iPhone won't "forget" previous owner's name

[ElDiabloConCaca]

So I signed my life away for 2 years in December 2008 and got an iPhone 3G. All was well for a few months, then the ringer switch fell off -- not a problem, the phone was replaced on-the-spot at the Apple Store here in San Antonio (La Cantera).

I took the new phone home and restored from a backup. All is well. I named it "Icabod." I thought it was cute.

I manage several servers, and so Bjango's iStat and iStat Server for Mac OS X were installed on the phone. This is where things get odd.

I noticed that everywhere (iTunes, Finder, etc.), the iPhone is properly named "Icabod." However, in the iStat Server software, when I make a connection from the iPhone, the iPhone's name is reported as "Buffy"s iPhone" -- that's Buffy"s iPhone, complete with the double-quote before the 's' character. Obviously, I had gotten a refurb as a replacement when my ringer switch fell off. This, however, is not the problem, and doesn't bother me at all because the phone works 100%.

So I restored the iPhone in iTunes and chose to set it up as a new phone (NOT restoring from a backup). I named the phone, again, "Icabod," and spent the next hour reloading and rearranging all my apps to my liking.

I make another connection to iStat Server, and again, the iPhone shows up as Buffy"s iPhone. I can't seem to make it "forget" this name. I'm thinking that the double-quote in the name is somehow interfering with renaming the device on some ultra-low level of the hardware or something.

Does there exist a more deeply-reaching "restore" or "reformat" or "start over" function that I can perform to rid my phone of this name? Mind you, the phone shows up properly as "Icabod" in iTunes and such, but the fact that iStat Server shows the previous owner's phone name just bugs me. It leads me to believe that 'Buffy"s iPhone' is somehow deeply-rooted in the hardware somewhere now, and that the double-quotes are preventing a rename operation from successfully completing on some level.

Anyone got any kind of clue?

[#1 Rhapsody]

Hmmmm... Very odd

My used iPod Touch has never done that. I would think that the restore would fix it.

[DeltaMac]

Do you have iStat Server installed on your Mac?
Maybe that name is stored there (regardless of the present iPhone setup), with the initial setup of iStat Server, and your iPhone's IP address.
Have you tried to Reset Authorizations in iStat Server (on your Mac)?

[ElDiabloConCaca]

I have iStat Server installed, yes. The name that appears is not a name I have ever chosen, for any kind of electrical device, during my entire time on Earth -- that's why it's so weird.

I have done the following with iStat:
1) Uninstalled iStat Server
2) Deleted every known preference, kext, or config file that iStat Server uses.
3) Reinstalled iStat Server
4) Changed the IP address of my iPhone
5) Uninstalled iStat from iPhone
6) Reinstalled iStat on iPhone
7) Reset authorizations from within iStat Server
8) Changed the keycode in iStat Server
9) Installed iStat Server clean and fresh on another Mac that has never had iStat Server installed on it

#9 produces the same results. Even when connecting to a new Mac that has never seen the light of iStat in its history produces the same result: it is recognizing my phone as Buffy"s iPhone.

I've even gone the drastic route and wiped my iPhone clean, deleted the iStat.ipa application file from my computer's hard drive, had my iPhone redownload the app (so as to make sure there aren't any settings hanging around), reinstalled iStat Server (after cleaning all prefs and kexts), re-entered the security code, and the same thing still happens.

Right now I'm looking for any other piece of network/device monitoring software that can verify the Buffy"s iPhone name for me. I'm 99% positive it's not iStat, as I have logs of all the connections that have been made going back to when I first got my initial iPhone, and there is a direct correlation between the date I got the refurb. phone and log entries that started showing "Buffy"s iPhone" instead of the previous entries that showed, simply, "iPhone" (which is what my original phone was named).

I really think this has somehow become "hard-coded" into the phone, and the double-quote character is causing problems with renaming the phone on some level. Sure, it says, "Icabod" almost everywhere, but shows "Buffy"s iPhone" elsewhere -- being of some programming background, I know that embedded double-quotes can wreak havoc with string manipulation if workaround haven't been coded.

For example, changing the name of the phone may involve something like this:

newPhoneName = "Icabod";
currentPhoneName = "Buffy"s iPhone";

currentPhoneName = newPhoneName;

But, if you look at it, the string 'currentPhoneName' is NOT "Buffy"s iPhone", but rather "Buffy" because the quoted string ends there... one double-quote to indicate the beginning of the string, and another to indicate the end of the string... but the third quote should indicate the end of the string in my case, and I think this is what's causing the problem.

Edit: Have included a screenshot of iStat Server showing the "Buffy"s iPhone" name, and will include another screenshot later this evening of iTunes showing the name as "Icabod."

[ElDiabloConCaca]

The mystery has been solved... apparently one of the "test" devices they use over at Bjango is named "Buffy"s iPhone" and it's an actual bug in the iStat Server app. Supposedly it'll be fixed in a future release:

http://forums.mactalk.com.au/30/7212...eleased-2.html

Good lord that was driving me nuts. I can rest assured now that my iPhone has one and only one identity.

[#1 Rhapsody]

Originally Posted by ElDiabloConCaca

The mystery has been solved... apparently one of the "test" devices they use over at Bjango is named "Buffy"s iPhone" and it's an actual bug in the iStat Server app. Supposedly it'll be fixed in a future release:

It would drive me crazy too. iStat looks like a useful app, too bad it costs $.99

[ElDiabloConCaca]

Originally Posted by #1 Rhapsody

It would drive me crazy too. iStat looks like a useful app, too bad it costs $.99

Just to clarify: there is no issue at all with the iStat iPhone app. It works beautifully, and is well worth a buck for the monitoring capabilities.

The problem lies solely with the iStat Server software, which is the software you install on a Mac in order to be able to monitor it from the iPhone. The problem is purely cosmetic in nature and does not interfere with any functionality. 99.9% of the time, you'll never even need to launch or look at the iStat Server app, because it's simply a front-end for managing a daemon that runs on Mac OS X -- meaning I would have never caught this "bug" at all had I not gone fiddling around with my Mac with no good reason other than to fiddle around out of boredom and/or curiosity.

iStat costs a buck, and I would have paid two if it were so priced. The server software is free (since it's useless without the iStat iPhone app), and now that they've released server software for Linux and UNIX, it's even more useful because I can now monitor not only my home and work Macs, but the Linux and UNIX boxes we have running at work as well.

Solid pieces of software, if you ask me. The cosmetic "bug" is a non-issue for me (now).