Device names change/disappear

Netgear has set up a community forum specifically for the Orbi AC products. Most of the people who watch that forum are more likely to have experience with Orbi (WiFi5 RBK Series). Might be more likely to find someone who has a solution if the question is posted there:
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/bd-p/Orbi

Please use this link to the main forum product list to review and choose where to make your posts. 
https://community.netgear.com/t5/NETGEAR-Forum/ct-p/en-netgear

Thank you.

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Evp58 wrote:
I have an RBR 40 with three satellites and about 35 devices connected. For some reason Orbi drops some of the names I have added. In other cases I cannot find my devices at all. In particular, right now, neither my or my wife's Apple Watch appear. Plus, suddently, my iphone 13 disappeared from the list but my wife's similar model is there. Also, I had to rename my Samsung TV's twice because for some reason my custom names disappeared. Any ideas??
Thank you

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The Attached Devices web page is a bit touchy.  I have found that

• I have to be really deliberate when entering text into the Device Model and Device Name fields. Many times I have forgotten to click on Apply (too hasty).
• Often when I return to the Attached Devices page, it looks like the change did not "take".  This appears to be poor programming on Netgear's part.  There is a timer which builds the Attached Devices page from tables stored in memory.  Returning to the main page after an edit does not trigger that update.  Clicking on the "Refresh" button in the upper right appear to do so.
• Fortunately, the text used to display devices on the Attached Devices page has no bearing at all on how the WiFi "works".  I may obsess over how this web page appears, but the system doesn't.

There is a separate issue with modern networking software.  It has become "the norm" for manufacturers to have their WiFi software create "anonymous" MAC addresses for the WiFi adapter.  See, for example:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211227   This is not unique to Apple.  Android, Windows, and even LInux systems often have the same default behavior.  It could be that the iPhone which was so carefully defined with a "Device Name" is now on the network with a different MAC address and some bizzare made up name, maybe starting with DEV.

Attached (and "Connected" on the 'app) devices have always been an issue on the Orbi products.