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Chapter 10 Managing Preferences 209
To switch directories, click the globe icon. If you are not authenticated, click the lock
and enter the name and password of a directory domain administrator.
3 Select one or more users, groups, computers, or computer groups.
4 Click Mobility, click Account Creation, click Creation, and then set the management
setting to Always.
5 Select “Create mobile account when user logs in to network account.”
This option must be selected to enable a mobile account for the selected account.
6 Click Options and then set the management setting to Always.
7 For the home folder location, select either “at path” or “user selects volume.”
If you select “at path,” enter the path to a folder on an external drive in the format
/Volumes/DriveName/Folders, replacing DriveName with the name of the external drive
and Folders with a folder on the external drive.
If you select “user selects volume,” choose “any external volume” or “any volume” from
the pop-up menu. After authenticating at the login window, the user is prompted to
choose a location.
If you select “any volume”, the user can choose either on the local hard disk or on the
external hard disk. If the user chooses the external hard disk, the local home folder is
stored in /Users/ShortName, where ShortName is the user’s short name.
8 Click Apply Now.
Setting Expiration Periods for Mobile Accounts
When a user enables a mobile account, Mac OS X usually creates a local home folder on
the computer he or she is using. If that user enables mobile accounts on several
computers, each of those computers has a local home folder for the user. If the user
doesn’t use those computers, the local home folders are unused and waste disk space.
When you set an expiration period on a mobile account, the mobile account and its
local home folder are deleted after a period of inactivity.
You can also set an expiration period of 0 to delete the mobile account and its local
home folder as soon as possible. Depending on the account type you’re managing, “as
soon as possible” refers to two different events:
 For users and groups, the mobile account and its local home folder are deleted after
the user logs out.
 For computers and computer groups, the mobile account and its local home folder
are deleted the next time the login window appears. This doesn’t include when the
login window appears while using fast user switching.
Expiry settings do not affect external accounts.