A MAC address is something that can specifically identify a device to a network, and your iPhone 5 has its own MAC address. The “MAC” part of this phrase stands for “Media Access Control.” This information may not be something that the typical iPhone user will ever need to know but, depending upon the requirements of your home or work network, may be something that you need to find.
Our tutorial below will show you where to check your iPhone 5’s MAC address in the event that you need to find that information.
How to Find a MAC Address on an iPhone 5
The steps and screenshots in this article were created with an iPhone 5, in iOS 9.3. However, these steps are identical for other iPhones, such as the iPhone 4 or iPhone 6, that are also using iOS 9. Earlier versions of iOS can also follow these same steps to locate their MAC address, although the screens may look slightly different.
Step 1: Open the Settings menu.
Step 2: Scroll down to select and open the General menu.
Step 3: Tap the About button at the top of the screen.
Step 4: Scroll down to locate the Wi-Fi Address line in the table. The number to the right of that is the MAC address for your iPhone 5. It should be in the format XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX.
If you ever need to find any other important information about your iPhone, that information is probably on this screen somewhere. For example, there is a Name listing at the very top of the screen. This is how your iPhone is identified to other devices, and on networks. You can change this name to whatever you want, which can be especially helpful if you are on a Wi-Fi network that already has some devices that share your device name.
Gary Thompson has been in IT consulting since the mid 2000s, and enjoys writing about mobile devices and computers. His primary topics of interest include iPhones and Windows, but he has written about many other devices and applications.