I cannot, no matter what, factory reset my Airport Express.
I've tried EVERYTHING! short of throwing it against a wall.
I tried holding the reset button down, plugging it is as I continue to hold it, keeping hold for a further 30 seconds.
I tried to "restore" it via AirPort Utility.
And I tried starting to press the reset button while it's on, and continuing that for 30 seconds.
No matter what I do, if I afterwards open Airport Utility on any device the AirPort Express shows up with my name on it (they way I named it previously) and its listed network has my name on it. It's crazy frustrating when you're selling one of these things, because I just know for certain when they are in their house and try to set it up that my name will still be listed on it.
Please help me figure this thing out.
It's a mega frustrating un-Apple experience.
P.S. It's not getting the info from my device's network settings; resetting them does nothing. I'm experiencing the same thing on my 5th generation AirPort Extreme. The information that's populating is stored on both devices, and seems nigh on impossible to remove.
UPDATE: My Extreme is the exact same story. I'm selling both along with a second gen Extreme. Hence the need to fully factory restore everything. I've been trying to do this for hours now. Can someone on here help me?
Comments
Same thing for your Extreme and other express, hard wire them all and configure. Unplug from ethernet then deploy them wifi
Had a similar thing with the three expresses I have here, 2 are wifi extenders the third acting as a base station in bridge mode. The addresses are assigned by whatever device that is your modem. Otherwise you get one device overriding the addresses being assigned by the other - or a conflict.
Edit: There are modems that are simply that and do not have any ability to be configured, in that case your router will be the device that assigns the addresses. Likely to be your Extreme.
That's the thing; I don't want to configure or depoly them. I want to factory restore them so they have zero association with me. I don't know where it's getting my name from.
I connected via Ethernet to the 4 month old iMac I'm selling. (Long story short: I'm not happy with the new iMac). The guy who's buying is is named Luke, so I wiped the HD set it up for him with a user account under the name Luke. When I launched AirPort Utility it said it was reading the AirPorts settings and proceeded to populate the name of the base station and network boxes as Luke's Network and Luke's AirPort Extreme. So it took that name from his user account.
So then I reset this iPads network settings and renamed this iPad as something other than my name, plugged out the Ethernet cable from the Extreme and reconnected the cable to the cable modem. I then proceeded to open Settings and located the Extreme where it read the Extreme's settings and proceeded to populate my name in the boxes.
Where is it getting my name from? My iCloud Apple ID?
Ts;dr the AirPorts were in fact factory reset, but Apple now confusingly takes your first name from the iCloud account you are logged into on said device to populate the Airport fields when setting up. I say 'confusingly' because not only is it not obvious that this is what is happening, but when you are trying to factory restore one of these devices it's hard to tell if it has worked or only succeeded in what's called a Hard Restore. And what's even more, if you are on a Mac it seems to defer to the first name of your user account real name to populate these boxes, but this procedure is overridden by your iCloud account first name if you have an iCloud account entered into system preferences.
Yes, it is confusing.
SOLUTION: don't scape people's first names from their user account or iCloud account to "help" them setup their AirPorts, as it'll very likely just confuse them into thinking the factory restore they have been trying all day to achieve isn't working.
Good you got it sorted.
Using iCloud, huh, who'd of thunk ....
I'll remember that.
Cheers r
Good, day wasn't a total waste so.
I have the exact same problem. However, I have never used icloud in any way, and I cannot, no matter what, get the thing reset to what you would call a facory default. I have tried every trick I have found online, short of breaking it apart and roasting it over a small fire.
I is frustrating as beeeeeeeeeep. And no help from Apple support in sight. Anyone have any ideas?
I have the same problem with a newly bought 3TB Time capsule!
I find your solution really intriguing! Before I try to do that I have inform you that when I first installed the device I might have done the mistake not to extend my current local Network (two (2) Apple Extreme)!
But Im not sure wether I defined to "EXTEND THE CURRENT NETWORK"! It came back with a newly created Network with another name with only ONE of my Apple Extreme - it has REPLACED THE FIRST EXTREME! My current Network has one MYBOOK AIR running Bootcamp under Windows XP and a remote Network of the Company my wife is working for! Before the Time Capsule Dilemna everything was working fine! (My wife also has a user name in my local network!) After Airport utility finished my wife's Company's Network (in Window XP) was gone (including all of its definitions!)!! Needless to say - my wife was more than p.....! The Time Capsule documentation which came in the Box of the device did NOT offer any help! The motto "Problems? NO Problem!" did sound VERY SARCASTIC to me!
I tried many things had a very hard time to get my previous Network including the Network my wife is working with! I might over react but I decided to return this Time capsule and will never touch one again since I AM confused about what happened and book it under "Experience"
This story is just to inform you and all others of the "well designed" Time capsule! I lost many valuable hours and confidence in Apple!
Thanks for reading!