All iOS 14 devices are listed as new devices now in my router since updating

[chris4565]

Hi everyone,

So here's something strange: Since upgrading to iOS 14 all of my iPhone, as well as the iPhones of my mom and dad show up as separate devices in my router while all of the "old" devices are unused according to my router.

Kind of strange, any reason for this? Anyone else also experiencing this?

EDIT: Just checked the MAC addresses. They are all different from the "old" devices.

 

[DoctorApple]

Yes, if you go to settings - WiFi, private address is enabled by default.

 

[chris4565]

Yes, if you go to settings - WiFi, private address is enabled by default.

Oh okay, thanks. Can anyone share some insights on how this works exactly? Do I now keep this new address or does this change again and again?

EDIT: I did some brief testing. I have the 2.4 and 5 GHz networks separated. iOS sets a new address for each of these. Simply re-connecting to a network doesn't generate a new address. So for every device, I now have 3 MAC addresses: The "old" one, the new 2.4 GHz one and the new 5 GHz one. I now turned off this feature and now I'm back to the old address and can delete the additional devices from my router. I really would wish that this is an opt-in feature rather than opt-out because it can really mess with network configurations.