Macs renaming themselves with sequential numbers

[DalekSec]

We have a problem that when a Mac is restarted on our network when it switches back on it comes up with something along the lines of 'This name is already taken on this network, renamed this Mac 'Dave (2)'', then it keeps doing it every so often, the number increases. Doesn't do it every-time (annoying didn't do it when i wanted a to get a screenshot). Does it on every Mac regardless of which VLAN it's on etc.

 

Annoyingly my personal MacBook is up to 200 and something! And is causing problems at home now as it keeps being renamed.

 

Anyone had this problem and knows a solution?

[Steve21]

It's normally the case that happens when you have some kind of sharing services enabled and as they turn on they're trying to start it up then clash with another one so rename.

 

You got any of the icloudy stuff enabled on them all? Like find my mac, back to mac etc etc or whatever they're named recently.

 

Steve

[psydii]

This was common way back when they replaced mdnsresponder with discoveryd. Do you have some old versions of OS X, iOS or tvOS floating around?

 

https://9to5mac.com/2015/05/26/apple-drops-discoveryd-in-latest-os-x-beta-following-months-of-complaints-about-network-issues-with-yosemite/

[DalekSec]

It's normally the case that happens when you have some kind of sharing services enabled and as they turn on they're trying to start it up then clash with another one so rename.

 

You got any of the icloudy stuff enabled on them all? Like find my mac, back to mac etc etc or whatever they're named recently.

 

Steve

 

A few of them do but not all, the Mac Mini is only running Caching Server and that renames on restart.

 

This was common way back when they replaced mdnsresponder with discoveryd. Do you have some old versions of OS X, iOS or tvOS floating around?

 

https://9to5mac.com/2015/05/26/apple-drops-discoveryd-in-latest-os-x-beta-following-months-of-complaints-about-network-issues-with-yosemite/

 

We have 7 Macs, 3 Running High Sierra and the other 4 running Mavericks (I know way out of date, planning to update them in Easter)

Edited March 5, 2018 by DalekSec

[psydii]

Maybe it is the huge version difference. Try flushing the dns caches and renaming, and flushing again:

How to Reset DNS Cache in macOS High Sierra

(with links on how to do it on previous versions)

[DalekSec]

Annoyingly it doesn't seem to be happening today... I'll wait for it to start happening again and try the DNS reset.

[DalekSec]

Update on this:

 

Since updating all the outdated macs that were on Mavericks up to High Sierra the problem has vanished.