Profiles

A profile is a named set of rules you can switch on as a whole: Home, Office, Travel. Rules that belong to a profile apply only while it is active. Rules without a profile always apply. Create, rename and remove profiles in Settings › Profiles or the Profiles pane.

The active profile

Exactly one profile can be active, or none. With none active, only profile-less rules apply. Switch from:

• Firewall › Profile, which lists No Profile and then each profile name.
• The menu bar panel’s profile menu.
• Settings › Profiles, the Active profile picker. Its empty choice is None.
• The Profiles pane, where the active row shows Active and Use No Profile, and the others show Activate. A saved profile that is not yet in force shows Not confirmed, Waiting for approval, or Saved; waiting for filter.
• Shortcuts and Siri. A profile is an entity Shortcuts can pick, and No Profile is one of the rows.
• outboundctl profile activate <name|uuid>, or none. See outboundctl.

In the Profiles pane each profile has a Mode menu: Mode unchanged, Learn mode, Ask mode or Strict mode. The help is “The mode Outbound switches to when this profile comes on.” Mode unchanged leaves the current mode alone. A profile whose mode is looser asks for approval in the same step as the switch.

The pane’s empty state is “No profiles”, with New Profile…. Settings says “No profiles yet.” The add field’s prompt is “Name, for example Home”.

Removing a profile deletes the rules that belong to it when they are yours. Rules from the organization’s feed and from blocklists are kept, and they stop applying: that profile can no longer be active, so a rule that still names it matches nothing until a profile with the same id exists again. The confirmation is “Remove “Name”?”. The button is Remove and Delete Its Rules. With no rules of yours it says “No rules belong to this profile. Edit › Undo brings it back.” Otherwise it says how many rules are deleted too, and that Edit › Undo brings them back. Networks that were assigned to the removed profile become Don’t switch, so joining them does not turn the active profile off.

Switching by network

Outbound can switch profiles when the network changes. It recognises a network by its router, never by the Wi-Fi name, so this needs no location access. Settings › Profiles says: “Outbound knows a network by its router, never by the Wi-Fi name, so this needs no location access. Joining a network on the list switches to its profile.”

Two controls:

• Switch profiles automatically when the network changes. Off, joining a network changes nothing and asks nothing. The list and its assignments stay.
• When joining a new network: Ask (the default), Keep current profile, Use Profile, or Use no profile. If the profile named as the default has been deleted, the control shows Keep current profile.

A VPN counts as its own network for each server it connects to, identified by its configuration and that server. A work VPN can switch to your Office profile, and the same VPN connected to another server can keep a different one. The tunnels macOS sets up for its own services are not treated as a VPN, so they never switch your profile. See Profiles settings.

The list shows networks this Mac has joined. A network is stored as soon as it is seen, assigned Don’t switch (the apostrophe is straight) until you answer. Each row can be a profile, No Profile, or Don’t switch. Don’t switch means joining that network changes nothing. You can rename a network. Forgetting one makes the next join follow When joining a new network again.

Example data.

The new network question

When an unknown network appears and automatic switching is on, the main window asks. The title is “New network: Name”. The detail is “Choose the profile to use here. Outbound knows a network by its router, never by the Wi-Fi name or your location.”

Use Profile lists your profiles, No Profile, and Create Profile…. Later leaves the current profile as it is. The checkbox Don’t ask again on this network starts ticked. With it on, your choice is stored for that router. Later with it on stores Don’t switch. Outbound asks once per join of that router. A network that flaps does not ask a second time, and going offline clears a question that was still open.

Example data.

If the profile stored for a network has been deleted, Outbound says “This profile no longer exists. Choose another profile.”

Note

A network question and a profile switch show their result in the window’s status pill like any other change. While one question is open, a flap cannot make Outbound ask twice or switch twice.