How to spoof MAC address on android phones

MAC is the acronym for Media Access Control. Its address is a unique code made up of 12 (XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX) characters for a particular hardware like say the network adapter of your WiFi device. In simple words, a MAC address can be used to uniquely identify your Android phone on the Internet or the local network.

Changing of MAC address is called MAC address spoofing.

Generally speaking, yes,it is possible to spoof a MAC address.But it is also possible that some manufacturer has restricted the way of doing this... so,  based on your phone's brand and model,  results may vary.

You can of course change this address permanently or temporarily depending on your requirement. Usually you need a rooted phone to change the address but to change the address temporarily you can use a phone that is not rooted.

To temporarily change android MAC address without rooting the first thing you need is to know the MAC address. To find it on your tablet just touch the Menu key and go to Settings. Scroll down to About Tablet and there select Status. Just scroll down and view the address. If you are using an android phone you can do the same thing or alternatively on About Phone select Hardware Information and see the address. Another way is to select Wireless Network from Settings and there select WiFi settings and get the address from the Advanced section.

Next thing is to download a free app called the Android Terminal Emulator. Install it on your device. You need to know the name of your card to actually make the change. So open the app and type

ip link show

You will get a list of the different interfaces. On the list search for the address that matches the one that you found out earlier. Now to change it to the temporary address just type in the following commands:

ip link set AAAA address XX:XX:XX:YY:YY:YY

ip link set AAAA broadcast XX:XX:XX:YY:YY:YY.

Here AAAA is the name of the interface that you want to change and XX:XX:XX:YY:YY:YY is the new temporary address that you are assigning to the hardware. Remember that the address is made up of characters so it can be numbers or alphabets. Now to check whether the address has changed just type
ip link show AAAA

While denoting the new address it is important to keep in mind that only the last 3 sets should be changed. The first three sets should be kept same. If you change them you will face a lot of authentication issues.

As these changes are temporary whenever you reboot your device the MAC address will change back to the original address so you will have to repeat the above instructions again.

There are also some apps available on Google Playstore which supposedly help in temporarily changing the MAC address without rooting like the MAC changer app. All you have to do is follow the instructions given in the app.