First, sorry for a long post but I wanted to give everyone all teh information I can upfront to limit back and forth.

Background:

I have searched the forum for references to this error, but the few posts I find seem to relate to 6ghz SSID being assigned the same or different SSID name compared to main network 2.4/5ghz SSID. That is not my issue - that I am aware of...

I am attempting to change the name of the primary network SSID (2.4/5ghz) - currently called "X" [using the Deco app (v3.7.74) in IOS (v17.5.1)]

• My 6ghz is turned off on the main network
• I have the IOT network turned on with SSID called "Y"
• I turned on the Guest Network using a SSID called "Z"
• Connected devices to Guest Network to test network access to main network
• Reconnected cleint devices back to "X" and forgot network "Z" on those devices
• Renamed Guest Network to "A"
• Tried to rename main network to "Z" (old name used when I tested Guest - but no longer assigned anywhere)
• Received Error: "This network name already exists"

I have tried:

Turning off the Guest Network completely

Rebooting main device (router) and all satellite network devices

Updating firmware (with reboot afterwards)

I have not:

Totally removed ALL devices in mesh network and deleted the network - then rebuild everything. I am trying to avoid this, and I am not confident this will even work as expected.

I am able to:

assign SSID = "Z" back the Guest Network (now called "A") - I can switch between "A" and "Z" at will on the Guest Network.

It is almost like there is some type of cache it the app, on the devices or online (in my TP-Link profile) and that cache is checked and will not allow any network name that EVER existed on one network type (Main, Guest, IOT) to be used on a different one, It does not appear to check it is ACTUALLY assigned anywhere - just that it was "this one time at router testing camp". This seems like it should be a simple thing to accomplish (and has been on other devices in the past), but this has already consumed WAY too much time.

Can anyone provide any other troubleshooting steps or guidance - other than remove the entire network and start over? And if I really do have to start over, is anyone certain that this cache of "previously used network names in all of earth's history" is not in my cloud account or something such that it will still fail if I go through all the pain of setting up the network all over - with IP reservations, etc?

Thank you in advance for any help / suggestions.