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Wifi connection dropping randomly

I received my macbook pro M1 in December, and it has been working fine. But yesterday suddenly it started dropping the wifi connection at random. The connection is usually dropped 2-5 times in a row over a period of a few minutes, and then it stabilizes for some time before doing it again.

When the connection is lost, the wifi icon flashes (searching for signal), and then mostly the connection reestablishes itself. But sometimes I have to turn off wifi and then turn it on again, for it to reconnect.

The household has a couple of windows laptops, and they have no problems with the connection. And, like I said, my macbook hasn't had any problems until yesterday, but now it keeps returning.

I ran a wireless diagnostics monitoring, and it registered the dropped connection, but I don't have enough technical knowledge to know where to look and what to look for in the diagnostics report files.

Any ideas?

Posted on Jan 2, 2021 8:49 AM

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SgtSteve21

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20 points

Posted on Jan 8, 2021 6:14 AM

hey man, so I called my internet service provider last night and we troubleshooted the problem. while he said it could likely be an issue with some of the new macs, we tried a few things to solve the issue.

basically he split my wifi network into two frequencies, 2.4ghz and 5ghz. i tried connecting to each individually and it seems to be holding now on each one. he said it could have been the mac switching between the two frequencies or trying to choose one or the other. i haven’t used it much since then (going to try again today) but it seems promising. knock on wood!

if anything try that. you can actually split it yourself by going into your ip settings. if not just give your isp a call and see if they can do that for you.

hopefully apple still realizes this is an issue and can solve it in a patch in the future.

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tor_b Author

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Jan 8, 2021 6:05 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

No, the other devices are windows machines, but they can be placed right next to my macbook and still be fine.

It just seems odd to me, that none of the other devices are having any trouble whatsoever, and yet my mac drops out frequently.

tor_b Author

Level 1

30 points

Jan 8, 2021 6:08 AM in response to cp from OH

Today I brought my macbook to my workplace, and doesn't seem to have any trouble staying connected to the wifi there.

So the problem seems to be regarding my macbook in relation to the specific network at home. Any ideas whether this could be a problem with the network itself and/or the router - only affecting specific devices?

Jan 8, 2021 9:14 AM in response to SgtSteve21

I generally smell a rat here. Until 2 weeks ago the system in the house was stable and I haven't moved the location of any devices or changed any firmware/settings, so why would I start fiddling with router settings that worked previously and still work about half of the time on a random basis?

Jan 8, 2021 9:46 AM in response to tor_b

glad to hear that man. let's hope it stays stable! i believe the 2.4ghz one should work fine too as it was working fine for me yesterday but I've just been using the 5ghz one for now.

it definitely shouldn't be doing this like you said as it is the latest technology but it must be a bug in the OS that is somehow making the systems switch between frequencies and as a result dropping the signals.

as annoying as it is, i'm kind of glad that's all it is (if it is indeed that) and not something more serious. let me know if you find anything else out or if it ends up dropping again. so far so good on my end.

Jan 8, 2021 9:49 AM in response to tor_b

Problem is on all my iPhones, iPad and MBP, so it's wider than MacOS. Did the engineer explain to you what root cause all of this fixes. It just sounds like Tech Support telling people to change a load of settings without explaining what change has caused the observed problems

tor_b Author

Level 1

30 points

Jan 7, 2021 10:34 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Around five others.

Why would that matter?

Jan 7, 2021 10:49 AM in response to tor_b

yeah it shouldn’t matter I don’t think. if all the other devices are working fine there’s no reason a newer macbook shouldn’t

tor_b Author

Level 1

30 points

Jan 7, 2021 11:35 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Huh, I didn't know that.

But wouldn't this mean, that all devices using the wifi would experience the same problems?

Jan 7, 2021 5:12 PM in response to cp from OH

any further help if this doesn’t work? could you read the last few msgs from this thread?

Jan 8, 2021 6:54 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

But why is this a factor given that most people will state, as I will, that up to a couple of weeks ago, the network was very stable?

Jan 8, 2021 7:05 AM in response to SgtSteve21

Do you use your ISP router to provide wifi, or another router cabled to the ISP's device? I use the airport only for wifi

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Wifi connection dropping randomly