How to disable MAC anonymization on iPhone, iPad or iPod touch

Beginning with iOS 14, iPadOS 14, and watchOS 7, your device enhances privacy by employing a unique MAC address for each Wi-Fi network, known as your device's private Wi-Fi address. This address is solely used for that specific network.

Turn off the feature for a network

You have the option to enable or disable Private Address for a network. By default, Private Address is enabled on your device. For enhanced privacy, it's recommended to keep it enabled for all networks that are compatible with this feature.

  1. Open the More info button next to a network. app and select Wi-Fi .
  2. Tap the Settings app and select Wi-Fi .
  3. You can easily enable or disable Private Address by tapping on the respective option. If your device joined the network previously without utilizing a private address, a privacy warning will appear, explaining the reason behind it.

Under certain circumstances, your device may switch to a different private Wi-Fi address:

  1. If you reset the network settings or erase all content and settings on your device, it will use a new private address when connecting to that network again.
  2. As of iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and watchOS 8, if your device hasn't connected to a network in six weeks, it will use a different private address the next time it connects to that network. Furthermore, if you make your device forget the network, it will also forget the private address it used with that network, unless less than two weeks have passed since it was last instructed to forget the network.