Why in settings where my devices are listed does it now say iPhone (73)

[Megan Brazil]

Why in settings where my devices are listed does it now say iPhone (73). This is new there has never been a (73) or any number there before. Also showing in find my as device name

 

[Annie_M]

Why in settings where my devices are listed does it now say iPhone (73). This is new there has never been a (73) or any number there before. Also showing in find my as device name

I’m not sure! Your post made me curious, so I checked mine. I am pretty sure that I named my phone before, but when I checked, it showed up as iPhone (2). So, I changed it.

If you want to change your iPhone’s name, here’s how:

https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/change-the-name-of-your-iphone-iphf256af64f/ios

 

[Ledsteplin]

Apparently this is not new. Happened to me 7 years ago. Seems it sometimes occurs after setting up an iPhone as new. Not sure what the number represents. I had thought it was the number of iPhones (past and present) by the same name on a particular Apple ID. But (73) sounds like a lot. LOL

Regarding Find My iPhone, what does the number in parentheses represent?

https://forums.imore.com/showthread.php?t=327961

 

[EdwinG]

Why in settings where my devices are listed does it now say iPhone (73). This is new there has never been a (73) or any number there before. Also showing in find my as device name

In summary, this is a method of deduplicating devices with the same name on a network.

It is possible that your phone was on a network with 72 other devices called “iPhone”, so it just took the next available name: “iPhone (73)”.

 

[Up_And_Away]

I know for my ipad(2), the (2) is because I had 2 iPads under my devices at one time. Default name is IPad so it gives it (2) to make the name unique and not clash with existing ipad name. But for these huge numbers (72)? Hmmm, I scanned the Apple Support forums. Best explanation I could find (though not certain at all): the culprit of the number increasing particularly high is Bonjour. It’s a protocol Apple uses to discover devices and services on your LAN. It may be a bug or simply an oddity where Bonjour sees/discovers/somehow uses the same existing iPhone(71) for behind the scenes discovery of devices and services. So under certain home network setups/conditions, Bonjour changes it to iPhone(72) to keep a discovery clash from happening. Rinse and repeat again and you’ll see iPhone (74). Again this all theoretical.
Best fix was suggested by Annie_M, change the names of your devices to not be iPhone or iPad or (default Apple device name). That should stop it from getting these high (72) numbers.