Computer Name

thinkingdifferentthinkingdifferent
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
I have encountered a strange problem while trying to change the Computer Name from the Sharing preferences. I can change the name by clicking edit but the change does not take affect. In fact, the Sharing window displays both the old and new computer name. Here's a screenshot of the problem. The old name is Tom's Computer while the new name is Macintosh. When I browse my network from another computer, the old name shows up and I get an error when I try to connect to it. Anybody have an idea about what's going on?



Comments

  • Reply 1 of 7
    allinoneallinone Posts: 279member
    Sounds like a corrupt preference file. Not sure where it is stored tho...



    What happens when you try to change it from another user account on the same machine?
  • Reply 2 of 7
    allinoneallinone Posts: 279member
    OK found it:



    /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/preferences.plist



    Might check the values of these two strings:



    Root > System > Network > Hostnames > LocalhostName >

    Root > System > System > Computer Name >



    If this file is corrupt I would bet you have found your problem.
  • Reply 3 of 7
    sherman homansherman homan Posts: 167member
    allinone is probably right about the preference file. But did you try turning off Personal File Sharing, then changing the computer name, and turn file sharing back on?
  • Reply 4 of 7
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,322moderator
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ThinkingDifferent View Post


    I have encountered a strange problem while trying to change the Computer Name from the Sharing preferences. I can change the name by clicking edit but the change does not take affect.



    I can't remember exactly but I'm sure I had a problem using the edit button too. If I just changed the name in the text field and hit return it seemed to work. I actually don't know why there is an edit button to be honest.
  • Reply 5 of 7
    sdw2001sdw2001 Posts: 18,016member
    One thing that drives me nuts on this topic (sort of) is that you can't change your computer's short name. I migrated my stuff over from an iMac last fall, and I wasn't able to call my computer what I wanted to because...duh..the iMac had the same name. I think I changed the short name to iMac to get it up and running. So now, I have my computer name as X, and my short name as "iMac." "Help" says it can't be changed. Thoughts?
  • Reply 6 of 7
    allinoneallinone Posts: 279member
    Do you mean the system username?



    This can be changed but it is tricky and a mistake can be devastating.





    Apple actually recommends creating a new user account and moving stuff over:



    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106824



    Someone claims to have written a little utility to automate the changing of the shortname:



    http://homepage.mac.com/frakes/MOSXP...tusername.html



    (warning I have not tried this myself).



    There are also instructions on how to do it yourself:



    http://www.rts-software.com/howto/changeshortname.asp



    (warning I have not tried this either)
  • Reply 7 of 7
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,322moderator
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SDW2001 View Post


    One thing that drives me nuts on this topic (sort of) is that you can't change your computer's short name.



    I don't know why Apple don't have a way to do this. It really is quite stupid because it's actually not that hard to do. As mentioned above, you basically make a new user, copy your stuff into place from the old folder and then just sudo chown <new user name> -R <folder>. You have to convert stuff that you leave lying around too but like I say, it's pretty easy and I've had to do it a number of times. You just have to be careful to not sudo chown important stuff like the system folder. Most of the time, it's just the home folder plus some files here and there.
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