Level 1

33 points

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

Top-ranking reply

johnjliu

Level 1

12 points

Posted on Feb 12, 2022 8:03 AM

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.

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196 replies

lgilardi Author

Level 1

33 points

Mar 17, 2021 8:36 AM in response to jeremy_v

Dear jeremy_v,

thanks for your reply.

Yes, I got this issue since the first start.

I already tried all the suggestion mentioned in the link you sent me.

Luca

The wireless diagnose utility does not find any issue, and does not suggest me anything different from what I already tried.

lgilardi Author

Level 1

33 points

Mar 19, 2021 4:26 AM in response to Nicholas_B2

Dear Nicholas_B2,

Thanks for your suggestion. I already tried the monitoring, but only for short time.

Only today I am able to run the WiFi monitoring utility for a longer time. It is running just now, and I will report ASAP if any issue will happen during the monitoring. Thx.

My warmest regards,

Luca

jeremy_v

Community Specialist

Mar 22, 2021 7:40 AM in response to lgilardi

Luca,

Thanks for following up with these additional details. You've done a great job isolating the issue to specific apps.

Since it seems to happen most often when using TinkerCAD, we'd recommend working with them to see if there are any updates, and what they'd recommend to help resolve this. You can use this link to contact them: TinkerCAD Knowledge Base

In regards to Google Meet, we'd recommend reviewing the Requirements for using Google Meet to ensure you're using a broadband connection to the internet. If you continue to experience this behavior when using Google Meet, we'd recommend working with Google through the Google Meet Help site.

If needed, you can also find information on How to contact an app developer.

If you notice this behavior outside of these two apps, please let us know.

Cheers!

lgilardi Author

Level 1

33 points

Mar 22, 2021 7:59 AM in response to jeremy_v

Dear jerremy_v,

I do not need information about how to use TinkerCad and Google Meet, because I always used them - on my desk and using other devices - since I bought the new Mac. Even today, if I try with a different notebook, they work properly. Further, as I wrote I have issues also with other software (e.g. Zoom, Microsoft Teams, GoToWebinar, GoToMeeting).

Furthermore, as shown in the first post, using the 2.4 GHz networks they are extremely slow (about 2 - 3 Mbps), even if the connection reaches up to 40 Mbps with other devices in the same location. The problem is not the software, and I suppose it is not the network (because also with other networks I had similar problems).

Luca

jholm79

Level 1

8 points

May 16, 2021 6:46 AM in response to jobr-distilled

I’m having the same types of issues as noted above by Luca although not using any of the apps he mentions. It’s HIGHLY frustrating. It seems to just drop at random intervals. As soon as I reboot it’ll start working again, but then at random times it disconnects. All of my other computers/devices do not have this problem. I’m on a MacBook Air M1 with the latest standard public version of Big Sur as of 5/16.

Jun 1, 2021 7:42 PM in response to Nicholas_B2

Hi Luca,

Even i am also facing a issue with respect to M1 mac didn't respond to internet connection, i need to reboot multiple times, than system works perfectly, but this is not stable and when the M1 will stop responding to internet i don't know, this problem i didn't face with my windows laptop, even on iPhone.

Rebook also some time work some time it didn't, so i need to do reboot multiple time. Is their a solution for that.

Thanks and look forward to your revert.

Best regards

Himanshu Jain

PatRot

Level 1

12 points

Jun 4, 2021 8:59 AM in response to jobr-distilled

I have exact same issue, since the update to 11.4, it has become more unstable, with at least 2 disconnections when in the middle of video calls.

I have the diagnostics logs saved, but to whom should I sent them for analysis and fixing ?

vmac9

Level 1

4 points

Jun 5, 2021 5:44 PM in response to lgilardi

Please let us know the solution to this. I have 2 M1 MacBook Airs in the house and both are having the same issue.

I bought them last year for myself and my wife.

My other older Apple laptops/devices/iMacs have a a very stable wifi connectivity except for the M1 MacBook Air.

So its not our router or anything outside of the M1 MacBook Air.

My wife relies on her old windows laptop just to have a continuous and stable Internet browsing experience.

The MacBook Air is useless to us without Internet connectivity.

I can't believe that M1-based MacBook Air has a network connectivity drops issue and I thought I'm the only one experiencing it.

Jun 14, 2021 11:25 AM in response to lgilardi

I am facing the same issue. Speedtest shows great speed but communication over wireless connection is not stable on zoom since I bought mac book pro M1. It's also unable to find wifi a number of times though all other devices find it just fine. In a 2015 macbook pro it was alright. What is the resolution?

Jun 16, 2021 7:07 AM in response to lgilardi

Hello, I'm having problems also with my wifi connectivity, the internet speed is super low compare to my oldest MacBook, I'm using both macs in the same space and with the same network, and here is the big difference.

this is my Macbook pro-2015 below

Jul 2, 2021 8:24 PM in response to lgilardi

I've had the same problem with my new m1 mac pro 13. disconnects all the time and my other computers do not disconnect. so its clearly and issue with this new m1., let me know if you have any solutions. i'm sure apple is getting a lot of complains on this.

Jul 2, 2021 10:03 PM in response to bradytrader

I Bought my M1 Mac in April and for 2 months i was also face this issue and the moment my computer goes to sleep after that m1 mac didn't connect with WIFI, now all of the sudden this is resolved, i don't know where was the problem and how it is resolved, its quite stable, my VPN was erradic because of unstable WIFI, now VPN is working fine.

I am still not able to understand how this got resolved, but yes as compare to my last macbook pro 2014 which was solid stable. i don't remember when i restarted last, but m1 I restart every 3 days, than only i can able to stabilise my WIFI, other wise my applications also get hangs. I think no proper solution.

MayaS85

Level 1

4 points

Jul 9, 2021 1:47 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Same issue.

Bought my M1 iMac 3 weeks ago and I have the same issue on going issue.

Wish I knew this before spending so much hard earned money on such a disappointing product, which I also can not return anymore.

sbrown02

Level 1

24 points

Jul 25, 2021 8:35 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

As I said in my prior post, Xfinity locks down the settings in the router where I can see the options to do this but they won't let me make changes to test it (these options are grayed out, see screenshot below). I called their support line and they had me do some things to try to get the router to let me make changes but all options are still greyed out so I can't modify them.

That's why I'm curious if any else is having the same issue and has a router where they can make that change does their problem go away.

Jul 30, 2021 7:57 AM in response to lgilardi

I have the SAME issue.

My wifi router is underneath my desk to 50 cm away.

I switched to the new M1 MacBook and on some days the WiFi connection just drops and it can be 5x in a day.

My old Macbook it never happened.

The only thing I changed was the MacBook.

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MacBook Pro M1 WiFi issue