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MacBook Pro M1 WiFi issue

Hello everyone.

I recently bought a new MacBook Pro M1, and I am struggling with the WiFi connection since it first boot. I am running OSx 11.2.3 (20D91).


The WiFi connection is totally unstable and unreliable, even if it shows a good connection status. My iPhone has extremely better performance, and also my old 2012 Mac had it until its failure.


If I use a 5 GHz network, I can achieve a reasonable speed (about 50 Mbps), but it is totally unstable: the connection so often drops, especially when doing intense network tasks (i.e. video conferencing). The issue is even worse with 2.4 GHz networks.



Here the same speedtest with my iPhone


Here the net status


I am about 7 meters away from the router, if I move closer it works better, but I am very disappointed: I always worked from my desk, without any kind of issue, until trying this new Mac.


I already tried to set up the router as suggested by Apple, and also with other routers, I have similar problems.


Does anyone have any suggestions? (Moving closer to the router, or change it are not solutions: every other device here works, so also this M1 Mac does).


With my warmest regards,

Luca

MacBook Pro with Touch Bar

Posted on Mar 16, 2021 2:30 AM

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196 replies

Dec 8, 2021 9:33 PM in response to lgilardi

Just got a MacBook Air M1 for my daughter and have the same issue with wifi just stopping entirely. The existing connections stop (e.g. in the middle of the Monterey update download) and DNS resolution stops, pings to the wifi router won't work, etc. Only disconnecting wifi and reconnecting or a reboot fixes it.


Does anyone know if the Intel CPU based MBA works? I imagine it uses a different wifi chipset so hopefully that means it works and I can try returning this MBA M1 and getting the Intel-based one.




Dec 9, 2021 10:59 AM in response to jkc120

Today has been the worst day since the problem started. There was way to get my computer to connect to internet. I tried wifi, nothing. I tried ethernet, nothing. Funny thing is that the computer is seen on the network by other computers when connected via ethernet.


I ended up reseting the PRAM and it worked. This whole situation is very frustrating especially when your work depends on it. APPLE, please fix this...

Dec 9, 2021 11:11 AM in response to TheHulk88

So I just want to make sure that people are remembering to "forget the network" on their new laptops and then rejoining it.


If you copied your laptop from a previous laptop I am wondering if there are settings from the previous thing that were somehow interfering. A bit far-fetched but after having loads of trouble initially, I haven't had any in a long time.


Actually, I both forgot my network by pressing the "-" button in the Advanced network settings and rebooted my router. Only after that did I rejoin the network.


My previous laptop did not speak 802.11/ax but my new M1 does.


Dec 9, 2021 11:13 AM in response to jkc120

I understand your frustration. I kinda think it's an 802.11/ax issue.


So a newish Intel MBA might have 802.11/ax support in it and you might be out of luck.


But more importantly, OMG, my old (2019, that is) Intel was a horrible computer compared to this one. Fans always running if you are using just 1 CPU all the time, let alone 4 or 5 of them. This new laptop is shockingly fast and quiet and the fans never come on (I have the pro, which has fans but doesn't appear to need them).

Dec 9, 2021 12:18 PM in response to TheHulk88

So after the Monterey update finally finished and I got onto 12.0.1, the issue (knock on wood!) seems to be gone. Speeds are great, no packet loss to speak off and no random wifi drops for long periods.


I have a ping running from my daughter's room (worst possible location for wifi in the house) and it went nearly 3 hours with zero dropped packets!


Is anyone still experiencing this on 12.0.1?

Dec 10, 2021 12:30 PM in response to cathy fasano

@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.

Dec 11, 2021 8:07 AM in response to jkc120

Yes, I am still experiencing this, but it's a little different now. I installed the 12.0.1 update the night of December 8 (i.e., two nights ago). All was okay yesterday, but it just happened to me again, albeit a little differently. Prior to the update, I used to lose my connection altogether, but if I either disconnected and reconnected to the network or restarted my MacBook, everything was normal afterwards. This happened both on my home network and on a hotspot away from home, by the way. Just now, it's downloading around 9 - 17 Mbps (but still uploading normally at around 20). My iPhone by comparison is downloading at 175-ish. However, I just forgot my network, and re-established it, and this did not fix anything. I also restarted the machine, and this also did not fix anything. At least I'm not completely disconnected. I bought my MacBook Pro M1 (Pro chip, 16GB, 1TB) at Costco and am still well within my return period of 90 days ... which is why I always buy all my computers at Costco or Sam's Club. Any suggestions? Do I call Apple support? Or is that going to be an unproductive use of my time?

Dec 11, 2021 1:31 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

I was just trying to help the other guy look at his actual wifi connection.


I believe ultimately this is a wifi-driver issue like it was years ago for me back when 802.11/ac was new, only it's not, currently at least, as catastrophic for me as the 802.11/ac problem was, which lasted two years, and required many OS-reinstalls and boots into safe mode before they even believed me that it was an issue on their end.


I am curious whether people who are having a serious problem right now are connecting to 802.11/ax networks, or whether it's an old one, like 802.11/n or /ac. Last time my problems went away if I separated my AC and N networks with separate names, and just connected to the N network (much slower at the time).


I also believe that if there's an answer, we as a community can mark it, and the 8 and growing pages of discussion will not matter.

Dec 13, 2021 3:03 AM in response to lgilardi

MacBook Air (M1, 2020) running OS Monterey 12.0.1

Safari running slower and slower, almost stopped.

Thought it may have been:

Service Provider (complained)

NBN (checked)

Modem (replaced)

Wireless Network (double-checked, connected with Ethernet cable)

Network interference (turned everything off)


Problem was when “Hide IP address” was selected in Privacy settings in Safari. Turned it off and all my slow network problems were resolved immediately.


Dec 13, 2021 3:05 AM in response to Onawe

MacBook Air (M1, 2020) running OS Monterey 12.0.1

Safari running slower and slower, almost stopped.

Thought it may have been:

Service Provider (complained)

NBN (checked)

Modem (replaced)

Wireless Network (double-checked, connected with Ethernet cable)

Network interference (turned everything off)


Problem was when “Hide IP address” was selected in Privacy settings in Safari. Turned it off and all my slow network problems were resolved immediately.

Dec 13, 2021 7:38 PM in response to lgilardi

My new 16 inch M1 Max MBP is having the same Wifi issue. Sometimes the internet would stop working after the laptop woke up from sleep mode. Simply restarting the Wifi didn't help at all. I had to restart the laptop to get the Wifi to work again. All my other devices never had any trouble connecting to my Wifi, only the new M1 Max MBP has this issue. The Wifi issue and the system out of memory issue on the M1 Macbooks are so annoying. Please get them fixed ASAP. It's a brick without Wifi.

Dec 14, 2021 12:05 PM in response to pzesar-socialisten

@pzesar-socialisten

Mine looks similar. I haven't seen someone post that before and I'm not sure what I'm looking at, but seems relevant.


@Onawe

Unfortunately disabling Hide IP in Safari did not fix the issue, and honestly thankful that it didn't in some ways because a Safari setting shouldn't affect a system wide issue (Safari is not my primary browser).


MacBook Pro M1 WiFi issue

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