wifi not working - captive portal login screen does not appear

This is a bug in macOS Catalina (still present with the latest patchlevel, i.e. 10.15 with the supplemental update from 15th October 2019). For some reason the Captive Portal Assistant (the app that produces the captive portal popup window whenever you connect to a WiFi hotspot) won't start automatically.

There are two workarounds:

option 1: Either you can manually start the Captive Portal Assistant app manually after you have connected to the WiFi network. This will bring up the captive portal popup window and you can unlock Internet access there. (Really no need to boot in recovery mode, etc. !)

option 2: From this blog post: To bring back the captive portal window automatically whenever you connect to a captive portal-protected WiFi network you can create a LaunchDaemon that watches for WiFi changes and automatically opens the Captive Portal Assistant app.

Create a plist file with the service definition somewhere:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" \
"http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
 <dict>
  <key>Label</key>
  <string>my.shim.catalina.captivenetworkassistant.plist</string>
  <key>LowPriorityIO</key>
  <true/>
  <key>ProgramArguments</key>
  <array>
   <string>open</string>
   <string>/System/Library/CoreServices/Captive Network Assistant.app</string>
  </array>
  <key>WatchPaths</key>
  <array>
   <string>/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration</string>
  </array>
  <key>RunAtLoad</key>
  <true/>
 </dict>
</plist>

and apply it:

launchctl load my.shim.catalina.captivenetworkassistant.plist
launchctl start my.shim.catalina.captivenetworkassistant

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

I experienced the same issue just after upgrading to macOS Catalina 10.15.1. Login pop-ups stopped appearing for captive networks.

I've tried running the Captive Network Assistant application manually as described here (which is located on /System/Library/CoreServices/Captive Network Assistant.app) but unfortunately, it didn't help either.

After following several other troubleshooting steps with no luck, and opening a case to Apple (with no feedback so far), I was able to resolve it by turning off Wi-Fi, removing the files below and restarting;

• /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.airport.preferences.plist
• /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/NetworkInterfaces.plist
• /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/preferences.plist

I experienced the same issue just after upgrading to macOS Catalina 10.15.1. Login pop-ups stopped appearing for captive networks.

Things I've tried to resolve;

• Manually opening the URLs of the login pages
• Trying out different captive networks
• Removing custom DNS entries
• Checking IP configuration and DHCP assignment
• Creating a new network location
• Pinging the gateway
• Switching to a different browser
• Rebooting
• Opening a case to Apple (has been escalated but no feedback yet)
• Running the Captive Network Assistant application manually as described here (which is located on /System/Library/CoreServices/Captive Network Assistant.app)

...and unfortunately, none of them worked.

After following several other troubleshooting steps with no luck, I was able to resolve it by turning off Wi-Fi, removing the files below and restarting;

• /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.airport.preferences.plist
• /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/NetworkInterfaces.plist
• /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/preferences.plist

Hope it helps!

There's a bug in macOS Catalina that in some cases seems to prevents that the WiFi login webpage (captive portal) never appears.

Workaround:

1.) connect to the WiFi

2.) open this app: /System/Library/CoreServices/Captive Network Assistant.app

the WiFi login page should now appear (if not, disable and re-enable WiFi and try again).

Also see here for a fix how to bring back the WiFi login window automatically:

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

This sounds to me like there is something third-party (e.g., automatic VPN protection, some kind of third-party firewall, over-zealous AV) that is getting in the way. I’ve had issues with VPN in the past, and found that temporarily disabling it (until I get through the captive portal) solved it for me — and is a heck of a lot easier than rebooting into Safe Mode!

The fact that only a guest account (and Safe Mode) strongly implies interference by something that is loaded at login time. Check your Startup Items and Launch Agents for non-Apple software.

You might also try logging in while holding down the Shift key (the login equivalent of booting in Safe Mode) to confirm my hypothesis.

I got it to work! Instead of deleting EVERYTHING in the launchdaemons/launch agents folders, i looked through the files and saw two files related to two old VPN services I have since uninstalled and no longer use. Tunnelblick and PIA VPN. I deleted just those two files, rebooted my mac, and boom everything is working now.

Yes to Steve Davidson. I removed the files related to my work VPN -- it's the Cisco AnyConnect Mobility Client -- from LaunchAgents and LaunchDaemons, and that solved the captive wifi problem for me.

I had the same problem and I asked the same question: Wifi does not recognise captive portal af… - Apple Community.

On that discussion, somebody posted some threads from the Sophos forum and somebody else suggested I remove the AV software I had installed (Avast), which I did and then rebooted. So far it has fixed it, although it might have been just the reboot, I suppose.

Anyway, if you have this problem and you have anti-virus software installed, I suggest you see if uninstalling the AV fixes the issue.

This guy nailed a good solution.

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

I didn't bother with creating my own launch daemon, but instead just created a shortcut to the Captive Network Agent app on my desktop. It appears it'll work until Apple can fix this sloppiness.

Had the same issue since Catalina update and have tried all the suggested fixes on here with varying degrees of partial success(es) - the deletion of the /Library/LaunchDaemons and LaunchAgents worked briefly and also prompted me to delete a number of unused Apps but then reverted to the same problem after a few connections to various guest wifi networks.

However today after the OS 10.15.2 update it has completely fixed the problem, so it would appear t be an OS issue all along.

Type a url into the nav bar of the browser and try to navigate to that site. This may force the sign in/acceptance screen to open.

Yeah... No, this turned out not to be the answer. It was the reboot that fixed it.

Hi there,

For me when after removing 'Zoom' from my Login Items in Sys Prefs, the portal worked straight away again on public WiFi.

Using Mac OS Catalina, 10.15.1

Same problem. Booting into safe mode solved it for me as well, and then could restart normally and stay connected. However, when I returned to the same public WiFi (in a library) the next day, after having been on my home WiFi in between, I had to go through the same procedure. Not good. We need a bug fix from Apple!