Software :: Changed Mac Short Name And Lost Settings?
Oct 27, 2008
I am using a macbook Pro.
I changed my short name and rebooted, and when I logged back in, all of my preferences and settings were gone. I have found my old library, which I'm assuming has all of my settings (it has all of the files from my old user account), but don't know how to transfer that to the new account name.
I changed the short name of my home directory oblivious to the consequences. I have searched the internet high and low and have found a few threads already posted (including an Apple support article) that relate directly to this issue. However, although the root of the problem is the same in that I changed the short name, the outcome is slightly different and I can't restore all my preferences in the manner detailed in these articles. I have a Mac OS X 10.4.11. Here is exactly what I did and what is going on:
1. I went into Get Info. in the home directory icon in Finder. Say the original name was john, I changed it to Fred.
2. Since then, when I open any applications such as Skype, iTunes, iCalendar etc. all of the settings have been reverted to default making it appear as if I've only bought the Mac. However all my documents and music files are still there and can be accessed normally in the newly named directory. My desktop and widgets are also fine.
3. Now when I go to Macintosh HD and click into users there are 3 things: - The newly named home directory Fred with the house icon. - A folder with the old home directory's name, that being john. Inside there are Documents, Library, Music and Pictures folders but only the Library folder seems to contain anything important, which I hope are all my preferences. The other three are effectively empty. Like I said I can access my music files etc. normally. - Lastly the shared folder.
I haven't turned off or restarted my laptop because reading on threads it appears as if I can cause damage or end up not being able to access my mac. The two solutions I've found online are these: [URL]. The problem with this one for me is that I can't rename the new directory with the old name - it just won't let me. [URL]. The problem with this solution and another I found is that I think they are assuming the old directory - john - is in fact still a directory but in my case it is a folder.
My short user name was "nic"I wanted it to be a capital. So "Nic"I'm OCD on things like this >.<" I couldn't help myself.[I'm one of those people that hasn't go a single file out of place and whose iTunes library is perfect]I Went to System Prefs > Accounts > Right Click on the account in questionAnd changed short name to "Nic"HOWEVER, I left the home directory as /users/nic thinking it wouldn't matter as it was only a case change.
i have just entered the konami code into my mac on facebook and it has shown up with the camera flare etc. I then tried to remove it by refreshing the page and the flare disappeared, however now i am left with a voiceover that is describing everything i do, all the keyboard shortcuts have changed and alot of the settings are messed up. i reset the laptop but that didnt remove it. how i restore all the settings back to normal?
Before, when I dragged something to the trash it was kept there until I chose to 'Empty Trash' but now it doesn't store it but immediately asks if I am sure I want to delete it or not.
I went into Get Info and changed my own admin setting in Sharing and Permissions to Write Only. So now when I click on my hard drive, I am told I don't have access! How do I revert to the original settings? I want to see my hard drive.
Safari seems to have changed and I don't know how to get back to default preferences. Suddenly, it is wiping (visual) open, rather than opening the way every other application does with the last site visited, even though preferences are set to open with homepage. The top apple bar with the apple on the left and my name on the right hides when safari is open
I am on a Mac G4 and just installed 10.5.8. I the System Preferences I selected Display and changed the display from 60 hz to 24. Now I get no display. Is there a way to revert back, or access the terminal to change the monitor back so it displays? I know I could reload but that takes a couple of hours.
Stupid I know, but I saw my 'home' file was named root and for some reason thought it should be Home so I tried to change it.Meanwhile about half an hour later I had a power cut. On rebooting the computer, it logs me in to a default user with default settings.I know many people have done this before and I've been searching the net all day trying to do everything they say. The main difference is, the name wasn't changed and is still root therefore there is no 'old' file somewhere called home with all my files in that I can just swap over or change the name back to what it was before as most people seem to have been able to do.
I am connected to the internet via a belkin N+ router..... this is in turn connected to an adsl modem...I am having no problems with the signal to the router but at least four times a day my internet disappears....
When I run Network Diagnostics hey presto, your internet is working fine....The only things I have changed recently was that as I am running osx 10.4.11 I was having that issue where you couldn't access Network in sys pref, it kept saying "your settings have been changed by another application", I found a solution on here whereby you delete the plist prefs and rebuild them... That worked a charm but now I'm wondering is this connected in some way....
or...
I got software from the makers of the belkin N+ wireless usb dongle chip that came with my router (belkin don't provide osx support but said that I could get a utility from the chip makers) I installed this but it never worked so uninstalled it, and ran disk utility and safe boot and pram and fsck (everything I could think of)
I only have one location in network, and airport is the only active network port
I'm getting a message every time I open Network in System Preferences saying "Your network settings have been changed by another application". I click OK, and the box goes away and immediately comes back. It means I cannot use the Network part of System Preferences at all, because this message is caught in some kind of loop, and won't go away.
I finally got around to changing the way my wirless devices are set-up; instead of using time capsule as my wireless device, I went back to using the linksys wi-fi router (which I'd used prior to time capsule, but now set up as WPA2 if it makes a diff?) with the intent of putting time capsule in another room with my 1TB iTunes library hanging off it. All seemed to work well but I initially had a problem with the TV keep dropping the wi-fi connection. Now connected via ethernet to the linksys, no problem. iTunes streamed okay but I couldn't seem to get time machine to make a back-up - just prepared forever (overnight, still no joy).
So I noticed today that I seemed to have lost permissions on both iTime drive and time capsule. I managed to fix the iTunes drive by connecting direct to my macbook and running disk utility then adding myself again via sharing (hip hip for MRoogle), but I cannot do the same with the time capsule. Even with airport utility and connected via ethernet I can't even get the configuration up - just spins out until it throws an error. Anyone have any ideas as to what I'm doing wrong - I'm assuming it's me as this all worked in the previous set-up...
I have more than a dozen users and several groups configured on the Macs in our lab. I hooked up PEGASUS RAID to a different machine and all files' owner:group attributes were reset to 1000:20! Doesn't HFS+ filesystem store the ownership information?
Once i installed the latest safari update and the computer restarted, my date settings were changed to December 31, 2000. Also, random programs popped up, asking if i should allow or deny them. As well, i was disconnected from the internet. I'm not quite sure what has caused this.
Has anyone figure out how to stop that annoying loop in system preferences that says settings have been changed??I can get out of it by a two handed click on the OK button and locations but then it just comes back. I don't want to delete all the info on there and have to retype in.I'm only finding old posts back in 2008 on this! Am I that far behind??I was hoping a permanent easy fix has been found by now. I haven't had the need to get into System pref.
I accidentally changed some settings in the mail program on a friends iMac for the iCloud account. Now he cannot send or receive any mails. How can I reset the good settings?
Recently my battery seems to be draining faster than ever before. I'm not sure why. I haven't changed any "display" settings & it's on default settings for brightness settings, etc.
My girlfriend changed the user's name and the problems started (iMac wouldn't remeber system settings and denied access to some files and catalogs). When I wanted to fix the problem I probably made a mistake and changed the access settings of some files (finally even hard disk's settings). After this action my iMac doesn't start (the screen is white with the apple logo and nothing happens). Is there anybody who knows what to do now?
well, they aren't lost, but everything is offline. i just want to restore my email settings! i have aw iMac no disc drive. tried to restart in recovery mode (control R) but nothing happened
So I went out to update my web browser from Opera 9 to Opera 10 alpha. So I downloaded .dmg file and it said to copy it to applications folder so I did, then it asked me if I want to replace old version, I said yes and then i started my Opera and found all my bookmarks skins and settings gone. So I had to add my bookmarks again etc. Why? What could i do to save it but still get Opera 10?? This is really weird. I think that all bookmark settings and such were stored in Opera.app and now when I deleted it it's all gone.
Today I decided to download Airfoil software so I can listen to quicktime audio through my airtunes speakers. After installing the software my wireless settings are now gone. Even though I can see my wireless network, I can in no way what-so-ever connect to it. If I try to select my network from the list, it automatically deselects it. I can only connect to the airport extreme by connecting the ethernet cable to it. I have tried reinstalling SL and I have tried inserting the install disk for the base station. I tried restarting the machine several times but nothing seems to work. And yes I did unistall the airfoil software. I don't know why this software has completely crippled my wireless settings.
I have a MacBook 2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB running OS X 10.5.6. Had it for over a year, no problems until tonight. I was having trouble connecting to a printer via Airport and rebooted the MacBook. When it loaded, my desktop photo was gone, my customized dock had reverted to the first-run configuration and my entire Documents folder was empty. The capacity info at the bottom of the Finder window reassured me that my files were still there. I restored them to an external HD with Data Rescue, then ran the repair utilities from Disk Utility using my Leopard disk. Rebooted with no change.
Then, attempted to reinstall Leopard with my original disk and after I selected the language, it told me that Leopard can't be installed on this computer. About this Mac still shows version 10.5.6. All apps are intact and boot up but they all boot in first-run mode. Entourage has lost my mail database and my multiple email accounts/passwords/instructions. I've been on Macs for 20 years and never run into anything like this. How do I straighten this out? I'm willing to put in the hours to reinstate passwords, preferences, etc., but I really want to know what's behind this in case it happens again.
Find or reinstalling the systems preferences as well as the settings icon is lost. both were put in to the trash and trash has since been emptied . Is there any way of getting them back with out loseing eveything on my mac
I went to open my itunes and it said "itunes needs a library to open" then it would only let me choose a library that was dated to last july. I clicked on it and it opened my library from that date. I am really mad because it will now only open that library and im missing almost a thousand songs that have been downloaded since then. Why can i only open a previous library? Are all the songs, movies, and other settings that i have changed in the last 6 months gone?
I have just lost my user account that I normally use. It happened after I changed my name for my user account in the Finder. I clicked Get Info and changed the name from Helen Andersson to only Helen. and after that nothing is the same and i cant go back either that I know of. When I start the computer now everything that I had on my desktop and in my Itunes, Icalendar, addressbook, and Aperture are not there. I have found them (well at least what i had on my desktop and my itunes but not the other information), so they are still on the computer but I dont know how to get back to my normal user account.
When I check my System preferences Account I only have one account so its not like I made a new one and have two. But I can also see that the one I am using now that has nothing on it is made today.
So please if anyone can help me get my iMac to go back to the old user and all its settings the same way I would very much appreciate it. Because this user has nothing and I have to start everything from scratch even my internet settings I had to download again to be able to go on the internet. This user has nothing.