Reset/change TeamViewer ID in Linux

Sang

Nov 21, 2019 • 3 min read

By default, TeamViewer guests and generates your unique ID based on the MAC address of some specific interfaces of your machine. Hence, if you change the MAC address, then re-configure TeamViewer, the TeamViewer ID will change.

Assume that you already installed TeamViewer in /opt/teamviewer. Otherwise, you can refer to the installation guide here.

Get the current TeamViewer ID to latterly check if the setup here works as expected: sudo teamviewer info.

 TeamViewer                           15.14.5  (DEB) 
 TeamViewer ID:                        689616181 
 teamviewerd status                   n/a (error)

Stop TeamViewer background service (TeamViewer daemon): sudo systemctl stop teamviewerd.
Remove TeamViewer's default configuration: sudo rm /opt/teamviewer/config/global.conf.
Inspect current MAC address: sudo ifconfig. The result will look like

enp8s0: flags=4099<UP,BROADCAST,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        ether 30:9c:23:28:66:bf  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0
        device memory 0xef800000-ef81ffff  

lo: flags=73<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING>  mtu 65536
        inet 127.0.0.1  netmask 255.0.0.0
        inet6 ::1  prefixlen 128  scopeid 0x10<host>
        loop  txqueuelen 1000  (Local Loopback)
        RX packets 14602  bytes 2977795 (2.9 MB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 14602  bytes 2977795 (2.9 MB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

wlp5s0: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        inet 157.82.205.27  netmask 255.255.248.0  broadcast 157.82.207.255
        inet6 fe80::ff2e:6494:9b88:cd88  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x20<link>
        ether ac:ed:5c:bd:76:8e  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 8640  bytes 2050990 (2.0 MB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 7926  bytes 1975240 (1.9 MB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

Notice the enp8s0 interface name, TeamViewer guests your previous installation based on this interface's MAC address. Sometimes, it looks at the ethN (e.g. eth0) interfaces.

The current MAC address is 30:9c:23:28:66:bf. You can choose an arbitrary new MAC address to change to. However, you should not change the first 24-bit of the MAC address. Otherwise, your OS will not be able to recognize the network adapter correctly. Usually, I suggest change the last digit in the current MAC address. For example 30:9c:23:28:66:be.

Next, change the MAC address with the following commands. Note: replace enp8s0 and 30:9c:23:28:66:be with appropriate values in your configuration.

sudo systemctl stop networking
sudo ifconfig enp8s0 stop
sudo ifconfig enp8s0 hw ether 30:9c:23:28:66:be
sudo ifconfig enp8s0 start
sudo systemctl start networking

This command largely varies upon your OS

From Ubuntu 19.04, the networking service is no more available. Hence, systemctl stop/start networking does not work.
If the re-configured interface is a wifi connection. After running the above commands, you need to re-connect it via

sudo nmcli radio wifi off
sudo nmcli radio wifi on

3. This configuration is volatile and is restored after a reboot. To change the MAC address permanently, refer to this tutorial.

4. After all, if the TeamViewer ID does not change, you should look at other interfaces and change their MAC address one by one to identify the correct interface.

5. I wrote another post on how to change MAC address, you can read for more information (a large portion of its content is coincide with the content in the current post).

Start the TeamViewer background service: sudo systemctl start teamviewerd.
Re-configure teamviewer: sudo teamviewer passwd my_secret_password.
Check the new ID: teamviewer info.

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