I have a 16" 2021 MacBook with M1 Max chip. I needed to erase it because of some problems I ran into. Once it rebooted and I selected the language it needs to be activated. It says to select a WiFi network from the WiFi icon at the top right of the menu bar. But there is no WiFi icon there. There is a battery icon and a select input icon (to select alphabet.) And that's it.
How do I get the WiFi menu to appear?
Thanks,
Judy
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
Just turn it off, then press and hold power key for 10-15 secs until you see the gear icon, use arrow key to select it and press return, you should see the wifi icon
Same problem: In Recovery Mood, after starting with every suggestion I could find, there didn't APPEAR to be a WiFi menu. I don't know if it was there all the time but it turned out the person who said it was grey and very hard to see was the most helpful. The gazzilionth time I tried, I clicked TO THE. VERY FAR RIGHT, that is, To the right of the American flag indicating my chosen language. EURIKA! It was extremely faint but there, apparently. I chose my WiFi, logged in to it, and all was well.
So try it: the very FURTHEST RIGHT.
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.
Had same problem today.
1. Switch off Mac by holding power button.
2. Wait several seconds.
3. Push and hold power button until recovery options
4. When you enter recovery mode now you can see Wi-Fi menu on status bar (top-right corner).
I was trying to wipe clean and reformat a 13 MBP Intel (A2251) and despite the fact that it would show me the wifi networks available when booting to Internet recovery, it wouldn't show me anything when it got to recovery (Activate Mac). I was only able to make it do what I wanted by selecting Other Network and manually keying in my network name and password. Annoying and I simply don't understand why it would be necessary to do that.
I have shut down the Mac. While powering on, held the Power button until it boots in safe mode. Once In the safe mode selected the only option to avialable, it rebooted the mac with wifi icon on the top corner.
Hi! So I’ve had this issue today! It’s a brand new MacBook Pro too!
spoke to the senior engineer at Apple on the phone and he advised me of the following.
open mac in recovery mode > it’ll ask to connect to wifi on the menu but there won’t be any option for wifi anywhere > top left there’s the apple symbol and next to that is ‘recovery assistant’ > click ‘recovery assistant’ > and then click ‘erase mac’.
follow the instructions and then itll
reset
this should reboot itself and then top right when it loads up and you select your language it should now show you the wifi symbol to select a wifi network! Hurray!
This is the solution, turn off the MacBook in the normal way and when you turn it on, hold the physical button and it will show information about the boot, let it do the whole process and you can activate the MacBook with Wi-Fi
As mentioned in the thread -- you need an ethernet adapter. I thankfully had access to a USB-C to ethernet adapter and it worked great.
faced the same issue and came up with a solution shut down your system and long press the power button then. you can see the wifi icons connect and active your mac.
Hi Judy,
If you cannot connect to Wi-Fi in macOS Recovery, try these options:
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
“Erase Mac” from Recovery Assistant was the only thing that worked for me to get WiFi to show up. Thanks!
Hi Judy,
I had the same issue. I solved it with turning on an external trackpad next to the Mac. With the trackpad, the Wi-Fi icon appears on the top bar! Weird I know.
I guess any external Bluetooth device should do the work. It's a bug from apple I guess.
Solution!
Use your phone (doesn't have to be iPhone - I have Android) as a mobile hotspot. Connect it to your Macbook using USB tethering. None of other solutions worked for me but this worked like a charm!
Activate Mac -- no WiFi menu to select network
