how to remove a shared computer

In TimeMachine, unselect the Disk which has been used for Data Backup. This should be able to remove the Disk being seen on the Shared Section in Finder

Hey Guys. Here is what worked for me. I logged into my router and deleted the "unknown" computer that had been connected to my network. (All routers vary so you may want to consult with your provider on how to do this). I then disconnected the Ethernet cable from my computer and poof it was gone. I plugged it back in and it has not returned. The "unknown" computer is what my router called it although the sidebar listed as a PC with a string of lowercase characters and numbers. I use to let my landlord share my connection via Ethernet since he is right below me. So obviously that was the culprit. If you have ever had someone connected to your network or have connected to someone elses it appears it gets cached somewhere. In my case it appears to have been the router. I hope this has helped. God Bless.

Doing what jaspreeet281 suggested - then enabled it after disabling it - worked for me!

i lied - its back. it did not work 😟

This worked perfectly here, thank you

This worked for me, thanks!!!

I had the same computer showing up 10 times. Mac Pro 2,3,4,5...... I did a hard reset of my airport router and they all went away. Seems like this info is stored on the router and not the computer.

Try to reconnect to the LAN: turn WiFi off and then on (or unplug and then plug back ethernet cable).

...... I did a hard reset of my airport router and they all went away. Seems like this info is stored on the router and not the computer.

I had the same issue. My old iMac that I sold and is no longer in my office continued to show up in the Finder side bar of not just my new computer, but in all the computers around the office.

This is what worked for me to remove it. I disconnected the power cable to my router, disconnected the Ethernet cable from the router, and turn off WiFi on my computer. After reconnecting the cables to the router and turning WiFi back on, the old computer had finally disappeared from the shared computers in the sidebar of Finder, on all computers in the office.

This does indeed mean, that the info for the shared old computer was stored on the router and not the computer(s). I had been looking in the wrong place. I was ready to call Apple about this, this issue had been driving me crazy.

I clicked on the Apple Icon (top left), then System Preferences; Under "System" click on Users & Groups; Click the lock to make changes (enter password and it will unlock); Under "Other Users" I clicked what said Guest User: You will have the 2 choices, UNCLICK the bottom one that says Allow guest to connect to shared folders. Click the lock again to lock everything. My "shared computer" (where ever it came from) should be blank. I reclicked the "Allow guests…." and I didn't see the "shared computer" name that was there. SO hoepfully that will work. I just don't know how it got connected in the first place…. Hope this helps anyone else…

Thanks! This solved my problem.

I tried all the tricks on this thread without success, but eventually solved it. I had about 8 variations on the name of the Mac Mini on our network: some were names I gave it, some were simply appended numbers to one of the names. Gumparker's solution of logging into the router made me realize that the ghost devices on the network were not part of a preference file on an individual computer -- indeed all three computers (two Mavericks and one Yosemite) on the network showed the same shared ghost devices. Must be the router storing the names of the phantom computers. I have a FiOS router, plus an Apple Airport Extreme connected to FiOs via ethernet, and also an old Airport Time Capsule for backups only (no wi-fi) daisy chained off the Airport Extreme, so there were three possible culprits.

I unplugged both the FiOs router and the Airport Extreme, waited a minute, then plugged the FiOS router back in; after it was back online, I plugged the Airport Extreme back in. Partial success! Some of the newer ghost names went away, but four of the older ones remained. Must be the old Airport Time Capsule. I unplugged it, waited, then plugged it back in. Success! All the phantom names on the network are now gone.

The easiest & fastest way is this.

Go to "Setting-->Sharing"

There is "Computer name" section. In there, go to "Edit"

Change that "local host name"

I did solve this for myself. Obviously, we have learned that solutions are always specific to the user and their own networks.

Here was my issue, to clarify. My shared folder in the FINDER window kept loading up new versions of my laptop (macbook pro). I reviewed tons of solutions in these blogs and could not believe some of the solutions. Most of these had absolutely nothing to do with networking, but were more about throwing darts in the dark and praying it worked. LOL

So here's a networking solution.
1. In the finder window, i went to APPLICATIONS

2. I went to UTILITIES

3. I opened the AIRPORT UTILITY

4. I CLICKED on my AIRPORT EXTREME

5. I CLICKED edit

6. I CLICKED on NETWORK

7. I noticed I had reserved an IP ADDRESS for my macbook pro that I was seeing all the versions for in the FINDER window

8. I also CLICKED on the NETWORK OPTIONS button in the same NETWORK view and noticed my lease was set to 90 days

9. I think changing the lease to 1 day would have solved this issue and after a reset of the router, would have made the versions of my macbook pro go away. And moving forward, I would have only seen versions pop up, if I rebooted my laptop in that 24 hour period, but the version/s would have been gone the next day.

10. BUT.....for my solution. I just decided to remove my macbook pro from the DHCP RESERVATIONS. Specifically, I CLICKED on my macbook pro IN the DHCP RESERVATIONS and then CLICKED the minus sign for delete.

11. I CLICKED update and SOLVED!

This is a TRUE NETWORK SOLUTION. None of that deleting plist junk. LOL 😁

The PROBLEM to reiterate, is that your WIFI router is always setting up that reserved DHCP IP Address for your macbook. And I am positive, you can get away with just setting the DHCP LEASE to 1 day. But I went one step further and deleted my reserved IP Address for my macbook pro. I set that reserve up many years ago and just forgot it was there.

Here's how I resolved it... and more importantly, what caused it.

Cause

A friend came over and connected to my network while I was using my machine. Their machine, rightly so, showed up in my Finder shares. During this time, I closed my laptop and it went to sleep -- remembering that it had shares. A little later I woke my laptop at a hotel, and knowing there was a network I didn't trust, I turned off Apple / Preferences... / Sharing, File Sharing before connecting. It wasn't until days later at home I noticed the ghost machines still in Finder with no way to delete them.

Solution

I went back into Apple / Preferences... / Sharing, File Sharing and turned ON File Sharing (the machines vanished), then I turned OFF File Sharing (they stayed vanished).

Suspicion

I believe this is an edge-case bug, where Finder does not check shares unless it is connected to a network, and if the File Sharing option is turned off while disconnected, it never polls (since 'obviously' you're not sharing anything) to remove stale entries. FYI, I have logged this as a bug with Apple, # 19977714. Again, still assuming this is what's happening, it seems that Finder should on either no network or discovering that option is off, remove all Shares and then it doesn't have to check anymore.