Change "Home" Name/Info

[The.Mac]

Hi there.

I recently purchase a 2008 Mac Pro with a bunch of updated hardware. I've been able to rename everything except for the following:

When I click on Finder, under Favorites, the Home icon has the previous owner's name. When I right-click and choose info, I am unable to change the name to something that I want. In fact, where it says "Name & Extension," this person's name is greyed out. Also, under "Sharing & Permissions," this person's name and "(me)" is listed as "Read and Write." At the bottom of that small window where the Settings button is, I have my own password to unlock the lock, and when I click on the down-arrow, I see options, but there's nothing where I can change the listed name.

Is there something that I'm missing? I usually can figure out the basics, but perhaps there's something I'm completely missing.

Thanks!

 

[AppleNewton]

Why not just create a whole new user account and not even muck with the old users account?

if its settings and preferences you want to preserve you can duplicate that to a new username of your choice, if your comfortable handling some command lines via terminal.

 

[MacVidCards]

When I have changed the home user account name, I was sorry. Really buggered things up, Apple probably leaves it difficult for a reason.

 

[peabo]

Open 'System Preferences'.
Click 'Users & Groups'.
Click the padlock in the bottom left to enable changes.
Right-click the user account you wish to change the name of.
Click 'Advanced Options...'.
Here you can change both the account name and the home directory location.

 

[The.Mac]

Open 'System Preferences'.
Click 'Users & Groups'.
Click the padlock in the bottom left to enable changes.
Right-click the user account you wish to change the name of.
Click 'Advanced Options...'.
Here you can change both the account name and the home directory location.

Thanks. The good news is that I was able to change the account name; the bad news is that all of my files got deleted. The other good news is that most, if not all of my files, are backed up. For some reason (I'm not complaining), the software I had installed was not deleted.

 

[nufanec]

- First, you need to enable root user on your mac by using Directory Utility which is in one of two locations dependant on your OS version.
- On 10.5 it is located in the Utilities folder (can be quickly accessed in the Go menu in Finder).
- On 10.6 or above it is moved to /Macintosh\ HD/System/Library/CoreServices
- Once you have found it, open Directory Utility then choose Enable Root User from the Edit menu. Give it a password.

- Log out of your account. At the log in screen there should be an Other option. Select this then enter root as the user name and the password you set as the password.

- Once it has logged in to the root user account, go to System Preferences and the Users & Groups (or Accounts) preference pane.
- Make sure the preference pane is unlocked by checking the padlock.
- Right / two finger click on the user account that you want to change the short name of and choose Advanced Options from the contextual menu.

- There are two things you need to change here.
- The first is the Account Name. This will be what the account shows at in the side bar. Make sure there are no spaces in the name, and it is entered in lower case (this used to make a difference, but I'm not sure if it does any more).
- The other is the Home Directory path. Change this to /Users/NewAccountName (where NewAccountName is as above). Make sure you remember what this is going to be.

- Open Terminal from the Utilities folder.
- Type in the following command substituting the old and new short account names respectively:

mv /Users/OldAccountName /Users/NewAccountName

- Press return/enter and wait until you see a new command prompt.

That should be you. I usually repair disk permissions using Disk Utility and reboot at this point but it should work straight away.