Why is it recommended to not use the "hidden network" setting?

A "hidden" network is not really hidden at all. It's all an illusion, since the name of your wireless network (called the SSID) is constantly being broadcast by your wireless router even if you have enabled the option for a hidden network.

There are any number of free utilities available on the Internet that will reveal a "hidden" network in seconds, so anyone who wants to see the name of your wireless network can do very easily and very quickly. So the "security" value of hidden network is just about zero.

True, if your network is "hidden" a few honest neighbors might not notice your network name when they click their WiFi menu, but those are probably not the type of folks that you need to worry about. The guys you can't see in the van......that's been parked most of the afternoon just up the street.....those are the guys that you need to worry about.

The only way to protect your network from those guys is use WPA2 Personal wireless security with a long password phrase that is comprised of a mix of random letters and numbers. If you are really worried, change the password about once a month.

In addition, some devices......iPhones, iPads and other mobile devices in particular.....often have trouble remembering or connecting to a "hidden" network, so a "hidden" network may simply not work some of the time with some devices.

The bottom line.....there's not really any harm in "hiding" your network if all of your devices are working correctly and reliably. Just remember that anyone who wants to "see" your network can do so very easily.

If you decide to "unhide" your network, chose a network name that does not contain your name, nickname, initials, address, or any other type of personal information.

The name of my wireless network is TWNDM. I could care less who sees that.

To start with a hidden ssid is not really hidden at all.. any kid can discover hidden ssids because they are still used when a device connects.. So there is the first thing.. Hidden is not hidden.

But here is the big one.. IEEE who is the standards organisation that writes all the documents relevant to wireless (and lots of other things) never made one to hide the SSID. In other words.. this invention of the industry was written without standards.. and when you do that.. all kinds of unpredictable things happen. As is the case.

Why is not using this setting recommended?

IN the article you list.. it already lists some.

Hidden network

Hidden networks don't broadcast their SSID over Wi-Fi. This option might be incorrectly referred to as a closed network, and the corresponding nonhidden state might be referred to as broadcast or open.

Set to: Disabled

Because hidden networks don't broadcast their SSID, devices might need more time to find them and connect to them, and connecting to them automatically might not always succeed. Hiding a network doesn't secure your Wi-Fi network, because the SSID is still available in other ways.

Notice the because.

1. Takes longer to find and connect.

2. Connect fails.

3. Does not secure the network.

In other words apple says don't do it because it does not work.. and not only does it fail as a method of security it actually makes things worse.

I've also read "Using a hidden network can expose personally identifiable information."

I do not think this is a real issue if the network is actually secured.. using WPA2 Personal with a decent password.

What is important is the positive side.. using WPA2 Personal with a decent password.. say 12-20 mixed characters non-dictionary.. without using the standard SSID.. ie does not affect apple but many brands use a SSID like netgear has Netgear in the SSID.. which is good to avoid.. it hackable with a quantum computer in a few years.. nobody is saying it cannot be hacked.. but is the value of your documents etc worth the cost of a dedicated quantum computer.. which are kind of rare for the moment.

Hiding your ssid as extra layer of security is absolutely pointless.. because they will get through that layer in the first 10sec. It is the next 2 years of the super computer crunching that is the security.

I've also read "Using a hidden network can expose personally identifiable information."

I saw this message too, when connecting to a WPA2- only network. IMO, the message is inappropriate in this situation and I consider it a bug. Sounds like you agree. It's not false, per se but it's clearly inappropriate.

I would add that if your threat model is limited to a few neighbors in a suburban or rural area, the odds that they have the technical aptitude to find the SSID and apply it are pretty slim. ~5%?