MacBook Pro M1 WiFi issue

the 'classic"way to walk away from all your old settings for Wi-Fi and set it up again from scratch:

How to use network locations on your Mac - Apple Support

Use a NEW name, not the default, and give it meaningful mnemonic name.

I had a ping going for a couple of hours and not a single packet was dropped. Prior to the 12.0.1 update, it was happening at least a couple of times an hour.

So you're suggesting running diagnostics and then waiting to see if it reports a disconnect/problem?

@jkc120 yes, I've found with wireless diagnostics it catches issues when I might have otherwise been scrolling through an already loaded webpage, or doing something offline, so it gives me some sense of frequency when I'm not actively working.

@cathy fasano the symptoms, for me, actually ebb and flow *while* on 12.0.1 -- but all roughly the same. Specifically, I see things like Slack profile photos fail to load, etc, but the connection creeps along. I typically see ~200mbps down and sometimes get 0.15mbps, ~45mbps, or max speed, but rarely anything in between those numbers. Then, finally, sometimes internet just stops working completely, the network disappears, and when it shows again it takes maybe 60 seconds or more to connect to it. Like others, this seems to manifest more when there's some data flowing (Xcode downloading, Spotify streaming, very very often with Google Meet running, etc) but some days are totally fine.

I can't offer much insight into bands and channels because I have Google Wifi that provides no ability to customize or split them out, so all I can say is that if I hotspot at 2.4ghz, it's better, but I don't hotspot for days, and it's clear that the issue is inconsistent, so it ... might, given the time, but I don't have that kind of mobile data to spare.

Like others, I have a 2018 macbook pro to the right of my M1 and a 2012 macbook pro to the left of it, that are stable as a heartbeat.

This fixed my MBAir M1 wireless problems. Open Safari, go to Preferences, select Privacy and make sure “Hide IP address” is NOT selected. Restart Safari and check network.

Solved all my crazy wireless network problems.

MacBook Pro 2017-2019 will operate in 2.4GHz band at up to 20MHz pathway using b/g/n compatibility, using up to 3 antennas MIMO up to 217Mbits/sec under ideal conditions.

MacBook Pro 13-in models from 2019 and 2020 have only 2 antennas, so their top transmit speed (still b/g/n and a 20MHz pathway) is 144 Mbytes/sec.

--------

One important difference in MacBook Pro M1

in the Macbook M1 in the 2.4GHz band, b/g/n supports 144 Mbytes/sec on a 20 MHz pathway using 2 antennas MIMO

In addition, 802.11ax is supported in the 2.4GHz band at up to 195 Mbits/sec on a 20 MHz pathway using 2 antennas MIMO.

iPhones are said to have only two wi-Fi antennas as well, which may be why Apple confidently moved forward with only 2 antennas for recent MacBook Pro models.

I have been having similar issues with my 2021 MacBook Pro 16in with the M1 Pro chip. The wifi connection is consistently very spotty. My computer also does not allow me to select a different wifi network and most network settings never respond to my inputs. When opening network preferences, I get this screen:

It is very frustrating as I cannot even change from my underperforming wifi to a different network. Some sites never load via safari while I can access them through other devices on the same network.

The New MBA is a late 2020 model. I am using a mid 2017 MBP with Big Sur and have had no wifi/internet issues since I got it 3 years ago. Wife was using a 2012 MBP model (bought it in 2015) No wifi/internet issues.

Internet issues do not typically happen in a vacuum, they occur in your "network neighborhood" with whatever is already on the airwaves nearby. Many factors are involved, so the easiest way to get some special attention is to start new discussion and post your Mac, your macOS, and your Wi-Fi snapshot (hold down the Option key while ckicking on the Wi-Fi Icon. It looks like this older one:

.

I was optimistic 2.4ghz was resolving the issue but found during a Google Meet that it didn't. I think I had recurring success only because sometimes changing the network gives me some stability for a while, but unfortunately I didn't find that to be the case longer term.

There are clearly many satisfied M1 users without connection issues, so my plan is to return mine, begrudgingly give it 6 months to a year with my old laptop, and hope that if this is a driver issue, it's fixed, and if it's a hardware issue, the next one doesn't have the issue.

Grant, that is fantastic and some of us are and will continue to take those steps, including separate threads to work with you. In the meantime, please wait for those threads if you'd like to help specific cases, and the rest of us will continue to identify that there are a large enough pool of users impacted with similar issues to warrant not taking rash actions like buying entirely new modems and routers. In the meantime, as multiple users have requested, please reserve your efforts for those individual threads. Your previous posts are already here, seen, and repetitive.

I had the same issue and just called Apple Service. After troubleshooting for an hour it went for repair to Apple. After a week it was back and work so far (3 month) very good. Today I have the issue back and needed a restart under OS 12.1. No it is back and running so I can sent you this message. Based on the amount people having the same problem I Apple does something about it.

Sorry, besides restart I have no other suggestions.

I have a tenda adapter with mu mimo setting but don't know how to switch it on or how to shift to 40Ghz band. How do I figure this out?

Try again next week after the next version of MacOS drops with the new MacBook Pro models announced today.

DavidSLC7--

There haven't been that many here on the MacBook Pro Hardware forums.

The movie version of work-around is to restart your computer more often. Consider daily Restart.