Can anyone confirm that this is true? There’s no option for it under System Settings > Users & Groups. My Ventura install is pointing to the Macintosh HD > Users > timd folder. Have they moved the option or removed it altogether..? (Mac Studio M1 Max).
TIA,
Tim
Snark aside, that's why changing the location of the User folder requires a restart for the changes to take place. Your suggestion of changing the location while logged into admin another account bricks the changed account:
That happened with three accounts that I created...
The location of my home folder was changed when there was still an 'Advanced' options button in Users & Groups and has migrated correctly with every MacOS upgrade until now.
Ventura is a hot mess... I'm going to try to downgrade back to Monterey.
It is not working for me... The ok button on the restart message does not work. And it hangs, cannot even close system preferences... Does not let me restart manually either... I can open a terminal and restart using the sudo shutdown -r now command, but when it comes back it does not apply the changes. Any ideas?
[Image Edited by Moderator to Remove Personal Information]
No, they haven’t removed it, but it has never been readily visible. Just like it has always been, you ctrl-click on the user name and choose Advanced Options.
Make sure you make the change logged out of that account and into another admin account. Keep that admin account on the internal so you can recover when the drive isn’t ready when you try to log into the external.
Thanks, Barney, but the problem is worse that I imagined: I went to 'Users and Groups' and right-clicked on my username, but was dismayed to see that the path to the external drive was already set. I decided to re-specify it, but when I click on 'OK', the dialog that comes up ('Restart for Changes to Take Effect') is completely greyed out, so I can't click on 'OK' to confirm my change.
Upon restarting, the "Documents' , 'Downloads', etc. folders are still the ones on my Macintosh HD, not the external drive.
Good luck changing it while logged into the account you are changing. That will certainly cause problems because it can’t alter things while they are in use.
Do you have Desktop & Documents in iCloud Drive enabled? I don’t know if that is a factor, but perhaps.
It doesn’t. See step one.
What are the permissions on the new user folder?
it could be that moving the home folder just doesn’t work in Ventura. There are quite a few privacy changes on things in the home folder, and that could affect trying to put it on an external.
and, that’s why you’ll need an internal admin user to fix all the problems that will occur by moving your home folder to an external.
Barney-15E wrote:
it could be that moving the home folder just doesn’t work in Ventura.
Just tried it and it works fine. There are a few specific things that one has to do in order to make it work. The external has to be an APFS volume with ownership enabled. The user has to copy their home folder to the external while preserving permissions. Then, the user has to redirect the home folder, from a different, admin account, while logged out of the account being moved. If any of that is done incorrectly, then the account won't work anymore. And then there is there is the possibility that various apps might hard-code the home directory. That is extremely common.
What I think is far more fascinating is this viral trend of avoiding the internal SSD at all costs. I didn't see this until the Mac Studio. Some people want to have an external boot drive. Other people want to move their home directory. Why didn't any of the millions of iMac users with those glacially slow internal, mechanical hard drives ever want to do that? Or those poor 2014 Mac mini users? No, it is only the people with the new, crazy-fast internal SSDs that refuse to use them in favour the cheapest external SSD they can find on Amazon. It's like there is some upper-limit on SSD speed that users will accept. They'll pay for the SSD, but they refuse to use it. They'll complain about how much they paid, and then pay more to use something slower.
replying to etresoft -
Getting a big internal SSD on a new mac mini is crazy expensive. yes they are fast, but sometimes speed isn't needed but many TB is.
I have a intel mini with a nice internal SSD, but it is not 2TB, and that's what I need. And never mind that it can't be swapped out - its hard wired in. So I want to boot from the internal, and have my many files on an external thunderbolt SSD.
I have a new pro M2, and the upgrade to 2TB is $$$$$$
You want me to believe that you need constant, on-the-wire access to 2 TB of data? Call me skeptical. 😄
There is nothing stopping you from connecting an external drive and putting your files on it. There isn't even anything stopping you from moving your home directory. But it's always a fragile solution. My point is that any Mac is crazy expensive. But you already paid for it! The only thing crazier is to not use what you paid for in favour of something slower and less reliable.
Uberlazlo wrote:
It is not working for me... The ok button on the restart message does not work. And it hangs, cannot even close system preferences... Does not let me restart manually either... I can open a terminal and restart using the sudo shutdown -r now command, but when it comes back it does not apply the changes. Any ideas?
That's because you are logged into the account. Didn't you read the little note about how you are about to corrupt your user account?
PS: The only information in that screenshot that you redacted was the anonymous data.
Well, my iTunes library is over 2TB…
For something like iTunes or Music libraries, or Photos libraries, those are easily moved to externals without moving the entire user folder (and all the complications that entails).
Will give it a try. Thank you for the clarification and for removing the image.
Ventura – Can’t Move User Folder to an External HD..?
