Forget a Wi-Fi network or prevent your device from automatically joining it

To prevent your iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple Vision Pro from automatically rejoining a known Wi-Fi network, you can make your device forget the network and its password. Or just turn off Auto-Join for that network.

Before you begin

  • Your device can automatically join only known Wi-Fi networks. Known Wi-Fi networks are those that your device has joined before or that are installed on your device as managed networks, such as through a device-management service.

  • For some supervised devices and managed networks, you might not have the option to forget the network or turn off Auto-Join.

  • For any devices using Cloud Keychain with the same Apple Account, forgetting a Wi-Fi network on one device causes the other devices to forget the network as well.

  • Forgetting a network doesn't prevent your device from discovering the network and showing it as available for you to join.

Forget a Wi-Fi network or turn off Auto-Join

To prevent your device from automatically joining a known Wi-Fi network, either forget the network and its password, or turn off Auto-Join for the network.

iPhone, iPad, Apple Vision Pro

  1. Open Settings, then tap Wi-Fi.

  2. Tap Edit in the corner of the screen to view the networks known to your device.

  3. Tap the More Info button next to the network, then take either action:

    • Turn off Auto-Join. To remember the network and its password, but prevent your device from joining it automatically, turn off Auto-Join. After you disconnect from the network, such as by turning Wi-Fi off and on or moving out of network range, your device no longer automatically rejoins the network. You can still join the network manually each time.

    • Forget the network. To forget the network and its password, tap Forget This Network, then tap Forget to confirm. Unless you manually join the network again, your device no longer automatically joins the network.

Wi-Fi settings for a known network on iPhone.

Mac

  1. From the Apple menu , choose System Settings.

  2. Click Wi-Fi in the sidebar, then scroll down on the right and click Advanced to see the networks known to your Mac.

  3. Click the More Options button next to the network, then take either action:

    • Turn off Auto-Join. To remember the network and its password, but prevent your device from joining it automatically, turn off Auto-Join. After you disconnect from the network, such as by turning Wi-Fi off and on or moving out of network range, your device no longer automatically rejoins the network. You can still join the network manually each time.

    • Forget the network. To forget the network and its password, choose Remove From List, then click Forget to confirm. Unless you manually join the network again, your device no longer automatically joins the network.

Wi-Fi settings for a known network on Mac.

Learn more

Published Date: