I bought my 2019 MacBook Pro around January 2020. Just in the past two weeks, I've started having issues where the wi-fi connection randomly drops. Attached is my network screenshot. I read thru all the pages of a similar topic but wasn't seeing a clear resolution. I suppose it can be different for everyone.
I appreciate any feedback!
MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 10.15
If the Router channel is set internally to "automatic" channel selection (typically the default) the Router will sniff the airwaves as it starts up, and choose the least-busy channel.
It is not an accident that the debugging procedures all start with "cycle the power to your Router". If set to automatic, the other Routers' signals will be seen, and the least-busy channel will be selected automatically. This could lead to greater stability.
However, if there is simply too much traffic nearby, your 80 MHz channel selection may be working against you. It presents a very large target over which to see interference from competing Routers. In some cases, dropping back to a 40 MHz channel can (counter-intuitively) provide a boost in speed and maintain connectivity better because you dodge the hits from your neighbors' Routers.
You are connecting using the 5GHz band, and have connected to your Router using 802.11ac rules (Wi-Fi-5) using the 80 MHz channel provided by your Router centered at channel 149.
The modulation technique is using 64-patterns, but has automatically dropped back from the use of three antennas to using only two, and not the most aggressive settings. This can happen when signal is weak or there is interference from other Routers on the same or nearby channels.
You have raw signal (RSSI) of -63, less noise at -89 leaving signal to noise at 26, considered at the bottom of the very good range. You should not be seeing disconnects based on signal strength.
That suggests there may be other Routers on the same or nearby channels.
MacOS Wireless diagnostics contains a tool for determining whether others are on the EXACT same channel. It is called SCAN:
but what is NOT shown is that the wider the channel, the more Spectrum is used, and the data overlap into adjacent channels. This is the Spectrum output of WiFi Explorer, and inexpensive tool with a free trial period:
(drag and Drop onto Preview to see larger).
Note that in this case, two Routers are both using channels between 36 and 50, and competing with each other while higher channels are not being used.
You may benefit from manually assigning different access points to different Wi-Fi channels so that they don't directly collide so often. Right now you have three access points about channel 150, all competing with each other.
why are there 4 Routers with your Network-name competing with each other in each band?
Wi-Fi drops out when it can't get through. Sometimes due to too little signal (not in your case), often due to interference from other Routers on the same or nearby channels.
The way your network is set up now, there are too many Routers competing directly with each other, and almost all of them are yours.
When you look at new Routers, your should pay special attention to Wi-Fi 6 aka 802.11ax Routers. These have the ability to steer the signals in space and greatly increase the ability to support many devices in different locations around your Home Network. You may be able to get a way with fewer additional Access Points if they are Wi-Fi 6 devices.
Each device has a slightly different radio, and each device is in a slightly different location, so the relative strength of each Access Point will be different.
As little as a few feet away, the differences between two of your access points may be more pronounced, so that they are not seen as clobbering each other.
gwstiles,
Thank you for keeping us posted. We recommend that you reach out to us here so we can take a closer look into the issue: Get Support
Take care!
I tried safe mode once but it was so slow that I had to go back to regular mode. So, I wasn't able to determine anything in safe mode.
I also created a new user account and the wifi also dropped in the new user account.
When the wifi drops, my wifi is turned off. Is this normal? When it drops, I click the network icon in the menu bar and click to turn the wifi back on. Or if I don't do this, the wifi connection will be restored on it's own in about 15 seconds.
Also, I have someone in my home that works from home and they are online most of the time during the workday and they have not had any issues with dropped wifi.
I appreciate your detailed response. I made some changes to my router settings based on your response. However, I am still having dropped wifi connections. Here are screenshots from today. My network name is X. I appreciate any additional insights!
Sorry, I forgot to mention this. I have a Google wifi mesh network.
So, for the 2.4Ghz band, my AT&T router is set to channel 1 and the 3 google access points have assumed channels 6, 6 & 11.
For the 5Ghz band, my router is set to channel 60 and the google access points are on channel 149.
I have learned that the google wifi mesh network has some issues and is causing conflicts with Apple and other devices. So, in addition to troubleshooting my dropped wifi connections, I'm also working on my network configuration. I'll probably be replacing the google wifi with something different. I'm looking at Aruba.
Hi Grant,
I appreciate your insights! I'm going to try the Aruba Instant on ap22. I have a friend who's a network engineer and he's helping me with the new network configuration.
I've seen some of your posts in other threads that pertain to this issue. Do you know if anyone has found a resolution to the dropped wifi problem? If so, was there a consistent solution?
When my wifi drops, my wifi is turned off. Is this normal? I either have to turn the wifi back on or wait about 15 seconds and it'll come back on by itself.
Today I was on a FaceTime chat with a friend and the wifi dropped four times during the 90 minute chat! So, frustrating!
I appreciate your response.
In addition to my 2019 MacBook Pro 16", I also have a MacBook Air and a windows PC, and several other Apple devices. If my dropped wifi connections are solely related to my network, I don't understand why it only affects my 2019 MBPro 16". None of the other devices or computers have had a dropped connection.
I'm currently working on reconfiguring my network and hopefully will be done this week. But, I'm skeptical that the change to the network will remedy the dropped wifi connections.
Hi gwstiles,
Thank you for giving us the chance to assist you with your MacBook Pro. You can count on us to do our best to assist you or get you pointed in the right direction. We understand that you are experiencing a Wi-Fi connectivity issue.
Have you had the chance to try a different Wi-Fi network? If yes, are you experiencing a similar behavior when using a different Wi-Fi network?
We recommend that you check if the issue persists while on safe mode. Below is an article to help guide you through the process.
How to use safe mode on your Mac
Have you had the chance to check if the issue persists on a different user account? The article below can help if you do not have any other user account to test with.
Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac
Please keep us posted.
Take care!
2019 MacBook Pro 16", OS 10.15.6 WiFi Issues / Dropping Connection -- Help!
