The MAC (Media Access Control) address of your Mac helps other peripherals on your network to uniquely identify various components on your machine. Each of the physical parts of your Mac has a MAC address that is unique and is used by external resources for connections. If you are required to enter this address somewhere or if you are just curious to know what this address is for your machine, here’s how you can find out. Below are three easy ways to find out your MAC address, although all of these will return the same address. So you can go ahead with whatever way you find easier.
1. Using Network Preferences
This may be the preferred way for those of our readers who don’t want to go through the hassle of issuing commands and doing geeky stuff. Here’s how to use this way.
Click on the Apple logo in the top-left corner on your screen followed by “System Preferences …” It will then let you access the network preferences panel where you can get your task done.
Click on “Network” on the screen that follows, and you should land on the Network Preferences panel.
On the left-hand side, click on your network connection, your WiFi connection for example, and then click the button that says “Advanced …” in the bottom right corner.
There are various tabs on the screen that follows. Click on the one that says “Hardware”. It is for finding out the hardware MAC address.
And there you are. You should be able to see your MAC address on this screen. It is usually in the format of “ab:bc:cd:de:ef:fg”.
If you are having issues using the above way, or if you just want to use another method, here is an other.
2. Using System Information
This takes the help of the System Information utility that holds information of all of your Mac’s physical components.
Click on Launchpad in your dock and search for and click on “System Information.” It will open the utility that will tell you your MAC address.
On the screen that follows, click on “Network” in the left-panel.
Click on your network adapter, the WiFi one for example, and it should expand the information panel.
In the expanded information area, look for the header that says “Ethernet” and beneath it you will find your MAC address.
If you want to do this task in a more geeky way, we’d suggest you try the following method.
3. Using Terminal
The Terminal app does let you know your MAC address using a simple command. Here’s how it accomplishes that.
Click on Launchpad in your dock and search for and click on “Terminal.” It will launch the Terminal app on your machine.
Type in the following command and press Enter.
networksetup -getmacaddress Wi-Fi
You should be able to see your MAC address in the Terminal window.
And that’s all there is to finding out the MAC address on your Mac.
Conclusion
A MAC address helps you when you are about to do some geeky stuff, for example sending a magic packet to your machine, and the above methods should help you find it on your machine. Don’t forget to let us know which method you went for!
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Mahesh Makvana
Mahesh Makvana is a freelance tech writer who’s written thousands of posts about various tech topics on various sites. He specializes in writing about Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android tech posts. He’s been into the field for last eight years and hasn’t spent a single day without tinkering around his devices.
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