How can I restore User account from Time Machine backup on macOS Sonoma

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Level 1

24 points

How can I restore User account from Time Machine backup on macOS Sonoma

I have the latest Mac Pro M3 14" Sonoma 15.2. I have four users, Admin, Day-2-day, and two I use for website work. I had been using day-2-day and closed the lid for a tea break when I opened and went to go to one of the website users (I had only been there a day or so earlier and last night TM did rather a large and unexpected BU) it went through as if the user had just been created! I tried power down but same. I have a Time Machine backup from last night.

Please someone tell me how to recover all that work for that user.

OhDear! What will happen next!? My Admin account I don't use but is the only one with admin rights. What if that goes belly up!?

Thanks.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

MacBook Pro 13″

Posted on Jan 19, 2025 10:07 AM

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Answer 1

Jan 20, 2025 9:54 AM in response to omits

omits wrote:

I have looked at the broken users files in the Admin account and it appears the files are there. Is there a way of re-linking the account back to the proper files and settings?

ref: Restore a deleted user on Mac - Apple Support

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Answer 2

omits Author

Level 1

24 points

Jan 20, 2025 12:11 PM in response to omits

I have now looked at the users in the terminal and the problem may be in the following images. The first Image shows the Terminal result of Users at the bottom: RogerDor is missing but in the lower image. Omits I renamed as Roger BUT Seems to be still there as a separate User not in the User and Groups list.

The following is the User list in Users and Groups:

How do I correct this?

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Answer 3

Jan 19, 2025 10:25 AM in response to omits

omits wrote:

I have the latest Mac Pro M3 14" Sonoma 15.2. I have four users, Admin, Day-2-day, and two I use for website work. I had been using day-2-day and closed the lid for a tea break when I opened and went to go to one of the website users (I had only been there a day or so earlier and last night TM did rather a large and unexpected BU) it went through as if the user had just been created! I tried power down but same. I have a Time Machine backup from last night.

Please someone tell me how to recover all that work for that user.

Have you tried shutting down and restarting...

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Answer 4

omits Author

Level 1

24 points

Jan 20, 2025 11:25 AM in response to omits

Thanks for that suggestion. There are no deleted Users. The User is still present in the User list and on the login screen. The User can be logged into but it thinks this is a newly created User so take me through the beginning setup for a new User. But I think the Users files are still there as I can see what was on the desktop (a document) when logged into Admin. I either need to re-associate the User with its files or should I restore from a Time Machine backup (worried about that in case it all gets worse). Thanks again.

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Answer 5

Jan 20, 2025 1:56 PM in response to omits

If you changed the user name... it can go sideways yes and not advocated, caveats below

reference

Change the name of your macOS user account and home folder

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Answer 6

omits Author

Level 1

24 points

Jan 19, 2025 2:11 PM in response to leroydouglas

Yes, first thing I did. Please advise on way forward.

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Answer 7

omits Author

Level 1

24 points

Jan 20, 2025 9:04 AM in response to omits

I have looked at the broken users files in the Admin account and it appears the files are there. Is there a way of re-linking the account back to the proper files and settings?

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Answer 8

omits Author

Level 1

24 points

Jan 21, 2025 12:29 AM in response to omits

I have solved the problem by renaming a User to its correct folder. No idea how it got changed though. Thanks.

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How can I restore User account from Time Machine backup on macOS Sonoma