Same ID on 2 Mac Computers

I hope this is the right place - if not - please point to correct place

I gave my old mac restored to Factory settings - thoroughtly cleaned to my son (aged  43) who is NOT IT minded.  I set it up for him, downloaded TeamViewer to help him remotely .  (I have succesfully done this for my 94 year old mother so this is not new to me)

He has just asked me to help and has given me the ID which is identical to the ID on my new Mac.  

To try to deal iwth this: I have uninstalled Team Viewer, restarted, searched for TeamViewer in residual files, deleted and retarted the computer again.  I have just installed a new install of Team Viewer and the same ID has come up.  Can you help me?

Comments

  • Scotty
    Scotty Posts: 493 Staff member 🤠

    Hi @Cannygirl49

    Thanks for posting.

    Was one of these Mac's a clone of the other?
    Did you copy the applications across or do a fresh install?

    If you clone a Mac or carry information across, the ID can somethimes be duplicated. In this case you need to make sure that you do a full clean of all the appdata and a reinstall on the device that is the clone, not the original.

    let me know.
    -Scotty

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  • Ah yes - I ‘cloned’ my new Mac . ...Migrated across the old Mac BEFORE I cleaned the old and restored it to give it to my son.  I assumed that would be enough 

     
    Yesterday I uninstalled my own TeamViewer installation and tried to find all TeamViewer files to delete but it obviously wasn’t cleared as when I installed TeamViewer from scratch, the same ID came up.
     
    How do I completely eradicate the old TeamViewer from my Mac now?

     

  • I need more help please

    Ah yes - I ‘cloned’ my new Mac . ...Migrated across the old Mac BEFORE I cleaned the old and restored it to give it to my son.  I assumed that would be enough 

     
    Yesterday I uninstalled my own TeamViewer installation and tried to find all TeamViewer files to delete but it obviously wasn’t cleared as when I installed TeamViewer from scratch, the same ID came up.
     
    How do I completely eradicate the old TeamViewer from my Mac now?
  • Scotty
    Scotty Posts: 493 Staff member 🤠

    Hi @Cannygirl49

    Unfortunately, when the devices are cloned with MacOS, the Plist files and other configs come with it.

    You will need to remove the software then clear all references to it (ID's are meant to be pretty sticky). The instructions are bit lengthy but should fix this.

    First, remove TeamViewer: open Finder, go to the Applications folder, find the TeamViewer.app file, and send it to the Trash.

    Then you will need to manually delete the config files as follows:

    1) Open a new Finder window and go to the User folder (hit Command + Shift + H).

    2) If you're running Maverick (Mac OS 10.9) or higher, click the View menu and select "Show View Options" (or hit Command + J). Check the box for "Show Library Folder", then close the View Options panel.

    If you're running an version of Mac OS lower than 10.9, you'll instead need to open a terminal window and type the following command:

    chflags nohidden ~/Library/

    After doing the above, you should now see the Library folder appear inside the User folder.

    3) Now navigate into Library, then into Preferences. Here, find and delete all .plist files which begin with "com.teamviewer". There may be several of them.

    4) Go back to the User folder, and again click the View menu, select "Show View Options", and uncheck the box for "Show Library Folder" for safety - it normally should not be shown.

    5) Next, go to the Hard Drive device in Finder. It may be called "OS X" or "Macintosh HD". If it's not visible in the sidebar on the left, then click the Finder menu and select Preferences, then the Sidebar tab, and enable "Hard disks". Now you should see the hard drive device in the sidebar.

    Click on this device, then navigate into Library, then Preferences. Once again search for any .plist files that begin with "com.teamviewer" and delete them.

    6) Now, please install TeamViewer again - you can download the latest version from www.teamviewer.com/download.

    I hope this solves this for you.

    -Scotty

     

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