Safari and Chrome can’t connect to the server after Catalina update

Had the same issue. Turns out i needed to verify/update my appleid after upgrading the MacOs.

I’m having this issue as well on any public WiFi that has a capture page for authentication.

the “create new network” method didn’t work.

rebooting into safe mode gave me the capture screen to log into the WiFi, then restarting normally worked as well.

there appears to be something preventing captive screens from displaying, AND I can’t even connect by navigating to the connection screen manually (often going to the routers IP address triggers the log in screen). This is inhibited entirely somehow and I don’t know what it is.

I have 0 antivirus of firewalls installed other than what is built into the system settings. I have a Vpn but is does not open or block traffic on system launch. So I don’t know what is triggering this behavior on Catalina.

There is a detailed discussion from PowerUser.blog on the situation and he provides a solution that has worked for me and another colleague. https://poweruser.blog/macos-catalina-wifi-issue-captive-portal-broken-45610cc016b5

I also noted that a number of suggestions talk about removing entries from /Library/LaunchAgents and /Library/LauchDaemons - in both instances where I looked at this, I found (and removed) remnants from old applications sitting in there. I don't know if that fixed anything or not, but it can't hurt to get rid of old junk.

I took my machine in to the apple shop. After half an hour of trying various fixes, all to no avail, I had to wipe my data and my hard drive and reinstall. So, get into safe mode and use erase. I didn't have too much vital data, and of course even though I HADN"T BACKED UP, my Appleid retrieved my photos and calendar. I don't know why I'm grateful, I lost stuff, and it was their IOS that caused it.

Unfortunately I still do not get the 'Captive' sign-in boxes appear - so have to restart in Safe Mode; join then restart in Normal. If you lose connection during the day you have to do the same thing - and is a waste of time an VERY annoying. This has now been going on for about a month - you would have thought it would be quite easy to resolve - but apparently Apple are quite happy to let their customers suffer

Apple’s solution was for me to ultimately bring my computer to an Apple certified repair shop. I didn’t have the time to do this so I completely erased my iMac in recovery mode & started from scratch, reinstalling everything all over...not from backup. Whole process took about 6 hours. We will see if this works when Apple pushes out the next OS update.

Update: Starting up in safe mode and restarting after that fixed the internet connection. Time Capsule is still invisible to my iMac (everything else can see it).

This worked for me!

I backed up and deleted everyithng in the Launch Agents and Launch Daemons folder. Will try adding them back in one by one.

Thanks!

I've been having this problem for a while and none of the suggestions here or on Reddit helped. I finally got tired of using hotspot, so I got help by chatting with Apple online. The lady helping me had me download https://www.malwarebytes.com/ and do the scan for free. It found 6 "threats" on my macbook and deleted them. No idea what they were so clearly they weren't important. It told me restart my macbook, so I did, and now my internet works again. Try it! This is the only thing that worked for me.

I was able to get some improvement in wifi speed by deleting the network and creating a new network. Still not perfect, but at least workable for me.

Initially couldn't connect to WiFi after installing Catalina. I discovered that moving my MacBook Pro closer to the modem/router in my apartment allowed me to successfully connect to WiFi. I installed a WiFi repeater in the room where I usually use my laptop and that allowed me to connect the laptop to WiFi. I suspect Catalina impacts WiFi card because I didn't experience the same problem with a desktop computer located in the same room running El Capitan.

Creating a new network location worked the first time I did it. But now, I have the same problem again: I am connected to the WiFi but have no internet. I deinstalled Cisco any connect to no avail. I started in safe mode and even then, I hadn’t any internet. It does this with all kinds of networks. At home, at the coffee shop etc. After the third restart and the third time creating a new network location, it might or might not work. No idea why. This is extremely frustrating.

I am noticing that many people are experiencing various problems with Catalina macOS 10.15.1 (19B88). I can connect to internet but it is disturbingly slow as is my whole computer. I saw a post having to do with malware and tried that, malware was found but removing it did not solve my problem. Restarting in Safe Mode and then restarting in normal mode helped with the computer speed and internet speed, but still not as quick and reliable as before this latest update.

When Catalina 10.15 came out, I did not have any problems. It was only when I upgraded to 10.15.1 that this problem occurred. Based upon the number of people who are on this discussion string I am totally surprised and disgusted that Apple released this latest update with this latest software glitch. My MacBook Pro using Catalina 10.15 works fine, thank goodness. I am totally disappointed with Apple for allowing something like this to be distributed to the general public. Their Beta test base must have been very small

I upgraded to Catalina three weeks ago, and have been without reliable internet ever since. I have tried clearing out the LaunchAgents and LaunchDameons, creating new Locations, playing with the DNS settings, and everything posted here. The one thing that works sometimes is switching Wi-Fi networks; that said, doing so works only for a minute or two. Some process seems to lock up the internet after that. I have sent the Apple engineers two 300+mbyte logfiles, but they have offered only the suggestion of removing a couple plist files.

Apple has done a terrible job with the Catalina rollout, and I am stunned that they cannot resolve the issue. Mine is a pretty vanilla setup, so I imagine that thousands of others are having the same problem.

For me the solutions of trying to redirect the url to apple.com captive site did not work. However, I did come across this solution that worked for me. It is definitely more involved than most, but it works!

https://poweruser.blog/macos-catalina-wifi-issue-captive-portal-broken-45610cc016b5