Most Wi-Fi networks broadcast their name (SSID) publicly, making it easy to select them from the Wi-Fi menu on your Mac. However, some offices, universities, and security-conscious home users configure their routers to hide the network name entirely.
When a network is hidden, it will never appear in your standard list of available connections, no matter how close you are to the router. To connect to a hidden network on a Mac, you must manually type in the network’s exact name and security protocol.
In this guide, you will learn how to manually join a hidden Wi-Fi network in macOS.
What You Need Before You Start
Because the network is invisible, your Mac cannot detect its settings automatically. You must gather the following three pieces of information from the network administrator before attempting to connect:
- Network Name (SSID): This must be typed perfectly, including exact capitalization and spacing.
- Security Type: Usually WPA2/WPA3 Personal, but enterprise networks may use WPA2 Enterprise.
- Password: The Wi-Fi password.
How to Connect to a Hidden Network
Once you have the required information, you can initiate the manual connection.
- Click the Wi-Fi icon located in the menu bar at the top-right of your Mac’s screen.
- Scroll to the very bottom of the list of available networks and click Other Networks (in older macOS versions, click Join Other Network…).
- A small popup window will appear asking for the network details.
- In the Network Name field, type the exact SSID of the hidden network.
- Click the Security dropdown menu and select the correct security protocol (e.g., WPA2/WPA3 Personal). If the network has no password, select None.
- A new Password field will appear. Type the network password here.
- (Optional) Check the box next to Remember this network if you want your Mac to connect to this hidden router automatically in the future.
- Click Join.
Troubleshooting Connection Issues
If your Mac fails to connect, the most common reason is a simple typo in the Network Name field. Unlike visible networks where you just click the name, hidden networks require absolute precision—an extra space at the end of the name will cause the connection to fail. Verify the exact spelling and security type with the network owner and try the process again.