Tip: Don't rename your home folder, or any of its standard sub-folders
It's a bad idea.
If you're the type of person who likes to complicate your life, you might be tempted to rename your home folder (/Users/username, also known as ~) or some of the therein contained standard sub-folders, e.g. ~/Pictures, ~/Movies, etc. Don't.
Renaming the sub-folders can have stiff consequences, including the apparent disappearance of media libraries from within iLife applications and other apps that recognize these default locations.
Renaming the home folder itself can result in much more serious problems, including most applications not being able to locate their stored preferences and other data.
In fact, Apple explicitly warns against renaming the home user folder in Knowledge Base article #107854, which offers a fix in the case that you renamed the folder and then restarted:
- "In the Finder, go to the /Users folder.
- Locate the new home directory, which bears the users' short name.
- Add "_new" to the new home directory's name.
- Rename the old home directory to the user's correct short name.
- Log out and back in with the affected user account."
If you absolutely can't help but succumb to your burning desire for modifying the home user directory's name, Apple has a 40-step process, or you can use the freeware utility ChangeShortName.
Feedback? Late-breakers@macfixit.com.
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