Separate wifi passwords for different user on Macbook

Re: “… maybe someone from Apple could chime in on this? … “

Unfortunately, “Apple” does not normally participate in this member-driven community. (Apple maintains, operates, and moderates).

Consequently, discussions here are not formally monitored as a source of feedback

However user feedback to Apple is submitted via this mechanism:

Feedback - macOS - Apple

Are these Apple Accounts all part of the same Family Sharing group? If so, that’s how things are getting shared.

I suspect two groups of people both separately got clever here, uncoordinated, and broke what you want to do here.

I think the only bad path out of this is turning off auto-join on both networks.

Last guess is via Apple Configurator and loading a profile, but you're getting well deep into the weeds.

After that, disabling auto-join is your path.

Send some feedback (and maybe a link to this thread) to Apple: Product Feedback - Apple

Please allow me to play devils advocate:

WHY would you need to do this?

Its not as if you are paying by the bit for over-the-air time.

If both passwords [if this actually worked] would provide essentially the same connection to the same Router, why do you need different ones at all?

Grant Bennet-Alder wrote:

Please allow me to play devils advocate:

WHY would you need to do this?

Its not as if you are paying by the bit for over-the-air time.

If both passwords [if this actually worked] would provide essentially the same connection to the same Router, why do you need different ones at all?

They don't provide "essentially the same" connection, they provide segmented VLAN access, one of which also has firewall rules in place to allow traffic across the site-to-site VPN made from the router to my company's HQ. The design isolates the work network from the personal.

I am clearly not following your setup properly. Can you explain a bit more?

Do you now have two Routers at home?

Or how do you tell your equipment which connection to the Internet to make? Is this done ONLY by settings on the Mac?

train_wreck wrote:

Grant Bennet-Alder wrote:

Please allow me to play devils advocate:

WHY would you need to do this?

Its not as if you are paying by the bit for over-the-air time.

If both passwords [if this actually worked] would provide essentially the same connection to the same Router, why do you need different ones at all?

They don't provide "essentially the same" connection, they provide segmented VLAN access, one of which also has firewall rules in place to allow traffic across the site-to-site VPN made from the router to my company's HQ. The design isolates the work network from the personal.

Which also implies you have to log into the firewall using 802.1X via RADIUS or such, to get onto the VLAN.

There is a feature in MacOS that allows you to apply a package of Network settings with a single selection, but it is not based on Wi-Fi passwords. It is called Network Locations.

To use it, you create a NEW named location, call it HOME, for example, and set every Network setting the way you like, and then take care to not change those settings directly when you need different network settings.

Then when you go to the coffee shop, and want to active a Mac Firewall while there, or have a different setup than at HOME, you choose the location you have created, say, STARBUX.

When you get home you re-invoke the HOME location.

In your case, you might also have a WORK location that adds different settings.

Use network locations on Mac - Apple Support

What happens if you select “forget this network” in the Wi-Fi settings for each login, forgetting as appropriate?

Are both of your accounts “Administrator”

accounts ?