A MAC address or Media Access Control address is a unique identifier assigned to a machine’s network interface. On your Mac, this is the unique hardware identifier of the WiFi or Ethernet card inside. Each device has a unique MAC address because if multiple devices on the same network have the same MAC address, the network cannot distinguish the two devices which causes quite a bit of trouble.
Since the MAC address is permanent and hardware dependent, it is mostly used to prevent a particular device from accessing the network. For example, on your home WiFi, you can easily set your router to only allow a specific list of MAC addresses to connect, so even if someone knows your WiFi password but isn’t added to the list of accepted addresses, that person won’t be able to connect to your network. This is one of those situations where you will want to change your Mac’s MAC address. So if you’re trying to circumvent a router that’s blocking your Mac’s MAC address, Here is how to change MAC address on Mac:
note: I changed my MAC address on a MacBook Air running macOS Sierra 10.12. The method should be similar in other versions of macOS.
Find Your Current MAC Address
The first thing you need to do is find your Mac’s current MAC address. You can do this by following the steps given below:
- go System Preferences -> Network.
- Here, click “Developed”
- switch to “Equipment” Click the tab and you will be able to see the MAC Address of your Mac. Make a note of this in case you need to go back.
Change MAC Address on macOS
You have to use Terminal to change the MAC address on your Mac. The commands are simple and you can follow the steps given below:
- Hold down the “Option” keyand Click on the WiFi icon in the menu bar. will be able to see “interface name” there. In my case, this “en0”.
- Start Terminal and type the following command:
openssl rand -hex 6 | sed ‘s/\(..\)/\1:/g; s/.$//’This will give you a new random hexadecimal number that you can use as the MAC address.
- Disconnect from your WiFi network by pressing and holding “choice” and clicking the WiFi icon in the menu bar and “disconnect” It’s under your WiFi name.
- Now, type “sudo ifconfig en0 ether
“.
- You will now have successfully changed your MAC address on Mac.
You can reconnect to your WiFi network and double-check your MAC address to confirm it has changed.
SEE ALSO: How to Reset and Clear DNS Cache on macOS Sierra
Easily Change MAC Address on Mac
You can use this method to easily change your Mac’s MAC address and bypass any router blocking you with your MAC address. Note that if the router uses a MAC address whitelist, instead of blocking certain MAC addresses, you will not be able to join the WiFi network even if your MAC address has changed. Changing MAC addresses on your Mac is not a difficult task, even as it sounds. So, if you want to spoof your MAC address, go ahead and try this method. Also, let me know how it worked for you and if you know other methods to change MAC address on Mac, let me know in the comments section below.
