# New profile after binding to domain



## jparsley (Feb 24, 2010)

Hello,

I was working locally for several months and have just now decided to bind my Mac to our domain and login with my domain credentials.  What is the easiest way for me to transfer my local account profile to my domain account?

I'm running OS X 10.6.

Thanks,

Josh


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## gmguevara (Feb 24, 2010)

Hi. My company is now requiring to bind all the computers to an AD Domain. I did all what needs to be done with the Directory Utility (checking the 'Create mobile account on login') and everything else.
The problem is that the local user loses its permissions on the profile folder so ALL the data needs to be copied manually (losing it's preferences). Also when he/she tries to copy or modify the previously created folder, must validate as an administrator (annoying when there are lots of folders).
The most secure way to keep all the files and folders was making an image of the whole disk, reinstall and once bound to the domain after the clean install, copy all the info back using ARD 'Copy' utility which allows to define the permissions.
It's a pain in the *ss but it sure works for me.
If anyone knows a faster and secure method I will surely most appreciate it!

BTW: I'm using 10.5.8 and 10.6.2.

Regards.
G.


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## jparsley (Feb 25, 2010)

I have a solution that may work for you.  I didn't like it so I moved away from it- at least for now.

http://www.likewise.com/

They have an open source client that you can join it to the domain and then migrate local user profiles to the new domain user.  The profile migration worked perfect.  The enterprise edition does much more..

I was going to use that solution at first but I was having problems with authentication.  It was taking about a minute and a half to log in.  I looked around on their forums and tried a few things, but nothing came through for me.  

This program puts the domain profiles in /users/local/DOMAIN_NAME/USER_NAME.

I tried just copying that profile to where it would be if OS X would have created it, but it didn't work.

If I knew more about programming, I would just look at the source code of LikeWise and make my own little profile utility.  I know the profiles can be transferred, but I sure don't know how.

Thanks!


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## jparsley (Feb 26, 2010)

Here is what I did that seemed to work for me.  I haven't noticed any problems yet.

I had the domain user login and create the mobileMe account.  Then I log in as the local admin and do the following:

sudo cp -r /Users/username/ /Users/networkusername/
sudo chmod &#8211;RN /Users/networkusername
sudo chown &#8211;R networkusername /Users/networkusername


Then login as the domain user.  Everything seemed to work for me.  It prompted me about the keychain password since it was different between the users. I then changed it.  The only icon on the desktop that I had to do anything with was my Windows 7 VM on Parallels.  It prompted me to fix the alias, so I found the proper location in the documents folder.  Other than that I haven't noticed any problems.  All my aliases, dock, programs, ect seem to be fine.


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## Satcomer (Feb 28, 2010)

Thanks for posting this, it works great!


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