how to reset a mac user account?

Question

I am essentially looking to 'reformat' my user account on my mac. By reformat, I'm trying to basically reset the account to how it started when it was created - blank. One way of accomplishing this is to delete the account, and then recreate it. Is there another alternative, that just lets me 'reset' the account?

Answer 1

Here's a simple way to hack this:

The default user profile is located at /System/Library/User Template/English.lproj. On the command line, and NOT while logged in as yourself (either connect via SSH remotely while logged out or use a different administrator account):

Remove your existing account with
$ rm -Rf /Users/myshortusername

then copy the template back with
$ ditto /System/Library/User\ Template/English.lproj /Users/myshortusername
(make sure to omit the trailing slash!)

and finally chown the copied account back to your user with
$ chown -R myshortusername:myshortusername /Users/myshortusername

You'll need to be root for this, so either $ sudo -s at the beginning or run each command with a sudo.

Answer 2

I think your method is the easiest way to reset the user. I recommend to create a new user an switch to this user. So you still have some old settings / files / passwords and so on.