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Is there a way to stop sharing wi-fi among apple devices?

I have a Mac at home along with an iPad and iPhone which all share the same keychain. I am not willing to setup separate Apple ID's or stop sharing keychains -- this is very useful and saves me time.


However, for some reason the Apple devices share wifi connection settings with NO WAY to disable it.


This is hugely annoying as I don't need wifi on my mac since it wired to the internet. I have my wifi devices on a different subnet for security reasons. As soon as I forget that wifi network on my mac, it forgets it on my apple devices, and I can no longer access the internet on them. I re-enable the on the wifi devices and then it re-enables it on my mac, putting me on the same insecure subnet.


Even if I wasn't using a different subnet, it's still an issue because I don't want my mac to access the local network via wifi when I have a 10 gbe wired ethernet connection.


Apple needs to add an option to NOT share wifi connections in settings, it isn't a hard thing to do.

Mac mini (M2 Pro, 2023)

Posted on Aug 12, 2023 8:29 AM

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Posted on Aug 12, 2023 10:31 AM

No, I don't think you stop Wi-Fi credentials from being shared via keychain. If you don't want your Mac mini to connect to available Wi-Fi then turn Wi_Fi off altogether. Alternatively you could see if you're able to turn off the option to automatically join said network, though that again may propagate via keychain. See Change Wi-Fi settings on Mac - Apple Support.


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tt2

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Aug 12, 2023 10:31 AM in response to JenniferG71

No, I don't think you stop Wi-Fi credentials from being shared via keychain. If you don't want your Mac mini to connect to available Wi-Fi then turn Wi_Fi off altogether. Alternatively you could see if you're able to turn off the option to automatically join said network, though that again may propagate via keychain. See Change Wi-Fi settings on Mac - Apple Support.


Share your thoughts via Feedback - macOS - Apple.


tt2

Aug 12, 2023 10:36 AM in response to turingtest2

Thanks. I'm trying that right now. I set it up on my mac to NOT auto join. I even rebooted and it didn't auto-rejoin. I checked my phone and it says "auto join". I'll try restarting the phone as well to see what happens.


I have to keep Wi-fi on -- but with no wifi networks joined -- b/c the Apple devices use its own propriety network protocol vi wifi to communicate between mac and phone, e.g. for air drop. I air drop photos etc to my mac , I even copy and paste between my mac and iphone :) Air drop works when the mac isn't connected to any networks at all.

Aug 12, 2023 6:07 PM in response to JenniferG71

Create a different Location for your Mac, and in that location you can delete the WiFi interface.


Monterey or older

System Preferences -> Network -> Location -> Edit Locations -> [+]


Ventura and newer

System Settings -> Network -> ...v (button lower right side) -> Locations -> Edit Locations -> [+]


Once you have a new Location, you can set your location via the Apple menu bar icon -> Location

You can then edit System Preferences -> Network (or System Settings -> Network) for that Location and delete the WiFi interface.


System Preferences -> Network -> Select WiFi -> Click the [-] button at the bottom of the column


System Settings -> Network -> Control-Click on WiFi -> Select "Delete Service"


Once you set your Network Location that remains your Network Location across reboots. Your other devices should not be using your Mac's new unique Network Location.

Is there a way to stop sharing wi-fi among apple devices?

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