On upgrade to Catalina, the captive portal wifi login page no longer appears. Because of this I can no longer connect to public wifi portals.
Steps: Connect to a public wifi
Expected result: Captive network login dialog screen should appear
Actual result: Wifi shows as connected, but no login screen, and no internet access, no DNS resolution, not able to access any IPs on the network
MacBook Pro
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 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.
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.
The fix for me was just manually opening the captive log in prompt.
Open terminal
Type
open /System/Library/CoreServices/Captive
Then press tab a couple times and it should auto complete the rest for the captive application then press enter and it opened right up and was on the correct captive login page
This is the best and most straight forward solution! Though I have no idea if by deleting the files will affect my other program but since it’s a launch agent and daemon, I suppose they will reload when the particular program needs it.
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.
For those that are having this issue at public wifi spots that require a captive login screen to agree and connect, but that the window will not pop up-- making it essentially impossible to connect to wifi on mac.
I am extremely happy to also confirm that this issue appears to be fixed with the macOS Catalina 10.15.2 update!
Try booting into safe mode. It should let you log in normally. Then reboot to normal mode.
It works after I remove everything under /Library/LaunchDaemons and /Library/LaunchAgents then restart.
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.
Hello.
I tried that, and all i got was safari telling me i don't have internet access.
I also tried visiting "captive.apple.com", with the same result.
I have exactly the same problem. Been trying to log-in at a hotel and not at an airline lounge. The Phone/iPad all working fine. MacOS will not bring up the login page.
I have the same exact problem. The only workaround is to use my iPhone as a wifi hotspot, but this is driving me crazy.
Same problem... huge issue for me as I work remotely in areas that have unsecured public WiFi as the only method to connect. My phone signal is top weakness to use the hotspot. Need HELP !!!
Yeah it worked ! But wow what a PITA 😡
Same here, only reboot to safe mode works for me. Seems there is kind of bug here. Pls fix it Apple.
wifi not working - captive portal login screen does not appear
