[java] Programmatically getting the MAC of an Android device

I need to obtain the MAC address of my android device using Java. I've searched online, but I haven't found anything useful.

This question is related to java android mac-address

The answer is


public static String getMacAddr() {
    try {
        List<NetworkInterface> all = Collections.list(NetworkInterface.getNetworkInterfaces());
        for (NetworkInterface nif : all) {
            if (!nif.getName().equalsIgnoreCase("wlan0")) continue;

            byte[] macBytes = nif.getHardwareAddress();
            if (macBytes == null) {
                return "";
            }

            StringBuilder res1 = new StringBuilder();
            for (byte b : macBytes) {
                res1.append(String.format("%02X:",b));
            }

            if (res1.length() > 0) {
                res1.deleteCharAt(res1.length() - 1);
            }
            return res1.toString();
        }
    } catch (Exception ex) {
    }
    return "02:00:00:00:00:00";
}

Taken from the Android sources here. This is the actual code that shows your MAC ADDRESS in the system's settings app.

private void refreshWifiInfo() {
    WifiInfo wifiInfo = mWifiManager.getConnectionInfo();

    Preference wifiMacAddressPref = findPreference(KEY_MAC_ADDRESS);
    String macAddress = wifiInfo == null ? null : wifiInfo.getMacAddress();
    wifiMacAddressPref.setSummary(!TextUtils.isEmpty(macAddress) ? macAddress
            : getActivity().getString(R.string.status_unavailable));

    Preference wifiIpAddressPref = findPreference(KEY_CURRENT_IP_ADDRESS);
    String ipAddress = Utils.getWifiIpAddresses(getActivity());
    wifiIpAddressPref.setSummary(ipAddress == null ?
            getActivity().getString(R.string.status_unavailable) : ipAddress);
}

Using this simple method

WifiManager wm = (WifiManager) getApplicationContext().getSystemService(Context.WIFI_SERVICE);
            String WLANMAC = wm.getConnectionInfo().getMacAddress();

You can no longer get the hardware MAC address of a android device. WifiInfo.getMacAddress() and BluetoothAdapter.getAddress() methods will return 02:00:00:00:00:00. This restriction was introduced in Android 6.0.

But Rob Anderson found a solution which is working for < Marshmallow : https://stackoverflow.com/a/35830358


I know this is a very old question but there is one more method to do this. Below code compiles but I haven't tried it. You can write some C code and use JNI (Java Native Interface) to get MAC address. Here is the example main activity code:

package com.example.getmymac;

import android.os.Bundle;
import android.util.Log;
import android.widget.TextView;

import androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity;

public class GetMyMacActivity extends AppCompatActivity {
    static { // here we are importing native library.
        // name of the library is libnet-utils.so, in cmake and java code
        // we just use name "net-utils".
        System.loadLibrary("net-utils");
    }

    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.main_screen);

        // some debug text and a TextView.
        Log.d(NetUtilsActivity.class.getSimpleName(), "Starting app...");
        TextView text = findViewById(R.id.sample_text);

        // the get_mac_addr native function, implemented in C code.
        byte[] macArr = get_mac_addr(null);
        // since it is a byte array, we format it and convert to string.
        String val = String.format("%02x:%02x:%02x:%02x:%02x:%02x",
                macArr[0], macArr[1], macArr[2],
                macArr[3], macArr[4], macArr[5]);
        // print it to log and TextView.
        Log.d(NetUtilsActivity.class.getSimpleName(), val);
        text.setText(val);
    }

    // here is the prototype of the native function.
    // use native keyword to indicate it is a native function,
    // implemented in C code.
    private native byte[] get_mac_addr(String interface_name);
}

And the layout file, main_screen.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent">

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/sample_text"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="@string/app_name"
        app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"/>

</androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>

Manifest file, I didn't know what permissions to add so I added some.

<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    package="com.example.getmymac">

    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION"/>
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET"/>

    <application
        android:allowBackup="true"
        android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher"
        android:label="@string/app_name"
        android:roundIcon="@mipmap/ic_launcher_round"
        android:supportsRtl="true"
        android:theme="@style/AppTheme">

        <activity android:name=".GetMyMacActivity">
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN"/>
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER"/>
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>
    </application>
</manifest>

C implementation of get_mac_addr function.

/* length of array that MAC address is stored. */
#define MAC_ARR_LEN 6

#define BUF_SIZE 256

#include <jni.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <netinet/in.h>
#include <arpa/inet.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <net/if.h>
#include <sys/ioctl.h>
#include <unistd.h>

#define ERROR_IOCTL 1
#define ERROR_SOCKT 2

static jboolean
cstr_eq_jstr(JNIEnv *env, const char *cstr, jstring jstr) {
    /* see [this](https://stackoverflow.com/a/38204842) */

    jstring cstr_as_jstr = (*env)->NewStringUTF(env, cstr);
    jclass cls = (*env)->GetObjectClass(env, jstr);
    jmethodID method_id = (*env)->GetMethodID(env, cls, "equals", "(Ljava/lang/Object;)Z");
    jboolean equal = (*env)->CallBooleanMethod(env, jstr, method_id, cstr_as_jstr);
    return equal;
}

static void
get_mac_by_ifname(jchar *ifname, JNIEnv *env, jbyteArray arr, int *error) {
    /* see [this](https://stackoverflow.com/a/1779758) */

    struct ifreq ir;
    struct ifconf ic;
    char buf[BUF_SIZE];
    int ret = 0, sock = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_DGRAM, IPPROTO_IP);

    if (sock == -1) {
        *error = ERROR_SOCKT;
        return;
    }

    ic.ifc_len = BUF_SIZE;
    ic.ifc_buf = buf;

    ret = ioctl(sock, SIOCGIFCONF, &ic);
    if (ret) {
        *error = ERROR_IOCTL;
        goto err_cleanup;
    }

    struct ifreq *it = ic.ifc_req; /* iterator */
    struct ifreq *end = it + (ic.ifc_len / sizeof(struct ifreq));

    int found = 0; /* found interface named `ifname' */

    /* while we find an interface named `ifname' or arrive end */
    while (it < end && found == 0) {
        strcpy(ir.ifr_name, it->ifr_name);
        ret = ioctl(sock, SIOCGIFFLAGS, &ir);
        if (ret == 0) {
            if (!(ir.ifr_flags & IFF_LOOPBACK)) {
                ret = ioctl(sock, SIOCGIFHWADDR, &ir);
                if (ret) {
                    *error = ERROR_IOCTL;
                    goto err_cleanup;
                }

                if (ifname != NULL) {
                    if (cstr_eq_jstr(env, ir.ifr_name, ifname)) {
                        found = 1;
                    }
                }
            }
        } else {
            *error = ERROR_IOCTL;
            goto err_cleanup;
        }
        ++it;
    }

    /* copy the MAC address to byte array */
    (*env)->SetByteArrayRegion(env, arr, 0, 6, ir.ifr_hwaddr.sa_data);
    /* cleanup, close the socket connection */
    err_cleanup: close(sock);
}

JNIEXPORT jbyteArray JNICALL
Java_com_example_getmymac_GetMyMacActivity_get_1mac_1addr(JNIEnv *env, jobject thiz,
                                                          jstring interface_name) {
    /* first, allocate space for the MAC address. */
    jbyteArray mac_addr = (*env)->NewByteArray(env, MAC_ARR_LEN);
    int error = 0;

    /* then just call `get_mac_by_ifname' function */
    get_mac_by_ifname(interface_name, env, mac_addr, &error);

    return mac_addr;
}

And finally, CMakeLists.txt file

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.4.1)
add_library(net-utils SHARED src/main/cpp/net-utils.c)
target_link_libraries(net-utils android log)

As was already pointed out in the comment, the MAC address can be received via the WifiManager.

WifiManager manager = (WifiManager) getSystemService(Context.WIFI_SERVICE);
WifiInfo info = manager.getConnectionInfo();
String address = info.getMacAddress();

Also do not forget to add the appropriate permissions into your AndroidManifest.xml

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_WIFI_STATE"/>

Please refer to Android 6.0 Changes.

To provide users with greater data protection, starting in this release, Android removes programmatic access to the device’s local hardware identifier for apps using the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth APIs. The WifiInfo.getMacAddress() and the BluetoothAdapter.getAddress() methods now return a constant value of 02:00:00:00:00:00.

To access the hardware identifiers of nearby external devices via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi scans, your app must now have the ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION or ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION permissions.


This ip link | grep -A1 wlan0 command works on Android 9 from How to determine wifi hardware address in Termux


I think I just found a way to read MAC addresses without LOCATION permission: Run ip link and parse its output. (you could probably do the similar by looking at this binary's source code)


Its Working with Marshmallow

package com.keshav.fetchmacaddress;

import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.util.Log;

import java.net.InetAddress;
import java.net.NetworkInterface;
import java.net.SocketException;
import java.net.UnknownHostException;
import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.List;

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

        Log.e("keshav","getMacAddr -> " +getMacAddr());
    }

    public static String getMacAddr() {
        try {
            List<NetworkInterface> all = Collections.list(NetworkInterface.getNetworkInterfaces());
            for (NetworkInterface nif : all) {
                if (!nif.getName().equalsIgnoreCase("wlan0")) continue;

                byte[] macBytes = nif.getHardwareAddress();
                if (macBytes == null) {
                    return "";
                }

                StringBuilder res1 = new StringBuilder();
                for (byte b : macBytes) {
                    res1.append(Integer.toHexString(b & 0xFF) + ":");
                }

                if (res1.length() > 0) {
                    res1.deleteCharAt(res1.length() - 1);
                }
                return res1.toString();
            }
        } catch (Exception ex) {
            //handle exception
        }
        return "";
    }
}

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_WIFI_STATE" />

public String getMacAddress(Context context) {
    WifiManager wimanager = (WifiManager) context.getSystemService(Context.WIFI_SERVICE);
    String macAddress = wimanager.getConnectionInfo().getMacAddress();
    if (macAddress == null) {
        macAddress = "Device don't have mac address or wi-fi is disabled";
    }
    return macAddress;
}

have others way here


I founded this solution from http://robinhenniges.com/en/android6-get-mac-address-programmatically and it's working for me! Hope helps!

public static String getMacAddr() {
    try {
        List<NetworkInterface> all = Collections.list(NetworkInterface.getNetworkInterfaces());
        for (NetworkInterface nif : all) {
            if (!nif.getName().equalsIgnoreCase("wlan0")) continue;

            byte[] macBytes = nif.getHardwareAddress();
            if (macBytes == null) {
                return "";
            }

            StringBuilder res1 = new StringBuilder();
            for (byte b : macBytes) {
                String hex = Integer.toHexString(b & 0xFF);
                if (hex.length() == 1)
                    hex = "0".concat(hex);
                res1.append(hex.concat(":"));
            }

            if (res1.length() > 0) {
                res1.deleteCharAt(res1.length() - 1);
            }
            return res1.toString();
        }
    } catch (Exception ex) {
    }
    return "";
}

You can get mac address:

WifiManager wifiManager = (WifiManager) getSystemService(Context.WIFI_SERVICE);
WifiInfo wInfo = wifiManager.getConnectionInfo();
String mac = wInfo.getMacAddress();

Set Permission in Menifest.xml

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_WIFI_STATE"></uses-permission>

Getting the MAC address through WifiInfo.getMacAddress() won't work on Marshmallow and above, it has been disabled and will return the constant value of 02:00:00:00:00:00.


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