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OS X keeps appending "(2)" to computer name
- Thread starter BriMercer
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I have tried the deletion suggested and it appears to have worked. However I have a new issue in that I don't know how to get rid of all the ghost entries under Network. It shows I have about 30 devices on my network, but I only have 3 OS X machines. Any ideas on how to clear the "ghost" entries?
Turn off your machine and restart the modem and routers. Then turn the machine back on again.
I hate deep problems. This is probably some bad network object definition that'll haunt us up through 10.14.4, like the asynchronous desktop updates did from 10.6 through at least 10.9.
"We can't fix it, because that'd break something else even worse."
I noticed that my -2 still appeared in Terminal.
Try this:
Set your HostName with:
sudo scutil --set HostName 'yourHostName'
don't use the quotes and if there is a space in your name, it might need to look like 'Dirty\ Cat" ( backslash before the space )
Just to add, done this and it worked for a couple of days but (2) appended to network name again this morning.
So much for this bug fix... 3 of 8 macs now say (2)... Glad I didn't do all 30! It's up to Apple now... I have filed my feedback report - Everybody please file yours at: https://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html
Two methods that have temporarily fixed the re-numeratation of my Computer name:
First: Switch off the TC/AE and then rename your computer... Start up the TC/AE and hope for the best.
Second: And this has worked the best thus far, for me. Switch off Back To My Mac, switch off Screen / File Sharing. Remove numbers from the computer name... And hope for the best.
Bug report submitted...
First: Switch off the TC/AE and then rename your computer... Start up the TC/AE and hope for the best.
Second: And this has worked the best thus far, for me. Switch off Back To My Mac, switch off Screen / File Sharing. Remove numbers from the computer name... And hope for the best.
Bug report submitted...
A variation of what you suggest has been working for me so far.
I have an Airport Extreme as my primary router and two Airport Expresses as wired bridges. In Airport Utility, I deleted the entry for Back to My Mac on each router. (The routers reboot automatically for that update).
I signed out of Back to My Mac (deselected it in iCloud settings) on my computers and turned them all off.
I signed back in to Back to My Mac on each router one by one.
Then I booted and signed back in to Back to My Mac on each computer one by one. Screen and File Sharing are enabled on all computers. I did not change that.
I hesitate to post this for fear the bug will come back, but so far it seems to be working. I wouldn't be surprised if some setting for BTMM got goofed up and caused this. I used to have occasional strange issues back in the MobileMe days (when you could sync settings across computers) where it seemed like a bad preference kept recurring after it was removed, probably because it didn't get removed from the cloud.
Computer Name Fixed!
I read and reread many recommendations for a fix to this problem, most of them completely overwhelming to me given my limited knowledge of the Mac OS. I finally decided to go with the simplest: Re-boot my Time Capsule! Ta Da! It worked! I had only one computer name left: "Lynns Computer (2)". After I re-booted the Time Capsule I changed my computer name back to my original name, "Lynns Computer" and everything was perfect. I tested this solution by restarting each computer, which I did several times, just to make sure everything "stuck" and it did. After that I turned File Sharing back on and everything remained as it should be, even after a restart.
Prior to finding this easy solution, I had already turned off File Sharing on all of my computers. I have never put a checkmark in the "Put hard disks to sleep when possible" mode, so I can't say if that mode would have been a problem for me or not. I do however, have my computer set to go to sleep after it is idle for a couple of hours and I never changed that setting, so that was not causing this problem for me. Also, prior to the above-referenced recommendation, my computer names went as high as (12) and each time I tried renaming my computer with completely different names, all of the previous names remained visible. So frustrating! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this is a permanent solution for me; I'll just have to see......
I read and reread many recommendations for a fix to this problem, most of them completely overwhelming to me given my limited knowledge of the Mac OS. I finally decided to go with the simplest: Re-boot my Time Capsule! Ta Da! It worked! I had only one computer name left: "Lynns Computer (2)". After I re-booted the Time Capsule I changed my computer name back to my original name, "Lynns Computer" and everything was perfect. I tested this solution by restarting each computer, which I did several times, just to make sure everything "stuck" and it did. After that I turned File Sharing back on and everything remained as it should be, even after a restart.
Prior to finding this easy solution, I had already turned off File Sharing on all of my computers. I have never put a checkmark in the "Put hard disks to sleep when possible" mode, so I can't say if that mode would have been a problem for me or not. I do however, have my computer set to go to sleep after it is idle for a couple of hours and I never changed that setting, so that was not causing this problem for me. Also, prior to the above-referenced recommendation, my computer names went as high as (12) and each time I tried renaming my computer with completely different names, all of the previous names remained visible. So frustrating! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this is a permanent solution for me; I'll just have to see......
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this is a permanent solution for me; I'll just have to see......
Don't hold your breath. Check again in about a week and let us know. I hope it works out for you.
LOL! I will!
It also occurred to me, and I'm afraid to try it just to test my theory, I was using Screen Sharing with my other computer. Then I switched to "Connect As". Sometimes I realized that I was connected as a Guest rather than myself. Regardless, I'm wondering if the "Connect As", either as myself or Guest, may be the cause of duplicating the computer name. Any thoughts?
Not really. I've tried every single suggestion here. Almost every one of them fixes the issue temporarly, but within 48 hours it always comes back (for me).
I've never had this issue before but I sure have now and I'm not lovin it...
I'll just have to deal with it until we find a sure fire solution.
I use Screen/File Sharing with all my computers. They are all connected with Apple IDs, but that's a little strange. None use my primary Apple ID. Two use one other ID and the third uses another. I wondered if that could be related, but they are the same as they were with Mavericks when everything worked. It is odd, though, because in the past I've tried logging out and logging in with another ID and somehow they still end up that way. None of them is the Apple ID I have for Back to My Mac.
It could be related to a keychain sync issue as others have mentioned. If my current fix fails, I'll work on that next.
Two methods that have temporarily fixed the re-numeratation of my Computer name:
First: Switch off the TC/AE and then rename your computer... Start up the TC/AE and hope for the best.
Second: And this has worked the best thus far, for me. Switch off Back To My Mac, switch off Screen / File Sharing. Remove numbers from the computer name... And hope for the best.
Bug report submitted...
OMG, I spoke tooooo soon.
It's back! Sod's law...
:S
I later used ONYX 2.9 which discovered that the sharing plist was damaged.
"/Library/com.apple.preferences.sharing.plist"
I deleted the plist and enabled all of the "Services" under "Sharing" in the OS X Control Panel.
So far that seems to have fixed the problem. Still testing.
Note: I did not need to use any of the other solutions in this thread.
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....and people laugh at me when I say I always wait until the .2 or .3 release to upgrade my version of OS X
I've been waiting for Titanium to release updates for Onyx, Maintenance and Deeper... I'm going to try this - Thanks for the Info.
No issues with Mac Pro, even though wake for network access is enabled. It's only happening on the rMBP.
Ditto for me. iMac and MBP both at running identical systems and only the MBP has this issue.
The only difference is that the MBP connects to my network via wi-fi through my Airport Extreme and the iMac connects via Ethernet.