Weird MAC address snafu on my iphone SE (original edition)

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Weird MAC address snafu on my iphone SE (original edition)

My wife has a iphone 6S+ and the "Wi-Fi Address", aka MAC, shows up just like it's supposed to on my new Router.

Not so my iphone SE. The "Wi-Fi Address", aka MAC, DOESN'T shows up on my new router DHCP MAC list AT ALL, even though the phone is connected via WiFi to the router. (The Cellular data is off, I'm not mistaken. It really is connected via WiFi.)

Is this an iOS 15 bug, or what???

And is there a way to tell which of the unlabelled WiFi devices connected to my new router is actually my iphone SE with the bogus MAC address displayed in the General>About>Wi-Fi Address screen???

C'mon Apple. I have another older SE that has bad voice transmission, and it does the same thing...

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer

iPhone SE

Posted on Mar 16, 2022 9:14 PM

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Answer 1

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Tesserax

Level 10

148,583 points

Mar 16, 2022 10:33 PM in response to mr coffeee

The support article provides you with the steps to enable/disable this feature.

When enabled, the private Wi-Fi address MAC number is listed in Settings > Wi-Fi > Network. This would be the number you would compare on your router.

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Answer 2

Tesserax

Level 10

148,583 points

Mar 16, 2022 9:56 PM in response to mr coffeee

Starting with iOS 14, Apple provides a means to configure your iPhone with a private MAC address for each Wi-Fi network it connects to for additional security. This feature tends to be enabled by default when updating the iOS version.

Ref: Use private Wi-Fi addresses on iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Apple Watch - Apple Support

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Answer 3

mr coffeee Author

Level 1

4 points

Mar 16, 2022 10:25 PM in response to Tesserax

Thanks for replying, but ...

How do I find out which "private MAC" showing up on the router is my iphone???

Or is there a way to turn this "feature" off? My wife's iphone 6S+ is on iOS 15 and I know she didn't do anything to turn it off.

Or maybe it's something else?

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Answer 4

Tesserax

Level 10

148,583 points

Mar 17, 2022 9:59 AM in response to mr coffeee

Just so you are aware, Apple's "private MAC" is a form of MAC spoofing. In theory, when enabled, it will create a pseudo MAC address for your iPhone for every Wi-Fi network it connects to. Again to increase security.

As such, if your goal is to "whitelist" known MAC addresses and block all others on your local network, if that private MAC address changes, it will no longer be able to connect to your network.

IMHO, the private MAC address only has benefits when connecting to other Wi-Fi networks, not your own ... but, it's totally your call on, whether or not, you want to use it at all.

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Answer 5

mr coffeee Author

Level 1

4 points

Mar 17, 2022 9:43 AM in response to Tesserax

Thanks VERY MUCH!!!

I want to use whitelisting and I couldn't tell what was what!

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Weird MAC address snafu on my iphone SE (original edition)

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