Level 1

3 points

Slow Download Speed on macbook pro

I just bought a new 15 inch macbook pro and i'm having trouble downloading anything. i tried downloading software updates and it would be between 2kbps and about 600bps. the time remaining until the download finished started off at about 4 hours then went up to more than a day. i also attempted to install a computer game which is also downloading very slowly.

Macbook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.3)

Posted on Jul 6, 2010 10:13 PM

43 replies

Jan 10, 2011 12:38 PM in response to jeffp_032056

jeffp_032056 wrote:
I've got the same exact issue also. Trying to download some updates and the time frame was over 7 days!!

Message was edited by: jeffp_032056

nooo other words

apart from WOW is alll I can say

and how ridiculous this issue hasnt yet been solved!!

Whats Apple playing at!

Feb 2, 2011 4:24 PM in response to blazer2704

I'm having the same problem. I'm using o2 Premium in the UK (with opendns) and running a MacBookPro i5 2.53ghz, and it seems to be slower at doing things than my old 2008 white macbook! Wouldn't mind but I virtually had to sell a kidney to afford this macbook so I expect it to everything perfectly without glitch.
Any suggestions gratefully received.

TomG33

Level 1

0 points

Feb 2, 2011 10:42 PM in response to heskethbang

Suggestion:

I have both a new imac and 15" MBP. I'm using an airport extreme with an airport express for wireless network. I purchased the express to extend my network but found that it would only boost the signal that it was able to receive. So, it turned out to be a wash due to the fact that I would have to keep the express in the same room as the extreme. I solved my issue by running an ethernet cable downstairs, connecting my express to the wall and setting it up with the same network and WPA. The key was to disable the "extend my network" component and simply have it as an "alias" network. This way, wherever I'm at in the house, the MBP uses the stronger of the two signals.

Regarding the slow download speed. I've noticed the same drop in performance with my MBP (dropping to as low as 2 Mb/s while my imac which is 3 feet away is cranking at 25 Mb/s. What worked for me was to turn off the airport (via the icon on the top toolbar), wait a few seconds, then turn it back on. Now, the MBP is downloading at about 20 Mb/s.

FYI - I also downloaded istumbler to find out what channels my neighbors are using (high rise bldg) and chose a channel (for both 2.4 & 5.0 Ghz) that was the furthest away from the pack. I've reached speeds of 32 Mb/s with the imac and 25 Mb/s with the MBP.

Hope this helps others save time and energy!

Mar 28, 2011 1:42 PM in response to Dawgenstien

Can't believe it, is it so true, still slow after one year? My just arrived 15 was way slow to upgrade, 110kbs, but upload seemed ok, about 3m. My ipad speed test is 15.32mbps for download, 4.18 for upload, desktop mac pro was about the same.

So what's wrong with the Macbook pro's download, Mr. Steve Jobs? Wish you all the best!

TAE726

Level 1

0 points

May 24, 2011 11:00 AM in response to zhuang Mu

I'm joining the club. My MBP wil only download at a rate og 3,5 MBs while connected to my router with a cable. Mine is a 10Mbs connection. My wifes MB transfers at rates up to 9 GBs? I cannot figute out what is wrong with my MBP?

Jun 6, 2011 3:30 AM in response to TAE726

also joining the club.

Here is a peculiar situation I have:

I purchased a macbook pro in Apr '11 (with Snow Leopard 10.6.7). I ran this machine on different networks with different bandwidths (varying from 1Mbps to 8Mbps). However, my ftp transfers are always slow. They don't go beyond 30-35 KBps (where as I should expect atleast 500 KBps (on an 8Mbps line), if we convert the bits to bytes and reduce the download speed because of noise.

I am not using Airport Extreme / Time Capsule but a third party router provided by the ISP (BSNL is the ISP, I live in India). The router is not capable of 802.11n, but supports 802.11 a/b/g.

The above is surprising considering that if I use any Windows machine (Windows 7) or even my Mid-2007 Macbook (Leopard, 10.5.x latest security update installed), the download speeds are way better. This looks to me as an Snow Leopard issue on the same router.

Does my post provide someone enough information to help me out?

Thanks,

Mayank

Message was edited by: mayank205

Dec 9, 2011 8:03 PM in response to Dawgenstien

Hello!

I was just having a similar problem with my Macbook Pro (2011) and I tried just about everything and it was still having these EXTREMELY slow download and upload speeds:

According to Speedtest.net:

2.32 Mbps Download Speed

1.43 Mbps Upload Speed

I FIXED MY problem by changing the channel on my wireless router. First, I went to http://tools.meraki.com/stumbler#q= to figure out what channels my neighbors were NOT using. I discovered that no one around me was using channel 10. Next, I put my IP address into the URL bar to access my wireless settings and changed the Wireless Channel to 10. The change in download speed was almost immediate:

According to Speedtest.net:

11.37 Mbps Download Speed (My internet max is 12 Mbps)

1.46 Mbps Upload Speed

I hope this helps you or someone out there having the same issues as me!

Sincerely,

Justin

Dec 29, 2011 6:31 PM in response to Dawgenstien

All I have this same issue with my MBP 13 i7, running Lion 10.7.2. The when my Mac is on my home network it actually brings the entire network to its knees. I run a GB switched network in the house with a 12Mbps DSL connection to the Internet. I found that turning home sharing off on the machine helped the internal network issue, and setting my Wireless access point to G only seemed to solve the Internet access issues most of the time, the Mac is still a bit flakey when using wireless, but fine when running wired. Seems to be a MBP problem as my iMac and my Mini both run Lion and do not have these problems.

Pixie W.

Level 1

4 points

Jan 9, 2012 4:45 PM in response to Dawgenstien

Hate to say tis but have had this issue for over 4 years on my mac desktop. usually drag the old thing to the mac store and have them do the updates. Sometimes starting and restopping over and over and.....gets things moving a bit faster. Only have problems with Apple downloads.

Feb 2, 2012 9:07 PM in response to Dawgenstien

OK, So i seem to be having this issues also. OSX Lion 15" 2.2 Quad - Cisco WirelessN router - No Firewalls are turned on, no proxy servers, and the DNS is going through our server.

I cant download apple updates, itunes is slow to download, and im trying to download an ISO from Microsoft (64x Win 7) and it's saying 15 hours for 2.9gb.

It's not allowing me to download the Boot Camp "windows support software" it is hanging around 30%

Our download speed at work is around 11mbs down and 3mbs up and is working fine on all the acer laptops, Asus laptops, and Samsung.

It just seems like its a simple setting that is incorrect? Help!?!

Jan 31, 2013 9:39 PM in response to Dawgenstien

Hi, I've had this problem on a 5yr old Imac and a 2 yr old Imac. (running 10.6.3 and 10.6.7)

This has worked as a work around on these macs,

start your download,

in the Downloads window stop the download with the X button,

wait a moment or two,

then right click the image (on the left hand side of download bar) of the download in progress

and click resume,

the file then seems to restart downloading normally, not at reduced speed.

I've managed to download the 10.6.8 combo 1GB over a 3 hour-ish period

Good Luck

ch@d

Level 1

0 points

Jun 23, 2013 12:21 PM in response to Dawgenstien

One factor at play here is the traffic and speed on the server from which you are downloading.

I just ran a speed test at speedtest.net. Download speed: 55.5mb/sec (fast)

I then ran 2 concurrent downloads from different servers-

ServerA - 343mb download - under 2 minutes

ServerB - 287mb download - over 17 minutes

I tried this serveral times executing downloads in different order and with different browsers, results never changed. I dont think this has much at all to do with my machine or network.

candyph

Level 1

0 points

Aug 7, 2013 6:30 PM in response to Dawgenstien

Ive been experiencing the same problem. This is my first time to try a Mac (Macbook Air 2013). I have been expecting much with apple because of its integrity but im so disappointed. I have been switching internet connections from wifi broadband to wifi LTE and the same slow download speed. I have to open my windows computer just to download. I downloaded vlc player for Mac which is around 40mb and it has to take 2.5 hours for it to complete while on my windows computer, it takes less than a minute to download the 40mb file. That's using the same LTE connection.

Is there a solution to this?

georgeny

Level 1

20 points

Mar 23, 2014 2:39 AM in response to candyph

Though I would add what was my solution even though this thread is older. Had this problem with Mac book pro. While all my other devices (4) were hitting 15mps or better on my Fios network the Mac book suddenly slowed to 1.5mps ( previously 15mps ) on a good day. Tried this and that but what corrected it immediately was this.

Safari PREFERENCES

SECURITY tab

unclicked ALLOW PLUG INS

Immediately machine returned to 15 MPS

Rechecked ALLOW PLUG INS and machine stayed at 15 mps download.

I can only presume that a plug in got hung up or something and doing this allowed it to shutdown. Have no idea which plug in since problem corrected but in my case a plug in was the problem.

I always fnd solutions here so hopefully I will help someone else with this problem. I was all ready to head to Apple for a repair.

George in NY

Jun 7, 2014 8:40 PM in response to Dawgenstien

Hey guys.

Old problem, and I tried all the solutions her and everywhere else. No Luck !

It turned out to be something with regards to the security protocols and encryption from my router. I tried following the right methods, wireless N needing WPA2 and aes. This didn't work with my new maobook pro. (I had windows machines that worked fine on same network.) changing my router (TP link 8960N ) to shared WPA2 / WPA-PSK and aes/ tkip fixed my issue. Hope it helps someone else.

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Slow Download Speed on macbook pro