Can't rename external disks

[DanL]

I have just moved up to Big Sur, and I am frustrated by my lack of ability to change the name of external volumes. I have a backup disk I want to change the name of. I am UNABLE to change it. I can't select the name under the icon, and in Get Info the name is not highlighted as being available to modify. I can't even do it as Administrator!

I suspect this is an ownership issue. I am also unable to modify Sharing & Permissions for these volumes. How do I establish who is owner, and how do I change ownership of such volumes? This is MY DISK, and I want it to behave that way!

HELP!

 

[TonyAguila]

It’s dangerous to manually alter the name of connected drives, which older versions of the system allowed. Volume names are stored in several layers of the system and changing them in one area, e.g. Finder or Get Info, can create conflict elsewhere.

Use Disk Utility.app instead. Launch it and in the sidebar, select the volume you wish to rename. Go to File -> Rename (or click on the volume name in the main pane) and enter the new name. It can be tricky to rename macOS system drives because of the dual-volume scheme, but still doable. I wouldn’t do it on the active boot drive, though.

 

[DanL]

This particular disk doesn't want to be renamed. That's the problem. File->Rename is dimmed and inaccessible for either the container or the volumes within.

 

[TonyAguila]

This must be a permissions problem, but probably not FileVault because I can still rename my boot drive(s) with FileVault active.

Try rebooting into Safe Mode and log in as an admin. Still puzzling, though.

 

[DanL]

Well, I erased the disk and recreated it, and everything seems to work now. I can rename that disk easily, either under the icon, or with Disk Utility. Strange that it ended up in that configuration in which no renaming was allowed. I would like to understand how that happened, and how one can rename it without erasing it.

 

[TonyAguila]

Congratulations, Dan! Good job.

Storage devices can be very complex. That’s why when they start to exhibit weird behavior, instead of compromising my data, I usually end up reformatting the drive—yes, even my main startup drive—and reinstall the current system, doing a migration from Time Machine backup (I maintain two for insurance), or from a Carbon Copy Cloner clone (faster). Faster because I make clones onto SSD while my TM backups are on hard drives. With practice, it gets easier and less scary.

Not free, but the best utility I have for diagnosing both hard drives and SSDs is DriveDx. Well worth it.

 

[DanL]

I use SuperDuper for backups, and I always keep a couple of backups. So erasing one of them and reformatting isn't a big risk. I will assess DriveDx. Thanks.

Again, I'm suspecting that ownership had something to do with this problem. I am always a little frustrated with the default high level of Apple security that often just makes life harder than it has to be. I appreciate that this security is available, but it sure would be nice, when setting up the system, to be able to have the option of having uber high security or "hey, I own this machine, and no one else touches it" security (as in, why the hell don't I own this?)

 

[TonyAguila]

Apple is probably playing it safe by treating their average target audience at a level below the majority of users, which makes sense if they want to safeguard less savvy customers. It’s up to power users to find a way around problems such as this, and they usually turn out to be good learning experiences. Storage issues can be difficult especially when they start to wear down. To give you some idea of the hoops I go through on an on-going basis, these are the storage devices I deal with on a daily basis, all connected to one Mac.

 

[DanL]

Yes, that's a fair point about protection of less-savvy customers.

 

[Bernie"]

Excellent advice with Disk Utility, Tony. I simply wanted to change the default name of an SSD drive to TimeMachine2.2022 and it worked a treat!

 

[Ed iMAc]

It’s dangerous to manually alter the name of connected drives, which older versions of the system allowed. Volume names are stored in several layers of the system and changing them in one area, e.g. Finder or Get Info, can create conflict elsewhere.

Use Disk Utility.app instead. Launch it and in the sidebar, select the volume you wish to rename. Go to File -> Rename (or click on the volume name in the main pane) and enter the new name. It can be tricky to rename macOS system drives because of the dual-volume scheme, but still doable. I wouldn’t do it on the active boot drive, though.

I too use the Disk Utility app and works perfectly.