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iPhone SE 2020 with two completely unrelated WiFi addresses

I'm NOT talking about WiFi address vs. Bluetooth address. I know that these are two different things.
I'm NOT using a VPN on the phone. (I don't think that would make any difference with a MAC address anyway.)
I DID restart both the iPhone and the router. 😎

When my iPhone SE 2020 connects to my home WiFi, the router's control panel shows it as having a completely different MAC address for WiFi (7-:--:--:--:--:--) from what is shown on the iPhone itself at Settings>General>About (4-:--:--:--:--:--).

In order to use MAC filtering on the router, I have to whitelist the different MAC address (7), not the MAC address shown in the phone's Settings (4).

I also have an iPhone 5s, iPad Air, and iPad Air 2. All of these are connected to WiFi, and the addresses shown in the Router's control panel match the respective addresses shown on the devices themselves. Only the iPhone SE has this weird split personality.

How can this be?

Posted on Apr 29, 2021 1:51 PM

Top-ranking reply

Doctormelodious Author

Level 1

67 points

Posted on Apr 30, 2021 8:25 AM

Okay, I called AppleCare. As of iOS 14 (which I'm not running on the other devices), there is a Private Address feature in Settings>Wi-Fi.

Tap the name of the network you're connected to, and in the next screen there's a Private Address slider switch which, at least in the case of my brand new iPhone SE 2020, is in the On position by default. Just below that switch is the address. Mystery solved.

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iPhone SE 2020 with two completely unrelated WiFi addresses

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