MacBook Pro M1 WiFi issue

This may be a little long but hopefully worth it for those of you using USB C hubs.

I had the same issue with my new 2021 MacBook Pro M1 Pro (and posted about it previously). It was intermittent, though. Ethernet still worked like a charm. They were very nice at Apple support, but they could not figure out the source after a bunch of calls. Because it was within my 90-day return period at Costco, I returned it and bought another one, figuring it was a bad wifi antenna. Now, the same thing is happening with the new one, but mainly right after it comes out of sleep (which is different behavior). I "usually" can resolve it by toggling my wifi on/off or restarting the machine. (So, I'm feeling a little guilty right now, which you'll know why after reading below because I otherwise loved that machine ... and I have been a Windows guy for the longest while.)

This morning after waking my machine from sleep, the same thing happened. Coincidentally, I was shopping yesterday on Amazon for a USB C hub for my daughter's MacBook Air and read one review that complained about the hub interfering with wifi connectivity. On a hunch just now, I unplugged my own USB C hub, and voila, my Speedtest.net download speeds returned to normal (e.g., 350/380 Mbps). I plugged it back in, and everything gradually slows down (eventually dropping to 1 Mbps to 25 Mbps). I repeated this process multiple times just now with the same consistent response.

My current setup is a USB C hub plugged into the USB C port on the right side of my machine. Connected to that hub is a powered USB-A hub. (I tried just now stretching the cords to their full lengths to create some separation, with no change.) Between the two hubs, I have connected the following devices: HDMI monitor, wired Logitech keyboard, wired Logitech mouse, Logitech HD 1080p webcam, Envato Wave 3 microphone (which is very new), and a Wacom tablet (just connected the other day for first time). I am using the HDMI port on the right side of the machine (so I can have dual monitors). On the left side, I have an SSD connected via USB C (also recently connected), and the audio jack connected to external speakers.

Things are sorta better now on their own, which typically happens, but not great. On a side note, once the problem occurs, Safari has a much harder time bouncing back than Chrome does, at least this morning it does. However, I just tried unchecking "Limit IP Address Tracking" as suggested above, and Safari is doing better than it was - now 185 Mbps on average versus Chrome's average of 220 Mbps. Neither of these speeds is as good as my top speeds without the hub plugged in.

On another note, I have no bluetooth devices connected to my machine (or hub). I disabled bluetooth anyway, but it doesn't seem to improve things back to the 350/380 Mbps range.

I will continue to diagnose and see if I can pinpoint the actual device causing the problem (which is probably the USB C hub). I may order a bunch of different hubs, but if you want one with a lot of ports, they're all third-party. I shelled out $69 yesterday to buy Apple's own USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter, on top of another third-party one for my daughter, but that's only because it's for her. I typically am too cheap when buying things for myself (my MacBook being the sole exception ... my previous Windows laptop was $500), but I may now consider doing the same for myself. If I learn anything new, I will report here.

Sorry this is so long.

Update:   Lately, had a few phone sessions with Apple Support. 1st recommendation was to update to Big Sur 11.6.2 from 11.6.1.  After the update, the wifi random drops ( approx 3-4/day) continued and then it started experiencing kernel panic restarts after long sleep.  

Next Apple support session, a couple of days later, was recommended to upgrade to Monterey 12.1.   After installing Monterey update, it's been 4 days without any wifi drops or internet disconnects. Also, no more kernel panics.  

So, for now, it's looking like the Monterey upgrade did the trick. 

I was having the issue with frequent (every 5-10 minutes) WiFi disconnections on my M1 MBP running Monterey 12.1. This happened both at home and at work, both quite low-interference WiFi environments. What fixed it for me was disabling the awdl0 interface by entering this command in Terminal:

sudo ifconfig awdl0 down

Beware that this will disable AirDrop, at least until next reboot. (You can re-enable the awdl0 interface by changing the word "down" to "up" in the command.)

I had a similar issue with a brand new MBK and called Apple Support. We troubleshooted this as good as possible without having Wifi. After an hour they decided that the unit was defect. I got a box next day to ship the unit for repair. A week later it arrived back with a changed motherboard and it works since.

It seems Apple stands behind their products.

tianwg--

From your description, your display adapter is creating interference in the Wi-Fi band that is messing up your Wi-Fi signal.

Why do I have difficulty with Wi-Fi or Bluetooth devices when USB 3 devices are attached to my computer?

Some USB 3 devices can generate radio frequency interference that can cause Wi-Fi and Bluetooth devices operating in the 2.4GHz band to have issues communicating with your computer. Here are some tips to avoid this issue:

• If your USB device has a cable long enough that you can move the device, place it away from your Mac—and make sure not to place it behind your Mac, or near the hinge of its display. The antennas for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are located there, and USB 3 devices placed there might interfere with your wireless connections.

• If you're using adapters or dongles on a Mac computer with Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports, plug them into the front port on the left side of your Mac, or into the ports on the right side (if your computer has them). These ports are the farthest away from the antennas, making interference less likely.

• To avoid interference on the 2.4GHz band using Wi-Fi, try using the 5GHz band instead. You can change this on your wireless base station. Bluetooth always uses 2.4GHz, so this alternative isn't available for Bluetooth.

from:

About USB on Mac computers - Apple Support

Resolve Wi-Fi and Bluetooth issues caused by wireless interference

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201542

One item sometimes overlooked is setting

System Preferences > Network > Wi-Fi > (advanced) >TCP/IP > IPv6 ... to Link-local only.

More modern equipment may be trying to use IPv6 to make Internet connections if you do not do this.

Power Interference? My laptop was constantly dropping wifi, no apps being used only chrome for browsing. I unplugged the power adaptor from the Left-hand side and the issue vanished. I will need to test it further with it plugged into the right-hand side to see if it re-occurs. If not it is a quick and easy workaround, but not a great design.

This is maybe marginally useful...

We bought my mother-in-law an M1 macbook air for Christmas, and it was delivered yesterday. I brought it into work, connected it to the campus wireless, and it was rock solid. Downloaded and applied the 12.1 update (it was at 12.0.1) with wireless diagnostics running the whole time and didn't get the slightest hiccup.

That is another data point to suggest that this is some sort of manufacturing defect that comes in certain batches of computers but not most of them. There are several people on this thread who have already reported that when Apple replaced some hardware on their machine or even the whole machine then the problem went away. And there is my experience, which is that I've got two freshman girls with otherwise identical MBPs, and one has no problems and the other one won't stay on the campus network, with the one that won't stay on the campus network having no problems with home networks.

802.11n is adequate for many uses. Your observation that it could be better with a better Router that supports 802.11ac is certainly true, but in my opinion, that is "fine tuning" to be addressed later once the GROSS issues being reported are made a bit better.

RSSI

A quick reasonableness-check is looking at raw signal strength, (reported as RSSI) in the snapshot available by holding the Option key while clicking the Wi-Fi icon in the menubar:

here are some reference numbers:

• Right next to your Router, you should be seeing RSSI numbers around -50 or slightly better (closer to Zero, so -40 is better still)

• if the signal level declines below RSSI of -70 (or larger negative numbers, so -80 is worse), your Mac will get ready to switch to ANY better network, if another network is available. So -70 indicates miserable signal strength.

• Apple guidance tells system admins to try to overlap cells in a multi access-point setup to get at least -65 at every location, or your network simply will not be reliable enough.

wait, how do you have TWO with same SSID on channel 48? and two on channel 9?

That is NOT OK If they have any opportunity to overlap (as they clearly do from where you are sitting).

You should have different access points on DIFFERENT channels, to reduce interference between your own access points. Contrary to what you may have read, two on same channel does NOT improve switching time in the slightest -- it merely produces self-inflicted interference at all times.

You are using channel 6 in the very crowded and interference-prone 2.4GHz band. Your RSSI (Raw Signal) of -72 is TERRIBLE.

Within a few meters of your Router (straight line-of-sight with no walls in between) your signal should be stronger than that.

To test whether your antennas are broken, place you computer within a meter or so of your Router.

If your RSSI is not between -50 and zero, your Hardware is broken or your antennas disconnected.

My house is solid masonry construction, and the signal falls off very rapidly because the signals do not go through masonry. I am now up to FOUR Wired Routers at once to get "pretty good" coverage of my home.

Update: now over 2 weeks since upgrading to Monterey12.1. Still going strong. No Wi-Fi dropouts and kernel panics.

UPDATE: I upgraded OSX to 12.1 on my MacBook. "Limit IP Address Tracking" was enabled by default, and the slow WiFi returned. I disabled this option and WiFi speeds are back to normal again.

Hello Luca,

We understand you've been experiencing Wi-Fi connectivity issues with your MacBook Pro with Apple M1 chip since first starting it. You've done a great job isolating it to this specific device, and confirming that you don't experiences issues if you're closer to your router.

We can also see that you've used other services to test your Wi-Fi connection. Have you tried analyzing your wireless environment using Wireless Diagnostics? If so, what were the results? If not, please see that section in this link for steps on how to use Wireless Diagnostics: If your Mac doesn't connect to the Internet over Wi-Fi

You also mentioned trying the suggested settings for your router. The Wireless Diagnostics provides additional utilities for network specialists. When reviewing this section in the same link above, please be sure to compare those to the Recommended settings for Wi-Fi routers and access points.

We'd also recommend ruling out any type of wireless interference that can cause Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity issues. Please see how to Resolve Wi-Fi and Bluetooth issues caused by wireless interference for steps on how to do so.

Cheers!

Luca,

You're very welcome! We want to be sure you're able to use your MacBook Pro as expected, so let's continue to work through this.

Since Wireless Diagnostics didn't find any issues, we'd recommend following the steps to analyze your wireless network, but instead of choosing to continue to summary, we'd recommend choosing "Monitor my Wi-Fi connection" when prompted. As long as the Wireless Diagnostics window is open and you're on the same Wi-Fi network, monitoring will continue even when your Mac is asleep. If needed, please see the section on how to monitor your Wi-Fi connection in the same link we used before. Here's that link again, just in case you need it: If your Mac doesn't connect to the Internet over Wi-Fi

You mentioned the network dropping when using more network intensive tasks, like video conferencing. We'd like to try replicating the Wi-Fi connectivity issues you've experienced while Wireless Diagnostics is monitoring your Wi-Fi connection.

If you're unable to replicate Wi-Fi connectivity issues, this tells us that your MacBook Pro and Wi-Fi connection are working as expected.

If you are able to replicate any Wi-Fi connectivity issues, knowing what was identified by Wireless Diagnostics will help us determine how to proceed.

Thanks!