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Is there a way to permanently rename AirPods?

Sirious

Sirious

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jan 2, 2013
1,671
2,864
United Kingdom, London
Hi guys, just another first world problem here.

I like to have all my Apple products named with the actual name of the product. For example, my iPad is named "iPad" and my iPhone is named "iPhone".

I can't do this with "AirPods". Every time I rename them in Bluetooth settings for the AirPods (while they are connected), it reverts back to "[name]'s AirPods" after some time - i.e It stays named as "AirPods" and then when I connect to my Mac and then back to my iPhone, it's back to the default naming.

Is there a trick to getting it to stay renamed?

Any help for my first world problem would be appreciated lol
 
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Go to Settings>Bluetooth. I was able to rename my Beats Solo3 to just Solo3. I'd assume that you can do the same with the AirPods.
 
I was just going to post the same thing. Yesterday I renamed my pods on my phone to something else. I saw your post and went to the Bluetooth settings to see what I did and they've renamed themselves back to the original name! Hmpffff.....
 
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Sirious said:
There is the option to rename, but it doesn't remember it for long.
Click to expand...

I bet this will be fixed in a software update. I wonder if it can be taken care of on the iOS / OS X side of things or this is an issue with the AirPods themselves. I mean, why include the name option at all if it lasts an hour or two at best? Gotta be a bug.
 
fs454 said:
I bet this will be fixed in a software update. I wonder if it can be taken care of on the iOS / OS X side of things or this is an issue with the AirPods themselves. I mean, why include the name option at all if it lasts an hour or two at best? Gotta be a bug.
Click to expand...

Gotta be a bug on the Airpods end... my Solo3s never went back to being Beats Solo3.
 
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Wonder if the Mac is the culprit.
I renamed mine and it hasn't changed back.
I have paired to:
ATV4
Firestick 1st Gen
iPad 2
iPad Air
iPad Pro 12.9
ATV4
Surface Pro 1st Gen
Apple Watch 0​

No issues with it defaulting back.
 
Same problem here on my iPhone SE. I use them with a Mac running OS X 10.11 as well, connected via regular Bluetooth pairing, and renamed them on both to "AirPods". The name sticks on the Mac, but after every disconnect from the iPhone, the iPhone will refer to them again as "Firstname's AirPods". Very annoying.
 
After doing it a few times the name sticks now for me. I think it might be an iCloud issue. Where the name isn't taking on all devices right away.
 
Sirious said:
Hi guys, just another first world problem here.

I like to have all my Apple products named with the actual name of the product. For example, my iPad is named "iPad" and my iPhone is named "iPhone".

I can't do this with "AirPods". Every time I rename them in Bluetooth settings for the AirPods (while they are connected), it reverts back to "[name]'s AirPods" after some time - i.e It stays named as "AirPods" and then when I connect to my Mac and then back to my iPhone, it's back to the default naming.

Is there a trick to getting it to stay renamed?

Any help for my first world problem would be appreciated lol
Click to expand...

This exact problem has bugging me as I also like my Apple products to have their actual name rather than 'Adam's iPhone', I like 'iPhone 6s Plus'. I thought I was the only person that was this obsessive about his kind of thing, but I believe I've just met another 'freak'
 
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Ad13 said:
This exact problem has bugging me as I also like my Apple products to have their actual name rather than 'Adam's iPhone', I like 'iPhone 6s Plus'. I thought I was the only person that was this obsessive about his kind of thing, but I believe I've just met another 'freak'
Click to expand...

I don't like seeing my name on stuff... weirds me out... like having your name on your underwear.
 
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This will really start to become an issue when there are multiple airpods for a user.

First World Problems, I know, but hey ...
 
kognos said:
This will really start to become an issue when there are multiple airpods for a user.

First World Problems, I know, but hey ...
Click to expand...

I have two iPhones, one for work and one the other personal. This doesn't cause me any problems... until you come to restore from back-ups and not sure which one was from what device.
 
Wow, I thought I was the only person who named my devices after their actual name lol! I actually go as far and naming it after it's specific model like iPhone 7 Plus and Apple Watch Series 2 :p
 
Kevsta26 said:
Wow, I thought I was the only person who named my devices after their actual name lol! I actually go as far and naming it after it's specific model like iPhone 7 Plus and Apple Watch Series 2 :p
Click to expand...

I did this but it it went wrong and it screwed with my mind. Back in today day, Apple would often refer to the iPhone 5s as iPhone 5s, or iPhone 5S. They had no consistency. The use of 's' vs 'S' drove me round the bend!
 
Ad13 said:
I did this but it it went wrong and it screwed with my mind. Back in today day, Apple would often refer to the iPhone 5s as iPhone 5s, or iPhone 5S. They had no consistency. The use of 's' vs 'S' drove me round the bend!
Click to expand...
I called my iPhone 6 the iPhone Sixy
 
Ad13 said:
I did this but it it went wrong and it screwed with my mind. Back in today day, Apple would often refer to the iPhone 5s as iPhone 5s, or iPhone 5S. They had no consistency. The use of 's' vs 'S' drove me round the bend!
Click to expand...

I'd always use a lowercase s as I saw Apple use it the most.
 
I had this same issue but I couldn't get it to stick even the first time.
I think because I was entering the name then tapping the 'back' text button in the upper right.

I just did it again but this time hit the "Done" button after renaming.
It stuck this time.

We'll see if that continues . . .
 
I've tried it a couple more times with iOS 10.3. It seems that permanently renaming does work (probably also with previous iOS versions), just not to the name "AirPods". Every time I re-pair the AirPods to my iPhone when they're called "AirPods", they're renamed automatically to "Firstname's AirPods". The Mac (running Sierra) keeps the "AirPods" name though. When I rename them to anything else, like "Pods", they keep the name on both iOS and macOS, no matter how often I repair them and switch between devices.

Not ideal, because I just want my AirPods to be called "AirPods". Is that really too much to ask?! But "Pods" will do. At least it's better than "Firstname's AirPods" which just looks silly and way too long.

I don't know why this is the case, but the only reason I can think of is that Apple assumes that "AirPods" is too generic and people might get confused about which AirPods they're pairing to, so they're helping you out by attaching your name to it. Trying to be clever where they shouldn't be.
 
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Sirious said:
Hi guys, just another first world problem here.

I like to have all my Apple products named with the actual name of the product. For example, my iPad is named "iPad" and my iPhone is named "iPhone".

I can't do this with "AirPods". Every time I rename them in Bluetooth settings for the AirPods (while they are connected), it reverts back to "[name]'s AirPods" after some time - i.e It stays named as "AirPods" and then when I connect to my Mac and then back to my iPhone, it's back to the default naming.

Is there a trick to getting it to stay renamed?

Any help for my first world problem would be appreciated lol
Click to expand...

I have found the SOLUTION! It will not save the stock name! Every time you connect it to a device after changing the name to default one it will set the name to "Yourname's AirPods", but if you change one of the letters to a corresponding one from Russian for example, it will work, for example: o -> о, a -> а, e -> е they look the same but are different, the goal is to use different name from stock one, and you can do it this way. At least it solved the problem for my BeatsX.
 
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