There are a twosome of places on your Mac where your name – or some other name – might come along : the account name and nursing home folder . The name that appears is base on the Full Name you gave when you ( or the administrator ) first set up the business relationship .
But what if you want to change your username as it appear in these locations ? It ’s possible that you have since married and now have a new name ( or you just divorced ) . Maybe IT misspelt your name when they set up your Mac . Perhaps your initial and surname spell something offensive , or it might be prison term to change what was once an comical username for something more schematic . Maybe your current poor name is n’t really short and is a pain to typewrite every metre you ’re prompted for your username . Perhaps you ’ve start two or more Macs and you need to apply the same short username on all of them . Or maybe you inherit a Mac and would prefer to just change the name of the existing account rather than produce a new one .
Luckily , since Mac OS X Leopard launched in 2007 , Apple has made it reasonably simple to vary the short username and home base folder name from within System Preferences . Prior to Leopard , changing your scant username was a complicated , high-risk procedure .
Advanced Options for a user account lets you change the account’s display name (Full name) and path to the user’s directory.
There are still a few limitation though :
If you need to create a new decision maker account conform to these steps :
If you have forgotten your password read : How to recover a forgotten Mac password .
Advanced Options for a user account lets you change the account’s display name (Full name) and path to the user’s directory.
instead you’re able to make an existing account an decision maker .
How to change Mac username
Now that you have put up this alternative executive answer for it ’s wide-eyed to change the exploiter name for your history . But you will see a somewhat stern warning that modify the preferences might damage the account and prevent you from enter , so do be cautious !
Advanced Options for a drug user account let you change the account ’s exhibit name ( Full name ) and track to the user ’s directory .
The first thing to do is exit of your account and into this raw administrator explanation :
Advanced Options for a user account lets you change the account’s display name (Full name) and path to the user’s directory.
Foundry
This will only change the username – not the Home directory name , or your Short Name . And , as the monition states , it may damage the account and prevent you from logging in !
We did it without any trouble , although there were a few hair - grow seconds when the login procedure took slightly longer than usual .
How to change Home folder name and Account name
Changing your house booklet name ( and your account statement name , which is linked – and as you may see in the persona above , grayed out ) is more complicated .
As before you have to be sign out of the account to be capable to change it . So if you are n’t already in the disjoined admin account log into that .
Here ’s how to shift your home plate folder name and Account name :
How to change your Username
Having changed your Home leaflet name you now need to exchange your Username – if you do n’t there will be problem because the two involve the same name . You also necessitate to switch the name in the subject area what shows the fix of the Home directory .
If you have any problems logging in check that the chronicle and one directory names are the same .
Need to vary your admin password ? Here’sHow to modify the admin password on a Mac .
You may also want to make log onto your Mac even easy – did you screw if you have an Apple Watch you may use that to log on automatically ? Here’show to unlock and lumber on to your Mac with an Apple Watch .