[Fidel]

Hey Dan, I followed every step until I got to the Terminal part. When I had to put in my password, I didn't know whether I should put in the password of the account I wanted to modify or the password of where I was currently logged in. What's worse was that the field did not allow me to view the password I was typing and so there's this fear that I may have put in a wrong one.
I kinda forgot what the Terminal said after I put in a password but it sure sounded kinda negative. I decided to redo the whole "sudo mv" step but Terminal didn't elicit the supposed response.
Dan, how would I know if I either put in a right or wrong password? How would it respond? What can I do to remedy the situation if indeed I put in a wrong password?
Thing is, by the way, when I restarted my Mac, my short user name and its home directory actually changed to what I desired it to be. But then there's this lingering feeling that I may have done something wrong during the Terminal part of the process which may result to undesired consequences in the future. What should I do?
Help! :(

P.S.

Awesome tip, by the way!

[Dan Frakes]

Fidel said:

Hey Dan, I followed every step until I got to the Terminal part. When I had to put in my password, I didn't know whether I should put in the password of the account I wanted to modify or the password of where I was currently logged in.

As it notes in the article, "provide the password of the admin account you?re currently using." (Perhaps I wasn't clear that by "currently using" I meant "currently logged in under.")

Fidel said:

What's worse was that the field did not allow me to view the password I was typing

Yeah, that's a shell issue; it never displays your password (or even an obscured version that would indicate you're typing anything).

Fidel said:

Thing is, by the way, when I restarted my Mac, my short user name and its home directory actually changed to what I desired it to be. But then there's this lingering feeling that I may have done something wrong during the Terminal part of the process which may result to undesired consequences in the future. What should I do?

If you've got the new short username and your home directory is as it should be, you're set!

[Fidel]

Oh, okay. Thank you so much, Dan! :D

So does it mean whatever I must have put in the Terminal was right (regardless of the program's response) because otherwise, the short username and home name transition wouldn't take place? I'm just making sure since I now remember Terminal having that "...sudoer ... . This incident will be reported..." statement after I typed in the password.

Apologies if I seem to be harassing you with questions. You've been really helpful though.

[Fidel]

Hey Dan, it's me again. Really sorry if I'm pestering you with questions but recently, I was checking out my Finder and I saw my old home directory folder still present in my Users folder. Although the new home directory folder is there with the matching "house" icon, having the old home directory folder kinda bothered me.
Is it safe to just throw the old home directory folder in the Trash and completely erase it ("external" method) or do I have to type in something at the Terminal ("internal" method)?
I hope you could help me out on this... Thank you very much!

[briancross1]

Dan,

I had the exact same experience as Dreambiz (and no error message on terminal). I tried your step by step process twice (changing the short name successfully) but the folder name remained unchanged. Any thoughts>

briancross1

[Dan Frakes]

Did you perform the step while logged in to an account with admin-level status?

[Dreambiz]

Well, I know I certainly did, Dan. Both my original account and the temporary one I created for this procedure are admins (they say Admin in the System Preferences Accounts window).

- Randy

[briancross1]

Dan,

Yes, I used admin-level status. The shortname on the "house" was changed, but not the folder.

Brian

[Dreambiz]

Ditto here. Going back and repeating the same steps in the Full Monty ended in the same results.

Suggestions?

- Randy

[Dan Frakes]

I'm at a loss, quite honestly, without being able to sit down in front of your computer with you. The procedure has been tested on many different computers, multiple times on each. And the command that seems to be giving you problems (sudo mv) is a really basic command that has worked essentially the same all the way back to Mac OS X 10.0 (and in Unix for many years before that).

Just to confirm, you're launching Terminal in an admin account, an account different from the one being modified, and you're typing the following command, with spaces after sudo, mv, and oldusername?

sudo mv /Users/oldusername /Users/newusername

After you type the command, you should be asked for your password. This should be the password of the account under which you're currently logged in, not the password for the account being modified.

If you enter the correct password, the mv command should run and after a second or so, you should see a new Terminal prompt. In the /Users folder in the Finder, the folder previously named oldusername should now be named newusername

If this command isn't changing the name of the folder in /Users, there's something else going on here. (Just to confirm, your /Users folder (and your home folder itself) are located on the boot volume?)

[briancross1]

Dan,

yes - Terminal in an admin account

yes - typing command as described

The only thing I can see that may be different is that I used the same password for both accounts. Could that have impacted it?

I am not familiar with the term "boot volume". Please advise how to verify.

Thanks for the help

briancross1

[Dan Frakes]

briancross1 said:

The only thing I can see that may be different is that I used the same password for both accounts. Could that have impacted it?

That shouldn't matter.

Quote

I am not familiar with the term "boot volume". Please advise how to verify.

The boot volume is the hard drive on which the currently-running version of Mac OS X is installed.

[briancross1]

{font:Times New Roman}{size:3}Dan,{size}{font}

{font:Times New Roman}{size:3}Thanks for the explanation. Yes I was in the boot volume so it looks like I too am at a loss (possibly along with Dreambiz){size}{font}

{font:Times New Roman}{size:3}briancross1{size}{font}

[Dreambiz]

I understand that you have a life, Dan, and can't diagnose each issue for each person.

But this is a strange one for me because I run a fairly vanilla system and am a fairly experienced Mac user (since the beginning).

To answer your questions.

* yes, I launced Terminal in an admin account different from the one being modified and I cut/pasted the command (also typed it as indicated).

* I recall entering the correct admin password (of the temporary admin account).

* I recall seeing a terminal prompt return (with no result message one way or another).

* The folder was not renamed

* The /Users folder is (and was) located on the boot volume. However, the home folder (the 'newusername' is also located within the /Users folder on the boot volume).

Which brings up a question. Why would there a /Users/'newusername' folder at all? It was supposed to be renamed from oldusername to newusername, but the 'newusername' user folder (creation date of when I first tried this) exists and seems to be blank/generic. Does this need to be deleted before the old one can be renamed to the new? Is it possible that there was some error initially and then logging on to the new user created a generic Users/'newusername'? Then, when the process was repeated (correctly) the 'rename' could not succeed because there was already one of that name in existence?

Hope that made sense...

- Randy