iMac Sharing Name Keeps Spontaneously Changing...

I don't think there's any automatic syncing going on.

However I've just been messing around with it again, and think I may have been approaching this from the wrong end...

Several years ago I set up an Automater app to run on my daughter's Mac every time she booted it up. This would connect to my computer in order to access a Time Machine drive which would then mount on her desktop for her Mac to back up to.

This worked great for several years until this current episode.

But messing around with it just now, I found that I could manually connect from her computer to mine and mount the TM drive on her desktop, even after my Sharing name had changed itself. But the automater wouldn't achieve the same thing, despite its not having changed, and would throw an error.

When it suddenly occurred to me to try simply dragging and dropping the mounted TM drive to her Startup Items list. And blow me, when I rebooted her computer, it worked!

Time will tell whether it lasts, but it seems I've been using a complicated solution to achieve something that could be achieved much more simply. And switching to the simple solution seems to be working.

As I say, early days, but will monitor things and report back if anything changes.

Thanks for taking the time to help with this. It's much appreciated.

:-)

Thanks BD.

Though it's not my internet connection that's the issue - that's all fine.

And no, no anti-virus or cleaning app or anything like that. Etrecheck returns a performance rating of Excellent.



And I can see and change the computer .local name in Preferences>Sharing, but it's the fact that my Mac keeps losing that name in File Sharing without me doing anything that's the issue.

I rebooted my Mac about three hours ago and the name shown in File Sharing was correct straight afterwards, but I've just checked it again and it's now changed to this without me doing anything:

This will likely change to smb://unknown.... followed by some kind of IP address soon, at which point my daughter's Mac won't be able to find my Mac.

I just don't understand why it's happening.

:(

There are no iPads, but my daughter and I both have iPhones. But the only time we connect them to the Macs is for uploading photos or videos, plus I have MyPhotoStream running from my phone.

Could any of that make a difference?

Thanks BD. Another good suggestion, but sadly hasn't made any difference.

I've also tried switching off Enable Power Nap in Energy Saver as I read somewhere that it might help, but it hasn't.

:(