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How to View and Change the MAC Address on Your Mac Computer

Introduction

Every network interface on a computer, smartphone, or other networked device has a unique MAC (media access control) address assigned to it. The MAC address is a 12-digit hexadecimal number, usually separated by colons or hyphens (e.g. 00:14:22:01:23:45 or 00-14-22-01-23-45).

Knowing how to find and change your MAC address can be useful for several reasons:

  • Troubleshooting network connectivity issues
  • Increasing privacy and security on public WiFi networks
  • Getting around restrictions that are based on MAC address

In this guide, you’ll learn multiple methods to view the MAC address on a Mac, as well as how to temporarily change or “spoof” it using Terminal.

Finding the MAC Address on a Mac

There are a few different ways to find the MAC address on a Mac computer. Here are the most common methods:

1. System Preferences

  1. Click the Apple menu and select “System Preferences”
  2. Click “Network”
  3. Select your active network connection (Wi-Fi, Ethernet, etc.)
  4. Click the “Advanced” button
  5. Under the “Hardware” tab, you’ll see the MAC address listed

2. Network Utility

  1. Open Finder and go to Applications > Utilities
  2. Launch the “Network Utility” app
  3. Click the Info tab
  4. Select your active network connection on the left sidebar
  5. The MAC address will be shown on the right side

3. Terminal

  1. Open Terminal (usually found in Applications > Utilities)
  2. Type ifconfig en0 (for Wi-Fi) or ifconfig en1 (for Ethernet)
  3. The MAC address will be shown next to “ether”

Once you know the current MAC address, you can proceed to changing it if desired.

Temporarily Changing the MAC Address on a Mac

To temporarily spoof or randomize the MAC address on a Mac, you’ll need to use Terminal. Here are step-by-step instructions:

  1. Open Terminal
  2. Type ifconfig en0 down to disable your current network adapter (use en1 for Ethernet)
  3. Generate a random MAC address by typing:
   openssl rand -hex 6 | sed 's/\(..\)/\1:/g; s/.$//'
  1. Type sudo ifconfig en0 ether XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX using the random MAC you generated
  2. Type ifconfig en0 up to re-enable your network adapter
  3. Type ifconfig en0 to verify that the new MAC address has been assigned

Note: This change will only persist until you reboot your Mac. The MAC address gets reset to the original hardware address after restarting.

There are also third-party apps like WiFiSpoof that make spoofing your MAC address on a Mac very simple. They provide additional features like the ability to automate and randomize your MAC address changes.

Conclusion

Finding your computer’s MAC address is easy on a Mac – just use System Preferences, Network Utility, or Terminal. You can also temporarily spoof or change your MAC address using Terminal commands. This can help increase privacy, get around network restrictions, or troubleshoot connectivity issues.

Be careful when changing the MAC address, as an invalid address can prevent you from connecting to networks entirely. But overall, it’s a useful thing to know how to do on a Mac!

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