changed the name of /Users/[folder] oops! help!

E

Elliotjnewman

Registered
well as Im getting to grips with the terminal and playing around with the 'shift command g' shortcut to goto directories I thought 'hey, since my user folder has a really long name (elliotnewman) - I will change it to elliot, so its quicker to type. So in my /Users folder I clicked on the 'elliotnewman' folder and renamed it to elliot. Then all the badness started. my whole directory structure is messed up - it created an elliot folder and an elliotnewman folder, so now I seem to have all my documents in elliot and all of my applications in elliotnewman - all my application prefs are defualted and I cant access some folders anymore saying I dont have access privelige - like the /Users/elliot/Library - I cant open this folder even if Im logged in as elliot or elliotnewman! I phoned Apple and they said they couldnt help!

ARRHH!!

HELP!!
 
Well, you could just rename it back or move the stuff in elliot to the 'real' user's folder. If you want to actually change your user's shortname (and hence the user's home folder) you'll either need to reinstall or use Apple's NetInfo tools. But I'd be careful about that.
 
hi and thanks for the welcome!

well I did rename it back and there all messed up still, Ive tried deleting the elliot user from the preferences but after waiting an hour or so I gave up and rebooted - so there must be something up.... I cant even access my old Iphoto images - cant even search for them. I might just spend a weekend to back-up all my work and do a hard reset - wipe everything and reinstall all the programs and stuff - oh god.
 
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