.
So I tried to create a new user name and name it with the same user name, but the computer refused. So I add a new user name and tried to switch to this new user name, but it always go to this admin with SHORT NAME ROOT.
Now would you please guide me to go back to my computer?
There is no NetInfo Manager in application utility!
Thanks for your patience

Depressing ⌘s during system bootup brings you up in a command-line environment with root privileges in single-user mode. You can't make yourself another user because you are in single-user mode.
Like it or not, with the amount of time that has transpired so far and you are still broken, I would try to backup all the documents, files, and folders in all the users' folders and just reinstall the OS, if I were you. Your problem sounds reminiscent of a time when I ran a too-old version of TechTool Pro on my Tiger installation, it went to "fix" problems and landed up hosing my hard drive so badly that I could only salvage about 75%-80% of my users' documents, and I landed up just zeroing the hard drive and reinstalling a fresh new everything, and copying the salvaged users' documents back in after the fact.
Can you borrow another Macintosh computer? If so, connect the two computers together using a firewire cable. Boot up your iBook G3 in target disk mode by starting up your iBook then immediately press and hold down the "T" key until a gold-colored FireWire icon on a blue background appears on the iBook's screen. Your iBook should appear as a hard disk icon on the second computer. Copy all the files from all the User folders off of your iBook G3.
Then reinstall the OS on your iBook using the "archive and install" option, and do not import user or network settings. Recreate them manually. Then delete the Previous System folder that is at the root level like /Users, /Applications, etc., are. Next, apply the 10.4.9 combo update and security patches issued after that. Finally, copy all of your users' documents, files, and folders from the borrowed computer back into the appropriate recreated user accounts on your rebuilt iBook G3. This is easily done by rebooting the borrowed computer into target disk mode, by holding down the "T" key, as before.
If you don't have a whole bunch of third-party software installed on your iBook, and you aren't averse to reinstalling all your third-party software, too, then you might even want to consider doing an "erase/reformat" install of the OS, rather than an "archive and install". Then you will be "just like new".
This might take you several hours to do, but you've already been broken for five days. And, if you are missing important applications and executables like NetInfo Manager, it is hard to say what other important OS files, binaries, and applications might be damaged or missing, particularly if reapplying the combo update didn't seem to help.

Short name typo

Does anyone know if/how it's possible to change the short name once it's been entered? Looks from the Help menu that it's not an option, but says to create a new short name and delete the incorrect one. Would that wipe out all the things I've saved under the original?
Pointers would be welcome....Thanks!

Kristen first welcome to the discussions!
You might find this Apple KB article on the subject helpful.
Basically you create a new user and transfer the appropriate file from your old (badly named account) to the new one.

Creating a new short name

I understand that changing the shortsname is a bad idea. Will I end up with lots of permission problems if I:
- created a new admin account
- copy all files from old short name account into new one
- delete old account

Rob J wrote:
I understand that changing the shortsname is a bad idea.
Not really. It is only a bad idea if you go in an start re-naming files.
Here is a utility to change your short name. I haven't tried it. Apple also provides some very complicated instructions to do the same thing.
Actually, in addition to being complicated, Apple's instructions are just plain wrong. Do a good backup, then try that Dan Frakes program. It it were me, I would just log in as a different admin account, change my short name in NetInfo, rename my home directory, log in, and clean up any poorly written programs that happen to break.

Changeuser name (or short name)

Hi,
I tried to change m user name following the link
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1428
but it did not give me the otion of enabling me as root user. Does anyone know how to change my user name please?
Thanks
t

Miss_T why didn't you just continue posting to your original thread? That said did you follow what Barney-15E advised? Did you follow this?
Changing the short name
Though there are other methods by which an advanced user may change the short name and related information, the easier and safer workaround is to create a new user with the desired name, then copy the old user's Home directory contents into that of the new user.
Before following these steps, you may wish to back up your important data.
For Mac OS X 10.5 or later
Enable the root user.
Log in as root.
Navigate to the /Users folder.
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.
Use the Accounts pane in System Preferences to create a new user with the short name that you used in the previous step.
Click OK when "A folder in the Users folder already has the name 'short 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.
Choose Log Out from the Apple menu.
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).
After verifying that your data is as expected, you can delete the original user account via the Accounts pane of System Preferences.
Disable the root user.

IMail: How can I set mail preferences to display actual email address and not short names.

Even though I have it correctly set in Preferences , i.e. "Use Smart Addresses" is unchecked, the addressee automatically changes to the person's name rather than the email address. I am unable to find a way to display the actual email address option on iMail (Yosemite) I do not want nicknames/short names but want the actual email address to display on my address line. Can anyone advise please?

Thanks, Ernie
I wasted about 20 minutes looking for it and couldn't find it
cheers,
tom

Can I Change Home Name and Short Name This Way (Safely)?

Tried this question a couple weeks ago and got 0 replies in the Admin/Accounts section, so I'm revising and trying here. Please help!
Let me see if I can make this simple.
Small office environment; 2 Mac (G4's); Airport network. I am admin on both computers. My employee is admin on his computer as well, but not on mine. Each of us has data we use on our own computer but we can access data from the other computer when necessary. We use the same password to login (just for simplicity). My user name is "Joe Smith" and my assistant's is "Bob Lee Brown." His short name is "blb".
My assistant is moving out of town and I'm hiring someone else. I'd like to set up a new user with that person's name ("Jane Jones"). I'd like the entire "Bob Lee Brown" and "blb" off the computer, and have that replaced by "Jane Jones" and "jj" (for a short name) everywhere, for the new assistant. I want to make sure we're still 100% networked when I get done, and that I can still admin both accounts but my new assistant can't admin my computer. In other words, I'd like a clone of what I have now, only with the names changed everywhere.
So - here's the question (in multi-part format):
Should I create a new Admin account on the assistnat's computer, log in as that one and delete the existing one, saving the user prefernces from the deleted user?
In this event, could i take the deleted user file that's saved and import back in all the user preferences - particularly for Word and Entourage?
If this is the right way to go, what would I have to do on my computer to complete the network process? Any keychain issues I'd have to deal with (what and how?)?
Or, should I use ChangeShortName v1.2 (which I've read about in other posts)? Is that safe?
Or should I just tell my new assistant that she's stuck with a he's name and leave well enough alone?
Thanks - been on Macs since 1984, but never had to do this one before and I'm a little concerned I might mess something up without some step-by-step instructions!

I have used ChangeShortName once and it worked fine; a real timesaver. However, I would backup the /Users folder (or the whole drive) and repair permissions first to be on the safe side.
bd

How can I change the "short name" of my account?

I want to change the short name of my account because when my dad bought this computer for me he set up the account with his name as the short name and it has been bothering me ever since.
When I go to system preferences and then accounts my account is listed and when I click on it under password I am able to change my name, but not my short name because it is greyed out and cannot be clicked. Is there any way to change the short name on my account? I can't even delete my account and make a new one because the account delete button is greyed out when I click on my account.
Also, I went to my home folder and changed that from my dad's name to my name. This has reset every program on my computer to default settings! For example when I open my Safari browser a message pops up saying a keychain cannot be found to store Safari and asks me if I want to restore default settings.
So pretty much I've tried to change the short name on my administrative account, I reset everything to default settings and my short name is still my father's name. Can anyone help me out here?

Try this.
Or you could just create a new account and delete the old one.

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 /

NW 7.01 upgrade to 7.3 (BW) - Error: Unknown language short name Z2

Hello,
While upgrading a BW system to NW 7.3, in phase PREP_CONFIGURATION/LANG_SELECT I get the error:
Unknown language short name 'Z2'
and the upgrade cannot continue. The Z2 language is supplemented with English and is working properly in the system.
It is only used so that some BI reports to be presented in that language. It is not a correspodence language. Simulation in transaction i18n reports no errors.
Since no objects are translated in this language, I also thought to remove the language during the upgrade and import it after.
However, even this approach was not possible, since I do not get any screen in the upgrade GUI in order to be able to remove Z2 language. Also searched for Notes and in SDN, but no one seems to have faced such an issue.
The system is a standalone development NW 7.01 SPS 8 in Windows 2008 R2 SP1 with SQL 2008 R2 SP1.
Any help or ideas appreciated.
Thank you,
George.

Hi Sunny,
I do not have any translations to save. Nevertheless, I exported the language before starting the upgrade with SMLT_EX.
I get the error and the upgrade stops. I do not get any screen to remove the language.
Regards,
George.

How to get the XML file if we are using the Product short name.

Hi,
Till now I have used Short name of the Concurrent Program for Code while creating a Data Definition. Now saw a seeded template which has given the Code by Product short name. If we have the concurrent program then it is easy to refer the fields by checking the XML file. In this case how to find the XML file or how to refer all the fields if we have given code with Product short name. I saw this for iReceivables(ARI). Anybody please help me.
Thanks.

Hi Siva
Just to clarify, rather than the short name of the conc program there is a shipped data definition that just uses the product short name? What is the data def so I can check it.
Regards, Tim

Best Practice: changing a user's short name?

I administer the OS X Servers and user accounts at my school, where typically a few teachers will come back from the summer having gotten married and changed their names.
We use a standard for usernames of first letter of first name and last name, where Ann Smith is 'asmith' - when she goes and gets married and wants to be 'ajones' at the beginning of this year, what is the best way to go about this change?
Users have network homes, and IMAP email is on a separate server. Here is what I was thinking:
For the user's files, make a new user with their new username, 'ditto' the contents of the old username's home folder to the new username, and chown/chmod the new folder's contents to match the correct permissions.
For the user's mail, use SirAdmin to add ACL's to the old username's mail folders to be able to read them as the new username, have the new username set up their mail and copy the contents of the old username's mail to their new IMAP folder(s).
Does this make sense or is this far too complicated?
Do I just tell these users to log in using their old name and burn their essentials to a DVD and just worry about helping them with their emails?
Any and all suggestions would be appreciated -- thanks
BC

Hi Blair
These look like good methods to me and should work. You could consider creating a second short name - something suitable like their first name instead? Enable Mobile Account (PHD) for the affected users and log in using that short name. Their account should now be created locally as well.
If you have only a handful you could use a spare machine to do it with yourself? More on this later.
If you these users have IMAP accounts you could enable POP for them as well. As you/they log in to download from the server their current home folder their mail should be downloaded also.
What you have after that is effectively a back up of their home folders and mail kept locally on a client machine or a designated machine you decided to use. Delete their account, create the new long and short names, create the additional short name (exactly as it was before), log in with those details and upload the locally stored information back to the server. There should be no need to worry about permissions etc.
What you could do is send an email to the affected users outlining the steps they need to take to achieve what you want. Minimal effort with maximum gain.
When you are happy kill the mobile account option as well as deleting the additional short name. Send another mail advising they use the first short name for logging in. There'll be a little tidying up to do in deleting the locally created home folders but you can do this at your leisure using VNC.
I would have in place one of the other methods as well - just in case.
Tony

Yosemite install has messed up my home folder after fixing user short name.

I just installed Yosemite 10.10.2 onto a new Mac Pro, replacing 10.9.5. After the installation completed, I allow my iCloud settings the set things up for Mail and my other general account settings. The only issue is that when I changed my short name from timjones to tjones, auto correct changed it to tones (as it has done in this post 2 times). Once I recognized this, I used the normal method for modifying a user account by logging in under another admin account, using ditto to copy the '/Users/tones' folder to '/Users/tjones', selecting the Tim Jones account in Users and Groups and using the Advanced Options to reset the short name to tjones. I then reassigned the home folder to /Users/tjones.
All seemed to go well and when I logged back in as tjones. However, I could no longer set up my preferences for apps nor could I access my mail. I then clicked on the 'tjones' home folder in Finder and was greeted with a dialog that said 'Preparing to duplicate items to "Users"'. It then spun for around 2 minutes and prompted me for my password. I entered it and the dialog changed to 'Duplicating 0 items to "Users"' and it's now been spinning for around 15 minutes.
What is this and am I back at square one and reinstalling (I have good backups...)?

The "Duplication" finished finally and my home folder has now disappeared from the /Users folder in Finder. If I check in a Terminal, there are now 2 folders - 'tjones' which is set to tjones:wheel and 'tjones copy' which is set to tjones:admin. As mentioned, neither is visible in Finder.

Uppercase letters in short name=bad?

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