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Avid Contributor II
Aug 5, 2025 9:33 PM UTC
Answered

Renaming devices/rooms - doesn't stick

I’ve got a handful of Sonos devices using the (dreaded) S2 app on iPhone & iPad (latest versions of iOS/App).

I’ve named each of the devices/rooms appropriately and some names stick (e.g. Kitchen which has a Play:1, Living Room which has 2xPlay:3 + Sub) but others (e.g. Snug with a Five,  Garden office running an Arc) don’t.  They look like the name has stuck but at some undetermined point in the future, it reverts to Sonos Five (so I have a couple of rooms with the same name or a name which isn’t helpful to anyone other than myself as guests don’t know/care about the device type).

I’ve tried using either the canned names (which I don’t want to do as they don’t all match the names I use for the rooms) or bespoke names but the same happens.

 

I’ve looked through a load of other posts but they all seem to be about how to rename a device from the app rather than it not working.

 

Can anyone tell me what I’m doing wrong or is this just another bug which will at some point be fixed?

 

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Avid Contributor II
Aug 5, 2025 9:41 PM UTC

Hey ​@buzz ,

 

Thanks for the quick reply.  No, I’m not using Alexa.

 

I *think* I may have just stumbled into the problem/solution as I added tags to my question - it may be related to Apple Homekit (which I’d not knowingly added my Sonos devices to and I only briefly looked at some time ago).  Removing the Sonos devices from Apple Homekit and then renaming them in the iPhone app and the names were quickly updated in front of my eyes in the Windows client.  I’ll see if they stick and report back.

The thread I bumped into was this one: 

Thanks

5 replies

buzz
Grand Maestro
Aug 5, 2025 9:35 PM UTC

Are you using Alexa?

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Amadeus1756AuthorAnswer
Avid Contributor II
Aug 5, 2025 9:41 PM UTC

Hey ​@buzz ,

 

Thanks for the quick reply.  No, I’m not using Alexa.

 

I *think* I may have just stumbled into the problem/solution as I added tags to my question - it may be related to Apple Homekit (which I’d not knowingly added my Sonos devices to and I only briefly looked at some time ago).  Removing the Sonos devices from Apple Homekit and then renaming them in the iPhone app and the names were quickly updated in front of my eyes in the Windows client.  I’ll see if they stick and report back.

The thread I bumped into was this one: 

Thanks

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Airgetlam
Aug 5, 2025 9:58 PM UTC

Non-Sonos systems are known for this ‘re-naming’ issue. They think they are a higher authority. 

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Bruce
Avid Contributor II
Aug 6, 2025 9:51 AM UTC

This morning, all devices are showing the names so it is very much pointing to HomeKit interfering somehow.

 

Anyone else with a similar issue to mine, remove devices from HomeKit (or similar environments) and  names should stick.

ive not tried adding devices back to HomeKit after updating the names.

 

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bockersjv
Local Superstar
Aug 6, 2025 10:13 AM UTC

Yes, it’s an apple issue.  I removed all my Sonos kit from Apple home and then re-added them and the renaming issue went away.

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