How can I rename the servers names found in Screen Sharing “Open Recent…” menu?

Question

I connect to a handful of macs via Screen Sharing. After connecting for the first time, the name and port are remembered by the app and are displayed at the "Open Recent..." menu.

While this is helpful, the displayed names are out of my control and sometimes make no sense to me or they are basically the same.

I would like to rename them to something that has a meaning to me. How can I do this?

Answer 1

To change the name(s) shown in Screen Sharing > Connection > Open Recent, as in the image below, you'd edit the filename(s) in the following location:

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.ScreenSharing/Data/Library/Application Support/Screen Sharing/

Files at this location are XML plist files having a vncloc extension.

With Screen Sharing closed, I changed the original name from what it was to what's shown in the image. When I opened Screen Sharing the renamed vncloc file showed as is.

Answer 2

While it seems to be impossible to change Screen Sharing, you could simply create link files and put them in a folder.

The easiest way I could find on how to do this is to type the link in a text file (vnc://user@ip:port), select said text and drag it to the desktop. It will create a file that when clicked will open Screen Sharing.

Thanks to Steve Chambers for the idea.