How to change the MAC address on almost any device

Your MAC address is important information. It’s a hardware identifier that helps networks identify your computer or phone for other devices on the network. You can change the MAC address, but it’s not very intuitive. Usually, the only thing that can see your MAC address is your home router, so it’s not really necessary to change your MAC unless you connect to many public networks. It’s also a much more valuable tool to use on a smartphone than a computer. In any case, we’ll show you how to change your MAC address on most modern devices, so you can stay private.

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How to change the MAC address on Windows

Windows has a few different methods to change the MAC address. A couple of them overlap as well. Below, we’ll review three different methods for changing your MAC address. The first one only works in Windows 10 and 11. The second one seems to only work with some hardware on some versions of Windows. Finally, we’ll cap it off with the third method that should work on all Windows PCs, but it’s the hardest one to do.

Some third-party apps can do this as well. We recommend checking out Technitium. It’s a solid choice that is also free to use. The UI is a bit weird, but you’ll get used to it pretty quickly.

How to change MAC address on Windows 11

• Hit the Windows Key on your keyboard and type Settings in the search. Open the Settings app when it pops up.
• Head to the Network & Internet section.
• Tap on either Ethernet if you’re hardwired into your router or Wi-Fi if you’re connected wirelessly. If you did Ethernet, skip the next step and proceed from there.
• If you clicked Wi-Fi, click your SSID on the next screen.
• From here, look for the Random hardware addresses selection. It’s off by default, but you can set it to On or Change Daily.
• Setting it to On will randomize your MAC address to any device that can see it.
• Setting it to Change Daily will randomize your MAC address every 24 hours.

That’s the process for Windows 11. You can’t change the MAC manually with this method, but it still obfuscates the MAC address from whatever network you’re on.

How to change MAC address on older versions of Windows

• Hit the Windows Key and type Control Panel in the search. Open Control Panel once it shows up in the search.
• Use the search bar in the top right corner to search for Network Connections. Click the View network connections link.
• On the next screen, find the network adapter you’re currently using. If it has a red X under the icon, that’s not the one you’re using. Double-click on your active network adapter.
• Tap the Properties button toward the bottom of the window. On the next screen, find and click the Configure button. Finally, on the next screen, click the Advanced tab.
• Next, under Property, click on the Network Address item.
• Enter your new MAC address. Windows will add the punctuation for you, so if you want it to be A1:B2:C3:D4:E5:F6, you’ll type it as A1B2C3D4E5F6. Remember, MAC addresses have to be 12 characters long. Hit OK when you’re done.
• Reboot your computer.
• Finally, let’s check and make sure it worked okay. Hit the Windows Key and search for CMD. Open the Command Prompt when it shows up in the search.
• Type IPCONFIG/ALL and hit enter. Look for your network adapter and then find the Physical Address. It should be the same as the one you defined in the previous steps.
• Note — There is another method that takes you through the Device Manager where you find your network adapter and go to the properties directly. However, it ends up taking you the same window either way and the Control Panel method is a bit easier.

How to change MAC address in Windows with the registry editor

• Hit the Windows Key, search for CMD, and open a Command Prompt.
• Type IPCONFIG/ALL and hit enter.
• Write down the MAC address of the adapter you wish to change. You will need this information later. We recommend writing it down in a Notepad file or just leaving the Command Prompt window open for the rest of this tutorial.
• Next, hit the Windows Key again, search for Regedit, and open Registry Editor app when it pops up. It’ll ask for admin permission. Grant it to continue and prepare for some digging.
• Open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, then SYSTEM, CurrentControlSet, Control, Class. Once done you’ll have a massive list of seemingly random values.
• You’re going to want to find {4d36e972-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}. It’s there, just take your time.
• Once there, you should see a group of numbered folders starting at 0000. Each individual folder is one of your network interfaces. Click on each one and check out the DriverDesc to find the network adapter you wish to change.
• Right-click on the numbered folder and select New, then String Value. Your new string value will show up in the window. Rename to NetworkAddress.
• Double-click the new string value (or right-click and click Modify). In the empty box, input your new MAC address. Again, Windows will add the punctuation for you, so if you want it to be A1:B2:C3:D4:E5:F6, you’ll type it as A1B2C3D4E5F6. Remember, MAC addresses have to be 12 characters long. Hit OK when you’re done.
• From here, reboot your computer. Once rebooted, return to the Command Prompt and run another IPCONFIG/ALL. Your chosen network adapter should have a new MAC address.
• Note — You can return to the registry and delete the NetworkAddress string you created to revert the changes. The system will warn you about deleting registry entries. However, you made this one, so you can delete it without causing issues. Just make sure it’s the one you made.

How to change the MAC address on Android

Android is a bit more finicky than other platforms because Google doesn’t let you mess around with a lot of stuff without root access. Luckily, Android devices will randomize the MAC address on their own. Google began doing that starting with Android 10, so you don’t really need to change anything. It’ll simply change on its own.

Since that kind of completes the mission of making your device hard to identify on public networks, you don’t actually need to do anything with your Android phone. It already does it for you.

However, for folks running Android 9.0 and under, your MAC address isn’t randomized. The good news is that you can still randomize it. However, the bad news is that you need root to do it. Here’s the method, but we are not responsible for any damages you incur while doing it.

• The first step is to root your phone. Each phone has a different method for this, so Google Search for your phone model, follow the instructions carefully and come back here once you’re done.
• You’ll also need to install Busybox. We recommend BusyBox for Android (Google Play) or BusyBox (Google Play).
• After that, you’ll need Change My MAC (Google Play).
• Once installed, open the app and give it superuser permissions.
• From there, follow the instructions in the app. You’ll be able to assign your own custom MAC address or randomize it.
• To revert — All you have to do is turn your Wi-Fi off and back on again. It’ll revert to its default MAC address or a different random one if you’re on Android 10 or higher.

We wish there were an easier way for folks to do this on earlier versions of Android. If we spot a method that actually works in our tests, we’ll update this article and put it here. Luckily, Google removed the need for this on newer versions of Android, but those on older versions have a lot of work ahead of them here.

How to change the MAC address on macOS

There are a few different ways to change your MAC address on macOS that vary in difficulty. We’ll give you a few different methods so you can choose the one you want.

Change macOS MAC address with Terminal

• First, click the Apple logo in the top left corner and tap System Preferences. Find and click on Network. In the next window, toward the bottom, click the Advanced button.
• On this next screen, look for the Wi-Fi MAC Address part to see your current MAC address. You can either leave this window open for the rest of the tutorial or write down the MAC address in a note or on paper.
• Next, click the Apple logo in the top left and, while holding down Options (Alt), tap System Information. When the window opens, click Network in the left margin.
• On the next page, you’ll find your Wi-Fi adapter. Look under the BSD Device Name to find your network adapter’s name. Mine was en0.
• Now that we have your current MAC address and network adapter name, we have all the tools needed to make this work.
• Next, disconnect your Mac from your network but do not turn the adapter itself off. For example, if you’re on Wi-Fi, disconnect from your Wi-Fi connection, but do not turn your Wi-Fi off entirely.
• Open Launchpad and search for Terminal. Open it when you find it.
• Next, type sudo ifconfig [network adapter name] ether xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx and hit enter. In this command, replace [network adapter name] with the adapter name we found in the steps above and replace xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx with the MAC address you want. Check the screenshot above to see what I used.
• Pro tip —  Some sources have said that you may need to run this command a couple of times to get it to stick. If you hit up on the arrow keys, it’ll repopulate the command, and you can just hit enter again. Do it like five or six times. It won’t hurt anything.
• Repeat step one above to check and see if your MAC address has changed.

Change macOS MAC address with Homebrew

Homebrew is a package manager for macOS, and it includes a lot of really neat tools. One of those tools can spoof your MAC address with just one line in the Terminal, and we think it’s a much easier method than the one posted above.

Before you do this one, make sure you have Homebrew installed. Head to the official website for installation instructions and check here if you have any problems getting brew to be recognized as a real command in Terminal. Don’t worry, it’s really easy.

• Open Launchpad and type Terminal into the search. Open Terminal once you find it.
• Type brew install spoof-mac and hit enter. This will install a tool that will spoof your MAC address.
• After the install is complete, type sudo spoof-mac randomize [network adapter name] and hit enter. Replace [network adapter name] with your actual network adapter name. It’s usually en0, but you can check the tutorial above for steps to find your network adapter names.
• That’s it, your Mac now has a randomized MAC address that will keep people on public networks guessing. You may need to turn your Wi-Fi off and back on in order to see the change.
• While still in Terminal, type ifconfig and hit enter. Find and check your network adapter and check to make sure the MAC address is, in fact, different.

Not only is this the easiest solution, but you’ll also have Homebrew. Homebrew has a lot of power user tools like this that can make life a little bit easier.

Third-party apps that change your Mac’s MAC address

Like Windows, macOS has some third-party apps that make this process pretty easy. Below is a list of apps and their price tags that can get the job done.

• WiFiSpoof ($24.99) — WiFiSpoof is a solid app that works as intended. It’s a bit pricy at $24.99, but it’s also one of the few that you can get right out of the Mac App Store.
• LinkLiar (Free) — LinkLiar is a much simpler tool that still works really well, and it works with modern macOS versions. You can install it manually or through Homebrew . It’s free and open-source.

There are others, but we tested both of the above apps and found them to work to satisfaction. They also both work with macOS Monterrey on Apple silicon.

How to change the MAC address on iOS

iOS is a lot like Android in this respect. There aren’t really any methods to change your MAC address. However, Apple does spoof your MAC address for you automatically, starting with iOS 14. You can toggle it on and off, though, so we’ll show you how to do that.

• On your iPhone, open Settings. Then, tap Wi-Fi.
• Hit the small, blue “i” icon next to the network you’re connected to.
• On the next page, find the Private Address toggle.
• When Private Address is on, your MAC address is randomized. When it’s off, it turns off MAC address randomization.
• When you toggle Private Address off, you’ll get a warning that tells you that you’ll rejoin the network with a non-private MAC address. Hit the Rejoin button to continue.
• When you turn Private Address on, you’ll get a different window telling you that you’ll rejoin the network with a private address. Hit Rejoin to continue.
• Note — You can do this on a per-network basis. So, for example, you can keep it off on your home network but enable it on a coffee shop’s Wi-Fi.  We recommend leaving it on for every network because it certainly doesn’t hurt anything, but it is neat that you can turn it on and off that way.

That’s about all you can do. There are some other methods if you jailbreak, but we don’t recommend jailbreaking your phone just for this. The Private Address function does exactly what you need, which is to hide your real MAC address from public and private networks.

How to change the MAC address on Chrome OS

Yes, it is possible to change the MAC address on Chrome OS. It’s actually not too dissimilar from macOS and even includes some of the same commands. The only caveat is that your Chromebook needs to be in developer mode. Other than that, it’s actually pretty easy to do.

• Enable developer mode on your Chromebook. We have a tutorial for that here in case you don’t know how to do it.
• Warnings — Entering developer mode will essentially factory reset your Chromebook. Unfortunately, this is necessary to enable developer mode.
• Once booted, press CTRL+ALT+T to enter Crosh, a portmanteau between Chrome and Shell. It’s basically a terminal like on macOS or the Command Prompt on Windows.
• In all of the below commands, replace eth0 with wlan0 if you use a wireless connection. Basically, eth0 is ethernet, and wlan0 is WLAN or wireless LAN.
• Type sudo ifconfig eth0 down and hit enter. This will disconnect you from the Internet.
• Type sudo ifconfig eth0 hw ether xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx and hit enter. Replace the x values for the MAC address of your choice, but make sure to leave the colons in.
• Finally, type sudo ifconfig eth0 up to reconnect to the Internet.
• You should be using a different MAC address now. To revert, simply reboot your Chromebook.
• Note — You have to have admin access in order to perform this task. Folks using a Chromebook that is managed by another person won’t be able to perform the above steps.

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