Changing System Name on Mac Login Screen

This seems to be a little known thing, but it's easy when you know how. Everyone points you to Users and Groups, which is the main place to change the system name. But if you see an old name on the login screen, this is changed under Security and Privacy-->General-->Set Lock Message. It's not really your system name. It's just a Lock Message that Apple set automatically somewhere along the line to the system name, and when you did a Time Machine restore to your new machine, it did not change it. Super easy when you know how. But you could spend hours trying to work it out. I did.

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 11.0

Posted on Nov 29, 2020 10:39 AM

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4 replies

Nov 29, 2020 6:28 PM in response to Barney-15E

Thank you for the reply. It's possible that I once set it, though I don't recall doing so. I guess it makes sense that a Time Machine restore would restore the Lock Screen Message.. But it did take me a long time to figure out how to get rid of what looked like an old system name that did not get changed when I thought it should have, and I've seen others ask the same question, so I wanted to make the information available.

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Changing System Name on Mac Login Screen

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