how do I change my printer's name in sidebar under shared devices?

Question

how do I change my printer's name in sidebar under shared devices?

My printer was shown in the sidebar as a number - it was found by my Mac from the router which had the printer attached to my old PC

Now that I have downloaded the software for this printer it works fine but has this funny number as a secondary name and I wish to rename it.

There is also another funny code which I have not identified as to which device that is , probably the screen of my old PC as I have turned of the PC but not yet disconnected the screen from it.

iMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2014), OS X Yosemite (10.10.1)

Posted on Dec 27, 2014 4:14 AM

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Answer 1

tbirdvet

Level 6

17,114 points

Dec 27, 2014 5:33 AM in response to Justin-Isobel

I had to change mine when installing my printer software which was an HP. During the setup it showed a name that I could then change at that point.

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Answer 2

Dec 27, 2014 11:47 AM in response to tbirdvet

Sorry, but this did not happen when I installed the software, However another person had something logged which helped to change the printers names, but it still shows the numbers in the sidebar, maybe it takes a while to take affect there ???

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Answer 3

tbirdvet

Level 6

17,114 points

Dec 27, 2014 3:02 PM in response to Justin-Isobel

For what it's worth my printers name is HPXXXXX where XXX is a number.

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Answer 4

Dec 28, 2014 2:49 AM in response to tbirdvet

Definitely did not work and the other device in the sidebar, happens to be my new printer - so I have two printer referred to as devices with numbers as names and both work fine its just irritating as the names have been changed under System Preferences in Printers & Scanners etc.

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Answer 5

Eric Root

Level 10

685,257 points

Dec 28, 2014 1:36 PM in response to Justin-Isobel

System Preferences/Printers & Scanners - delete the one you want to rename and when you go to add it back, you can rename it.

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Answer 6

Dec 29, 2014 9:26 AM in response to Eric Root

Sorry - does not work - You can also rename it without deleting it which I have also done before and therefore, it appears with the correct names in Printers & Scanners but still remain as a number in the sidebar of Finder. I have an feeling that the numbers in the Sidebar under Devices is probably picked up from the router and its identification of the Wifi device as both my printers are connected via Wifi

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Answer 7

Barney-15E

Level 10

122,318 points

Dec 29, 2014 9:36 AM in response to Justin-Isobel

Ttry changing it in the CUPS web interface. I'm not sure if it can be done there, though. I'm not at a Mac at the moment, so I'm not sure what to look for.

http://localhost:631

On on first connect, it will give you a command to copy and paste into Terminal to enable the Web interface.

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Answer 8

Dec 29, 2014 9:43 AM in response to Barney-15E

sorry no idea what that means I am a novice as far as Apple and PC technicalities are concerned, more used to working large systems etc

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