Member Avatar for Ted Bennett

Title says it all. I would like to know to prevent orphaned or unreachable files if I simply delete the users.

Thanks for any help,
Ted

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A short, practical addendum that fills gaps in the thread and ties back to ’s correct guidance.

System Preferences (Accounts / Users & Groups) gives two different outcomes when you delete an account: archive the user’s Home into a disk image (moved to /Users/Deleted Users/ as shortname.dmg) or “Delete Immediately,” which removes the Home folder at once. If the archive option was used the data still exists on the drive and can be mounted and copied; if you used “Delete Immediately” the Home folder is removed and recovery becomes much harder. See Apple’s steps for restoring a deleted user and the delete-user summary. (support.apple.com)

If an archive/disk image exists, restore it this way: in Finder choose Go > Go to Folder and open /Users/Deleted Users, double-click the deleted user’s .dmg to mount it, then open the Users folder and Option‑drag the mounted disk icon into /Users to copy the Home back. After copying, create a new user with the same short name (so the Home folder name and account name match) and fix ownership/permissions from an admin account if needed. Apple documents this exact restore flow. (support.apple.com)

If “Delete Immediately” was clicked (no .dmg): stop using the Mac immediately to avoid overwriting disk blocks, check Time Machine and iCloud first, and—before trying recovery—make a full image of the drive to an external disk and work from the image. Without a backup, consumer recovery tools or a professional service are the remaining options, but success is not guaranteed (SSD/TRIM makes recovery harder). Apple’s Time Machine guidance and independent recovery writeups explain the safer workflows. (support.apple.com)

Preventive notes: keep at least one spare administrator account before making big account changes; avoid renaming short names/home folders unless following Apple’s documented procedure (it can break login, permissions and apps); and use Time Machine or a regular clone so a simple restore is available next time. (support.apple.com)

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Member Avatar for yellow

If you delete the users from the Accounts prefpane, their user directories are either enclosed in a disk image, or deleted outright. There are no orphaned files associated directly with their accounts.

Member Avatar for Ted Bennett

If you delete the users from the Accounts prefpane, their user directories are either enclosed in a disk image, or deleted outright. There are no orphaned files associated directly with their accounts.

I can't tell from that response if the deleted users' files would be deleted or not, or if they would become inaccessible. Please expand on that answer.

Member Avatar for yellow

If you delete a user's account via the Account Prefpane, (depending on which course you choose):

1)
Their home directory (/Users/foo/) is put into a disk image and that disk image is moved to /Users/Deleted Users/, subsequently, their home directory (/Users/foo/) is deleted. This preserves the data on a disk image in case you ever have to go back for information in their home directory.

OR

2)
If you choose "Delete Immediately", then their home directory (/Users/foo/) is immediately deleted.

Make more sense?

Member Avatar for Ted Bennett

I deleted the user in question, but the dialogue box didn't explicitly say that all their data and files would be deleted. Now I have a very angry spouse. Is there some way to recover that data?

Member Avatar for yellow

1) What version of OS X are you running?

2) I'm confused, weren't you trying to delete a user and remove their requisite information? Why are you now asking to restore data?

3) Assuming you're running Panther, which selection did you choose when you deleted the users? The "OK" button or "Delete Immediately" button?

Member Avatar for Ted Bennett

1) What version of OS X are you running?

2) I'm confused, weren't you trying to delete a user and remove their requisite information? Why are you now asking to restore data?

3) Assuming you're running Panther, which selection did you choose when you deleted the users? The "OK" button or "Delete Immediately" button?

Not Panther, it is 10.3 I think. I hit the "Delete Immediately" button, thinking that would delete the user and save the data. Wrong. The dialogue box didn't say that explicitly. I also attempted to rename the administrator, but that messed up the computer so badly that I had no internet access, no mail. Now AppleCare tells me that they don't support that, so I had to take the iMac to an Apple store

Member Avatar for yellow

Panther is 10.3.x

My earlier post told you what the "Delete Immediately" button did.

2)
If you choose "Delete Immediately", then their home directory (/Users/foo/) is immediately deleted.

I'm sorry, I guess that wasn't specific enough. By "their home directory is immediately deleted", I meant everything in the user's home directory is immediately deleted, not saved. You should have been clicking the "OK" button.

Renaming a shortname of an account is always a bad idea if you don't know what you're doing.

Sounds like what you need is a backup solution. That way you could have easily recovered from all this. Cloning your boot disk to an external firewire hard drive is an inexpensive backup solution. Using a low-cost product like or SuperDuper, you can automate a backup that will copy all data from your boot device to another device (firewire drives might be easiest for you). This copy will be bootable, so if everything on your boot device gets fried, you can always fall back to the copy. Naturally, this system isn't infallible and you should do some research first, but everyone needs a backup solution.

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