- Reference 8.1 User Home Folders
- Reference 8.2 Delete User Accounts and Preserve Their Home Folder Contents
- Reference 8.3 Migrate and Restore Home Folders
- Exercise 8.1 Restore a Deleted User Account
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Reference 8.2 Delete User Accounts and Preserve Their Home Folder Contents
You might have to delete a user account. If you do, you must decide what to do with the user’s home folder contents.
To delete a user:
Select the user from the list of users in Users & Groups preferences.
Click the Remove (–) button at the bottom of the list.
Select an option for the user’s home folder contents:
Select “Save the home folder in a disk image” to save a user’s home folder as a disk image file. macOS saves the disk image file in the /Users/Deleted Users folder and gives it the user account name. You can copy it to other Mac computers or into another user’s home folder. You must have enough local storage space to duplicate the home folder. The process might take several hours depending on how much storage the home folder uses.
Select “Don’t change the home folder” to leave a user home folder unchanged. macOS appends “(Deleted)” to the home folder name to signify that the user no longer exists. The deleted user home folder keeps the same access restrictions as a normal user home folder. If you want to access the deleted home folder contents, you must change folder and file ownership and permissions. Read Lesson 13 to find out more.
Select “Delete the home folder” to delete home folder contents. The content won’t be stored in the Trash, so you can’t easily restore it.
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