Activate Mac -- no WiFi menu to select network

It is May 24th, 2022 and the same issue just happened to me. I hard reset my mac to factory settings and was stuck on the "activate mac" page with no wifi menu bar popping up and no wifi symbol in the top right corner. Luckily the apple support man I spoke to walked me through this problem after an hour of solutions. If you are stuck on the activate mac page with no wifi bar in top right corner: You first hold down the power button until it turns off, Keep holding it do not let go until words pop up on the screen it will say something like "loading start up menu" keep holding the power button still until the gear icon (system button) pops up, click on that, I think if I remember correctly it then says continue, just follow the next steps then the wifi symbol will eventually appear in top right corner. Connect to wifi and you will have to download the update again back onto ur mac, mine was MacOs Montery. I selected that and it took about an hour for it to download on my computer.

Actually, it is not seen on the screen! You have toggle nearby to the far right, next to the Keyboard icon and then, it would be seen....it is greyish as well! You should wait for 30 seconds before trying to find it after you get to this "Activate Mac" screen....Hope that Apple people will fix this visibility issue in their next update!

Went through the hassle of visiting an Apple store to get this information and so, am updating here so that, it would be beneficial to others who get into this stupid issue!

I had this problem on my work computer at a brand new job. None of the solutions explained here worked. I was about to erase the whole computer and lose all of my files when I tried restarting, holding the physical power button + command + shift when I got an icon that said “Options.” Once I clicked that, I returned to the activation screen with the WiFi symbol there at the top right corner.

Context - I work with Mac Provisioning in my company

Try the following:

SMC Reset:

• Apple Logo > Shut Down > Hold Power Button until you see Startup Options > Release Power Button > Boot to Activate Mac Screen

Re-erase your mac

• Next to the apple menu, there should be recovery assitant
• Recovery Assistant > Erase Mac
• This will auto restart to activate screen again hopefully with the wifi icon on the top right

Regards,

Az

I went to "Recovery Assistant" then chose "Erase Mac". After erasing my MacBook, the wifi icon showed up on the top right corner and I was then able to connect to wifi. This solved the problem for me.

Power off your mac. Then turn on and go to boot options (Hold power button until "loading startup options" appears) Then click options. Wait for it to boot, and the wifi menu will be there. Activate your mac from the recovery os, then reboot and activation will work.

I just had a similar situation with my MacBook Pro. It started on a black screen that said Activate Mac across the top and "Recovery Assistant" in the menu bar. It was asking me to connect to the Internet with either WiFi or Ethernet. But there was no wifi menu available nor a wifi symbol near the upper top right corner of the screen, only an A icon and a battery icon.

After digging through a handful of almost-helpful articles online, I found one that did the trick. It said to hold down the physical power button on the Mac until it powered off. Wait 30-seconds, then power it back on.

As I did so, there were a couple of odd schematics that showed up during the reboot (one looked like a mouse from the bottom, the other looked like a menu bar in miniature)… but eventually, I ended up at the Activate Mac screen again AND the wifi icon was in the upper right corner of the screen. That allowed me to manually enter my network name and password under the "Join Other Network" option.

I hope this helps…

Ron

For me this one did the trick:

1) Power down the Macbook

2) Short press power button

3) Immediately afterwards long press the power button until an "Option" screen appears

4) Click on options

Regards Thomas

Hi judyeresee,

My System Specs:

MacBook Air M1 2020 (512GB)

Here is what worked for me:

1. Once you are on logo of Activate Mac, Press  logo and shut down the mac
2. Hold Pressing until you start Startup Options
3. and then you will be done

Hi Judy,

If you cannot connect to Wi-Fi in macOS Recovery, try these options:

• If you have an Ethernet (female) to USB-C (male) adapter, use it to connect your Mac to an Ethernet cable.

• If Ethernet isn't available, and you have a second Mac, use your second Mac to restore (not revive) your 16" MacBook Pro. The restore process reinstalls the firmware, macOS, and macOS Recovery. It also attempts to activate your Mac, if Activation Lock is disabled. (To disable Activation Lock, check the Find My app on one of your Apple devices, or on the web. If your 16" MacBook Pro appears in your list of devices, remove it.)

Thanks for sharing that! Hopefully this resolves that issue for others.

In regards to the schematics appearing during the startup process, that indicates your Mac is in macOS Recovery and is looking for an input device (mouse or trackpad).

I ran into the same problem, but the problem is preety minor; just click on the recovery assistant and click on erase mac this would reasrt the mac. upon restart the wifi logo on the menu bar would reappear.

I’m having same problem here did all things said above problem is my macbook says specified host not found during activation process I’m using a dongle with ethernet cable do you know what should i do?

Actually, if you have a second Mac, you can share the internet with the other one you would like to restore, to do that.

1. Turn on your MacBook as usual, until you see the screen that requests you to connect to a Wi-Fi
2. Connect your MacBook with another Mac by USB-C cable.
3. In the second Mac, go to System Preferences > Sharing > Internet Sharing.
4. At the "Share your connection from" box, select "Wi-Fi"
5. On the "To computers using" list, check "Thunderbolt Bridge" and check your MacBook if it appears on the list.
6. Finally, check the check box at the left of the "Internet Sharing" option in the "Service" list at the left of the screen, it will display another window and you just need to activate it.

If the sharing internet is enabled correctly, it will take some seconds for your MacBook to detect the internet connection and start the recovery.

I did these steps using a Mac mini M1 as recovery and a MacBook Pro (Intel) as a secondary Mac and worked pretty well.