MacBook Pro M1 WiFi issue

@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).

Can anyone else with this issue humor me and try something? I don't know if I'm seeing patterns that aren't there. But if I run a ping or a speed test I'm almost positive that the speed or ping improves from simply lifting the laptop up a few inches.

The antennas have been in the back near the air exits under the bottom edge of the display.

Wi-Fi is impeded slightly by ordinary furniture and construction materials, and heavily by heavy masonry like chimneys.

If this improves your reception, consider placing your Router up on an a higher surface, so that it is not transmitting through your table.

For me it sometimes helps to adjust the tilt of the display. No joke.

When I see ping drops I push the display slightly (really just a few millimeters) to the back: better reception.

When you inch the display slightly towards you again: bad reception, ping drops.

And anybody saying it depends on the position of the laptop relative to the router: no it doesn't. Tried a hundred times, reproducible in all kinds of settings. Really good Wifi, no other device has any problems, including some other Macs.

It is possible "lift it up" or "adjust the angle of the display" issues are showing a hardware issue such as a poor connection where the antenna wires clip on to the mainboard. These use a special connector.

A visit to the Genius Bar (appointment required, but no charge for evaluation) of you local Apple-Owned Store can put such issues to rest. These guys put their hands on these machine all day every day, and have tremendous insights about how they ought to be working.Be sure that you post out this and any other issues you may be having.

So I run into trouble occasionally when I reboot my Mac or wake it up from sleep. I have a ping (to my router) running in a Terminal window, once every 4 seconds, to give me a feel.

I run wifi explorer when I see issues, and what I personally see when things are not going well is that one of my 4 wifi networks is missing. I have a satellite system, one base and one satellite (Orbi) and so I have two 2.4 Ghz networks and two 5 Ghz networks (all with the same name). One is way closer than the other (which is why I have a satellite at all) and if that one disappears, my system seems to connect to the weak 5 Ghz from the main router on the other side of the house rather than the really strong 2.4 Ghz from the satellite.

I don't know why it does that. When my closer 5 Ghz network reappears in wifi explorer, my wifi reconnects to it automatically and immediately and I am off to the races.

I am not sure what causes the 5 Ghz network to disappear periodically. THAT could be the bug in the chip/driver/hardware in my M1 Mac Pro laptop. OR, the problem could be that the driver is favoring the wrong network of the remaining 3 when that happens. If I still had my old laptop I could compare their behaviors to see the 5 Ghz network disappears from my old laptop as well. Actually - I do have an older laptop and I could run that experiment.

So - if you have a single router spitting out 2.4 and 5 Ghz signals OR a satellite system like me, I could see something like this as being the culprit. And adjusting the angle of your screen might change the signal strength of one of the signals such that you connect back to it and have a good connection rather than the system choosing the wrong one.

In my opinion, your network neighborhood is too crowded to operate reliably the way you have that set up. You have so much competition, it's a wonder anything works!

In my opinion, choosing a 40MHz data pathway in your very crowded 2.4GHz band invites the other Router data to clobber yours. I suggest you try dialing back to a 20 MHz data pathway in the 2.4GHz band, which should be more reliable in the long run.

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My problem is the reverse of yours. I am "out in the woods" so have no competition, but my house is solid masonry construction, and the signals just don't carry.

My answer has been to pull Ethernet cables. This allows me to cable desktop computers and printers directly, and to reach "satellite" Access Points without using awful "over-the-air" connections between access points. I recently added a powerline Ethernet/Router combination to reach a detached garage that has no ethernet cabling (and until recently, no Internet).

You're right to be upset. It's wrong. It should be at least as good as the laptop it replaced.

Sadly issues like this can be explained by device driver bugs.

I really hope Apple doesn't take 2 years to sort it out. It worked better on my 2019 Intel laptop.

I tried to reduce the width of the channel and all it left me with was 802.11/a in the 5 Ghz range.

Not sure why.

My speed is fast enough given the crowded airways - most of the other signals are not that strong, just a couple are.

And let's not forget - it worked flawlessly with a 2019 laptop. And now when things work, which is most of the time, I get about 600 mbps if I am close to the base station. I get 400+ mbps if I am going through the satellite. I got 20 mbps (maybe) when using 20 Mhz pathways. That might be an Orbi issue: I said use 20 Mhz instead of 40 Mhz and it said "OK - no 802.11/N or AC or AX for you!"

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.

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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.

There's something wrong with your Mac! Are all those controls disabled? Are you an administrator?

Interestingly I do not have a screen like that which offers Use iCloud Private Relay, which you should turn off while you're having problems like this. I do not think the iCloud Private Relay is ready for prime time. And ... I cannot see how to turn it on with my new laptop running 12.1.

Ah yes - it's an option in your iCloud settings. So - go to your iCloud settings and turn off iCloud relay. See if that helps you in any way.

Purchased a M1 MBA for my wife in October. Came with Big Sur. Still using it. Experiencing the same wifi drops as all of you have. Spoke with Apple support briefly a couple of weeks ago. Only thing we tried was starting in Safe Mode which did nothing since it can't be replicated on request. So, randomly, the MBA shows it is connected to wifi, but it is not connected to the internet.

Only temporary fix is to toggle wifi off then on again to restore internet. This is absurd. I have been a Mac user for 30+ years. 1st Mac I have had that is unreliable for internet.

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.

hey man, my m1 air also has a problem with 5GHz network which uses 802.11/ac. Sometimes it connects to 5GHz but most of the time it cannot. It connects to 2.4 GHz network which uses 802.11/n though. I have also early 2015 macbook pro which has no issue with neither networks. It always automatically connects to 5GHz and network is stable in general. So, it is clear that the problem is related with my m1 air.