There is no "apply" button, there is only a "save" button. And of course I click the save button every time. Sometimes the name change hangs around for a few hours or even a few days but it always disappears with certain devices. I've noticed that Chromebooks seem to be the biggest culprit of losing their identity.
With so many people experiencing this problem I can't believe a solution has not been created yet from Netgear.
So they actually did a good bit of corrective work on the Nighthawk App. I just changed to an Orbi system and it is back to the where the Nighthawk used to be.
Web interface has 40 device type choices and the app has only 15. Neither the app or the web interface retain some device choices. For some reason even a basic item like an HP printer will not be recognized or retained when changed to a printer.
If the app won't save the devices' names, tap on the particular device , tap edit. At the bottom the of he radar symbol , there is an ink pen . Tap on that , enter the name and tap save . That has kept all of my device names when I open and close the app.
it used to save the icons for each device, but recently, even though it retains the device name it does NOT retain the device logo.
I contacted support and on the third conversation, the agent said let me get back to you - which I took to mean I'm done talking to you - BUT!!!
He actually did get back to me. He sent me an unreleased firmware version (V2.5.1.16). Walla - almost everything works. One minor descrpency is that the web interface has "Smart Switch" as an icon, and the app does not. I just changed all my plugs to the "Light" icon and EVERYTHING IS GOOD IN THE WORLD!
All names and icons stick on both the app and the web interface and they are even THE SAME NAMES AND ICONS.
So now, whether I use the app or the web interface, everything is the same. (As it should be!).
I do not understand why they don't push this as a general release - instead forcing people to stay frusrated at thier equipment when they have a fix in hand. Oh well. May I always remember to NOT DO AUTOMATIC UPDATES and fix something that is no longer broken.
If you are having issues with naming devices or editing their icons, I recomend contacting support and demanding the firmware update.
Nighthawk Mobile app does Not save the device types and icons, period. Desktop genie saves them but does not detect all connections correctly seeing some of the devices as not connected while they are. Parental control is a joke. Netgear tech support is ridiculous. Chat mode aborts when the mobile device goes to lock screen and you have to restart, waited On hold for 20 min in the phone - no one took my call. I’m a rookie user if these apps but you do not need to be a rocket scientist to tell that the app sucks.
Model: R6220v2|AC1200 Smart WiFi Router with External Antennas
My firmware is older (1.0.2.63) since we've had nothing but trouble with using vendor supplied updates. Going to update with a third party version later.
That said, we still have this issue where naming of devices stopped working, along with defining its device type. It is almost like we hit a limit of some sort - it worked in the beginning.
However, we tried using a tip left by another reviewer in the comments section that said to leave the original -- and put the name after it. So now we can go back to naming devices and assigning a type and related icon to match. Our version has 'n/a' in the name of many devices when they are unknown instead of the dashes, but we just leave it in there and for some odd reason that works.
Has anyone "upgraded" from the R7000 to the R7000P? The faster speeds are nice but it seems like the R7000P has issues with missing features and functionality. I purchased the R7000P as a supplement so that I could have nearly identical routers at home and at work. Additionally, I liked the idea of being able to manage both routers from the same app. Needless to say, I am not impressed.
Where did all of the connected device icons go?! I like to keep my network organized and I don't really have that option with the R7000P because I am presented with only a handful of icons for my connected devices! Only three of these icons apply to my setup. This is not the case with the R7000 - it has all of the icons I need.
The R7000P is also lacking the Repeater mode. Not a huge deal, but a nice thing to have in a pinch.
All that said, I would like to see more options for customization with the R7000P considering its predecessor, the R7000, employs the same UI and is more fully-featured.
Both routers are running their latest firmware versions and I am running the latest version of Nighthawk. Thanks for reading!
Model: R7000P|Nighthawk AC2300 Smart WiFi Dual Band Gigabit Router
The device name is queried by the router from the device itself. If your computer is named "JoesMacbook" that is the name that shows up in the Device Name section of the Router firmware (whether you are accessing this from the Nighthawk app or the web interface). You can't change this on the router...as i said, it is reading this info from the device itself....if you want to change the name of the device, change it on the device. HOWEVER, you can edit the Model Name. I found once I edited the model name and saved/applied that change I could the also change the device type to "Camera" or whatever and the icon changed for that as well.
Thank you for chiming in! The custom device naming has been stable now for a few months between the app and the web UI. Perhaps (one of) the last firmware updates finally addressed the issue.
I do firmware updates all the time, including one this morning. And it still will not remember the names of most of my devices. Chromebooks, tvs, iphones, other gaming devices. Almost everything in my house does not have a name associated with it. My Android does. One of my TVs does. And a couple other items. This has been a big problem for a long time. I'm not sure what to do about it other than buy a whole new router. But the firmware upgrade did not work for me.
The R6400 is a fairly older model router now. Not sure if the NH app is fully supporting of it. Though it's not on the EoL list, maybe heading there.
Might make name changes on the routers WEB UI page there and see if they populate to the NH app. If not, then might be time for something else.
@Scg wrote: I do firmware updates all the time, including one this morning. And it still will not remember the names of most of my devices. Chromebooks, tvs, iphones, other gaming devices. Almost everything in my house does not have a name associated with it. My Android does. One of my TVs does. And a couple other items. This has been a big problem for a long time. I'm not sure what to do about it other than buy a whole new router. But the firmware upgrade did not work for me.
It worked for a little while but here we are a couple days later and everything that was there is lost. Maybe once the devices leave the house and come back it doesn't remember them. There are a handful of things that it remembers but everything else it doesn't. I don't understand why. Even some of the TVs that never leave the house get forgotten in short order
After I installed Genie app and used it to set up the device names, the Nighthawk mobile app sees them without any problem, even after router is rebooted.
@Zdblt wrote: After I installed Genie app and used it to set up the device names, the Nighthawk mobile app sees them without any problem, even after router is rebooted.
Is that the mobile app for Android? Or the desktop app for Windows Macs?
Both go by the "genie" name.
To get the mobile version you need to search for the "apk"
