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debikk Author

Level 1

9 points

Ipad Connecting to WIFI as two devices with two MAC addresses

I have 1 iPad and no other Apple devices. I use Network Watcher also. It has always showed my ipad and one 1 as well. But just very recently it is showing up with another mac address that doesn't match the one my ipad says it has. Why has this all the sudden appeared as if i have 2 ipads? 2 different mac address each with 2 different ip addresses. Worried me as I thought my ipad got hacked. I am not super techy. But can anyone explain why this happened? Does it have anything to do with OS 14 firmware? I did update to OS 14.2 but the extra ipad didn't go away. Thanks so much.

iPad, iPadOS 14

Posted on Nov 10, 2020 7:13 PM

Top-ranking reply

LotusPilot

Community+ 2024

Level 10

289,656 points

Posted on Nov 11, 2020 8:02 AM

There is a new privacy feature, included within iOS/iPadOS14, that hides your [real] physical MAC Address - and instead uses a randomly selected Private MAC Address. This feature can be enabled/disabled on your iPhone/iPad for each configured WiFi Network.

This new Privacy feature is enabled by default - but can be selectively disabled, per WiFi network, through iPad Settings.

More information about this new feature can be found here:

Use private Wi-Fi addresses in iOS 14, iPadOS 14 and watchOS 7 – Apple Support

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Ipad Connecting to WIFI as two devices with two MAC addresses

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