How do I get my computer name to show correctly in the finder?

Question

Level 1

4 points

How do I get my computer name to show correctly in the finder?

I recently upgraded to Yosemite and following that upgraded to an SSD drive. Life is good and I am happy with everything except that since the upgrades I am seeing a silly variety of names for my computer.

I renamed it to The Shire and now it shows up as The Shire (2) or The Shire (3). No matter how many times I change it back in Preferences > Sharing, it keeps adding all those extra numbers. There are times when I see four or five different iterations of my system - see attached image.

To add insult to injury, the old name of my system, the generic MacBook Pro (5) also shows in the list.

From what I have read this may have something to do with Bonjour, but I have not see any solutions out there for restoring order and correct names to list.

I would appreciate some assistance resolving this.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.4), 13"

Posted on Nov 3, 2014 3:38 PM

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Answer 1

ssls6

Level 4

2,879 points

Nov 3, 2014 3:41 PM in response to swanla

It's a known bug for certain combinations of routers and mac settings. If you turn off "wake for network access" and rename your computer, restart your router, it should be stable until a fix is issued. You can also clear old names afterwards by toggling "back to my mac" in system preferences.

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Answer 2

Nov 3, 2014 3:43 PM in response to swanla

This happens, among others, if you are connected to a LAN with an identical name.

Could be a bug also but check to make sure !

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Answer 3

Kappy

Level 10

362,023 points

Nov 3, 2014 3:43 PM in response to swanla

Select Preferences in the Finder's Finder menu. Click on the Sidebar icon in the toolbar. Under the Sharing heading uncheck the Bonjour option and see if that helps.

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Answer 4

swanla Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 3, 2014 3:47 PM in response to Kappy

Hi Kappy. As soon as I turned off Bonjour computer all those extras went away. Thank you!

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Answer 5

Nov 3, 2014 3:52 PM in response to swanla

Do note this will have other side effects - discovery of devices and sharing will be affected.

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Answer 6

swanla Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 3, 2014 3:53 PM in response to William Lloyd

Is there a better solution that doesn't have the side affects?

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Answer 7

Kappy

Level 10

362,023 points

Nov 3, 2014 6:36 PM in response to swanla

As of now this is simply a workaround for a bug that will hopefully be fixed in a future version of Yosemite. The only impact it may have on you is if you rely on using bonjour connections for any of your peripherals such as a bonjour-enabled printer. Otherwise, you will not notice a problem at all.

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Answer 8

swanla Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 3, 2014 6:38 PM in response to Kappy

That's good to know because I am not using any Bonjour-enabled peripherals. Thanks again for your help.

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