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MoodyM

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 14, 2008
778
25
My girlfriend is selling her MacBook. I have a full Time Machine backup. I want to create an account for her on my MBP. Can I create the account by restoring from her time machine backup, without affecting my own existing account?
 

justperry

macrumors G5
Aug 10, 2007
12,627
9,933
I'm a rolling stone.
Not in your User Account, you have to use another(new) account to even use another (iCloud) account, and then you might be able to do so.

Edit, if you create a new User Account you can then import her Home Folder.

At first I misread your question, at first I thought you meant an AppleID or iCloud but you just want to create a new User, if you create the new User it should have exactly the same name and password as her backup, not only that, you might run into problems with permissions.
For instance, on your MBP there is one account and also on her MB, this means both Users ID is 501, now if you create a second User on your machine her ID will be 502 while on the backup it is 501.

The best way to avoid conflicts is to copy it "manually" when it is logged into the new account since all copied files will have their permissions set right.
 
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MoodyM

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 14, 2008
778
25
So I can't manually create a new account for her and "import" her Time Machine backup into it?
 

justperry

macrumors G5
Aug 10, 2007
12,627
9,933
I'm a rolling stone.
So I can't manually create a new account for her and "import" her Time Machine backup into it?

Yes, but as I said before, log into that account and copy the things over, in the screenshot below you see a file in My documents folder, user ID is 501, now hers will be 502 so better copy manually.

You might run into problems with copying like files which are already there, just hit yes when it asks them to be overwritten.

Another way is to use a folder sync program like this one.
 

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bripab007

macrumors 6502a
Oct 12, 2009
529
26
My girlfriend is selling her MacBook. I have a full Time Machine backup. I want to create an account for her on my MBP. Can I create the account by restoring from her time machine backup, without affecting my own existing account?

Yes. I just did this for my mom on my dad's computer recently. Use Migration Assistant > Restore User from Time Machine backup.
 

Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,484
16,200
California
My girlfriend is selling her MacBook. I have a full Time Machine backup. I want to create an account for her on my MBP. Can I create the account by restoring from her time machine backup, without affecting my own existing account?

Do not manually create the account for her. Just start Migration Assist from your account and point to the TM backup disk, then click on ONLY her account when asked what you want to restore. Make sure all the other boxes are unchecked. This will create her account and pull in all her data.
 
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