Retrieving MAC Address Programmatically - Android

Question

I'm having an issue with retrieving the MAC address of the device programatically, before anyone mentions anything about other posts I have read them already such as: How to find MAC address of an Android device programmatically

however I tried using the code with my own application and tested it with a simple log.d, only to find that it is returning nothing. The message of "seeing if this works shows" but nothing else. So i am presuming the mac address is null.

Log.d("seeing if this works", macAddress2);

The code of what I have done is shown here:

//Set onclick listener for the Get Mac Address button
        getMac.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onClick(View arg0) {
                WifiManager wifiManager = (WifiManager) getSystemService(Context.WIFI_SERVICE);
                WifiInfo wInfo = wifiManager.getConnectionInfo();
                String macAddress2 = wInfo.getMacAddress();

                macAddress.setText(macAddress2);
            }
        });

Are you connected to WiFi when you make the call? Also, what do you have in your AndroidManifest.xml? — Daniel Nugent, Apr 09 '15 at 23:42
Hey there thank you for the reply and yes I have put that in the manifest — hero8110, Apr 10 '15 at 08:22
Strange, I used your code and it worked just fine for me. You're definitely connected to Wi-Fi? — Daniel Nugent, Apr 10 '15 at 08:24
Oh really, i am running this through android studio emulator so im presuming it doesnt work on the emulator? — hero8110, Apr 10 '15 at 09:43

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 29 '15 at 18:15

Which Android version are you testing on? The latest(10/2015) Android M preview has blocked the app from getting the hardware identifiers for Wifi and Bluetooth.

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.

There is a workaround by reading the Wifi MAC from /sys/class/net/wlan0/address, which however will also be blocked in the Android N as claimed by Google.

score 3 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 24 '17 at 09:32

Try this:

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) {
    }
    return "02:00:00:00:00:00";
}

From here: http://robinhenniges.com/en/android6-get-mac-address-programmatically

Works for me.

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 09 '15 at 23:49

0

Do you have this in the manifest?

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

answered Apr 09 '15 at 23:49

rrgirish

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Thank you for the reply, i have put that into my manifest file – hero8110 Apr 10 '15 at 09:44

Retrieving MAC Address Programmatically - Android

3 Answers3