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So I'm riding the Mavericks, I mean I'm using OS X 10.9.2. :)

I played around with the account settings and now the account is damaged.

Below is exactly how I damaged it.

I wanted to change my username.

According to http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1428, I first created a new account, then went to the directory "/Users" and changed the name of the folder "/Users/mac" to "/Users/Air".

Then I went into System Preference -> Users & Groups, and entered the "Advanced Options" of the account named "mac".

enter image description here

I happily disregarded the "WARNING".

I deleted "User ID".

And deleted "Group", which automatically turned to "wheel" after the cursor was moved to the next field.

I Changed "Account name" from "mac" to "Air", and changed "Home directory" from "/Users/mac" to "/Users/Air".

I clicked "OK", restarted and logged in the newly-named account. Then it says the resource library was damaged, and the system stopped responding (that beachball spinning!)

Any help is greatly appreciated!

-- Frax

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  • If you cannot login to any account, insert your os x install dvd and press C at start up. Click Utilities at the top > Disk Utility. Click the hard drive on the left, click Repair Disk Permissions and after that, Verify Disk. If you can login to an account, login, click Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility, and do the same as above. Please tell me if this works
    – ᔕᖺᘎᕊ
    May 7, 2014 at 16:17
  • @shub - Your suggestions won't help with the issue. It's not clear the mac will reboot or let that user log in. I'll put an answer how to fix this in a bit...
    – bmike ♦
    May 7, 2014 at 18:35
  • @shub I did the Repair and Verify, but it didn't work. But thanks! I won't try to repair the account since I have retrieved the important files :)
    – Frax
    May 8, 2014 at 8:56
  • @Frax Glad to know you got your data in the end
    – ᔕᖺᘎᕊ
    May 8, 2014 at 20:06

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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You need to put the User ID and Group entries back the way they were. If the screenshot is right, the User ID should be 502, and the Group should always be "staff" on normal accounts.

It's possible there's something else wrong as well, but this'll solve at least part of the problem. One thing to check (after fixing the User ID) is to use the Finder's Get Info to check the home folder -- in the Sharing & Permissions section, make sure the correct user account is listed. If it isn't, do not try to fix it in the Finder; there's a way to fix home folder permissions in Recovery mode that's much less likely to break anything.

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  • After changing things back it didn't work. Then I managed to grab out the important files so I don't need to bother to fix the damaged account. Thank you very much Gordon! :)
    – Frax
    May 7, 2014 at 19:13
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You can also try to restore your system from a Time Machine backup, taken before the incident.

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