MacBook Pro M1 WiFi issue

Alex Wasteson--

have you contacted Apple Support with your discovery?

There are a lot of posts here about Wi-Fi disconnects. Some were solved by upgrade to 12.1.

But I fear not all were solved -- and I did not get the strong feeling that Apple was completely on top of the problem, (but that may be Apple playing their cards close, as usual).

He isn't being irate. He is correct. My husband and I both bought these new devices and we are both having problems connecting to the point that the computer is almost not usable. I am trying to download plain word files from my Icloud storage (not a weird 3rd party app) and in an hour and half, not one file has downloaded. I can't open them from this device. That is an issue.

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.

An update on this solution. Although it works flawlessly on my home network, it does not work on the corporate network at work. The OS reactivates the awdl0 interface automatically upon connecting, regardless of whether AirDrop is enabled or not. Writing a small script to automatically deactivate the awdl0 interface doesn't help either, unfortunately. So unfortunately it is not a good workaround for all types of networks, it seems.

Similar issue, slow internet, dropped connections, migrated from a MB Pro 2018 which had no issues. Running 12.1 on a 14" M1 Max. Most expensive machine in the household with the worst wireless experience. Safe mode "fixes" it but how can it be explained that it works well in safe mode but not in regular boot mode? Also LAN connection does not seem to have the same issue, only wireless. Created New Named Network location with Apple Care support to no success. - very disappointing, maybe a hardware issue

Having the same wifi issue here. I bought the 16 inch M1 Max MBP right after it came out. The Wifi hasn't been working properly since day one. Every time I wake up in the morning and open my laptop, the wifi status in the menu bar appears perfectly normal, but the computer isn't actually connected to the internet. Chrome or any other application couldn't connect to the internet despite the system showing the Wifi connection as connected. This issue happens every day. It's very consistent. I have never had this issue on my previous Macs and all my Windows machines, including an intel i7 5k iMac, intel i9 5k iMac, 2020 16 inch MBP, 2017 13 inch MBP, etc. Don't tell me it's the router. I'm sure it's not. It has to be a software issue with the laptop itself.

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.

I think Apple has an issue here which it has not been able to resolve yet and sadly does not admit, like the memory leak problem which got fixed but was not admitted. 

I have tried all of the above suggestions (like disable Limit IP tracking, deleting old networks and reestablishing them...) and one gets the impression it does something but then lag is creeping in again. 

The suggestions posted in the link from the post just above do not explain why a brand new model should have an issue which older and different models have not in the same use environment. 

My suspicion is it has to do with certain routers or protocols, as if it lacks some backwards compatibility or interferes with itself. It is mostly slow at home (but all other devices in my home run just fine, including my previous 2018 Macbook), but when I take it to work it is quite a bit faster and feels snappy and normal (as it should). Backblaze might also slow things down (which I quite do not understand how this impacts download speed when Backblaze uses mostly upload). 

Interestingly, starting in safe mode is generally snappy (but this can not be a permanent solution). So apple support says that it is probably one of the extensions, but 1 hr telephone support could not identify the issue, I think it is an incompatibility with network settings (probably a driver of the new machine is the issue); and, I did migrate my machine software from a machine which had no issues, to the best hardware available, telling me my extensions work find in a 2018 machine but not in a 2021 machine (with all software being uptodate) - VERY FRUSTRATING

Hi newusersince1991,

I was literally going to write the same note that you just wrote, perhaps in response to the bluetooth interference reference above.

I have been through this exact same experience back when 802.11/ac was the new kid on the block. Exact same situation. In the end, and 2 years later, it turned out to be a device driver issue. During those 2 years I spoke directly to engineers, reset my laptop from scratch multiple times (I got really good at it). I have no idea what finally pushed them to realize it was a device driver. One of my former colleagues got a job at Apple and he was the one who let me know. Maybe I should reach out to him and let him know it's happening all over again.

However, this is a little different now. At first my wifi could not find a signal ever and was always dropping and trying to reconnect, and was super slow and horrible. Since I reset my router and forgot completely my network, it has been nearly 100% reliable. But just the other day I experienced the same situation again for about 5 minutes ... Something that is not completely, 100% reliable is obviously much harder to debug. And with millions of laptops being sold, clearly not everyone is suffering the way we are. I think the people who suffer are those with modern wifi in their house, as I have now and as I had back then, and when more and more people catch up with their wifi infrastructure and start seeing issues, perhaps then we'll see a solution.

But yeah - I agree completely with everything you said including your last 2 words.

Sadly, it (System Preferences > Network > Wi-Fi > (advanced) >TCP/IP > IPv6 ... to Link-local only) does not do anything. - There are a whole bunch of "generic" recommendations being made (well intended), but there is no quick win in this issue. Apple needs to dig in.

<< We are not asking you to be “the enforcer”, but  >>

There do seem to be a lot of issues, but there are also are a lot of users who said, "that works for me!" after following the so-called "generic" suggestions made here.

Apple can and will dig in on your specific case if you contact support and work with them:

Get Support

.

I am having the same issue. I bought the new M1 because I needed better RAM to run data processing platforms for grad school. However, the internet connection is constantly dropping so I've been having to use my previous MacBook Pro (from 2012) because the internet connection is so much better. I use both computers in the same place in my house on the same wifi network, so the internet connection and speed shouldn't be differing. My husband is also using the same network with his 2012 MacBook Pro and isn't having any issues, so I know it is an issue with the new M1 laptop and not my wifi. Very frustrating considering I spent over $1500 on the M1. Hopefully Apple figures out the issue soon.

Your Mac is capable of using the 802.11ac protocol; you're using 802.11n. The 802.11n protocol was approved in 2009 and it was superseded by 802.11ac in 2013 and 802.11ax in 2019.

My guess is your modem and router are either old tech, mismatched or both and your new Mac doesn't like it.

I have both a modem and router that support 802.11ac and my speed on a 600 Mbps line is consistently above 500 Mbps for all five of our Macs. Speeds in the 550 Mbps range are common.

If you're looking for top speed, you need to modernize with respect modem and router. 802.11n should be giving you greater speeds than you're experiencing but it is a rather outdated protocol. You also need to look into using different channels in your router and router antenna positioning.

I haven't had a chance yet to get on the phone with them which will probably take an hour or two, but I made an interesting observation. I started up in safe mode which is generally working around the issue, i.e. internet is fast. Now I kept it on for about a week and slowness was creeping in to the extent that I had to restart in safe mode again. And it is back snappy. I am only using standard software, apart from what Apple provides (no extensions in Safari): chrome, excel, word, ppt, lightroom, outlook, signal, whatsapp, acrobat, backblaze. All is uptodate. So it feels like that something is loaded which interferes. Either from the start in normal mode, or over time in safe mode.

I’m having problems with both my M1s WiFi is there a hardware problem with the WiFi network chip. On assorted networks specifically when coming out of standby. Your answer above is pretty poor though passing it off as a third party sw issue….