Changed MacOS user name, FFS can't write to old paths

[minty]

Strange one here for sure! I changed around usernames of the two accounts on my Mac (Ventura). One was changed to a new one, and then the other was changed to be the same as that old one.

I'm running FFS (latest, 12.5 Donation Edition) on the account that got the new username, but it is giving error at the end of successful sync like "cannot write file .... 172425.416.html" and "cannot create directory "Users/oldusername/Library/Application Support"

It is trying to use the old username in the path for those logging operations and of course the user it's running under does not have access to this since it belongs to another user. Note, the actual path does still exist but it's for a different user now.

I tried re-installing FFS using the .pkg but that did not help. It still thinks it's home is a different place.

How can I fix it? I don't mind getting my hands dirty and modifying some config file is you point me in the right direction. Or tell me what I have to delete to make an install create everything correctly for the new user. Thanks! Love FreeFileSync!

[Zenju]

FreeFileSync is using the path it's getting from the OS, which is a list of potential directories, usually just one item. I suspect in your case the list of directories is larger than 1, and the first entry is "Users/oldusername/Library/Application Support".

But there's a different and slightly newer API for getting the support directory that we could test: https://www.mediafire.com/file/xmnere7jhm96hwn/FreeFileSync_12.6_beta_macOS.zip

[minty]

Thanks, but unfortunately, no change. Still wants to write backup log html file and create a folder in /Users/oldusername/Library/Application Support. Permission denied.

[Zenju]

The problem seems to be that the old log file path is still present in GlobalSettings.xml. But you can fix that in FFS preferences (Command+,)

[minty]

Ah, yes! Thanks, found it.