The full meaning of MAC is Media Access Control address. It provides the unique address code having 12 digits to a special device such as a WiFi router, network adapter etc. Before doing this I will first share a brief description about the work done here and also the necessity behind all this.The subject matters we cover today is how to change the MAC Address on Android or if you want to know “how to change the IP address on android” here i share the guide that covers both.
In detail. Changing your MAC address can be very fruitful in various ways such as improving your privacy level or bypassing the network restrictions etc. It is very important to know that changing the MAC address can breach the terms of services provided by some networks and so you need to be careful.
What is MAC on an Android Device?
The MAC (Media Access Control) address is the unique hardware number of your smartphone. Without a MAC address, your operator does give a signal or tower. It can be used to uniquely identify your Android device on the internet, web, or on the local network.
Advantages of changing the MAC address:
- In some places, you can get wifi passwords, but you can’t access the network because they have activated MAC filtering, so if you change your Mac Address to an Android address, then you can access any network.
- The most important reason to protect your privacy is that if you change the IP address on Android, before that, you must have authenticated to the network using a MAC address, so that anyone cannot easily find who you really are.
- Now, in the wireless world, companies try to track users by recording MAC addresses, so spoofing the MAC can save you from being tracked by other companies.
- if you keep the important document on your Android device. A hacker can easily find your MAC address on Android, so change it. MAC your identity on the network so you can protect your identity from changing the MAC address on Android.
Now you know more or less everything about MAC and why you should change the MAC address on Android. Here, we also share how to change the IP address on Android.
Instructions to change the Mac address:
Here we share two ways to change the MAC address on an Android device.
- Without Root access to your device.
- With Root access to your device.
So, let’s go to the instructions. First, we share how to change the MAC address without root access, and second, how to change the MAC address with root access.
Step 1 – Without Root access:
- If you want to know the MAC address of your device, then follow the steps:
Go to Setting > About Phone > Select Status
There you will see the current MAC address. Tap and hold on it to copy the MAC address and save the address to Notepad.
- Now download and install the “Android Terminal Emulator” App from the Google Play Store. The link is given below:
- Once installed, open the App. Type “ip link show“.
- Then find your interface name from the list. Then type this command in the terminal emulator to change the MAC address: “ip link set (interface name) XX:XX:XX:YY:YY:YY“. where you have to replace (interface name) with your own interface name and “XX:XX:XX:YY:YY:YY” with the random MAC address.
- After that, again go to Settings> About Phone > Select Status and check the MAC address has changed.
After changing the MAC address, it works well, but once you reboot your device, your MAC will go back to the original. This method, Without Root access, works only on devices with MediaTek processors.
You may also like: Guide To Enable Hidden Internal Menu On Facebook Messenger Apps
Step 2 – With Root access:
- Now download and install “Android Terminal Emulator” and “Busybox” App from the Google Play Store. The link is given below: (Ignore the step if already installed)
- Open Android Terminal Emulator app and paste these commands: ” su ” and hit Enter.
- You will see a root promote pop-up on the display, tap “allow”.
- Now type these commands to know your current interface name and hit enter: (backup your current network interface name)
ip link show
- Now enter this comment “busybox ip link show eth0” and hit enter. You will see the current MAC address.
- Then type this command to change the MAC address: “busybox ifconfig eth0 hw ether XX:XX:XX:YY:YY:YY“. where you have to change “XX:XX:XX:YY:YY:YY” with the random MAC address.
- That’s it, you have successfully altered the MAC address.
This is a permanent method, so if you have changed your MAC address, then it will never go back to its original state. If you want to restore the old MAC addres,s then follow the steps and input the old MAC address as the replacement of this “XX:XX:XX:YY:YY:YY”.
Also check:
