Occasionally, when you pair a Bluetooth device with your Mac, it gives it a weird name, or just an odd computer address-looking moniker. Did you know you can rename any Bluetooth device you’ve paired with your Mac? This is especially helpful if you have more than one keyboard, or other input device paired with it.
Melissa Holt over at The Mac Observer came up with this quick tip recently, and I want to give her credit right off the bat for this useful how to.
First off, we’ll need to access the Bluetooth Preferences on your Mac. (And of course, we are assuming you do have a Bluetooth device or two connected to your Mac.) You might see a Bluetooth icon in your Mac’s Menu Bar, as seen below. If you do, click it, and then click “Open Bluetooth Preferences…” to begin.
If you don’t see that in your Menu Bar, Just click the Apple logo () in the upper left hand corner of your Mac Desktop, and then click “System Preferences…” in the menu that appears.
Then, when the System preferences window appears, find and click the “Bluetooth” icon, as seen below.
Once you’ve clicked the Bluetooth icon, you should see a list of your connected Bluetooth devices appear. Decide which device you’d like to rename, and right-click or Control-click the name of the device and then click “Rename” from the contextual menu that appears.
You’ll now see a field with the current name of the device entered in it. Double-click the text in the field, and then enter the new name for the device.
Now, click the “Rename” button, and you’re all finished! (Of course, you could click the “Cancel” button, and just forget the whole thing, but…)
As you can see, it’s quite simple to rename a Bluetooth device that you’re using with your Mac to make it more easy to tell which device is which. Be creative with your names, but not so creative that you don’t know which device is which! (GRIN!)
