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I was looking at my Ubiquiti UniFi controller webpage and noticed that my iPad Pro 10.5 was seen as a new device. I went to the Insights tab and saw that it has two entries, with two different MAC addresses.

Why has the MAC address changed? Does this sort of thing happen usually and I have only noticed it this time because of the UniFi controller webpage?

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  • I’ll have to look on mine - interesting if this is systematic.
    – bmike ♦
    Commented Sep 18, 2020 at 15:47
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    @bmike It looks like it's a new setting for Private MAC address support.apple.com/en-gb/HT211227
    – paradroid
    Commented Sep 18, 2020 at 15:49
  • Very nice! Another bonus for resetting network settings to clear cruft...
    – bmike ♦
    Commented Sep 18, 2020 at 15:52
  • Hmm… if this is on by default, that's at least a heads up that I'll either have to go through my router settings & re-do the fixed address allocations, or switch it off at home… trying to decide which might be best.
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Sep 18, 2020 at 16:01
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    @Tetsujin Switching it off at home seems reasonable, you probably don't have a reason to hide the MAC address of your own device from yourself :-)
    – nohillside ♦
    Commented Sep 18, 2020 at 16:21

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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Shortly after posting the question, I found out that there is a new feature in iOS/iPadOS/WatchOS that changes the MAC address to an individual private one for every wifi network. I think I will be turning it off for my own wifi networks.

It seems to be turned on by default.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT211227

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