5ghz wifi freezing on M1 MBP

I had the same issue with my M1 MBP, and I finally managed to resolve it!

My router (ADB VV5823) was configured for 2.4GHz and 5GHz which appeared as the same SSID, and my router had "Band Steering" enabled.

** I split the 2 bands to have different SSIDs, which also disables "Band Steering".**

Now when I connect to one of the SSIDs, my M1 stays there and never drops the connection, whereas before it would drop at least once a day just as others have reported.

I don't know if disabling Band Steering alone would have solved the issue, but certainly using two distinct SSIDs has solved it. In fact, I've now realized I can do just fine with just the 5GHz band, and my M1 is rock solid on it.

Hope this helps some of you out there.

Readers--

You cannot discount the possibility of simple network spectrum overcrowding, especially if you've close to your neighbors, such as in an apartment building. Your "network neighborhood" may have too many Routers, and 'sudden changes' may be caused by your neighbor buying a new Router or Wireless Printer that is now competing for spectrum.

This screenshot from WiFi Explorer, an inexpensive Utility with a free trial period that can illustrate how quickly the spectrum nearby can become clogged with other people's traffic:

(drag and drop on preview to see larger).

Best results are almost always obtained by setting channel-selection in your Router to "automatic". Then when your Router powers up, it will 'sniff" the traffic on every channel, and choose the one that is least busy. It is not an accident that the debugging procedures for Wi-Fi problems all start with "cycle the power (on-Off-on) to your Router.

A throughput problem typical of 5 GHz band might be a channel aggregation problem.

5 GHz band is used with either one single 20 MHz channel or 2 aggregated 20 MHz channels = 40 MHz radio bandwidth, or 4 aggregated 20 MHz channels = 80 MHz radio bandwidth.

To analyse if a problem might come from a badly managed channels aggregation, I suggest to

download iStumbler.net which is the best tool to analyse ( to my knowledge, I am not the author and I don't work for him ). This tool is really great, and you can test it for free.

For this typical problem case, it will show you if you are on a 20, 40 or 80 MHz radio bandwidth.

By the way, it will also let you see if you have an overcrowded neighboorhood on the channel you use.

Then you will be able to see if the problem you are experiencing is really

• a 5 GHz versus a 2.4 GHz one,
• an aggregation of channels poorly managed,
• a traditionnal interference one within an overcrowded radio environment.

If you make a screen capture with this tool I could further give you a more appropriate advice to exit this ugly network connectivity problem.

Good observations.

If you live in an apartment building, your network neighborhood will likely be very congested, and will, as you suggest, change every half hour.

In very busy Network neighborhoods, sometimes backing off the 5GHz-80MHz channel-size will give you better stability, but of course at lower speeds.

If you are close to your Router, consider stringing an Ethernet cable and buying an Ethernet adapter (Apple-provided adapters are slightly preferable because their software is more likely to be included in future updates).

Remember that the INPUT cable to your Router {Cable-TV cable, telephone wire, Ethernet cable} can probably be extended/changed to a now location to allow moving the Router without too much fuss, which may change what neighboring Routers interfere with yours.

There is a new minor update, 11.2.3 available.

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It is possible the "issue" with 5GHz is related to 80 MHz and wider channels, (which must use a split channels rather than contiguous spectrum) and dropping to 40 MHz channel would allow it to work properly. if you try this, please post back here with your results.

¿In your Router, what channel is in use for the 5GHz band, and how wide {40, 80, 160 MHz} is that channel configured to?

One suggestion is that use of too-wide a channel too high up in the spectrum forces the Router to use a split band, and that the re-aggregation of that split data is the source of the issue.

In most counties, channels 68 to 94 are not allowed for Wi-Fi, so a really wide data channel may have to be split into two parts.

Consider re-configuring your Router to use a 40MHz channel to see if it can maintain stability with that setting.

Speeds as high as 600 M bits/sec are still possible.

I purchased a new router and the problem is gone. Old router had a radio chip that was written up in blogs to be problematic, which is why I decided to replace the router.

Some users are reporting their issues are fixed in MacOS 11.3.

I´ve installed 11.3 beta 2 (20E5186d), and it looks like the problems are gone

Can you get around it by dropping your Router 5Ghz back to 40MHz wide channel (that, unlike 80MHz channel, does not have the split in the middle of the 5GHz) ??

Is there any public information about that? a magazine article or anything? How did you hear about it?

Hello my dear friend i just got a new MacBook air m1 last Thursday and i am having the exact same problems on 5hz only, after calling apple, we did a diagnose and reinstall the OS but the problem did not solved so was sujested to check on a different network and it happened again! may be its software may be its hardware but it's a fact there is a problem.

Try do download Xcode (12gb files) on 5hz wifi and see if its happening to you to.

have to mention that i have another MacBook pro 2016 and it never happened while the M1 is stuck the old one keep running like a tiger on the same 5ghz.

this happens to me when I:

1. do a large data transfer (i.e. backing up to time machine)
2. am on a zoom or teams video meeting

to fix it, I just toggle wifi on and off

Beware, with the automatic channel setting of some "smart" routers,

you will have to restart your router everytime new neighboor come back home

or leave home to go to work since your radio neighboorhood will change at any of these events.

The automatic selection of channels is working in a network neighboorhood which never change. Most frequently within a working environnment.

In a private environnment, the radio neighboorhood change approximately every half hour:

iPhone users move, portable computers users move too. Then this nice idea of the "automatic channel selection"

is not the practical great success the authors have expected.

@Grubious I advise you to reset your MTU to its default ( which should be 1500 ).

The problem is clearly focused around a bad use of channel aggregation on the 5 GHz band.

Rather switch to the 2.4 GHz band. You will get a smaller speed, but a stable one.

And wait with wisdom that Apple sort out this channel aggregation problem on 5 GHz band ( also known as "Wi-Fi 6" by the wise guys ). Once they will publicly state they fixed this bug, you will be able to update your Big Sur, but of course on a 2.4 GHz connection ( to start with an update which will terminate successfully ).