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I’m setting up iPads with Apple Business Manager/ADE in Hexnode and want the device name to be applied automatically during enrollment using a prefix and an appended number, like <prefix>-IPAD101, <prefix>-IPAD102, etc. The ADE enrollment profile has the device naming option enabled with append number. The iPad was originally assigned to the wrong enrollment profile, so I removed it from MDM, deleted the device record, unassigned device management in Apple Business Manager, synced ADE, assigned the correct profile, factory reset the iPad, and enrolled it again. The iPad still came in with the default name “iPad” instead of the naming convention. There was no automatic rename entry in the device action history either. I don’t want to rename it manually because I’m worried the next iPad might get the same number from the enrollment profile counter. What’s the right way to get the automatic ADE rename to trigger?
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For automatic device naming during ADE enrollment, the iPad must pull the correct ADE profile during Setup Assistant, specifically before or at the Remote Management step. If the enrollment profile is assigned or updated after the device has already passed that stage, the naming rule will not apply retroactively. Check the following workflow:
- Go to Enroll > All Enrollments > No-Touch > Apple Business/School Manager > Devices.
- Select the target iPad and associate the ADE enrollment profile that has device naming enabled.
- In the profile, ensure Edit device name and Append number are enabled with the required prefix and starting number.
- Go to the Apple Business/School Manager ADE accounts section in Hexnode and sync the ADE account.
- Factory reset the iPad and enroll it again through Setup Assistant.
If the profile was changed multiple times while testing, Apple’s ADE servers may temporarily serve a cached profile token during a re-enrollment attempt. Once the updated ADE profile is fully synced, another factory reset should make the iPad pull the latest profile and apply the automatic name during enrollment.
Manual renaming is not recommended if you want to preserve the enrollment profile’s auto-increment sequence, because a manual rename does not advance the ADE profile’s naming counter.
That makes sense. In my case, the iPad was moved between profiles during testing. I had already erased it once after assigning the correct profile, but it still came back as just “iPad”. Also, I noticed the ADE profile name had something like “(4)” next to it. Does that mean there are multiple copies of the profile or that the wrong profile is being used?
The number in parentheses next to the ADE profile name is the profile version. It generally indicates how many times the profile has been modified. It does not mean that multiple separate profiles are being applied to the device. Since the device was moved between profiles and re-enrolled during testing, the most likely cause is that the previous enrollment cycle pulled a cached ADE profile token before the latest profile assignment was fully reflected through Apple Business Manager. Once the correct profile is fully synced, factory reset the iPad again and proceed through Setup Assistant. The device should then receive the next available name from the ADE enrollment profile, for example <prefix>-IPAD101. The next device enrolled with the same profile should then receive <prefix>-IPAD102, keeping the sequence intact.
