My Computer Name is changing with 10.10

[OZsMac]

Hi All,

I noticed this in the developer beta and now it's also happening with the GA code.

My MacBook Air computer name is changing by itself, basically appending a number in brackets. It's not a big deal, just an odd situation.

If I try to change it back (remove the appended brackets and number) it just changes again.

ie "ComputerName" becomes "ComputerName (4)"

Anyone else noticed this?

 

[HankAZ]

Hi All,

I noticed this in the developer beta and now it's also happening with the GA code.

My MacBook Air computer name is changing by itself, basically appending a number in brackets. It's not a big deal, just an odd situation.

If I try to change it back (remove the appended brackets and number) it just changes again.

ie "ComputerName" becomes "ComputerName (4)"

Anyone else noticed this?

Yes. My rMBP is doing the same thing.

 

[HankAZ]

I found a fix by searching Google. Apparently it’s a bug in the Wake On LAN function. Some suggest turning Wake On LAN off, but that would interfere with Find My Mac and Back To Mac settings in iCloud. The more direct fix is to change your location to match your computer name in Network prefs.

Go to  > System Preferences... > Network and create a new location that is the same as the name of your computer, then change to that location. It seems to be working (so far).

Then go to  > System Preferences... > Sharing and edit your computer name, removing the number and the parentheses.

 

[HankAZ]

OK, that was a short-lived solution. It was correct when I woke my rMBP up this morning after it’s overnight nap. But I just noticed that the annoying "(2)" has returned.

 

[aoberoi]

I'm having the same problem. If someone finds a fix, please share.

 

[HankAZ]

I spoke with a senior tech at Apple about this just now. I discovered that the changing computer name has made my TimeMachine backups unaccessible - the permissions are all FUBAR. So in addition to being extremely annoying to see the computer name constantly changing, I cannot get to any TM backups.

He suspected corrupted network files, and suggested the following to fix the issue of the computer name changing:

Go to Macintosh HD > Library > Preferences > SystemConfiguration
and delete the following files:

com.apple.airport.preferences.plist
NetworkInterfaces.plist
preferences.plist

Then reboot. The deleted files will be recreated and you should be good to go.

I have done so, and now we wait.

 

[OZsMac]

I experienced this during the beta, and then I reinstalled my machine from scratch with no restore from backup and the issue reoccurred. Seems to be something to do with iCloud and Continuity if I had to guess.

Good to know about time machine.

Thanks for the responses, hope we can find a solution.

 

[msemans]

I had same problem.

This seems to be an issue with a DNS subprocess (lots of details on other blogs) and might be a bug in the sleep proxy process (that responds to devices when the computer is 'at sleep'.

Try turning off the <Wake for network access> in the Energy Saver preference panel.

My renaming has not come back - but it has not been overnight yet....

 

[HankAZ]

I had same problem.

This seems to be an issue with a DNS subprocess (lots of details on other blogs) and might be a bug in the sleep proxy process (that responds to devices when the computer is 'at sleep'.

Try turning off the <Wake for network access> in the Energy Saver preference panel.

My renaming has not come back - but it has not been overnight yet....

Disabling that setting also prevents use of Find My Mac and Back to My Mac.

I am at 2 days after having taken the steps outlined by an Apple rep, and have not had the renaming come back.