Name of new MacBook Air

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Level 1

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Name of new MacBook Air

I bought a new MacBook Air M2 today. I've had a MacBook Pro since 2015 and using an external hard drive back-up I transferred everything from the MacBook Pro to the new MacBook Air. However, in the process it said that there was already a device named H's MacBook Pro on my network and so it automatically named the new MacBook Air "H's MacBook Pro 2." I went to System Settings, then General, then About and changed the name of the computer to "H's MacBook Air" but when I look on my iPhone under Settings and click on my Apple Id, where it lists all my devices, the MacBook Air is still being called MacBook Pro (2). There's H's iPhone, H's iPad, H's MacBook Pro and H's MacBook Pro (2). Below H's MacBook Pro it says MacBook Pro 13" and below H's MacBook Pro (2) it says MacBook Air. I don't want my new MacBook Air to show up as a MacBook Pro (2). Is there anything I can do to change this?

MacBook Air, macOS 13.5

Posted on Mar 12, 2024 2:10 PM

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Answer 1

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giotto2 Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 17, 2024 6:07 AM in response to HWTech

Hello, HWTech.

Your suggestion is the right one! How do I know this? Eventually, after not getting any response on here, I phoned Apple Support who were very helpful. After explaining the situation the Apple staff member asked me if I had restarted my new MacBook Air since renaming it. I hadn't. He said that it can take some time for the change to register but that it would most likely register faster if I rebooted the new machine. I did that and it changed the name of the MacBook Air to MacBook Air instead of MacBook Pro (2).

I know being bothered about the name of my new MacBook Air is a first world problem, given that lots of people have really serious problems in their lives, but it bugged me that it was wrongly named and now I am very happy that it is correctly named.

Thank you for your reply.

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Answer 2

Mar 15, 2024 8:10 PM in response to giotto2

Turn off the old Mac, then reboot your new Mac to see what happens.

Apple has made a lot of changes to macOS and the System Settings over the last several years, but I think at one point there may have been two locations within the System Settings where the computer name may have been listed/configured. Traditionally with older versions of macOS, it was located under the "Sharing" System Preferences.

Sometimes the router may be part of the problem as well since it will retain the information for a certain period of time.

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Name of new MacBook Air

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