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Manually removing stored Wifi networks from iPad?

I have a rather interesting question:

As we all know, iPad will remember wireless networks we connect to by way of the settings app. Whenever those networks are in range, iPad will automatically connect to them. (This also applies to iPhone/iPod touch)

Suppose that you at some point logged into a network, using the settings panel, but you later wish to remove it from the list of saved networks (e.g. you're giving the iPad to a friend to use, giving it away, etc.)

So far, the only way I know of to do this is to be in range of the network in question, then select it in the settings panel and choose Forget This Network.

This to me represents a potential security risk. Suppose that you pair your iPad to a corporate work network. Later, you decide to loan out your iPad. All the person you loaned it to has to do is go in range of the office network (Which is heavily guarded by WPA2, we'll assume) and poof, they're in, because your iPad saved the network. Someone who is not authorized just penetrated a LAN.

Normally, you could simply remove that network from the remembered networks store prior to loaning. Mac, Windows and everything else seems to have a way to remove remembered networks manually. However, on the iPad (and any other iOS device) I can't find a way to get the device to forget a known network, unless I happen to be in range of that network at the time. Is there a way to do this?

FM

MacBook Pro 15"/i7/4GB/500GB/DVDRW, Mac OS X (10.6.6)

Posted on Jan 30, 2011 10:18 PM

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Posted on Mar 26, 2011 1:01 PM

My question is similar to the original one. The problem with Chris' solution is it wipes out ALL the remembered networks. What if I only want to wipe one or two, and I am not in range of those networks. E.g., I have to go to a business meeting this coming week. I will probably link to the conference center's wi-fi. Are you saying that forever and ever, my iPad will remember that network, that it will be cluttering up the iPad's memory, and there is nothing I can do about it, short of eliminating ALL my networks and starting over again? This seems to me to be a very huge blunder on the Apple iPad programmers part if that is the case.
68 replies

Feb 2, 2014 4:10 PM in response to Flint Million

To make matters more frustrating (for me anyway) any network you've ever connected to with an iphone or ipad will appear in your list of preferred networks (on your macbook) IF you use Keychain over iCloud . . . the difference being is here you can remove them manually but no way to push those changes back to your iphone that I know of.


I've disabled keychain and a lot of icloud because of other concerns, so at least these networks won't continue to push onto my macbook.


Many of y'all are far more technical than I but I found this lack of manually editing (or even seeing) history of wifi networks to be frustrating. I couldn't believe how many connections I'd made in the past few years.


I'll admit I'm relatively new to mac and didn't realize how far reaching Keychain was. iCloud I just find kinda inscrutable.

Apr 19, 2014 9:05 PM in response to mcetaruk

I just realized today that I can see all the Wi-Fi networks that my phone has visited on my Mac. I'll have to intentionally join one on my phone, delete it from my Mac and then see if I have to re-join that same network from my phone. This would be a solid indication of whether or not deleting them from the Mac will also make them disappear from the phone.

Jun 14, 2014 3:20 AM in response to BraytonAK

BraytonAK - how can you see all the Wi-Fi Networks on your MAC where your phone has been? Once you have a list of all those ssid's you can create a wi-fi access point with that ssid, let your iPhone/iPad 'find' it and then select 'forget the network'.. a bit of work when you have many, but somthing for a rainy day?

Jun 14, 2014 9:03 AM in response to ToniEn

ToniEn wrote:


BraytonAK - how can you see all the Wi-Fi Networks on your MAC

Mac not MAC (especially when talking about networking as MAC is Media Access Control).


Open the Keychain Access app.

The passwords are sync'd if you have iCloud - Keychain access turned on in Settings > iCloud (iOS iDevice) and System prefs > iCloud on the Mac).

Jun 16, 2014 8:34 PM in response to Phil0124

It's great if you manage to actually get the "Forget Network" button, but it seems that only happens once you are actually connected - not just in range as people have suggested. If mac filtering is used or hidden SSID then you will never be able to get this button unless you have admin right's to the access point to change the settings - get connected - then forget the network - then reset the orignal access point settings. Otherwise it's impossible to get that "Forget" button. Only other option is to reset ALL network connection settings from the IOS device. Very bad Apple - how about fixing this.

Mar 23, 2015 12:38 PM in response to Aring0

Aring0 wrote:


If you are not on the network and want to delete it without a wipe.


Settings> General> Reset> Reset Network Settings.


But this would erase all of them I believe so you would have to input passwords for networks at home etc. Ill check with Wireshark this weekend to make sure it's not sending probe requests after the reset.

Super late, But just wanted to +1 that this comment.

Feb 15, 2016 3:12 AM in response to Chris CA

It's not someone else's router. I can log into it with the password I chose. The network name was the router model. It was a Linksys EA6400 router. The network name was "Linksys EA6400". This was a router I added about 8 months ago, and took it out of service a few days ago (2/13/16) and replaced it with a newer router with a different network name, so the network no longer exists, yet it still appears in my list of networks on my iPad and my iPhone.

Mar 25, 2016 2:45 AM in response to Chris CA

and many years later it seems that is STILL the only way to 'forget' out of range networks on an iPad?

reset to delete ALL networks in memory . . .


I came across this post whilst searching for a secure solution after a great - but creepy - live hacking demo using the Wifi Pineapple to set up a wifi honeypot, reading everyone in the room's WiFi memory to (potentially) gain access to any open networks, displaying a very informative list of family names, airports, hotels and coffee bars these network names revealed (as dj0 highlighted here a couple of years ago).


It is good to be more aware of why it is SO important to clear this memory on mobile devices (especially if you have ever connected to an open network) and I find it rather hard to believe that over all these years Apple has not tackled this glaring privacy and security risk - or perhaps I missed something recently?


Giving the ability to indicate when you connect to a WiFi network that it is 'untrusted' or 'temporary', and as such either to not commit it to memory, or set a time-frame for that memory could go a long way to improve this situation in a more user-friendly way. As well as giving access to this list to manage of course. And even if you were to set up your own man-in-the-middle to scan and display your wifi network memory it seems that you cannot forget a network unless you are connected to it - so this will only help for open networks and require more advanced hacking to manage the rest . . . 😕

Apr 6, 2016 1:55 PM in response to Flint Million

I know this is an old topic, and this may have already been mentioned here before but, in the event you have an iDevice AND a Mac (of any type) that shares the same iCloud account between them, the WiFi profiles are a part of what is sync'ed so, taking that into account, you can remove the WiFi profile from your Mac that you want to remove from your iDevice, which will be removed once the iCloud data is sync'ed. This is the ONLY way (without jailbreaking the iDevice) that I know of to remove a single WiFi profile from the iDevice instead of removing them all by means of a network reset or a full device wipe.

Jul 8, 2016 5:38 AM in response to SyberCorp

i tried that many times(deleting from mac)... and the accounts would come back to the mac. BUT as soon as i did the network reset i LOST all of the accounts on my mac too. such a SCREWED up system. one should be able to have per device network settings. Another note when i added networks to the iPad it added it to the iPhone right away but never added it to the mac... RME

Manually removing stored Wifi networks from iPad?

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