Wifi Networks not showing

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Level 1

9 points

Wifi Networks not showing

About a week ago, my Macbook Pro 2019 started having issues connecting to WiFi. When it wakes from sleep, is restarted, or booted from shutdown, the WiFi shows as on and Looking for Networks but the list is empty. It stays that way until I run Wireless Diagnostics. This happens every time multiple times per day. Once I've run diagnostics, it will show all the networks visible and connect to the appropriate network, but after a minute or so all networks but the one I'm connected to disappear and I have to again run the diagnostics to see the other networks. Any ideas?

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 10.15

Posted on May 27, 2020 8:06 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

PhantomSr78 Author

Level 1

9 points

May 28, 2020 6:30 AM in response to Teddy_B

I had already tried everything listed in those articles before posted. I did end up calling support and after an hour we had not made any progress.

It didn't seem like a hardware issue as the connection worked fine once I was able to see the WiFi network. I tried Join Other Network and manually enteted the info for a known network in range and it also connected fine. This pointed to an issue with the list of known networks.

As someone in IT, my list of known networks was abnormally long. I didn't count but it would have been over 300 at least. I decided to wipe the list of known networks and the problem resolved itself instantly. Now I'll just have to dig up WiFi passwords at each site for the next couple years.

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Answer 2

Teddy_B

Community Specialist

May 28, 2020 6:08 AM in response to PhantomSr78

Hello PhantomSr78,

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.

I understand that you are having issues connecting to your Wi-Fi network, not seeing available networks until you run Wireless Diagnostics and then after connecting, the others will disappear until you run diagnostics again. I recommend taking a look at the following support articles to see if there is something there you may have missed to troubleshoot the issue.

Manage the Wi-Fi connection on your Mac - Apple Support

Use Wireless Diagnostics on your Mac - Apple Support

Troubleshoot connecting your Mac to the internet - Apple Support

Once you have verified that you have tried all the recommended steps, it would be time for you to contact Apple Support directly for more specific assistance.

Best regards.

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Wifi Networks not showing

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