MacOS Ventura - Prevent remembering Wi-Fi connection

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Level 1

4 points

MacOS Ventura - Prevent remembering Wi-Fi connection

Is it possible in MacOS Ventura to connect to Wi-Fi hotspots without the OS automatically remembering the connection?

It is possible to manually update connections after joining so that you don't auto-join in the future however this cannot be done at the point when connecting to a network and is easily forgotten. It also doesn't prevent the OS from remembering the connection.

This behaviour is a security risk to me as I may join a public hotspot when I need to and ensure I connect to a home VPN. While on my home network, I don't need the VPN and don't always have it running, leaving me exposed when I happen to be near a public hotspot I have joined before again.

Posted on Jan 29, 2023 9:26 PM

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Answer 1

DiZoE

Level 4

3,083 points

Jan 30, 2023 12:11 AM in response to M___G

Hey again!

I didn’t notice this until you mentioned it!

The user interface has definitely changed as everyone can see, (More like iOS and other OS like Apple TV OS, etc. which is kind of cool, although is definitely an adjustment).

However I did not see such a setting for that.

Im unsure if you can use Terminal such as ipconfig to do any such task.

I maybe missing where the setting is, if so I’d like to find out, as I can adjust it on my older Macs.

If all else fails, the best thing to do would be to give feedback to Apple to request the feature in Ventura:

Feedback - macOS - Apple

Please let me know if you find anything, would also like to know. Perhaps it’s a new security protocol that doesn’t allow the Mac OS to filter what networks it remembers, but the end user alone for more control. Good question though.

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Answer 2

DiZoE

Level 4

3,083 points

Jan 29, 2023 10:00 PM in response to M___G

Hey there!

Good question.....you can do so by following the steps given by Apple here:

How to forget a Wi-Fi network on iPhone, iPad, or Mac - Apple Support

Hope that helps!

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Answer 3

M___G Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 29, 2023 11:27 PM in response to DiZoE

Thank you, that helps with removing the connection after it has been added. The problem I have is specifically that the connection gets remembered in the first place.

I suspect there has been a decision that remember by default gives a better user experience but it comes at a cost of security. With such a tradeoff, I would expect there to always be a way to change the behaviour however the UI design has been a bit zealous with removing/simplifying the interface. I believe in previous version of MacOS there was a "Remember networks this computer has joined" checkbox but the new system settings interface doesn't seem to have an equivelant? I think it was also possible when connecting to specify not remembering the connection (however the default behaviour was not security first).

I suspect/hope there may be a terminal command that can be run to achieve the same result?

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MacOS Ventura - Prevent remembering Wi-Fi connection

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