Each of your Nest products has its own MAC address: a unique combination of letters and numbers a device uses to identify itself on a Wi-Fi network. You can think of a MAC address as being like your car’s Vehicle Identification Number (also known as the VIN).
If you think of a MAC address as a car’s VIN, then MAC filtering is like a police checkpoint. MAC filtering is used as a security measure to prevent any unknown devices from joining the network. Many businesses use MAC filtering on their networks, but some home networks do as well.
If you’re having trouble getting your Nest product to connect to your network, you may need to add its MAC address to your router’s whitelist.
How to connect to a network with MAC address filtering
All Nest products can connect to networks that have MAC address filtering enabled, but the MAC address must be added to the network’s whitelist.
- If you're connecting to a business network, but you’re having trouble, your IT administrator may have enabled MAC filtering. You’ll need to know the MAC address for your Nest product so the IT administrator can unblock it. This is also known as adding it to the whitelist.
- If you're connecting to a home network, you can find and edit the whitelist in your router’s settings. Since Wi-Fi router software varies so widely, check your router’s documentation to see how to add new devices to the whitelist. Once you’ve added your Nest product’s MAC address to the whitelist, you should be able to finish setup.
Important: Only change router or network settings if you are authorized to do so. Be aware of how these changes will affect your network. Always back up your router’s settings before changing anything.
How to find your Nest Product's MAC address
Nest thermostat
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You can find your Nest thermostat’s MAC address on the thermostat itself.
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and press the ring to select.
Nest Cam Indoor and Outdoor
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| Nest Cam Indoor | Nest Cam Outdoor |
Nest Detect and Nest x Yale Lock
Google Nest Detect and Google Nest × Yale won't have MAC addresses as they don't connect to Wi-Fi in the traditional sense. They use a Thread network in order to communicate with other Nest devices.
Nest Cam IQ Indoor, IQ Outdoor, Nest Protect, Nest Guard, Nest Hello, and Nest Connect
How to find the MAC address with the Nest app
You can see the MAC address for all your Nest products in the Nest app as long as they’re connected to Wi-Fi and appear in the Nest app. If you've connected the Nest product to a guest network, follow the steps here for updating your product's Wi-Fi name and password to connect to your main network.
- Tap Settings
in the top right corner of the Nest app home screen.
- Select the product that you want to view.
- Tap Technical info. You’ll see the MAC address next to MAC or Wi-Fi MAC.
Note: Don’t use the serial number next to 802.15.4 MAC. That’s the address Nest products use to communicate directly with one another over a low-power wireless connection.
Troubleshooting connecting to Wi-Fi networks that only allow whitelisted devices
If your Wi-Fi network has MAC address filtering enabled and only allows whitelisted devices, you’ll need to add each of your Nest products MAC address to the whitelist. You can simply look it up on the product itself. However, some products don’t have the MAC address printed on the product itself. The only way to see the MAC address is to connect it to Wi-Fi and look it up in the Nest app. You have two choices:
- Temporarily disable MAC address filtering on your Wi-Fi network so you can add your Nest Product to the app. See your router’s manual for instructions on how to do this.
- Temporarily set up your Nest product on a different Wi-Fi network, such as a guest network, without MAC address filtering. See your router’s manual for instructions on how to do this.
- Once you’ve disabled MAC address filtering or created a guest network, start setup with the Nest app and connect your Nest product to Wi-Fi.
- Find the MAC address in the Nest app
- Add the MAC address to your router’s whitelist. If you’ve connected the Nest product to a guest network, follow the steps here for updating your product’s Wi-Fi name and password to connect to your main network
- Re-enable MAC address filtering or remove the temporary guest network if needed.