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
Context - I work with Mac Provisioning in my company
Try the following:
SMC Reset:
Re-erase your mac
Regards,
Az
2020 MacBook Pro: I just experienced this myself today (06/07/2022). I tried the “Erase Mac” and it didn’t still show a Wi-Fi option. Reset a few times and nothing still came up. But after resetting a couple of times then trying the “Erase Mac” again, I was finally able to log back into my Wi-Fi.
Lesson: log out of everything on your Mac before erasing and resetting. Most importantly iCloud before sending it off. I read one forum that suggested to log out/remove the device on Find My which is an excellent security feature. But that was one of my other steps too in case anyone tries both erasing/restarting and it still doesn’t work. Interesting enough was my phone didn’t detect it but my newer Mac did. So luckily I was able to remove it from my Mac and proceed.
Of all the myriad options this worked:
many thanks.
MacBook Pro: 2022 64gb M1
Awesome! I found it when I read this post--the wifi was almost invisible it was so dark next to the keyboard.
I am not sure if it was there all along, or appeared after i tried the command+shift+power button directions.
Thanks all!
Only one thing really helped. When you shut down your Mac lets click turn on button once and immediately click once again and hold until you see the loading description
Thanks so much for the response and the additional info. Still no WiFi available. I did check Find My to see if activation lock was enabled but the MacBook was not listed. Thankfully, plugging in an Ethernet adapter worked and I am now at the Hello screen.
I appreciate the info about the Apple Configurator -- that's something I wasn't familiar with. Hope it never becomes necessary but I do help with some IT issues at my church and there are several who have Macs, so being familiar with options like this is helpful!
Thanks again, to all who responded.
Judy
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
Hold down the Physical power button. The screen will go black. While still holding the power button also hold down command+r, Startup options will appear, the screen will prompt you to continue holding down the power button to load in these options. Once you select the options button, it will restart and the Wi-Fi menu should appear.
Turn Off your Mac, then press command + R until you see a Mac Mouse icon displeyed on the screen, then WiFi will be available!
Thanks for the quick reply but since I’m stuck at the Activate screen there is no access to system prefs either. I think I’ll be able to borrow an Ethernet adapter tomorrow which hopefully will work if I can get it connected to WiFi.
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).
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.
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.
I don't have an ethernet nor another mac that works. How do i fix this and access the wifi. there is wifi just no option to join it>
I've found an ethernet cable but there's not way to connect it to the macbook?
Activate Mac -- no WiFi menu to select network
