Mac mini M1 ethernet doesn't work after waking from sleep

When I wake my Mac mini M1 (Big Sur 11.1) up, the ethernet connection doesn't work.

It appears to be online (shows the previously assigned DHCP address, and has a green dot next to it in the system preferences), but doesn't work.

Tried turning it off and on again - shows an amber dot with 'self assigned IP'.

Wifi works as usual.

Tried pulling the cable out and plug it back in - does not connect.

I tried to connect another device using the same cable, to make sure it's not my ethernet switch or connection that is faulty - works.

Restarting fixes the issue.

Anyway to resolve it? I'd really just want to wake the mini up and continue working...

Posted on Jan 8, 2021 12:51 AM

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eamonn146

Level 1

4 points

Posted on Apr 10, 2021 11:32 AM

I may have identified what causes this, I had Norton 360 running, removed it and the problem went away. I reinstalled it to test and the problem came back. A google on Norton suggested that the Norton firewall may be causing the problem. So I reinstalled Norton 360 and followed the Norton article, unfortunately the article didn’t fix it so I had to remove it again.

I say I may have identified the issue with caution because I originally set up my new Mac from a backup. I was preparing to send it back so reset to factory settings and reinstalled BigSur.

I gave it one last chance and signed in, no problems. So I reinstalled my apps and when I reinstalled Norton 360 the problem started again.

All I can say is that with Norton 360 network connections are dropped and I have to restart frequently. Without Norton 360 the Mac mini M1 with Big Sur fully patched up works trouble free. Not sure if this help, I know how frustrating it was - I very nearly returned the Mac Mini. I’m actually loving it now but this issue made it unusable. I can now drag and drop any file from the network to any other location without an issue. I’ve not raised with Norton yet but will - I’d prefer to have that extra layer of protection.

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67 replies

Jan 8, 2021 10:11 AM in response to hcsitas

hcsitas wrote:

??? It’s either-or, you can’t have both operating simultaneously.

Assuming you are referring to wifi and ethernet being on simultaneously - yes you can.

In fact, you can have as many network connections turned on at the same time as you want.

It also makes allot of sense to have multiple network connections, there are many uses for that, connection to multiple networks is the obvious solution.

In macOS, the wifi direct is required for many services such as airdrop or sidecar.

Since you can't have network direct without turning on wifi, you really want wifi on even if you use the ethernet adapter as your primary network interface.

Jan 8, 2021 10:26 AM in response to hcsitas

Sleep saves nuthin’ , newer Macs have no moving parts except for the fan which doesn’t consume much unless the computer is busy. So, disable sleep and don’t lose more sleep over it.

Thanks, I'm looking for a solution that works as designed.

While the M1 ARM processor consumes considerable less power than an intel processor, it still consumes power, and more importantly, the Mac powers peripherals that are connected to it via USB, so power consumption is not just the CPU power consumption.

hcsitas wrote:

My dear Moshe, reread my reply. They can be On, but not operating simultaneously.

As for operating simultaneously - of course they can :-)

A simple example - start a web server on port 80, and bind it to one interface (the ethernet adapter, for instance), start another on port 80 and bind it to a different interface (wifi), and there you have two web servers working at the same time, each responding to request only on their own address.

Another example would be connecting to two different physical LANs.

The adapter order only impacts the default routing order, that can be fine tuned specifically using the "route" command (and other methods), for example, having some connections use one adapter, and some use another.

We've gone way off topic here, so I'm not going to continue this thread.

If there's a way to PM people here at the Apple discussions, I would be happy to elaborate.

hcsitas

Level 6

13,964 points

Jan 8, 2021 10:34 AM in response to Moshe Gottlieb

Well, that’s new material information which you didn’t disclose prior i.e. you’re hard-coding connections which makes your configuration special. Sorry, no attaboy forthcoming. Unfortunately, it also means your binds are a credible root cause of your network wake issue = good luck looking for a solution, you’ll need it. Bye bye.

den.thed

Level 10

90,856 points

Jan 8, 2021 10:52 AM in response to Moshe Gottlieb

Moshe Gottlieb wrote:

Thanks @den.thed, ethernet is already on top, otherwise I wouldn't have noticed the issue.

I need the wifi connection as well (for air drop, side car) so turning it off is not an option, nor will help:

The ethernet connection appears to be working, and since it's first, macOS tries to route everything through it anyway (and fails).

Those services should also work thru your local network with the Mac connected to Ethernet and the other devices connected to Wi-Fi.

Your problem now, is that the iMac is confused when it first wakes up.

geehard

Level 1

4 points

Feb 11, 2021 10:17 AM in response to Moshe Gottlieb

Actually I think this has happened to me without the machine going to sleep as well. In the middle of doing something and noticing that I can no longer save to a network share because ethernet has gone awol. Anyway it doesn’t always happen to me when the machine sleeps. I’ve yet to figure out how to cause this anomaly and my TCP dumps on box connected to same switch also show nothing to indicate a cause.

Feb 24, 2021 1:44 AM in response to Moshe Gottlieb

just bought a new mac mini m1 today

and i encounter exactly the same issue

my Ethernet loss connection randomly, replugging doesn’t help, only reboot can fix the bug temporarily, after a couple minutes, it will loss connection again.

Mar 7, 2021 7:07 AM in response to geehard

I feel you. This is BS on Apple's side though. They do not even admit that there is a problem when from this thread, at a minimum there seems to be a pattern. I may script it and put it in a cron to run every hour. At least until they fix it. However since I have a support ticket open, I am going to hold out hope until I exhaust there knowledge which at this point, could be very soon.

Mar 9, 2021 2:04 AM in response to Moshe Gottlieb

Just following up on my report about macOS 11.2.2 that seems to solve it - nope, it doesn't, still happens on 11.2.2, installing 11.2.3 but it seems to be security updates only, so not much hope there.

Mar 15, 2021 7:27 AM in response to rseidens

@rseidens

I wasn't very hopeful, but I tried changing to a static IP, doesn't help.

@hcsitas

Read the previous messages.

It turns out that this issue occurs not only while the computer is waking up, but also during normal operation.

I've witnessed it as well since I opened this thread and started monitoring the issue.

This is regardless of the fact that disabling an operating system feature is not an acceptable solution, even if in your opinion it is.

hcsitas

Level 6

13,964 points

Mar 15, 2021 7:36 AM in response to Moshe Gottlieb

Well, I wasn’t replying to you, and it doesn’t look like everyone has the same setup, same problem. So, relax. Eliminating sleep doesn’t lose anyone anything and it might even nail this particular problem description down to something more specific. Cheers

Jul 23, 2021 6:59 AM in response to Moshe Gottlieb

Awesome, my second issue with the new M1 Mini. Before anyone asks: it’s the latest OS, I’ve tried unplugging the cable, plugging it back in, created a new Ethernet service, shutdown, powered on, rebooted, etc. and it just appears the Ethernet stack on my machine is broken. Of course looking at in in preferences it’s all green, but I cannot download shows or browse websites. I didn’t have sleep disabled before and basically it didn’t wake properly - machine kept rebooting over and over again finally going into recovery mode - why? Who knows. I ran disk utility repair, which repaired nothing and rebooted. A message appeared about 3rd party drivers being disabled, but I never had any third party drivers so I don’t know what that’s about. Honestly had I known what was in store I’d have replaced my 2014 Mini with the newer intel one rather than this, though when it has working internet it’s very fast. I’ve switched off sleep in energy saver, but given nothing I do will get my ethernet link working again, I guess there’s no point to having done that 🤷‍♂️

I cannot understand how they’ve released hardware with this serious an issue. Fingers crossed another update is coming soon, because until then I guess I’m using WiFi.

konjelly

Level 1

4 points

Sep 17, 2021 7:02 PM in response to patrickfromsurrey

I've tried turning off the "energy-efficient-ethernet" option but I'm still experiencing the issue. At this point I'm ready to just throw this thing out. Has there even been an acknowledgment from Apple that there is an issue here?

konjelly

Level 1

4 points

Sep 18, 2021 5:06 PM in response to patrickfromsurrey

I appreciate the thought, but I don't use dropbox. And I've already wiped and re-installed the system twice: once with a restore and once starting from scratch. I'm not sure how much further out of the box I can get at this point.

Jan 8, 2021 9:54 AM in response to hcsitas

Thanks, there's no power nap setting for the Mac mini as it never runs on a battery.

hcsitas

Level 6

13,964 points

Jan 8, 2021 9:56 AM in response to Moshe Gottlieb

Power nap has nothing to battery, nonetheless take care of the other settings and see if it makes a difference.

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Mac mini M1 ethernet doesn't work after waking from sleep