Error on all Apple Devices: “The name of your computer is already in use on this network”

[Cloaky]

A few weeks ago I started getting this weird msg on my Mac saying that my computer name was already in use. What I didn't realize at that time is that this was impacting all my Apple devices (Mac, iPhone, iPad and HomePod).

After digging into the internet, I couldn't find much. While I am not sure this is related to my router, I was hoping someone would have an idea.

While my initial hypothesis was: this is happening because my Mac is connected to the internet via Wifi + Ethernet. That is not true when you look at my other Apple devices (in which I get the same behaviour).

I am using a RT-AC68W (Asus Merlin 384.1 7- DHCP server). I also have a RaspberryPi running pi-hole as the DNS server.

 

[ugandy]

i noticed something that may or may not be related. but it affects only my apple clients too.
on the network map list, names for apple devices keep changing over time.
example
iPadKids -> iPadKids-2 ->iPadKids-3 ->iPadKids-4 -> ...
livingRoomTv -> livingRoomTv-2 -> livingRoomTv-3 -> livingRoomTv-4 -> ...

everything works. no errors reported. but strange how the name changes on its own. maybe on reboots.

 

[absturzprofi99]

A few weeks ago I started getting this weird msg on my Mac saying that my computer name was already in use. What I didn't realize at that time is that this was impacting all my Apple devices (Mac, iPhone, iPad and HomePod).

After digging into the internet, I couldn't find much. While I am not sure this is related to my router, I was hoping someone would have an idea.

While my initial hypothesis was: this is happening because my Mac is connected to the internet via Wifi + Ethernet. That is not true when you look at my other Apple devices (in which I get the same behaviour).

I am using a RT-AC68W (Asus Merlin 384.1 7- DHCP server). I also have a RaspberryPi running pi-hole as the DNS server.

I have the exact same issue with the exact same setup (Asus Merlin and Raspberry Pi pi-hole)

 

[^Tripper^]

This sounds like the “private address” option in ios14 but not sure why your Mac would have the same issue? Long shot, but maybe try having a look at your iOS devices and see if that solves the issue there first?

Use private Wi-Fi addresses on Apple devices - Apple Support

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

support.apple.com

 

[Alessio87]

I've exactly the same issue with all my apple devices (iMac, Macbook Pro, AppleTV..)
@Cloaky have you understand how to solve it?

 

[molgar]

I had similar issues, which were solved when I uninstalled YazFi.

 

[Jack Yaz]

I had similar issues, which were solved when I uninstalled YazFi.

Several iDevices in this house and I haven't seen this!

 

[molgar]

I'm referring specifically to this issue: wifi - Device name in network has a number in parenthesis and it is incrementing - Ask Different (stackexchange.com)

 

[Jack Yaz]

I'm referring specifically to this issue: wifi - Device name in network has a number in parenthesis and it is incrementing - Ask Different (stackexchange.com)

Reading through, this might be a bug in Avahi. Possible workaround though. Please try adding

sed -i '/^\[Server\]/a cache-entries-max=0' "$1" # YazFi

to the bottom of /jffs/scripts/avahi-daemon.postconf
and then run

service restart_mdns

There's a few posts suggesting this will stop the hostname increment. I do not know what side effect disabling cache on avahi will do, though. It could cause some problems: https://stackoverflow.com/a/34592380
Long discussion here: https://github.com/lathiat/avahi/issues/117
YMMV

 

[Alessio87]

@Jack Yaz I have same issue without using YazFi.
Creating the avahi-daemon.postconf with the command described in your post could fix the issue also for me?

 

[BreakingDad]

This sounds like the “private address” option in ios14 but not sure why your Mac would have the same issue? Long shot, but maybe try having a look at your iOS devices and see if that solves the issue there first?

Use private Wi-Fi addresses on Apple devices - Apple Support

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

support.apple.com

I thought the same, turn off the private address thing on the apple devices it creates a fake mac id. Had a nightmare with my sons phone and this until we turned it off.

 

[mr8]

Data point: I only get this issue with YazFi if Client isolation is set to no.

90% of my wifi clients are some type of apple device. Haven't had any issues after changing Client isolation to yes.