(Source: )īased on past occurrences, rebooting fixes the problem (until the next time it happens).

(Source: Is it possible to create a user without a home directory?)įurther research indicates that /var/empty exists as a 'security jail' for users who shouldn't have access to anything (which is why it's bad to change permissions or symlink it elsewhere). Research seems to indicate that macOS doesn't think my home directory is /var/empty, but rather that it doesn't know that I have a home directory, and there's some fallback logic somewhere that causes the system to use /var/empty for any user who doesn't have a home directory. This has happened three times so far since upgrading my work machine to High Sierra a couple days after it was released. Still other things appear to be working fine: Terminal uses default settings for color/font/etc instead of my customized settings.When the screen saver activates, the system default (Flurry) appears instead of my usual (Classic pointed at a directory of photos I've selected).In Open and Save dialogs, it doesn't show my home directory in the sidebar, nor any of the common destinations within (Desktop, Documents, etc).I can't take screenshots unless I use Grab or hold Control to write the screenshot to the clipboard (because it doesn't have write access to /var/empty/Desktop, which is correctly owned by root).Some apps appear to be unaffected regardless of the Library permissions:.

Safari (which I'm using now to write this question while I research).After repairing my Library, some apps that couldn't open before now can, and many of these have forgotten my settings:.Notes: the dock icon appears and then disappears.Chrome: same error dialog as before, pictured above.Preview: a Finder dialog appears: The application 'Preview' can't be opened.Even after 'repairing my Library', many apps cannot open:.Safari simply doesn't open when clicked - it appears briefly in the dock and then disappears, with no Crash Report dialog (although I can't say whether the system in this state is aware of my preference to see those dialogs).Entering my password here causes /var/empty/Library's owner to be changed to me (which is bad in the long term, but allows some things to begin working). Preview, Notes, Messages), I get prompted with a dialog that says it needs to repair my home directory and requires me to authenticate. Many other things that require knowledge of the home directory also fail: This leads me to quit Chrome and restart it, which in turn leads to this error dialog, after which Chrome does not start: The first clue (because this is something I do very frequently) is always that Google Chrome can't open a new tab. I have been encountering a sporadic problem where my Mac seems to 'forget' where my home directory is.

Civilization 5 mac quits high sierra