androidtether

Android USB tethering for Mac. No kernel extension. No app. Plug in, it works.

Install · Why · How it works · Compatibility · Troubleshooting

---

macOS cannot talk to an Android phone in USB tethering mode. The phone speaks RNDIS, and Apple never shipped an RNDIS driver. The old fix, HoRNDIS, is a kernel extension that does not work on Apple Silicon.

androidtether fixes that with a tiny background service. Turn on USB tethering and a network interface appears on your Mac, with an address from the phone and a working connection. Turn it off or unplug and the interface goes away. With no phone attached, it does nothing.

• Automatic. No window, no menu bar icon, no clicking Connect.
• Any Android phone that tethers over RNDIS. Plug in, no pairing.
• Userspace. No kernel extension, no reduced security, no SIP changes.
• Small. One C file, one dependency (libusb, linked statically).

Install

brew install aarif2/tap/androidtether
sudo brew services start androidtether

That is all. Now plug in your phone and turn on Settings → Network → Hotspot & tethering → USB tethering.

Check it worked:

ifconfig | grep -A3 feth

You should see a feth interface with a 192.168.x.x or 10.x.x.x address.

Install without Homebrew

git clone https://github.com/aarif2/androidtether
cd androidtether
brew install libusb
make
sudo ./install.sh

Uninstall with sudo ./uninstall.sh.

Why

If you searched for Android USB tethering Mac, HoRNDIS Apple Silicon, or RNDIS macOS, you have hit this wall:

• macOS has no RNDIS driver, so the phone never shows up as a network.
• HoRNDIS needs a kernel extension, which modern macOS on Apple Silicon blocks.
• Wi-Fi hotspot works but drains the phone battery.
• Bluetooth tethering stopped working on Macs from macOS 12.

androidtether talks RNDIS to the phone itself, in userspace, and hands macOS a normal virtual Ethernet interface.

How it works

flowchart LR
    P["Android phone<br/>USB tethering on"] -- "USB / RNDIS" --> D["androidtetherd<br/>(libusb)"]
    D -- "/dev/bpf" --> F["feth pair<br/>virtual Ethernet"]
    F --> M["macOS network stack<br/>DHCP, routing"]

Loading

1. The service checks USB every 2 seconds for an RNDIS interface.
2. On a match it does the RNDIS handshake and reads the phone's MAC address.
3. It creates a feth virtual Ethernet pair and bridges frames between the phone and the pair.
4. It runs DHCP on the interface, so macOS gets an address and gateway from the phone.
5. On unplug or tethering off, it removes the interface.

Compatibility

Phone	macOS	Status
Samsung (USB ID 04e8:6864)	macOS 27, Apple Silicon	Works
Your phone		Report it

Only RNDIS phones need this. Phones that offer CDC-NCM or CDC-ECM work on macOS natively. Intel Macs should work but are untested.

Compared to the alternatives

	androidtether	HoRNDIS	TetherKit	Wi-Fi hotspot
Works on Apple Silicon	Yes	Only with reduced security	Yes	Yes
Kernel extension	No	Yes	No	No
GUI app	No	No	Yes	No
Last upstream commit	Active	Feb 2023	Jul 2026	n/a

Notes

• Interface name. It is fethN, not eth0. macOS does not allow renaming interfaces.
• System Settings. The DHCP-created service is temporary and does not appear in System Settings > Network. ifconfig and netstat -rn show it.
• Routing. macOS decides route priority. If Wi-Fi is first in your service order it stays first, and the phone carries traffic when Wi-Fi drops.
• Root. The service runs as root, because creating virtual interfaces and opening /dev/bpf require it. The whole thing is one file. Read it.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Fix
Nothing appears when I plug in	Make sure USB tethering is on, and the cable carries data (not charge-only).
Interface appears but no internet	Check the phone has mobile data. Run ipconfig getifaddr feth0.
Want to see what it is doing	tail -f /var/log/androidtether.log
Service not running	sudo brew services info androidtether

Uninstall

sudo brew services stop androidtether
brew uninstall androidtether

Contributing

The most useful thing you can do is test your phone and file a report. See CONTRIBUTING.md.

If it saved you a Wi-Fi hotspot, a star helps other people find it.

License

MIT