All Preferences Mysteriously Vanished

[Zonkerharris]

What the heck?! I left my computer for twenty minutes -- it may have gone into sleep mode, as it does frequently; it may not have. Anyway, when I went back to it, I noticed that it would not check for new mail using Mac Mail. I restarted Mac Mail -- now it wants to start me from scratch with a brand new account. I reboot, and now none of my applicatons have any memory that I have ever used this computer. Worst of all, my iPhoto library is no longer linked to iPhoto (It's still there, but iPhoto thinks this is the first time I've used the program).

Anybody have any idea what's going on, or how I can fix this?
I'd also be grateful for a specific fix for the iPhoto problem, even if there's no way to recover my preferences. But I'd love to know how this could have happened so suddenly.

[Lt Major Burns]

i have a very strong supsicion that at some point in the last few days, you renamed your Home folder?

repeat this, and rename it exactly how it was (you can check by going into your home folder from the finder, and seeing both your old and new folders), and then logging out and back in again.


The name of your Home folder is not like the name of any other folder, it is the name of your Account. Change it, and the computer gets very confused, and when you restart or log in, it creates a new user with the new name, and resets all the preferences for this 'new' user. which is what you are seeing. all of your old preferences are still in the archived folder. changingthe name back again attaches the old folder back up again.

the 'Shortname' is not easily changed properly, so don't mess with it, basically.

[Zonkerharris]

Thanks for the reply. You may very well be right about the re-naming, although I definitely did not rename it myself. I know that no additional "users" are listed in the user listings when I log in. However, it appears that the name of the computer may have changed (to the name of a second laptop we also have -- ???). Do you have any idea how I would determine what the original name was? And sorry for the dumb question, but what do I do to rename it?

[bobw]

If it's your machine, you should know what the original name was.

[Zonkerharris]

Well, like I said, I didn't change the name. I just returned to the computer and all my preferences were gone. I'm going on the assumption that something changed the name to perhaps the name of my wife's computer, but I honestly have no recollection of what the name of my computer was. It is not a piece of information I have ever needed. Did I name it my full name? My first name? A possessive ("Zonker's Computer"). It's bee over a year since I bought this thing, and I haven't the faintest clue.

[Zonkerharris]

OK, I admit I didn't read the original response as closely as I ought to have, but I still don't understand. It says "You can check by going into your home folder from the finder and seeing both the old and new folders". So I went to my home folder -- the name of which, by the way, has not changed -- and inside are about a dozen folders (Documents, Pictures, Desktop, Library, etc). So what does it mean, "seeing both the old and new folders" Should there be a folder in there called ARCHIVE or something?
Also, I noticed that the Documents, Pictures, Desktop, and Library folders all say they were modified on the day that this event occurred. I have no idea if this is significant, but thought I'd mention it.
And finally, if it winds up being impossible to recover my existing account, does anyone know how I can relink my iPhoto library to my "new" one?

[bobw]

List all the folders (names) in your Home folder here

[Zonkerharris]

.
Sites
Public
Library
Halftime.doc
g;
CXG)}9
/Library
Desktop
Music
Documents
Pictures


The dot is in fact a folder. It contains nothing, but it has a yellow-and-black circle symbol on the folder icon that looks like a nuclear fallout shelter symbol.