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Host name since macOS Mojave

E

Estate3131

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 16, 2018
8
0
Hi there,

Last week, I updated my Macbook Air under macOS Mojave and when I went to work with, I had a pop-up like what a Macbook under my name already existed and that it was renamed to " Macbook (2) ". I tried to change it in the "Sharing" system preferences of macOS. But the next day the name has changed again. Today my Mac is called "Macbook (7)".

So I have two questions:

- why my Macbook has been renamed knowing that I am the only Macbook with "my name"? I don't understand

- how to fix the problem permanently?

Thanks
 
My thinking is your network had the Mac address of your MacBook Air assigned to your previous OS...so when you upgraded and open your computer, your network says wait-a-minute, that computer already existed.
 
Estate3131 said:
Hi there,

Last week, I updated my Macbook Air under macOS Mojave and when I went to work with, I had a pop-up like what a Macbook under my name already existed and that it was renamed to " Macbook (2) ". I tried to change it in the "Sharing" system preferences of macOS. But the next day the name has changed again. Today my Mac is called "Macbook (7)".

So I have two questions:

- why my Macbook has been renamed knowing that I am the only Macbook with "my name"? I don't understand

- how to fix the problem permanently?

Thanks
Click to expand...
Good question. It’s not limited to MAC. I have the same thing with all of my Apple devices here. TV, iPads, MACs. A couple of devices have made it to 6-700 so far. It’s annoying.

Edit: Just looked at my list and changed the names on my two TVs. One was (276) the other was (145). The other devices are fine at the moment.
 
It is related to networking, where every machine needs a unique name in the form of somethingsomething.local to access it. Since connecting to a machine by IP address is annoying (and the IP can always change) newer networks auto-configure themselves and use the name as a permanent shortcut to themselves. So the name needs to be unique.

If you look under Settings > Sharing on a Mac (other devices have places for the name as well), you either have a name you chose or the new name you got when you had an existing name. If you share a name with an existing device, you go up by one each time. So if you have the same name on multiple devices, every time you reconnect they get a new name. Just give them a different name and it will stay fixed.
 
Hum.. now my Macbook have (255). So what can I do for stopping that... ? That's a bug ? It's impossible to have 254 Macbook at my name. lol
 
There are lots of MacBooks on the network. You should give your Mac a unique name, like “LouisNs-MacBook-Air”. Then you’ll be fine.
 
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