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New Mac Mini M2 has constant issues with wifi. Its unusable. Ethernet works perfectly, but when using wifi the connection will consistently drop packets. Wifi works perfectly with older Mac mini M1, MacBook Pro, Intel Mac in the same small office. I have turned off all other devices and still have same issue. Did a factory reset and same issues.
Mac mini (2023 with M2)
Chiming in to say I'm still having the same issues. Thankfully I have access to ethernet in my spot in my home office, which is the ultimate band-aid fix. If I didn't, my computer would be unusable. Sadly, I've found it more convenient to just plug it in and let it ride with poor wifi but a strong hardwire connection.
Some other bandaid fixes that have worked for me:
I've also had some issues with my OWC Thunderbolt 4 Dock with transferring data from one drive to another (both being plugged into the dock). Not sure if this is an issue with the Power Delivery of the dock or its relationship to the computer, or something with Ventura or Silicon. All of these things feel like a symptom of the same issue, but I can't be sure.
Truly depressing that Apple has put out a product that is borderline unusable unless the consumer uses a specific setup. I can't believe this thread with almost 300 replies and tens of thousands of views has still been ignored by Apple. A huge betrayal of the company's power users. Shame on them.
A week later, I have found a settings change on my two access points (Netgear, WAX206) that seems to have helped with the issues I have with the Mac mini. Again, no other devices had problems.
I have moved my AX network from operating on the 80Mhz band, potentially needed 4 channels in the 5Ghz band, to 40Mhz (needing 2). Impact is speed has dropped a bit for all my devices... but the Mac mini has been reliably connected at 300-400 Mbps (using Ookla speed test, on a 1Gbps Fiber provider) and no ping drops to my router for 3 days.
This still points to something with the Mac mini hardware or software/firmware, but it's allowing me to at least use this machine reliably.
I went, referenced this thread, the model worked in the store, so i was remiss to force the issue, but when i got home, same problem. My mini is essentially a paperweight without wifi, and im past the return window at amazon. No idea what to do next.
Same issue... but I use an enterprise Ruckus R650 AP at home. So, I ran into the post below. A large enterprise with a support contract had this exact issue, and had a Ruckus engineering team replicate their environment to do a deep dive.
They found, Apple's Network Cards are entering sleep every few milliseconds, causing spikes. This post is very detailed with all the steps, commands, and logs of what the engineers did/found.
Hopefully someone here is more familiar using Mac's "Sniffer" mode, and WireShark than I am. I feel this is worth looking further into here.
Interesting!
At the moment i only have these packet loss problems when using my separated 2.4ghz WiFi.
No problems in the 5ghz wifi.
But i am still wondering wether this is a hardware/design problem. If so, i could still return my Mac Mini within the next 2 weeks.
I also took my Mac mini to the Apple store. And it worked fine and told me there was no problem, but as soon as i got back home I still had the problem. Now ive got a wireless Wi-Fi repeater right beside my mac wired with an Ethernet cable and there is no problem. It should not have to be this way so if anybody knows what I can do please tell me!
Good thinking on that work-around. I didn’t get to see them test at the Apple Store. Their public WiFi blocks ICMP, so it can’t be tested there.
They took both my Windows and MacBook laptops down to their test bench, then tried to tell me it was fine. When pressured I found they only connected, browsed, and ran a WiFi diagnostic. None of which matters. They did not touch the windows laptop 😕
Good suggestion, at this point i have given up, all apple devices in the exact same location all report extremely high speed. I cannot waste anymore time with said device. Since I'm past the return, how do I get a refund? I've been on Apple phone service over an hour, then went to the store, another few hours there... im a professional who cannot waste multiple days on this. I really don't care about the money, i just want to drop it off at an apple store and tell them to throw it in the trash. What should I do? Dispute with credit card?
When I had what seems to be the same issue with the new MacBook Pro M2 Pro, I happened to speak with a so-called 'Senior Advisor' on the tech-support team. I just called the Apple number and asked for tech support, but I'm guessing you can ask to speak to a senior advisor specifically. He told me I wouldn't need to worry about the two-week deadline for returns. Then again, he wasn't willing to give me that in writing, so I personally decided to return it within the deadline. Up to you.
just letting others know that "AP" presumably stands for 'access point'
your explanation looks promising. too bad i've already returned my device ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ but i hope others will try and corroborate your solution.
Thanks so much for sharing. Very interesting!
I really hope it's not a hardware issue but I'm still wondering why this seems to be no problem with the older m1 models etc.
Anyway, I will check that as soon as i'm home and report back.
I could still return my mini m2 but would prefer not to...
I would like to tentatively confirm that changing the Wi-Fi channels to 6 and 44 has finally resolved this issue (along with an OS update). I'm now getting the full speed of my connection for the first time since getting this computer. I have a Pi-Hole (DNS ad blocker) on my network with a menubar app to monitor its status, and before changing the Wi-Fi channels, this would repeatedly go from "enabled" to "disabled" every minute or so. Now it just stays at "enabled" as it should. Pings are considerably more constant now whereas before the times were wildly different.
These are just my observations for an hour or so after changing the Wi-Fi channels, so I'll keep a longer term eye on things, but so far, so good. Thanks.
My connection is still operating at full speed now after changing the wi-fi channels, however, something very strange that I have noticed now, is that whenever the Displays system settings panel is active in the foreground, my internet connection is interrupted. If I select any other system settings panel, or put the System Settings app in the background, the internet connection is restored.
I have all the Link to Mac or iPad settings turned off under the Advanced... screen.
Anyone else seeing this, or know why it would be?
@kcasner Although your suggestion to change Wi-Fi channels did fix my slow Wi-Fi connection, it hasn't fixed the internet dropouts I'm seeing when accessing the Displays system settings, or waking my iPhone.
Different symptom, but from my research it's all related to the same AWDL process. Opening the Displays system settings pane and waking a nearby iPhone both trigger AWDL functions for checking Sidecar and AirDrop.
This works with 5GHz wifi, however, it disable the Airdrop and handoff function, very disturb for my work.
It also unable to return the Mac after purchase in Hong Kong due to the Apple company policy!!!
Hope the Apple will provide the solution asap.
Mac Mini M2 wifi issues
