Effect of deleting original admin account?

[jazzer15]

I purchased a new iMac and my wife is taking my current one. If I set up a new admin account for her and then delete my account, what gets deleted from the computer? Will all of the applications remain for her to use? Printer drivers? I assume all of my data files will be deleted.

What I would like to accomplish is to delete all of my files but leave everything else for her use and then copy over her data files from her old computer.

 

[Apple_Robert]

If I were in your tech shoes, I would start new so I would know my wife is starting with a clean slate. A lot quicker than trying to find and delete every single file related to a install on your account.

 

[jazzer15]

If I were in your tech shoes, I would start new so I would know my wife is starting with a clean slate. A lot quicker than trying to find and delete every single file related to a install on your account.

I guess what I was hoping to avoid if possible is having to reinstall a number of the programs that she would need that are already on the computer, resetting up the the printer (that we share), etc. She just doesn't need my data files, but most of my data is on an external drive anyway as the boot drive is a 512 GB SSD. I thought it might be faster to just set up a new user, but maybe not ... plus I guess it would be good to have a clean install.

 

[velocityg4]

As long as you weren't setting your files outside your user accounts. Deleting your admin account and user folder should wipe out your files.

At least we'll enough to give to a family member. Unless there's messages on there from your mistress. Then you'll want to wipe it completely to be assured.?

 

[jazzer15]

As long as you weren't setting your files outside your user accounts. Deleting your admin account and user folder should wipe out your files.

At least we'll enough to give to a family member. Unless there's messages on there from your mistress. Then you'll want to wipe it completely to be assured.?

Haha. Nothing nefarious. I just want to give her as much space on the drive as possible .

 

[ignatius345]

I've done a similar thing and given my wife a Mac I wasn't using. I believe (if I remember correctly) that there were some issues with apps that I had purchased through the App Store wanting my Apple ID to be entered in order to run/update once I'd deleted my own user account. It turned into a minor headache, had to reinstall a few things.

Honestly, I would let sleeping dogs lie and leave your admin account on there. As long as you don't have a bunch of files stored there, it shouldn't be taking up a great deal of drive space.

 

[jazzer15]

I've done a similar thing and given my wife a Mac I wasn't using. I believe (if I remember correctly) that there were some issues with apps that I had purchased through the App Store wanting my Apple ID to be entered in order to run/update once I'd deleted my own user account. It turned into a minor headache, had to reinstall a few things.

Honestly, I would let sleeping dogs lie and leave your admin account on there. As long as you don't have a bunch of files stored there, it shouldn't be taking up a great deal of drive space.

Thanks. I'll keep that in mind. I could probably just move the unnecessary files onto my external drive, delete the apps she doesn't plan to use and call it a day. Eventually when Big Sur is out for a while, I will probably upgrade the OS and maybe I'll consider doing a clean install at that point.

 

[jazz1]

I deleted my original Adm. account and left my spouses account which was added later as a second adm. account. Granted I had a ton of stuff under my account on this 2012 iMac. It took many hours for the deletion to end. I think it is better to back up the account you want to keep and do a clean install.

 

[ignatius345]

Thanks. I'll keep that in mind. I could probably just move the unnecessary files onto my external drive, delete the apps she doesn't plan to use and call it a day. Eventually when Big Sur is out for a while, I will probably upgrade the OS and maybe I'll consider doing a clean install at that point.

Btw, Family Sharing is a massively helpful feature.

 

[jazzer15]

Btw, Family Sharing is a massively helpful feature.

You wouldn't happen to have any idea how to move Mail from a Time Machine backup to a new user account on the machine would you?

My wife had/has some mail saved on her old Mac which is running High Sierra. My old machine that I am giving to her is on Catalina. All of her mail from the Yahoo server downloaded when I set up her account, but I can't figure out where her saved mail is located on the computer. I looked in her Time Machine backup in the Library folder but there is no Mail folder like there is on Catalina, although maybe I am missing something.

Mail is not set up to be saved in iCloud.

 

[jazzer15]

You wouldn't happen to have any idea how to move Mail from a Time Machine backup to a new user account on the machine would you?

My wife had/has some mail saved on her old Mac which is running High Sierra. My old machine that I am giving to her is on Catalina. All of her mail from the Yahoo server downloaded when I set up her account, but I can't figure out where her saved mail is located on the computer. I looked in her Time Machine backup in the Library folder but there is no Mail folder like there is on Catalina, although maybe I am missing something.

Mail is not set up to be saved in iCloud.

I found The folder. It seems they hide the library in Time Machine just as they do in the Finder.

 

[matram]

If your mail account is an IMAP-type account, emails are also stored on the mail server.

In that case you just need to set up the mail account on the machine and all mails will be downloaded again.

 

[jazzer15]

If your mail account is an IMAP-type account, emails are also stored on the mail server.

In that case you just need to set up the mail account on the machine and all mails will be downloaded again.

Yes, thanks. What I am actually lookng for are the emails that are stored in folders in Mail under "On my Mac" that are no longer on the server.