iPhone renaming itself

[Bubblesheep]

I just wanted to update you guys, this carried on happening for weeks, and I got all the way up to Hannah’s iPhone 3190, which is where it’s been now for about a month.

I wasn’t fully convinced it was battling with other people similarly named iPhones, as I couldn’t imagine there was other “Hannah’s iPhone 2074” etc l but it seems to have stabilised now and it makes me smile when I turn my car on in the morning and see it connected.

 

[N69AP]

I've recently started having this issue too. I didn't notice until I plugged in my phone into the computer and saw it had added a (2) to the name.

 

[Drzed]

I suspect your issues for all of you is the change that Apple introduced of “Private Wi-Fi Address”.

Go into your settings, Wi-Fi, pick the Wi-Fi network you’re connected to and click on the “I” info to go into its detailed settings.

Scroll down and if “Private wifi Adress” is turned on, turn it off.

Your device’s names won’t keep changing anymore. It’s because the iPhone deliberately creates a new MAC address every time, the DHCP servers see it as a brand new device.

 

[BigBlur]

I suspect your issues for all of you is the change that Apple introduced of “Private Wi-Fi Address”.

Go into your settings, Wi-Fi, pick the Wi-Fi network you’re connected to and click on the “I” info to go into its detailed settings.

Scroll down and if “Private wifi Adress” is turned on, turn it off.

Your device’s names won’t keep changing anymore. It’s because the iPhone deliberately creates a new MAC address every time, the DHCP servers see it as a brand new device.

Good idea, but I don't think this is it. The 'Private Wi-Fi Address' feature doesn't create a new MAC address every time. The MAC address is unique per network; not each time it connects. So if you're connecting to the same network, it should always have the same MAC address on that network (with some exceptions).

Starting with iOS 14, iPadOS 14, and watchOS 7, your device improves privacy by using a different MAC address for each Wi-Fi network. This unique MAC address is your device's private Wi-Fi address, which it uses for that network only.

In some cases, your device will change its private Wi-Fi address:

• If you erase all content and settings or reset network settings on the device, your device uses a different private address the next time it connects to that network.
• Starting with iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and watchOS 8, if your device hasn’t joined the network in 6 weeks, it uses a different private address the next time it connects to that network. And if you make your device forget the network, it will also forget the private address it used with that network, unless it has been less than 2 weeks since the last time it was made to forget that network.

Use private Wi-Fi addresses on iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Apple Watch - Apple Support

To improve privacy, your device uses a different MAC address with each Wi-Fi network.

support.apple.com

 

[Fred Zed]

I renamed my iPhone under settings general. But it still shows iPhone (2) under my iCloud. Does it take time to propagate?

 

[thebsking]

I renamed my iPhone under settings general. But it still shows iPhone (2) under my iCloud. Does it take time to propagate?

I think so. Same thing happened to me. If it hasn’t updated within 24 hours you might just need to try again

 

[jbachandouris]

Anyone else running into this with iOS 16? I always catch it at (2) and immediately change it back. Not working so only on home wifi and church's wifi. Living alone for the last 28 weeks so no other iPhone competing for name.

Named iPhone 14 Pro Max

 

[Cayden]

Anyone else running into this with iOS 16? I always catch it at (2) and immediately change it back. Not working so only on home wifi and church's wifi. Living alone for the last 28 weeks so no other iPhone competing for name.

Named iPhone 14 Pro Max

Have you been connecting to your church Wi-Fi the last 28 weeks? Have you noticed any pattern in when the name changes? I’m still having the issue with iOS 16, though it seems to settle off around (86) for me. I still only see this happening while connected to a larger network that has other iPhones on it

 

[jbachandouris]

No discernible patterns. Connect to church Wi-Fi once a week.

 

[JM]

Drats. I was all excited my 14 pro magically turned into an iphone 15 the other day

guess it's just a bug. I just renamed the iphone name again just now, and hopefully it'll stick.

 

[okkibs]

It is not a bug. The root cause is using a private (random) MAC address in the iPhone settings, which is the default. The Wifi network associates name + MAC address together and saves that (DHCP). Next time your iPhone connects to that network, it sends along a new random MAC address, but the iPhone's name is still the same. The network now creates a new entry for name + MAC address, but finds that the name is already taken for a previous entry (from the previous random MAC address). The network cannot know that this is the same device. A (1) is added to the hostname and communicated back to the iPhone.

The next time you connect to the same network, yet another new MAC address is communicated by the iPhone and since iPhone (1) is taken, it will switch to iPhone (2).

This has nothing to do with other iPhones, it's caused by the randomized MAC address features that all newer Wifi devices (AW, Macbooks, iPhones, Androids...) now use by default.

There isn't anything broken that needs to be fixed, often the entries are kept for at least 24 hours, so if you connect every day the renaming will keep happening. If the network is set up by the administrator to expire old inactive entries sooner, then this will go away. That's the DHCP maximum lease time.

Alternatively you can disable the randomized MAC address for that specific Wifi in the iPhone network settings.

 

[JM]

It is not a bug. The root cause is using a private (random) MAC address in the iPhone settings, which is the default. The Wifi network associates name + MAC address together and saves that (DHCP). Next time your iPhone connects to that network, it sends along a new random MAC address, but the iPhone's name is still the same. The network now creates a new entry for name + MAC address, but finds that the name is already taken for a previous entry (from the previous random MAC address). The network cannot know that this is the same device. A (1) is added to the hostname and communicated back to the iPhone.

The next time you connect to the same network, yet another new MAC address is communicated by the iPhone and since iPhone (1) is taken, it will switch to iPhone (2).

This has nothing to do with other iPhones, it's caused by the randomized MAC address features that all newer Wifi devices (AW, Macbooks, iPhones, Androids...) now use by default.

There isn't anything broken that needs to be fixed, often the entries are kept for at least 24 hours, so if you connect every day the renaming will keep happening. If the network is set up by the administrator to expire old inactive entries sooner, then this will go away. That's the DHCP maximum lease time.

Alternatively you can disable the randomized MAC address for that specific Wifi in the iPhone network settings.

Thank you for that knowledgeable response… but whether it’s working properly or indeed a bug… this only started happening for me in the last two week…. I got my Eeros last year, my Alexa’s two years ago, got 14pro in October, and haven’t changed anything on network since then.

Do you have any other thoughts as to why my iPhone name has changed itself to iPhone 15 over the last two weeks or so?

 

[okkibs]

First, turn off the Private Wifi Address setting in your iPhone's Wifi settings for your home network. This function is entirely useless within your own home network anyways and will at best do nothing. Change the iPhone's name back and reboot the iPhone. Then, on your eeros router check the DHCP leases, they should show what device they are for, and you can remove all that are iPhone-related. Any entry with the name you want to use should be remove so that the name isn't already "in use". Finally, reboot the router for good measure. On the iPhone turn Wifi off and back on, now it will request a new lease with a static MAC address and the name you entered on the iPhone, and the router should save that automatically. With the private.. function off, duplicate entries will no longer be created.

If you connect to other networks like at an office, the renaming might keep happening though.

I do not know how the eeros settings look like, so I don't know what you'll see there.

Why this only started happening now I do not know, but my guess is that it originates from iOS since it is an issue commonly reported with Apple devices. I think my explanation before wasn't quite right, the renaming should be done by the iPhone itself (not by the router), for some reason it assumes the name is taken and appends the number. I am sure the why could be figured out by looking at the network traffic in detail but that's overkill for a mostly "cosmetic" problem.

 

[JM]

First, turn off the Private Wifi Address setting in your iPhone's Wifi settings for your home network. This function is entirely useless within your own home network anyways and will at best do nothing. Change the iPhone's name back and reboot the iPhone. Then, on your eeros router check the DHCP leases, they should show what device they are for, and you can remove all that are iPhone-related. Any entry with the name you want to use should be remove so that the name isn't already "in use". Finally, reboot the router for good measure. On the iPhone turn Wifi off and back on, now it will request a new lease with a static MAC address and the name you entered on the iPhone, and the router should save that automatically. With the private.. function off, duplicate entries will no longer be created.

If you connect to other networks like at an office, the renaming might keep happening though.

I do not know how the eeros settings look like, so I don't know what you'll see there.

Why this only started happening now I do not know, but my guess is that it originates from iOS since it is an issue commonly reported with Apple devices. I think my explanation before wasn't quite right, the renaming should be done by the iPhone itself (not by the router), for some reason it assumes the name is taken and appends the number. I am sure the why could be figured out by looking at the network traffic in detail but that's overkill for a mostly "cosmetic" problem.

Awesome, thanks! I’ll try the turning off private at home.

Also, I could understand if it renamed my iPhone from “*****’s iPhone Pro” to “*****’s iPhone Pro (2)”

But that’s not what happened :/ it renamed to iPhone (15) which as someone (you?) pointed out that it probably started with iphone(2)

I still think bug in iOS showing this now… perhaps the (2) through (14) was happening in the background and only now is renaming the iPhone. 🤷‍♂️

 

[nckrwlmn]

I am managing around 60 iOS devices and most of them have this issue. They mostly all have unique names, not just "iphone", but the "iphone" units still have this issue. They all increment in the device settings itself. Would love to know the issue here. The funny part is some of these devices are actually restricted from renaming the device through mdm, but they are still appending that number to the end.

Edit: My network is forcing the devices to turn off private address before they will even get a dhcp lease, so that is out of the question. Private address is off for them. I also dont think this is a network issue because in my DHCP leases there are no names like this. The all just show correct names. I think Apple quit long ago giving out the device name to DHCP servers.