Can't rename Apple Keyboard or Magic Mouse -Solved-

Hello Everyone...

I bought a used Apple Magic Mouse and Keyboard and was frustrated by the inability to rename either to something I liked other than the names they came with.

Using the "Rename" function within the BT Control Panel DID NOT WORK as the name would revert to the old name. Even when attempting the rename on multiple machines. I am using latest version of Catalina on a mid 2012 15" MBP with 16 GB memory and an SSD.

After hours of research, troubleshooting, and frustration (deleting this and that and resetting this and that)... all the standard stuff, I FOUND THE SOLUTION:

You need a machine running Mac OS 10.5.8 Leopard up to and including Mac OS 10.10.6 El Capitan BUT NOTHING LATER THAN THAT. Regardless of machine. Just pair your mouse or keyboard to a machine running the correct version of Mac OS and rename. VOILA! Name is applied as it should be!

This is due to a bug in newer versions of Mac OS that do not do the naming correctly. Hopefully Apple will correct at some point.

Enjoy!

Regards,

C. Perez