You must have been to many places with your Mac devices, such as coffee shops, offices, stations, and more— and there’s a possibility that the device has many private and public networks connected to it. Mac OS will remember all the networks connected to it for future accessibility. Automatically connecting to a network seems convenient until you’re having trouble connecting to a new network that you want to. Therefore, you need to remove that Wi-Fi network from Mac to solve the issue.
You can remove the Wi-Fi network from Mac from the Network Preferences menu bar. In the Advanced Settings, you’ll find remembered Wi-Fi networks. From the list of multiple networks, you can select and remove one you want. Wireless networks can also be prioritized accordingly over the other networks.
Mac has this great feature of remembering passwords for wireless networks so that you don’t need to connect every time that networks are in range manually. But things can be complicated when connecting to a new network, especially when connected to one already.
In this guide, you’ll be able to learn how to remove a Wi-Fi network from a Mac and prioritize any specific connection over others. Let’s get started.
Why Do You Need to Remove Wi-Fi Networks from Mac
Mac can remember all the Wi-Fi networks you’re connected to even once in a lifetime. The problem arises when multiple remembered networks come in range. Mac will automatically connect to one, but what if you want to connect to another? — That’s where you need to remove the Wi-Fi network from Mac. Here’re a few other reasons why you need to forget wireless networks from Mac:
- You might have multiple remembered connections in range, and if you want to connect to a specific one— you’ll need to forget or remove the other one.,
- The password to your last remembered network might be changed, and Mac is not showing the password prompt— remove the network and add again.
- Removing old networks will help you, Mac, easily troubleshoot the network problems.
- You simply want to clean the network list of your Mac— thus, forgetting old networks will help you do that.
How to Remove Wireless Networks from Mac?
Now that you’re well aware of why you need to remove Wi-Fi networks from Mac— it’s time to learn how? You can easily remove/forget the wireless networks from the network preferences. Here’s a step-by-step guide to do it.
Step #1: Open Network Preferences
You’ll be seeing a top menu bar on your Mac having different options. Click on the “Wi-Fi” button and tap the “Open Network Preferences” from the drop-down menu.
The network Preferences menu will open a pop-up where you can see all the wireless networks your Mac has been connected to in the past— even once in a lifetime. You can also see the current status of your Mac – either connected or not connected.
Step #2: Open Advanced Menu
Once you click on the “Network Preferences” menu, a pop-up will appear. Click on the “Advanced” button from the bottom right of the pop-up menu.
Step #3: Select the Wi-Fi Network
Once you click on the “Advanced” button, a pop-up will open with all the networks. Tap on the Wi-Fi network you wish to remove from the list.
You can even remove multiple networks from the Network Preferences menu. Tap to select any network. Then, press the Command Key and select the other networks you wish to remove.
Step #4: Tap Minus Sign to Remove
Once you’re done selecting all the networks, you can remove them by pressing the “—” sign from the pop-up menu.
Once you click on the minus sign, a prompt will appear on the screen stating, “Remove Wi-Fi Network XXX?”. Click on the “Remove” button, and your Mac will forget the credentials for that network.
The Wi-Fi network(s) will be removed from your Mac by following these easy steps. Once done, click on “OK” from the Network pop-up, and you’re done.
Step #5: Click Apply
The Wi-Fi network will be removed from the Mac. To confirm the changes, tap the “Apply” button in the next step. You can check whether the Wi-Fi device is removed or not by clicking the Wi-Fi button from the menu (where we first clicked at the start).
Conclusion
If you have multiple connections in any area— say Home and Office— it’s better to remove one from the Mac rather than see which network is connected. We hope you’re now fully acquainted with the guide about removing a Wi-Fi network from Mac if you’re having trouble connecting to a wireless network with a changed password or tidying up the network list.
