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
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?
Where I can’t find it and I don’t see it neither.
THANK YOU!!! This worked!!
You Have to shut down the mac and then press Command + R until you see a mouse icon then the Wifi will be available!
I ended up having to do this and it worked..thanks for this
OMG thank you so much I was stuck at the same screen and held the off button while it turned on it worked thanks!
If the Mac is showing an Activate Mac or Activation Lock screen in macOS Recovery, you can’t boot macOS at all. This is because device activation is required before the T2 Security Chip (Intel-based Macs) or LLB (Apple silicon) allows macOS to boot.
macOS Recovery doesn’t offer Safe Mode, due to how minimal it already is.
i have tried all of the suggested fixes in this thread. Held down power key until startup options appear - never appears, even after 10 min. Held down power key then restarted with power key held down - didn’t work. Tried to boot in safe mode - didn’t work. Over and over again with every attempt I still get the screen that says “Activate Mac” with text instructing to select network - but no network available. This is unbelievably irritating for a brand new 2022 MacBook Pro. I cannot use it
First you buy Macbook Pro for around 2650 dl, but the dealer say nothing about all the new cabels and adapter that are needed. That **** me of. Once a time I went from Macrosoft to Apple for it was always completely awful to deal with. Mac was always working. Now it seams that the same sickening has developt inside Apple.
Yes i had to buy a special cabel/adaptor for ethernet. 30 dollars more, and now i seams to connect with Apple server for downloading new OS. Nothing else worked
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’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?
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?
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.
I've been dealing with the exact same issue for almost two weeks now, it's mind-blowing how silly of an issue this is but it was unfortunately my very last straw with apple. After reading a dozen or so articles and talking to three different customer service reps, the first two were nice but unable to help solve the issue. The third one, a very snarky teenage sounding male, had me delete my full hard drive, which still didn't fix the problem.
I couldn't take it anymore and chose to hang up and do something I've been thinking about more and more recently... switching to Windows! Talked to some friends and gathered the parts and I am happy to say I am writing this, my farewell to Apple, safe and sound from a Windows PC and I couldn't be happier about it.
From apples OEM everything to their overly structured repair process (that still somehow always results in an hour long process, not to mention the $600 repair fee for a cracked MacBook screen) an android is looking better than ever.
Activate Mac -- no WiFi menu to select network
