MacBook Pro M1 WiFi issue

I also am having the same issue on my brand new MacBook Pro M1 (Pro, 16", 16GB, 1TB).

The failures are intermittent and typically occur once every other day or so. (Today, it occurred twice.) Sometimes, I will be completely disconnected. At other times, the speed slows down to a crawl (e.g., video freezes). A few moments ago, my download speed on speedtest.net (Safari) dropped to 0.13 Mbps (before I ran into a test error and the test crashed). A few minutes before that, it was at 1.41 Mbps. Interestingly, during that run, the upload speed was 13.15 Mbps, which is normal for me. I ran the same test at the same time on my iPhone (Safari), and my speeds were typical. Restarting the machine clears up the issue. (I think disconnecting/reconnecting to wifi also does, but it may not last as well, as I am experiencing issues again as I compose this post.)

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.

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...

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.

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).

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?

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?

Chords, can you remind us all of exactly the symptoms you are seeing, and if/how these symptoms differ with different kinds of wireless networks? Have the symptoms changed at all since you went to 12.0.1?

@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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.