Rename Windows (Boot Camp) volume in Startup Manager

[tinygoblin]

This is addressed primarily to owners of 2016+ 13/15-inch MacBook Pro with Boot Camp volume on internal SSD.

I'm trying to set Boot Camp volume (located on internal SSD) label displayed in Startup Manager (Option-boot, boot loader) to something different than Windows. The commands I use are listed everywhere on the Internet:

sudo diskutil mount disk0s1
sudo bless --folder /Volumes/EFI/EFI/Boot --label "Boot Camp"
sudo diskutil unmount disk0s1

But this doesn't work!

However very same commands work perfectly for similar Boot Camp volume on my external SSD:

sudo diskutil mount disk4s1
sudo bless --folder /Volumes/EFI/EFI/Boot --label "Boot Camp"
sudo diskutil unmount disk4s1

Would someone kindly double-check if bless command is working or not on their internal SSD's Windows volume? This will make it clear if it's a firmware bug I'm dealing with.

P.S.
1. Sources of my research: zero, one, two, three, four (%disk_label% file structure and meaning explanation).
2. Cross-posts: one (includes alternative bless commands report) & two.
3. Reports of the same problem: MacBook Air, Mac Pro
4. Command that returns firmware version: system_profiler SPHardwareDataType

 

[BanditoB]

Have you tried renaming the volume through Windows? That's the only other thing I can think of to try.

When originally setting up Boot Camp, did it give you an option of choosing a name for the volume? If not, it may be hard-coded in the software and changing it could break something.

Also, just curious, by why do you really need the volume to be Boot Camp instead of Windows? What's the big deal?

 

[tinygoblin]

Yes, volume name is set correctly in Windows. Moreover this the diskutil list, Disk Utility and Finder all report volume name as Boot Camp, not Windows (as Startup Manager does).

As it goes to the need, I'd love to this to be working just as I had previously on my last MBP (and maybe it's a little bit of interpassivity condition on my side). I also see that rendering of Windows label is off, it's noticeably thinner than the other volumes labels. On my previous non-T2 Intel Mac I could edit internal SSD's volume labels of Startup Manager easily via bless command, however it was running Mac OS X El Capitan which is quite a senior OS.

My goal with this thread is so someone could take a minute to double-check this behavior on a modern Mac (preferably a laptop).

 

[tinygoblin]

Hope somebody will volunteer, it takes a couple of minutes and it doesn't harm the computer.

 

[BanditoB]

You can't install Boot Camp on modern (M-series) Macs so you're unlikely to see many volunteers.

 

[ArgentArchitect]

I'm on a 2019 16" MacBook Pro. The following worked fine on my internal SSD...
1. boot into recovery mode and open terminal
2. bless --folder /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/System/Library/CoreServices --label "Mac HD"
3. bless --info

Step 3 is just to validate. Repeat the process for all bootable volumes. I have 2 Mac OS volumes and a Bootcamp volume. I didn't want to rename "BOOTCAMP" so I can't validate that specifically. Nonetheless, I think this may still confirm that it's not an internal SSD issue.

Do you get any output from running the bless command?

You could try adding the --verbose flag when running it to see if there are any clues.

 

[tinygoblin]

@ArgentArchitect thank you for response!

I'm using the same laptop as you. As showed in photo attached to first post, I've got "Macintosh HD" volume renamed to "macOS" on internal drive. So that's not an issue. Issue is I can't rename "Windows" volume. I get successful output and "disk_label" files (2 visible and 2 hidden, both generated by "bless") appear in "EFI" volume of internal drive after I use "bless" command specified in first post.

Would you kindly try it with your BOOTCAMP volume and report your system firmware version as well?

 

[OothecaPickle]

It looks like the disk_label file is ignored if the firmware sees an /EFI/Microsoft folder. If you rename or remove this folder, the name in disk_label is respected. I've tried this on my MBP12,1 on EFI versions 192.0.0.0.0 and 476.0.0.0.0 and the behaviour is the same.

 

[tinygoblin]

It looks like the disk_label file is ignored if the firmware sees an /EFI/Microsoft folder. If you rename or remove this folder, the name in disk_label is respected. I've tried this on my MBP12,1 on EFI versions 192.0.0.0.0 and 476.0.0.0.0 and the behaviour is the same.

Thank you so much for this insight, OothecaPickle! I will change Microsoft directory name on EFI volume and change Windows Boot Manager location entry to match the new one (with BCDEDIT or with BOOTICE). I'll report later this year if it helps…