Q: Renaming Magic or Wireless Keyboard Does Not Stick
Finally replacing a very temperamental Apple Bluetooth Keyboard and Mouse - second gen, three AA-batteries in the keyboard. I use an older iMac and a newer Mac mini for TV and usually use Remote Access to control them, but occasionally need hardware access. I've tried to use one keyboard between both Macs and getting the keyboard to pair has always been a real pain. I should have gone the USB route years ago but it's so infrequent that I need to use them. But, after trying FileVault and not realizing it would not work with Remote Access and so been locked out, I have upgraded to the Magic Keyboard and Trackpad 2, as they can be wired or wireless.
One issue I have had is with the devices' names. I didn't think much about it, but on my 2008 iMac, between pairing issues on the old ones - which actually I just wanted to unpair so I could get rid of them - the new Magic Keyboard got given the name of the old Bluetooth Keyboard, which has my name in it. I can rename it easily enough, but when unpairing to check, it would then just come back listing the wrong name - and again, my name, not some generic Apple name.
Based on this (amongst others but this was the most useful):
http://superuser.com/questions/794714/trying-to-fully-remove-a-bluetooth-device- from-mavericks
I have deleted
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth.plist
and
~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.Bluetooth.ALOTOFHEXADECIMALNUMBERSHERE.pl ist
and done so, with restarts, multiple times.
Looking at the .plist in /Library, each time I check for the name string and it's gone. I restart, unpair and pair, and the zombie name is back. It makes me think the name must be written to the keyboard itself? A System Report on the keyboard connected via USB (under About This Mac) however shows nothing.
It is not the end of the world and it does not affect keyboard use at all, but it is maddening. It's like the ebola virus in an otherwise recovered patient hiding in optical fluid. Does anyone know where else these strings might live, and how to nuke them? Right now I've changed the name, and the .plist is showing no signs of the zombie name. I am not going to unpair and pair again just to antagonize myself.
iMac (24-inch Early 2008), OS X El Capitan (10.11.3)
Posted on Feb 29, 2016 5:15 PM