Help! User settings gone accidentally

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My 2 year old got his hands on the keyboard earlier, and now all my settings are back to default - my desktop, safari bookmarks, etc. Anyone know how I can get these back? Nothing seems obvious, either from a search on various settings or from forum or google searches.

I did see mention of safari bookmarks being stored in ~/Library/Sarfari - however I have no such Safari folder within Library. However Safari does works OK, and has bookmarks (the default ones - Apple, Yahoo!, Google Maps, etc.).

Thanks in advance.
 
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chas_m

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Really hard to tell what might have happened.

If your kid somehow renamed your user folder, you are in for a world of pain.
 
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My 2 year old got his hands on the keyboard earlier, and now all my settings are back to default - my desktop, safari bookmarks, etc. Anyone know how I can get these back? Nothing seems obvious, either from a search on various settings or from forum or google searches.

I did see mention of safari bookmarks being stored in ~/Library/Sarfari - however I have no such Safari folder within Library. However Safari does works OK, and has bookmarks (the default ones - Apple, Yahoo!, Google Maps, etc.).

Thanks in advance.

There are three libraries.

1) Macintosh HD> Library
2) Macintosh HD> System> Library
3) Home Folder> Library

Safari is located in the third library. You should be able to find your bookmarks there.

I have a feeling your two-year old just rearranged some folders around, and possibly (just a quick thought) may've tried to rename the Home folder, which usually results in your issue- though the Home folder's "old name" will still remain intact.
 
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I think there's a fourth one, but I'm not at my Mac.
 
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Thanks. The first two don't have anything. #3 does have a Bookmarks.plist file. However judging by the date stamp on it, I think it's the stripped down version (default, plus one bookmark I've since added). Is there any way to see the content of this file and/or edit it?

I also tried doing a file search on "Bookmark" using Finder. Not sure why, but it didn't find this Bookmark.plist file. However it did find two Bookmarks directories:
1. <home> > Desktop > Library > Caches > Metadata > Safari > Bookmarks
2. <home> > Library > Caches > Metadata > Safari > Bookmarks

The both contained files with scrambled names - obviously meant to just be read by Safari. #2 only had a few files (about 4), whereas #1 had many files, and was older, so I figured #1 was probably the cached bookmarks. I drug #1 over into the #2 site, overwriting the files, and re-opened Safari, but no change - it still showed my newer, very incomplete set.

So - help is still appreciated if possible. Thanks!
 

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