This means that if you booted from external OS to edit these files you would have to guess which keys to delete although in my limited testing they do appear to be in the same order as shown in System Preferences. rw-r-r- 1 root admin 6891 Jan 15 15:42 /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/Īlso note as an aside that the data that is changed when you add/remove a preferred network is encrypted.įor example .plist was updated with wifi.ssid.77686174657665724e6574776f726b when adding and removing access point called whateverNetwork. rw-r-r- 1 root wheel 6891 Dec 27 13:35 /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/ist rw-r-r- 1 root wheel 9323 Jan 15 15:42 /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/.plist : A1398% ls -la /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/*preferences* The reason is that the files updated are these - they are owned by root and can not be modified by a non-admin user. Start by opting to Select Wi-Fi on your laptop the option for this will be located in the top-right corner of the top menu bar and will be recognized by the Wi-Fi icon. You can add a network with sudo networksetup -addpreferredwirelessnetworkatindex en0 whateverNetwork 0 WPA2 whateverPassword but if you try to delete it without sudo - for example with networksetup -removepreferredwirelessnetwork en0 whateverNetwork then it will prompt you.

If you don't unlock System Preferences you can't add or delete a Wi-Fi access point.Īs you can see you can't select a Preferred Network and the +/- is locked.

Forgot network password mac