Change MAC address macOS 12 Monterey

change-mac-address-sequoia.md

Change MAC address in macOS Sequoia

I was unable to change the MAC address of the Wi-FI device on a MacBook Air (M1 2020) running macOS Sequoia due to the following error: ifconfig: ioctl (SIOCAIFADDR): Can't assign requested addres.

By running the commands in following sequence I was able to change it successfully:

1. Turn WiFi device off
2. Turn the WiFi device on again: networksetup -setairportpower en0 on
3. Change the MAC: ifconfig en0 ether <mac-address-here>
4. Run: networksetup -detectnewhardware

On Sequoia 15.4.1 I get "ifconfig: ioctl (SIOCAIFADDR): Can't assign requested address" if I try to change the MAC address while the Wi-Fi is off. But it works fine immediately after Wi-Fi has been enabled, before it has connected to an AP.

I.e. this works on my machine:

networksetup -setairportpower en0 off ; networksetup -setairportpower en0 on ; sudo ifconfig en0 ether XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX

(I stumbled on this Gist when from a Google search. Maybe this will help future Googlers - or even myself the next time I need to spoof a MAC address.)

@johan13 Thank you. That works for Wi-Fi, but not for Ethernet unfortunately. Still better than nothing though.