Activate Mac -- no WiFi menu to select network

THIS IS A UX FLAW

There is no "list". You have to navigate to the top right corner of your screen to your wifi network icon. The kicker is that the dark background Apple uses on this screen is so dark, you can barely see it! I spent an hour restarting, searching for my ethernet adapter and cables, troubleshooting, until I just happened look very closely around the screen.

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.

Listen to me. For Reasons we will never understand, the wifi logo is dark dark dark grey in the upper right hand corner. You cannot see it because like me your eyesight isn't programmed to MAGIC EYE level discernment. The Wifi Logo is there. It's just dark dark grey on a black background. For a company that prides itself on design, this is wildly frustrating. The wifi logo is there, you just have to squint.

I tried what someone else stated “hold down the physical power button” that didn’t work for me… i also have an air not a pro what did work for me was to go to the recovery assistant section and click erase mac and after the prompts i clicked erase and then i immediately held the power button and it took me to the beginning aka where you choose the language and where the nearby wifi connections were at.

So this actually helped (mind you I tried everything except buying an Ethernet to USB-C adapter) and came upon this solution on my own. So instead of just powering off and powering back on, when powering back on I held the button on until the screen showed something like “continue holding for startup options”. I kept holding, selected options, and VOILA!! The wifi symbol FINALLY appeared on the upper right hand corner! Don’t know why restarting, deleting content, etc didn’t work but this did! Now in the process of building my preferences again. Hope this helps others!!

Doesn’t work and I’ve restarted twice. I’m going through all of this because there were cleanmymac folders that would not delete even with RM -f and my computer was doing odd things. Is it possible that erasing my Mac would not erase these files?

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.

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).

Please boost this answer. It is SO hard to see the wi-fi icon Apple while in the Recovery Assistant utility. You need to fix this poor user interface - lots of unnecessary user frustration has been created by this.

Let's reset your System Management Controller

(SMC). We do this by choosing the logo on the top menu bar and selecting Shut down and then closing your lid for 30 seconds and then turning the Mac back on and turn it right back off. While the Mac is shutdown, press the power button to startup the computer. Then, press and hold the power button until the startup options screen appears. To access the status Security Utility, you want to click on Options and then continue. After doing these steps you should have the wireless sign in the top right corner. It worked successfully for me.

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!

I own an exact similar model with m1 pro. Ran into same issue where it kept loading and no drives were shown.

what I did was held down the power button until it came on and said “ continue holding for startup options” when it showed that and gear icon started showing. I let it there for 10 seconds. Then again held power button until it said “keep pressing to cancel”. Once shown all the processes cancels

and it reroutes to the base system it has in it. Then it normally downloads os (monterary in my case).

you also might want to check if any partition are there in the first place. Many people remove partition and wonder why no startup disk is showing

I've resolved this issue on Apple Silicon MacBook running macOS 13.0 by shutting computer down and starting up holding power button. Then clicked on Options and get Activate Mac screen with WiFi menu back in the menubar!

Didn't want to waste time Erasing Mac and reinstalling OS.

Hello, tried different aproaches. None worked. However, I used a combination of SMC (shutdown + long press Power button) and the Command + R.

Basically, I shut the device down. Then powered it on by pressing + holding the power button until the "Loading config... " text appeared on-screen. Immediately after that, I pressed and held the Command + R keys while it was loading. Only after this sequece the WiFi icon appeared.

Then I cried a little bit, relieved.

But all is fine now. Hope this helps.

If you see no Wi-Fi, click the Apple logo and shut down the Mac. Once that’s done, press and hold your Touch ID/Power button, until you see “Loading startup options…” if your Mac is erased, there should only be a Options icon with a System Settings look. Boot into it and follow the instructions. At this point, you should see the Wi-Fi as the last option on the top-right.