How to delete a user

[travisb]

I created a user via System Preferences > Users > New User
When I deleted the user later the Preferences Users said that the user was deleted but there is still a folder in the Calvin (computer name)/Users with the name of the user (wally) then the word Deleted after it.

Inside this folder there appear to be all the standard folder but with a plain vanilla icon and a little red circle with a clear or white line through the middle.

I tried to drag the wally Deleted folder to the trash but got the message "The operation could not be completed because this item is owned by root."

When I try to open a folder in the wally directory - wally/Pictures I get the message The folder "Pictures" could not be opened because you do not have sufficient access privileges."

I am logged in as the admin and thought that I would be able to delete this folder with no problem but can not. Any clues? Thanks

Travis

[xchanyazy]

You can download BatCHmod (http://www.versiontracker.com/moreinfo.fcgi?id=12057&db=mac) from versiontracker, then drop the folder "wally" onto it, and change the owner from whatever it is to you. Make sure you check the boxes in the enclosed files and folders box. Then, you should just be able to throw it away from the finder. If that doesn't work, you can use the terminal (this command can be dangerous!!)

cd /Users
sudo rm -rf wally/

Enter your admin password, and you're done.

[Benad]

DO NOT delete with Apple's GUI any user that WAS NOT created by Apple's GUI. This can happen with some server software (SQL, Apache...).

Otherwise, you have a pretty nasty "chown -Rf root /"...

- Benad

[KHall127]

Travisb,
I had the same problem when I created a user and later tried to delete it. Here is a link to take care of this. It worked great for me.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106256

-Kevin

[lerkfish]

are there any dangers in restarting under sys9 and deleting the user folder?

[msteiger]

AFAIK this should be no problem. By default Mac OS X stores user account records in the Local NetInfo domain. If you create and delete a user by using Apple´s GUI, the user has no account records any more. The folder "user deleted" are merely his dead remains. (BTW: my first "user deleted"-Folder has gone to the trash exactly that way and I have not experienced any troubles since then ;-))

[sao]

I suggest you get plenty of information before messing up with deleting a user and user folder.

What I usually do is to use nicl - NetInfo command line utility to delete users in Netinfo manager.

First learn about it, type in terminal:

man nicl

Cheers...