Well, darn.

[resonant]

... as my grandmother is reputed to have said after the sewing machine needle went through her thumb.

In an effort to get my real name to stop showing up in LJTalk, I have just somehow or other lost my e-mail program and everything in it. Including mail-sorting rules, e-mails I was saving for various reasons, e-mails I had not yet responded to, and apparently my entire damned address book.



I don't even know which of the many things I did caused the problem. I renamed the computer, and the Home folder, and any number of other things. (None of which, by the way, was successful at getting my real name out of several places that I'd really like to get it out of.) I renamed my "account" in OS X. I logged off and logged back on and restarted. And then the next time I started up Mail, the computer acted like it had never seen me before.

I reconfigured my e-mail accounts, and I made new smart mailboxes to replace the Rules, and I think the majority of what was in the address book was also in Now Contact and can be re-exported. (I was considering getting rid of Now Contact and just using the address book. Guess I now see the flaw in that plan.)

But, slugs and fungus, what a total annoyance.

I'm not even asking for solutions. I'm just whining.

[editing to add details, just in case]: Mac; OS X Tiger (v.10.4.7); Mail for Mac v.2.1).

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_inbetween_/]

Poor you :S Maybe you find the folders somewhere, or someone can help you. Otherwise, whine until you feel better.

[norah.livejournal.com]

Oh, WOW. I'm so sorry to hear that!

[littlemousling]

Oh! I did the same thing (though for different reasons). Halfway through a semester in Rome, I decided to rename my computer ... and everything I had on it disappeared. Two months of photos, personal journal entries, all my music, schoolwork, gone.

But it wasn't really - poke around finder (or Spotlight - for some reason it won't "see" the files, but it should see the folder) for "profiles" or "Accounts," I can't recall which (I'm at work, or I'd find it on my laptop, sorry). In there, under your original name, is EVERYTHING. And in there, in the Library under Application Data (or a similar name) is all your e-mail stuff. Find the right program, select all the files for it, and replace the ones in what's now the main library. I got back my Firefox bookmarks, my Thunderbird saved e-mails, everything but my desktop preferences, and I bet there's a way to find those, too.

Hope this helps! At least your loss wasn't due to abject stupidity. I still cringe. Ah, well, who needs a computer named "Varro" anyway?

[umbo.livejournal.com]

I think in iChat it will show *you* your real name, but not show it to the people you're chatting with, because I remember having a similar fear when I first started using it. And hopefully you'll be able to find the files using the info other people have given you :-)

[damned-colonial.livejournal.com]

Um, I'm pretty sure it was just picking up the info from your address book. I think that removing your contact details from your address book -- or at least anything that links your real name to your online name -- would have sufficed. I've noticed that if/when I add people's IM contacts to my address book, they start showing up under their real name in IM.

The other thing: do you know whether it was showing up outside your own computer, or was it just your client (Adium?) showing the name to be helpful on *your* computer, and not sending it out? If it was Adium, I suspect it was the latter.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

I didn't download a client; I just used Jabber from inside iChat. And at first it was showing to others -- I wouldn't even have known about it if isiscolo hadn't told me -- but after I made all the changes, others would see what I wanted them to see and I'd continue to see my full name.

[rustler.livejournal.com]

As a couple of other people have said, iChat (if that's what you're using as your Jabber client) pulls whatever you have yourself listed in your Address Book as your username on your own machine. But on other people's machines, you show up as your account username (in this case, we'd all see you as resonant8, regardless of what your home computer is displaying.)

The other possibility, is that in your iChat settings, you have not unchecked the box that says "use my machine name' (This is in iChat's Preferences > Accounts >Server Settings)

Hope you get it all straightened out!

[caseylane.livejournal.com]

Ack! I would be so stressed that whining is the least I would be doing.

[ecaterin.livejournal.com]

The local Mac guru (my computer consultant sweetie) says that it's just about impossible to delete your user account. Basically if you were Mac-savvy enough to delete that account, you'd be good enough to not to :D Your data IS PROBABLY STILL THERE. (yea!)

He says give this a try:

Open the main harddrive icon
go into the folder "users"
look for your old user name, if it's there you can choose logout from the Apple menu
then log back in as the user that you were

If you've tried this (and are going, "Duh! Did that!" - but you'd be amazed at what people don't try :P) & your original user profile is no longer there, my professional Mac sweetie can help you login as root & get that stuff back, if it's really vital.

This is what he does for a living - and he can work with you via phone or online :P If you have a local Mac guy that you know & love, he/she can get your data acceable again, too.

Hope you can figure it out! Or that you can get help!

[giglet.livejournal.com]

Yikes!

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

No, no, not too obvious at all; I'm afraid I only have surface-level knowledge of how any of this stuff works.

In the Users folder, there's a folder with the newly assigned name (which contains Desktop, Documents, Movies, Music, and Public folders) and a house with the old name (which contains a Desktop folder that has a picture of the desktop on it and a Library folder).

I can't log in as anything but the new name.

I don't think I need to bother a Mac guru -- it's not terribly critical; so far it's more of an annoyance than anything else, since I'm only losing preferences and not data. (With the exception of those e-mails, but I'm already resigning myself to their loss.) Though of course if there's an easy solution I'll take it.

[ecaterin.livejournal.com]

My sweetie has got a bee in his bonnet about helping you :D

If you'll log onto AIM, he's got you on there & can walk you through getting your other user account back up :)

Log on now (said in best TV ad tones :P)!

[isilya]

Did you sort this out yet?

If you can open the old Home folder, open it.

OId Home Folder-> Library-> Mail

This is where all your preferences, rules and emails live. You can drag and drop them into your New Home Folder->Library->Mail and Mail will recognise them. Say "yes" to "Do you want to replace these files?"


You can do the same thing with internet bookmarks and your Address Book entries. Drag and drop them from the Old Home Folder->Library->Safari and Old Home Folder->Library->Address Book into their respective places in the New Home Folder.

---

If you cannot open the Old Home Folder (you do not have permission to open the Old Home Folder):

Make sure you are logged in as an Admin account.

Click on the Old Home Folder icon. Press the Apple key and the "i" key simultaneously. This will pop up the "Show Info" window.

Down the bottom of that window is an option "Ownership and Permissions". Click on "Details".

Click on the little padlock, and enter your Admin name and password. Now you are able to change the Ownership and Permissions to allow your NEW account to own your OLD account.

Click the button down below that says "Apple to Enclosed Items".

Now you should own everything in the Old Home Folder and should be able to see it and navigate as if it were in your New Home Folder. Now you can move over your bookmarks, email and Address Book entries.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

And bless his soul.

[ecaterin.livejournal.com]

*So* glad he was able to help you track everything down!!

Many many hugs :)

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

earthmoon's very helpful sweetie informs me that iChat takes its info from your card in the Address Book. So I just went and took all the info out of the card.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Both very helpful; thanks!

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

I'd sorted out everything except finding the old e-mail messages, and this helped me take care of that.

Thanks!

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Well, this will teach me not to use my e-mail as an archiving system. Learn from my mistakes, everyone!

[dzurlady.livejournal.com]

How did you turn off SSL to use iChat?

[http://users.livejournal.com/_inbetween_/]

Um .... I was unable to not do that either *eyes 3 000+ mails

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Open the Preferences, click on the Jabber account, and click on Server Settings. There's a checkbox that says Connect Using SSL; uncheck it.

(I was embarrassed it was that simple, because astolat had to tell me how to do it.)

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

With a little help, I found most everything, except a few things that I think I overwrote when I was flailing around. Thanks for the help and the reassurance that I'm not the only one who's ever done this!