Renaming Outputs/Inputs in Mac OS Sequoia

By That Blind Canuck, 3 July, 2025

Forum
macOS and Mac Apps

So after finally modernizing my office and moving things off my desk to some shelving units, I was able to pull out my old Bose Companion 2 speakers and connect them to my M4 Mac Mini using a uGreen USB-C male to 3.5 mm female adapter.

After using Gemini to troubleshoot why my audio wasn't coming out of my speakers and remained on the Mac's built-in speaker, I realized I had to go to the System Settings, under the Sounds section and make sure that the USB-C adapter was selected as my output, then as music to my ears, I heard the sultry tones of my VoiceOver coming out of my rich and bassy Bose speakers.

My question is this though, is there any means of renaming the outputs/inputs in the list? I've explored the window and can't find any options to rename. I've even tried to navigate to the desired output and did the VO+Shift+M to open the context menu and sadly, no context menu appeared.

This isn't a major issue, but I would like to change the name from "KT USB Audio" to something a little more recognizable. For reference, I'm running the latest Mac OS Sequoia, as of this post, on an M4 Mac Mini.

Perhaps one can't rename them, but I figured it wouldn't hurt reaching out here in the hopes that perhaps someone might have a definitive answer.

Thanks!

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Comments

By João Santos on Thursday, July 3, 2025 - 15:26

I'm almost certain that the Mac Mini has a female headphone jack of its own on its back side. The closest things I have to that form factor here are an Apple TV and a Mac Studio. The Apple TV doesn't have a headphone jack, but the Mac Studio has one near the HDMI port which is relatively easy to miss by touch because it lacks the ring-shaped extrusion common to that kind of port.

As for renaming devices, I am under the impression that CoreAudio doesn't let you do that, but some drivers make it possible. The cheap USB-c male cable and female dongle from Apple cannot be renamed I think, but the AirPods Max can. If your dongle doesn't have a driver or application of its own, my recommendation is to check whether you can change the name in Audio MIDI Setup, which I strongly doubt.

By TheBlindGuy07 on Thursday, July 3, 2025 - 15:57

I'm probably wrong but I have a strong feeling that in audio midi setup you could in fact rename anything...

By That Blind Canuck on Thursday, July 3, 2025 - 19:04

The reason why I don't really want to use the front headphone jack is that I would like to keep the wire in the back so it looks cleaner.

Sadly, the Satechi Stand and Hub didn't come with a audio jack in the back, so I'm left using an adapter.

I too saw some forum topics on the net mentioning the Audio Midi Controller app but, being a newbie, got to spend some time looking into that particular app and how to use it correctly without causing any major issues.

By João Santos on Friday, July 4, 2025 - 00:43

So I wrote some Objective-C code to confirm what I said earlier about CoreAudio not letting you change device names, and it is indeed true.

Running the code that I published to this gist, which is supposed to list all devices publicly advertising their presence on the system as well as whether their name property is settable through CoreAudio, results in the following output on my iMac which, in addition to its internal speakers, also has my baseline AirPods 4 connected via Bluetooth and my iPhone connected as a Continuity device: Running the above on my iMac, in addition to its own internal devices, results in the following output:

Found 5 devices
Device #0: João’s AirPods has a settable name property: false
Device #1: João’s AirPods has a settable name property: false
Device #2: orange Microphone has a settable name property: false
Device #3: iMac Microphone has a settable name property: false
Device #4: iMac Speakers has a settable name property: false

On my Mac Studio, which has my 2024 AirPods Max as well as the female Apple headphone jack dongle connected via USB-c in addition to its internal speakers, running the same code results in the following output:

Found 4 devices
Device #0: USB-C to 3.5mm Headphone Jack Adapter has a settable name property: false
Device #1: Mac Studio Speakers has a settable name property: false
Device #2: João’s AirPods Max has a settable name property: false
Device #3: João’s AirPods Max has a settable name property: false

Given the above, I confirm my suspicion that Audio MIDI Setup cannot change device names as it works through CoreAudio. AirPods Max can have their name changed, but that's because its driver provides that functionality through the Bluetooth stack just like all other AirPods, even when connected via USB-c. Also I did not list it here, but the 2024 Beats Pill speaker can also take USB-c audio and have its name changed through the Bluetooth stack just like the AirPods Max.

One question though: is the Mac Mini headphone jack located on the front or on the back?

By Khomus on Friday, July 4, 2025 - 01:30

Like so.

https://klop.solutions/renaming-usb-audio-devices-on-mac/

Basically if your device is like 9x0dffff, you make an aggregate with just that device, then rename the aggregate device to whatever you want. That post suggests that if you're using USB and change ports, or I assume disconnect and reconnect, you'll have to do it again. The original device name(s) still exist, but you'll at least have a friendlier name to make sure you're picking whatever device you want to pick.

By That Blind Canuck on Friday, July 4, 2025 - 13:33

Sadly, the headphone jack is in the front. It would have been nice if Apple would have placed a second headphone jack in the back, so you could keep something permanently plugged in if you wanted to.

I know that some Stand and Hubs have a jack in the back, but after spending a little bit on the Satechi hub, plus a SSD drive for it, I don't really want to buy a new one.