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Deleted preferred networks reappear

Upon installing Mavericks, and turning on iCloud keychain, I noticed that all wifi networks I had ever connected to appeared in the preferred network list on my Macbook.

There were quite a few I naturally wanted to delete, so I removed them. Also my devices were trying to connect to networks I thought I had removed.

It didn't take me long to notice that my Macbook was trying to connect to some of these old networks again, and upon looking at the list - all deleted entries had reappeared.

Another symptom seems to be that if I tell my iPhone not to auto-connect to a public hotspot (BT WIFI for example), if my Mac ever comes near that hotspot it auto connects - as will my iPhone subsequently.

I have tried editing the com.apple.airport.preferences.plist file manually, deleting the Mac's WiFi service and recreating, and resetting network settings on all my Apple devices.

I have even looked at the Keychain app on my Mac, but it doesn't seem to be storing my wireless networks from what I can see.

From my Google-ing, it doesn't sound like anyone else is having this issue..

Any ideas?

Thanks!

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2013), OS X Mavericks (10.9.2)

Posted on Apr 10, 2014 7:50 AM

17 replies

May 29, 2016 11:46 AM in response to olteanra

This worked for me. Thank you! Finally, all "preferred" networks are gone.

Now, the only way those networks transferred to my iMac was from my iPhone. Which means there is a setting on the iPhone that is keeping track of every wifi network I approach. How to prevent this behavior?

iamPaul

Level 1

4 points

Jun 10, 2016 1:04 PM in response to johnnyjackhammer

I can confirm that if a deleted preferred network name keeps reappearing in your Mac’s Network Preferences, then the unwanted Wi-Fi network may instead be saved on a user’s iPhone/mobile device. Unlike the Mac, on the iPhone it’s not possible to delete (“Forget”) an individual network unless the iPhone is in range of that Wi-Fi network. In my situation, the solution was to reset network settings on two users’ iPhones to remove all their saved Wi-Fi networks. This is what I did:

On the iPhones (here: iOS 9.3.2), go to Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings. That done, return to the OS X device and delete the unwanted Wi-Fi network name from the list at Network Preferences > WiFi > Advanced. Click OK and then Apply to activate the change. In my case, I carried out this procedure for each iPhone separately until the deletion stuck, and on the iPhones I only had to reenter Wi-Fi passwords and some Cellular options.

Configurations:

iMac, MacBook Pro: iCloud Keychain enabled

User 1 iPhone 6: iCloud Keychain not enabled

User 2 iPhone 6 Plus: iCloud Keychain not enabled

Deleted preferred networks reappear