Hello, I recently created a secondary Volume to install macOS Big Sur on it. Later I decided to rename the volume to "Macintosh HD ➁" in the finder and disk utility. After restarting and resetting nvram/..ram with option-cmd-p-r the names still haven't changed on the boot menu. Does anyone know why this happens? Thanks :)
btw: I am from Germany but I hope the US Community Site is more active:)
MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 11.7
Use Disk Utility to try to rename it. See if you can rename the Volume Group for that installation assuming you created a separate Container (aka partition) for it. macOS doesn't do well with renaming macOS boot volumes since the macOS boot volumes for macOS 10.15+ consist of a read-only system volume named "Macintosh HD" by default and a data volume for the home User folders called "Macintosh HD - Data" or with some later versions of macOS it may not be just "Data". Rename the main part of the volume name, but make sure to keep " - Data" part of any name intact. I honestly don't know if it is still possible to rename the read-only system volume since it is a signed & sealed volume beginning with macOS 11.x+.
Apple used to keep a hidden file on the boot volume which contained the name to be used for the Option Boot menu, but I don't know where this file is located for macOS 11.x+.
Before you make any attempts, make sure to have a good backup just in case something goes wrong.
These days I make sure to give the macOS boot volume the name I want to see when I erase the drive prior to installing macOS 11.x+ because it is just so hard to make the change later on.
Edit: If you cannot rename the Volume Group, then rename both of the APFS volumes for that installation....sounds like one of them has already been renamed.
Use Disk Utility to try to rename it. See if you can rename the Volume Group for that installation assuming you created a separate Container (aka partition) for it. macOS doesn't do well with renaming macOS boot volumes since the macOS boot volumes for macOS 10.15+ consist of a read-only system volume named "Macintosh HD" by default and a data volume for the home User folders called "Macintosh HD - Data" or with some later versions of macOS it may not be just "Data". Rename the main part of the volume name, but make sure to keep " - Data" part of any name intact. I honestly don't know if it is still possible to rename the read-only system volume since it is a signed & sealed volume beginning with macOS 11.x+.
Apple used to keep a hidden file on the boot volume which contained the name to be used for the Option Boot menu, but I don't know where this file is located for macOS 11.x+.
Before you make any attempts, make sure to have a good backup just in case something goes wrong.
These days I make sure to give the macOS boot volume the name I want to see when I erase the drive prior to installing macOS 11.x+ because it is just so hard to make the change later on.
Edit: If you cannot rename the Volume Group, then rename both of the APFS volumes for that installation....sounds like one of them has already been renamed.
I'd consider that a cosmetic thing.
You might fix it right away or maybe with less hassle in the next macOS major upgrade:
Backup as usual. Then use Carbon Copy Cloner to make a "legacy" bootable clone of the old macOS to an external disk (works OK on Intel Macs but silicon Macs might be more picky). Then option-boot to it and the use the Disk Utility to erase the old internal device as APFS with a carefully chosen name, and then use CCC to re-clone a "legacy" bootable macOS back to the internal disk.
If someone has a more elegant way, please chime in.
Oh seems like after updating MacOS this "hidden file" was updated. Now it shows the new name of the volume in the Option Boot menu. So in the installation process this file gets checked too.
Interesting.
How do I rename the startup disk?
