how to remove a shared computer

I had the same problem. I didn't recognise one user under the 'shared' heading in Finder and after some research this method worked in removing unknown users with peculiar names:

go on system preferences

click on the 'sharing' folder

select the second option in the list on the left panel (file sharing)

and under 'shared folders:' NOT 'users:' click the folder and select the '-' option underneath this box to delete it for public sharing.

i don't need to share anything so i was happy to delete this and when u go on finder, you should only recognise networks/ computer names which are currently using your wifi (UK 'Sky' provider for me).

I'm new to mac's so I'm just getting used to this whole idea, but i love it. hope this helped 🙂

You all are making this way to complicated. In the sidebar in your Finder window, under your "Shared" group, if you see the name of another computer, the way to remove it is to go onto the OTHER computer and remove the option to "share" the files and folders.

I recently transferred from and iMac to a Macbook Pro. I had connected the two via firewire to transfer all of my files/settings/etc. from my iMac to my Macbook Pro. After wiping my iMac, I noticed my Macbook Pro still showed up in my iMac Finder Sidebar. This is after reformatted the HD, and reinstalling OS X. The fix was to remove the "sharing" option from the device that is doing the sharing, not the device that is the recipient of the shared content.

Anyway, I know I'm a nobody here, but thought I'd share how I fixed this.

I think you are kind of missing the point mate. The question is how do you remove computers from the Finder sidebar, when the computers do not actually exist?!? Logging onto computers than are not actually there, is quite tricky!

I didn't read all the reply, but I had the same problem before, what I did was changed my Computer Name under >System Preferences >Sharing

all Devices were gone and then go beck to >Finder >Go > Connect to Server... to re-connect the one I need...

now, I have only one Device under Shared

(P.S. I didn't changed back the old name to see if all old Devices still there tho)

Someone (I can't remember if it was on this thread or elsewhere) provided imho the easiest fix:

Simply turn sharing off and on again. Or on and then off... toggle it basically.

The imaginary servers disappear.

After spending quite some time on the apple help line and being transferred to a senior person (allegedly) and making quite a few changes to remove all the shared computers 13 in number (I have never shared my iMac) they then got me to re-load the OS X 10.10.4 and some hour later the bloody shares were still showing. I then un-ticked Bonjour Computers in the Finder Prefs/sidebar and they are all gone. Pity the guys at Apple are not aware of this it could have saved two hours........I then did a search and found your post...

Worked perfectly! Switch off and unplug everything from Airport extreme. Wait 30 seconds. Plug in and switch on. All the old shares from non existent computers gone! Magic. Shares are cached there, not in your computer. Leave everything else alone and just switch it on and off and they are forgotten. Many thanks.

Yep worked for me

Bought a used macbook and all the PC's were there

Checked and unchecked the box as per ^^^^ instructions and they have gone

The information is not stored on the router as the router this Mac was last connected to is 1000 miles away !

Something is not right with the answer that "someone are just sharing their PC"...Because how can that piece of information get in to your private network if nothing but the Internet Service provider suppose to have access to show data in to your system?

In other words how can your next door neighbor computer show on yours if he is not connected to your router or wifi? How can you see him if you are "not" connected to his wifi?

For what I understand you can only use one wireless or networking service at time, right? At least on a End User set up.

My issue was a Synology DiskStation that stayed in the list after it was configured then taken to work. I tried all the ideas above.

I fixed it by rebooting my Airport Extreme.

My theory is that the server's information was stored on the Airport Extreme and published on the network even after the server was gone. I also noticed that my home Synology had a different name (DiskStation #2 or something). Rebooting the Airport Extreme cleared that information and now it only publishes devices actually on the network.

Yep. Unplugging all routers on the network (wires and wireless), waiting a minute to make sure any cached info is cleared, then restarting worked for me. The drive connection histories, including "ghost drives," seems to be stored on the routers.

I've been working on removing an old HP computer and making only a little headway when I came across your suggestion and tried it. I was multi-tasking on my Macbook Pro and using my Mac and didn't want to meddle with the router physically until the Macbook Pro was finished with what I had it doing, so I decided to go ahead and try your suggestion.

The problem was this: I had an old HP computer visible on the Finder list at the left side of the window and wanted to remove it.

In a previous post, I came across the check/uncheck Bonjour computers suggestion in the Finder Preferences under the Sidebar menu and it would indeed 'hide' the HP but there was a new item which appeared with the word 'All' in it that came on in place of the HP item and I didn't want to see either.

As soon as I re-checked the Bonjour computers checkbox, the HP came back so I knew it was still present, just hidden and since I no longer use that computer, I wanted it gone for good.

Next, I saw the thread about toggling the File Share off then back on and voila! My HP is now gone off the Shared list in Finder and I can toggle Bonour computers on and off and HP is still gone. Yay! Thanks for the help wstoneburner and a few others who posted before yours which led me to your suggestion.

I don't know if this works for you but it did for me. I had 2 other computers that was shared with mine and when I went to the sharing preferences in system preferences, there wasn't anything there. But I found out how to fix it really fast. All I did was restart my computer and when I went back into finder, the sharing section was gone and the 2 other computers were gone. BTW. 1 computer was named and the other one was called desktop-(then a number).

None of the answers are relevant or work for removing a spurious shared computer on the Shared menu in the Finder window. I had a Mac from my previous invoice showing for many months. Here is how to remove it:

Launch keychain > in the search box the name of the computer i.e. Johns Mac

Keychain should show you a 'com.cloudd.deviceIdentifier' line. Highlight this line and delete it (Edit>Delete).

Restart your Mac.

You should now see that the shared computer is not listed.

Apologies for the spam, but I will post this in case it's useful for someone else too:

How do you unsubscribe from threads like this? I don't want email updates to 2 year old threads!

I'm not following any communities, so no idea why I am being emailed this stuff.

EDIT: Sorry, now fixed it. Please ignore this post... I'd delete it if I knew how!