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IOS 14 Private Wifi MAC address

Does the private MAC address ever change or will it use the same private address each time it connects? I use MAC address filtering on my router so I need a consistent MAC address.

Posted on Sep 20, 2020 9:02 PM

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Posted on Sep 20, 2020 9:10 PM

I believe it only changes when you connect to a different WiFi network.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211227

  • If you erase all content and settings from your device, or you use the Reset Network Settings feature, your device will use a different private Wi-Fi address the next time it connects to the Wi-Fi network.


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Sep 20, 2020 9:10 PM in response to JonMess

I believe it only changes when you connect to a different WiFi network.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211227

  • If you erase all content and settings from your device, or you use the Reset Network Settings feature, your device will use a different private Wi-Fi address the next time it connects to the Wi-Fi network.


Sep 20, 2020 11:02 PM in response to LACAllen

LACAllen wrote:


Kurtosis12 wrote:

Your IP address can change, your MAC address will never change, it's hard coded into your device.
a new feature in iOS 14 is Mac address "spoofing"

https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT211227

Oh boy, did this one throw me for a loop. It took me two days to figure it out and now it’s toggled off. I’m pretty security conscious so my router was set to block all new devices.

Sep 21, 2020 10:16 AM in response to JonMess

Apple has given mixed messages on if that private address changes. According to the 2020 WWDC presentation, it will change every 24 hours if a user leaves and reconnects to a network.

"So this year, we're introducing private Wi-Fi address. iOS 14 will automatically manage Wi-Fi MAC addresses when joining networks. This way, the MAC address will not tie to a user's identity, and it can't be used to track them from one network to the next. A new MAC address will also be generated for networks every 24 hours, and the new private address will be used when the user leaves and rejoins the network. Users are always in control over this feature and can adjust this in their Wi-Fi settings."

Their support page claims it's a "unique, static MAC address is your device's private Wi-Fi address for that network only."

I haven't had a chance to test this on any of my own devices yet. Right now, it's a bit of a mixed message from Apple though.

Oct 12, 2020 11:57 AM in response to JonMess

accordingly to https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211227 iOS14 will "use a different MAC address for each Wi-Fi network". IMO this is a bit awkward as it continue using the same (private) MAC address for any given network, allowing network operators to keep track of the devices. Only additional "privacy" feature is to avoid correlation among different WiFi networks. I would like to get some feedback from Apple on this :)

Sep 21, 2020 10:32 AM in response to LACAllen

Sometimes Apple's support articles don't exactly mesh up to how exactly a feature behaves or a key detail is left out. I haven't had a chance to test whether it refreshes or not since I shut off the randomization on all my devices after the iOS 14 beta behavior threw my network into chaos. Have you verified the MAC address remains the same over multiple days with disconnecting, connecting to a different network, and then reconnecting to the original network? If it is truly static per network, that would be fantastic for network operators.

IOS 14 Private Wifi MAC address

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