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changing the name of a disk volume

OK, I think I've asked this before, in several forums, but I've NEVER gotten an adequate answer. I have several disks mounted on my Monterey system, and frequently (but not always), I am TOTALLY UNABLE to rename them. That is, normally you click on the disk volume icon, and then on the icon name. The name gets a light blue background, and you can type a new name. Just like for files and folders. I do a monthly backup and I like to rename that disk volume with the date of that backup. Today, I am UNABLE to do that on my backup disk. I click on its icon name, and then the label, and the label background doesn't turn light blue, and you can't enter a new name. Duh, what's going on??? So I throw up my hands and in Disk Utility I erase the volume, rename it as desired, and redo the backup. Now I can rename the volume (which no longer needs to be renamed) by clicking on the icon.


If I have a disk volume that refuses to be renamed, how do I do so, without erasing it???



iMac, OS X 10.11

Posted on Jun 18, 2023 6:22 AM

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Posted on Jun 19, 2023 6:59 AM

OK, I think I have the answer. I contacted Apple Support, and they escalated me to a really smart person. We found that the disk volumes that I could not change the names on were bootable backups (these produced by SuperDuper, as it turns out). It seems that bootable backups are formatted somewhat differently, and since they are backups, they specifically don't allow any changes to be made on them. If in Disk Utility you cntl-click on a volume you'll see a volume "info" pane (via Get Info). One of the items in that pane is "Writable", which can be "yes" or "no". Bootable backups are all "no". Non-bootable volumes are all "yes".


The references here to Time Machine pertain somewhat. You can't change that name because it is, in some sense, a bootable backup.


So that's the answer. Bootable backups are protected against ALL changes, including name changes. What is a little strange is the icon for my internal disk DOES allow name changes, but maybe that's because I have booted to it and it is open. If I boot to one of my bootable backups, I suspect I'd be able to change it's name then.

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33 replies

Jun 20, 2023 1:39 PM in response to Dannymac22

Are these macOS boot drives? If so, then changing the name is tricky since a macOS boot drive utilizes two separate APFS volumes...one is a read-only system volume and the second is the writable volume containing the home user folders. Unfortunately macOS won't properly rename these boot volumes. If you attempt to rename a macOS boot volume through the Finder, then it will only rename one of these two volumes.....yet these two volumes are linked together behind the scenes. The only way I have found to rename these macOS boot volumes is by using Disk Utility to rename each volume so they stay named as a matched set. I have never tried to rename the Volume Group instead. Instead of making things better with later releases of macOS, Apple seems to have made this worse since at one time renaming just of one these paired volumes would automatically rename the other to match when using Disk Utility....sadly this is no longer the case. I have not tried to rename the macOS system volume on macOS 11.x+ for a while now so I have no idea if it is even still possible.


I'm not sure this is what is happening here, but you did mention a backup drive without mentioning any details about the backup drive. These details are critical if you want help since there are too many unknowns after so much back & forth already.


I guess the only other possibility is are you running any anti-virus apps, cleaning/optimizer apps, or third party security software? If so, then maybe one of these types of apps are causing the problem.


Is this Mac being managed by a school or employer? If so, then perhaps they are not allowing such changes and you should contact them for assistance. If this Mac was purchased used, then it increases the chances of it still being managed by a previous owner.

Jun 20, 2023 1:43 PM in response to HWTech

Are these macOS boot drives? If so, then changing the name is tricky since a macOS boot drive utilizes two separate APFS volumes...one is a read-only system volume and the second is the writable volume containing the home user folders. Unfortunately macOS won't properly rename these boot volumes. If you attempt to rename a macOS boot volume through the Finder, then it will only rename one of these two volumes.....yet these two volumes are linked together behind the scenes. The only way I have found to rename these macOS boot volumes is by using Disk Utility to rename each volume so they stay named as a matched set. I have never tried to rename the Volume Group instead. Instead of making things better with later releases of macOS, Apple seems to have made this worse since at one time renaming just of one these paired volumes would automatically rename the other to match when using Disk Utility....sadly this is no longer the case. I have not tried to rename the macOS system volume on macOS 11.x+ for a while now so I have no idea if it is even still possible.

It isn't tricky.

It doesn't matter if the Data volume isn't renamed.

It doesn't cause any problems.

I rename all of my startup drives.

Apple Silicon seems to set the Data volume name to "Data."

My Startup drive is named "Amber" and my Data volume is named "Data"

changing the name of a disk volume

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