Change Mac User Account Did you create a Mac person account with an wrong name, possibly making a typo in the course of setup? Are you uninterested in that username that sounded cute a few months ago, but is now so the day past? No matter the cause, it’s feasible to change the person account’s full call, short name, and home directory name used on your Mac.
If you’re scratching your head at this point due to the famous misconception that account names are set in stone and the only manner to exchange a call is to create a brand new account and delete the antique one, then this tip is for you.
Mac User Account Basic Mac User Account Information
Mac User Account Each consumer account consists of simple information. There’s extra records that goes into a person account, but those are the three elements associated to call and directory:
- Full Name: This is the user’s complete name. It can be additionally be used as the login name. Tom Nelson is an instance.
- Account Name (additionally known as the Short Name): This is a shortened model of the entire name, inclusive of tnelson. Your Mac suggests an account name primarily based on the total name you input, but you could use any name you want. The account name is used as the call of the home listing and as the login call.
- Home Directory: The Home Directory and the Account name are the equal. They need to continue to be the identical at all times in your user account to paintings successfully. The Home Directory is normally positioned in the Users listing of your startup pressure, however you can relocate the house listing to just about everywhere you want.
Changing Account Information
Mac User Account If you made a typo whilst setting up a consumer account otherwise you want to change the call, you could achieve this. Just remember the fact that there are positive boundaries, the most essential being that the Short Name and Home Directory name have to healthy.
If you are geared up to alternate your account data, right here’s how.
Mac User Account Back Up Your Data
Mac User Account This technique goes to make a few essential adjustments on your person account. As a result, your person facts will be at threat. That might also sound over the top, however it is possible for a hassle to arise in the course of the method of creating adjustments that reasons your user facts to grow to be unavailable to you. Its permissions may be set in one of these manner that you no longer have get entry to to it.
So, before starting, take the time to ensure which you have a contemporary backup. If feasible, create both a contemporary Time Machine backup and a bootable similar to your startup force.
With the backup out of the manner, you can maintain.
Change Account Short Name and Home Directory (OS X Lion or Later)
If the account you’ll exchange is your current administrator account, you’ll need to first have a different, or spare administrator account to apply at some point of the system of changing account data.
After you create a spare administrator account to apply:
- Log out of the account you want to make changes to, and log in to your spare administrator account. The choice to Log Out is placed underneath the Apple menu.
- Use the Finder and navigate to the /Users folder placed to your Mac’s startup force. Within the /Users folder you’ll see your cutting-edge home directory, with the identical call because the account’s contemporary quick name.
- Write down the modern call of the home directory.
- In the Finder window click the home directory to choose it. Click again in the name of the home directory to choose it for enhancing.
- Enter the new name for the home directory (take into account, the house directory and the fast name that you may be changing in the next few steps have to suit).
- Write down the new home directory call.
- Launch System Preferences via clicking its Dock icon or choosing System Preferences from the Apple menu.
- Select the Users & Groups choice pane.
- In the Users and Groups preference pane, click on the lock icon inside the backside left nook and supply your administrator password. This may be the password for the spare admin account, no longer your everyday administrator password.
- In the Users & Groups window, proper-click the user account whose short call you want to change. From the pop-up menu, pick Advanced Options.
- Edit the Account Name subject to healthy the new domestic directory name you created.
- Change the Home Directory subject to healthy the brand new name you created in step 6. (Hint: You can click on the Choose button and navigate to the Home Directory instead of typing within the new call.)
- Once you’ve got made both changes (account name and domestic directory), click the OK button. The new account name and home directory should now be to be had to you.
- Log out of the administrator account you used to make the changes, and log in for your newly changed person account. Check your own home listing, and ensure that you have get admission to to all of your information.
Mac User Account If you can’t log in, or if you could log in however cannot access your property listing, possibilities are the account call and domestic listing names you entered don’t match. Log in once more using the spare administrator account and verify that the house directory call and account name are identical.
Mac User Account Changing the Full Name of a User Account
Mac User Account The complete call of a consumer account is even simpler to trade, despite the fact that the technique is slightly one-of-a-kind for OS X Yosemite and later variations of the working machine than for earlier versions of OS X.
The person who owns the account or an administrator can edit an account’s Full Name.
OS X Yosemite and Later (Including macOS Versions) Full Name
- Launch System Preferences with the aid of clicking its Dock icon or by means of deciding on System Preferences from the Apple menu.
- Choose the Users & Groups item.
- Click the lock icon inside the lower left corner and deliver the administrator password for the account you’re currently the usage of.
- Right-click on the user account whose complete call you want to alternate. From the pop-up menu, pick out Advanced Options.
- Edit the name that looks within the Full Name subject.
- Click the OK button to save your modifications.
Mac User Account OS X Mavericks and Earlier
- Launch System Preferences and pick the Users & Groups desire pane.
- Select the user account you need to exchange from the list.
- Edit the Full Name discipline.
Mac User Account OS X and macOS has come a long manner from the days while typos in account names have been some thing you had to live with unless you had been inclined to look up diverse Terminal instructions to try to accurate a silly mistake. Account management is now an simpler manner, one that absolutely everyone can manage.