[redvlntno]

I had previously installed an SSD into my MacBook Pro for startup, and installed a secondary HDD to store my files. I'd migrated my user folder off of the startup drive to the secondary drive and everything has been working well there for years.

I now bought a large hybrid drive and I'm attempting to move the home directory back to the startup drive.

• The migration assistant doesn't see the files, so I'm forced to move things manually.
• I've copied the folders in my home directory manually (drag & drop) to the startup disk and I've gone into SU under terminal and did a cp -R to move the ~/Library/ folder over to the startup drive.
• I've changed the user's home directory location in Users & Groups pref pane by right clicking my username and selecting "Advanced Options..."

Unfortunately, It's not working correctly. I can't access many of my apps as I don't have proper permissions, Keychain Access doesn't appear to have all of my logins, other weirdness along those lines.

I believe I've narrowed down the problem to the content of the ~/Library folder doesn't seem to have maintained the proper permissions for my username.

I've attempted to repair permissions in Disk Utility, but that doesn't see anything wrong.

Right now I've reverted to a backup, I'm back where I started with my home folder on the secondary drive - so any advice for moving my home directory back to the Startup Drive under Mavericks is greatly appreciated.

[alcimedes]

check out BatChmod. it's a free app. for OSX, and it is phenomenal at fixing permissions, much better than Disk Utility. You can run that on the home folder in question, see if it fixes things.

however, back to the original issue.

I'd migrated my user folder off of the startup drive to the secondary drive and everything has been working well there for years.

This part makes me nervous

I've copied the folders in my home directory manually (drag & drop) to the startup disk and I've gone into SU under terminal and did a cp -R to move the ~/Library/ folder over to the startup drive. • I've changed the user's home directory location in Users & Groups pref pane by right clicking my username and selecting "Advanced Options..."

Rather than all that, this might work better. (NOTE: The first account on the machine *can't* have the same username as your old account for this method to work, but it'd drop dead easy in my experience)

copy your OLD user folder to the new machine. it can't have the same name as the user account you're logged in with though.

after copying the user folder over, go to system preferences and then users and groups, and make a new user.

for the new user, give it a username that exactly matches your OLD user folder. it should see that there is already a folder by that name in place, and ask if you want to use the contents for the user you're creating.

It's kind of like an old school manual migration assistant.

when it moves it that way, the OS seems to be a bit smarter about maintaining and/or fixing permissions issues as well.

[redvlntno]

Quote: I'd migrated my user folder off of the startup drive to the secondary drive and everything has been working well there for years. This part makes me nervous

Well, there's a load of tutorials on doing this (obviously, not about undoing it though) since SSD's are reasonably priced at low capacity. It's a good bang for the buck - and it's worked well.

check out BatChmod. it's a free app. for OSX, and it is phenomenal at fixing permissions, much better than Disk Utility. You can run that on the home folder in question, see if it fixes things.

copy your OLD user folder to the new machine. it can't have the same name as the user account you're logged in with though. after copying the user folder over, go to system preferences and then users and groups, and make a new user. for the new user, give it a username that exactly matches your OLD user folder. it should see that there is already a folder by that name in place, and ask if you want to use the contents for the user you're creating. It's kind of like an old school manual migration assistant. when it moves it that way, the OS seems to be a bit smarter about maintaining and/or fixing permissions issues as well.

Solid recommendations and I will try the second one first. Thanks a ton for offering some ideas. I'll let you know how it goes.

[alcimedes]

Did it work out ok?

[redvlntno]

I've had some problem relocating the data. It's a big job and I need a fair amount of downtime to give it another go. Maybe this Sunday. I'll keep you updated.

[redvlntno]

It's only been.... well, far too long. I was able to migrate the data and it was much harder than I expected. To move the Home folder back into the /Users/ directory of the startup drive I ended up needing to open Terminal and sudo copy (for safety):

sudo cp -rv /Volumes/(secondary disc name)/Users/(username)/ /Volumes/(startup disc name)/Users/(new username)/

Once the copy was complete, I went into System Preferences, Users and Groups and added a new user with (new username). As you said it would above, this blessed the User folder with correct permissions. For some reason a restart was required to complete restore the permissions, but once it did.... all work beautifully, with only minor tweaks required to get all system running normally.

Thanks a ton for your help.

[alcimedes]

Excellent, glad to hear that it helped!