Slow internet connection M1 wifi

I was having the same issue with my Macbook Air M1 where my internet connection speed went from 150 Mbps to about 14Mbps! I contacted Apple support and went through all the usual things when you have an issue like this (malware scan, reset all your settings, etc). Then they asked me to create a new user account to test with and as soon as I ran the speed test under the new user all the speed came back. They then had me go back to my main user account and check for login items. I had DropBox and Google Backup and Sync as startup items. The service advisor had me remove them (not just uncheck them) and the re-run speed test and voila all my speed came back! Not sure which of these is the bigger culprit but I suspect that it is a Google issue as I have several google accounts going. Hope this helps.

There have been some reports that the M1 MacBook Pro struggles on 5GHz Wi-fi, and that the shortcomings may be related to split-band use required when using a VERY wide data pathway.

When your Router uses a very wide (80 or 160 MHz) data pathway, the only way to provide that in most countries is to split the spectrum and provide that data pathway in two parts that must be re-combined later.

Here you can see that two Routers are fighting for 40 MHz in the 36 through 50 portion of the 5GHz band. If one were wider or had to move up, it would have to split at the above-64 break, and send part of its data in the above 100 band.

It has been suggested that changing your Router 5GHz settings to 40 MHz wide will work-around the problem for now. That should provide a limited (to about 600 M bits/sec) but much more reliable connection.

Problem solved.

I also had the same problem. I have a 5ghz (wifi 5 - 802.11ac) Docsis 3.0 modem. The problem occurs when devices which using wifi 6 (802.11ax) are connected to this modem. M1 Macbook Air and all new iPhones also use wifi 6. I solved the problem by buying wifi 6+ router. I no longer use my own modem's wifi connection. I'm only connecting wirelessly through the router.

I have gotten some more insight into my M1 wifi issue. On my side the internet speed is regularly dropping to 0.x Mbps (it is around 30 Mbps when running at usual speed). This drop normally happens a few times a week, and the only temporary fix when this happens is a computer reboot. The speed then goes back to normal until the next drop.

I tried the following fixes, none of which worked:

• deleting and recreating the WiFi location
• playing with various WiFi network options (limit address tracking, disable IPv6)
• reinstalling MacOS

Today the drop in speed happened again, and I noticed that at that time I was connected to the 5GHz band (my router has a so-called "smart mode" that jumps between 2.4 GHz and 5GHz). So I disabled the smart mode and created two separate networks for the 2.4 GHz and the 5 GHz bands instead. I get my normal speed again if I go to the 2.4 GHz band, but am stuck at low speed on the 5 GHz one.

Interestingly, in the same room I have an old PC and a iPad, both of which are connected to the 5 GHz band and run without issues. I am now 99% sure this problem is device-related and specific to 5 GHz. I used to have an Intel MacBook and this had never happened with the same home setup. Our work supplied us with this new M1 and suddenly the issue shows up regularly.

In case someone wonders, the 2.4 GHz band has an RSSI of -47 dBm and the 5 GHz is at -78 dBm. So it's true that the signal strength is weaker on 5 GHz but this can't be the reason for such a dramatic drop, as again, the other devices in the same room work just fine, and my M1 works fine too after a reboot.

So to recap:

• I was working with an Intel MacBook with the same setup (USB-C adapters, router, peripherals, etc.) without problems
• When the slow WiFi speed happens, in the same room a PC and an iPad connect to the 5 GHz at full speed
• After a reboot, the M1 connects to the 5 GHz at full speed
• When the issue happens, I can switch to the 2.4 GHz band and run at full speed
• If I unhook the peripherals, it does not solve the speed issue

Everything tells me this is M1-related. I don't know if it's the processor or the specific MacBook hardware but there is definitely something going on with this unit. At least I think I found a workaround by using the 2.4 GHz band but this is not ideal as this band is susceptible to interference and has less overall BW.

I hope this helps others. Mac, we really need a fix ASAP!

Yes, I would expect the M1 to switch to 2.4GHz when the signal gets bad, but this is not what happens. It stays on 5GHz and will barely be able to load a web page. Also, interestingly, the U/L speed is not impacted, just D/L.

So yeah, your suggestion is valid. Indeed now that I know that this is a 5 GHz issue I created two separate networks and now only connect to 2.4 GHz. Time will tell if this will fix it but honestly with Apple products I would not have expected that this kind of network administration would be necessary. Connecting to WiFi should work out of the box for your everyday user, not require IT skills. Just my 2 cents :)

80 MHz channels on 5GHz band:

I was working with some Readers early on in the M1 release cycle, and we found that if the 5GHz band was configured (on their Router) to 80MHz channel-width, they had issues, but if they reconfigured the 5GHZ band to back to 40MHz channels, many of their connection and speed problems evaporated.

I stopped suggesting that 80MHz channels might be a problem when a few software updates seemed to solve some of the grosser issues, and the number of reports subsided. Your post jarred my memory of the 80MHz channels possible issue.

80MHz is more complex because the "extra" data required is transmitted in a discontinuous band, at much higher frequency. This may require additional hardware and software sophistication to put the pieces back together (or there may be some other completely unexpected issues I know nothing about).

¿are you using Router with 5GHz configured for 80Mhz channels?

The experiment to try is to change settings to 40MHz channels and see if the problem abates.

Giving some update on my experiment.

As a reminder, my issue is that the DL speed would suddenly drop to around 0.1 Mpbs. This is not a connection occasionally dropping due to weak signal. The difference with a regular drop is that when it happened, I would not be able to reconnect to the network and have a normal speed again. The only fix would be to reboot the MacBook. With a regular drop, connecting back to the WiFi usually works, but not in this case.

This specific issue can be confirmed by typing "networkQuality" in a console and observing the network speed. The download capacity will be in the order of 0.1 Mbps but the upload will be normal.

What I did:

• My router was configured in dual band mode (5 GHz / 2.4 GHz). I split the dual band into two separate networks.
• Limited the channel bandwidth on the 5 GHz network to 40 MHz via the router settings.
• Connected only to the 5 GHz network

I stayed in this configuration for 16 days and have not seen that issue happening once. I've had one "regular drop" yesterday, but it was fixed by reconnecting, so I will blame a weak signal for this one.

I will now revert to the 2.4 GHz band because the signal quality is better, but I am happy to report that the above solution worked for me. So if you are in a similar situation, split your bands and, if you want to use the 5 GHz band, limit its bandwidth to 40 MHz.

My configuration: M1 MacBook on Monterey 12.3.1, the router is Asus RT-AX58U.

<< I un-clicked the "Enable 160MHz" from the 5 GHz channel and kept it at 20/40/80 MHz option. >>

early on, users reported that limiting 5GHz band to 40 MHz channel improved performance -- as if the Mac could not handle the wider channel.

so your result correlates with what others were seeing.

I had this issue. My M1 Mac shipped with Monterey 12.1. I upgraded to 12.3.1 and created a new network location (Use network locations on Mac - Apple Support). Seems to have solved the issue.

As already reported on this thread, this issue could be related to 5GHz band Wi-Fi performance for this model when using a very wide data channel that is forced to split above-and-below the break at channels above 68 and below 96 (where no Wi-Fi data is allowed).

Setting the 5GHz band data channel width in your Router to 40MHz may be a work-around that could provide temporary relief.

if this is indeed the issue, there will be no fault found, because the HARDWARE is not defective. The issue is FAR more complex than just a Hardware failure.

Here's what I did to fix this:

Logged into my Netgear router (192.168.0.1 in your browser while connected to your wifi. - do this accordingly depending on your router) I re-enabled the 5ghz SSID transmission. The default channel for this I believe was on 128 but I wasn't able to switch over and connect to this wifi signal, although the mac was able to find it. I tried different channels and now have successfully connected to the 5ghz wifi signal which is set on channel 48. I went from having barely 1gbps while connected to the standard 2.4ghz signal to now having nearly 100mbps.

I was having the same issue as most on this thread - totally fine wifi speeds on my android phone, ipad, imac, but nearly unusable speeds on my brand new 2020 m1 macbook pro. I will update on this thread if I run into any issues, but so far so good!

Solution. I have a MacBook Air with M1 chip and have always noticed the internet is about 1/2 the speed of all other devices on my wifi network. I noticed that when I turned off the IPV6 service on my router (google nest), the speed is now the same as all other devices. Understanding that IPV6 has more robust addressing, but reading in on it, it also has been known to slow some devices and their internet connections. IPV4 seems to work just fine. Again, this worked for me.

The 2.4GHz signal travels farther, and will show up with higher RSSI and more usable speeds more distant from your Router. (At its best 2.4GHz can not support as much data as the 5GHz at its best)

The algorithms in the Mac and iPhone latch onto the established connection to a Wi-Fi signal and won't switch to a better connection until the signal becomes unusable (RSSI declines to about -70 or worse). If it switches and you are on a call or other active connection, the call often drops because of the dead-time in the middle of the switch-over, even on networks with the same SSID and no password.

So if what you want is trouble-free operation, give your 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands separate network-names, and deliberately connect to the more solid and reliable 2.4GHz from that location. Your overall speed will be somewhat slower than the best possible, but it should be far more predictable and more solid connection.

That is exactly the issue I faced. The run-off-the-mill answers (check signal, run diagnostic, disable IPv6, even reinstalling MacOS) will likely get you nowhere. I tried a bunch of them without luck.

Here’s what did it for me: I was running on a dual band signal (5GHz/2.4GHz). The internet was going down to 0.1 Mbps only when I was connected to 5 GHz. I split the two bands at the router level to create two separate networks. I configured the Mac to only connect to the 2.4 GHz network. It has been working fine since.

Now, there are also some advanced WiFi settings that differ between the bands, like OFDM. So I do not know for sure yet if the issue is band-related or setting-related. Try this fix first and report back the result, I might be able to help you further by comparing our settings. Really tired of this bug and would like to get to the bottom of it. There is no way this is related to the local environment…

Good point. My 5 GHz band actually goes up to 160 MHz. I have an RT-AX58U Asus router. Choices are 20, 40, 80, 160, or all of the previous (with a separate checkbox for enabling 160 MHz mode). Currently all modes are enabled, and I get the 0.1 Mbps "bug" on that band. The separate checkbox for 160 MHz makes me think that it might not be fully supported by all devices.

Another difference is that the 5 GHz band has multi-user MIMO and downlink OFDMA enabled. These two are turned off in the 2.4 GHz band (I initially tried turning them off for both bands, not realizing that my change was only applied to the 2.4 GHz one). So maybe this is in fact what solved it for me. There might be other minor differences too. These WiFi protocols are highly complex and there is potentially a glitch in the implementation of one of the more advanced options. I would recommend playing around with the WiFi settings on the router side and dumbing down the options as much as possible. It's either that, or being on 2.4 GHz which solved it for me.