Mac Mini M2 wifi issues

I just checked the contents of the Xcode Command Line tools install package, and there's just thousands of files related to software development frameworks, SDKs, macOS, iOS, tvOS, watchOS all of which get installed into the ./Library/Developer/ directory. Nothing at all for the core operating system.

I'm absolutely certain if any fixes for system issues were released, they would be in a mandatory core system update, not a optional developer tools one.

Is it just a sw issue? If it were, given the quite widespread nature of the feedback (first meaningful posts I could find go back to December 2022), would they not have been been able to fix it ?

The symptoms and workarounds are fairly well posted now.

My non-expert opinion is that it is a software issue, because from my own observations, I can get my connection speed on the 5Ghz network to run at the maximum and have 10-15ms ping times by disabling AWDL in the Terminal or not accessing features that use AWDL (such as AirDrop, Sidecar etc.). As soon as AWDL becomes active again and I use AirDrop for example, my connection cuts out and Ping times spike dramatically.

It does seem to be affecting M1/M2 Macs more recently, but maybe that's just a side effect of them having been selling more lately, rather than it affecting that hardware specifically.

I'm going to see if I can try a different router that's compatible with my fibre connection. The router I've got is Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax), so I'll try an older one 802.11ac to see if it makes any difference whatsoever.

Thanks for the feedback Julian, and I concur.

I was on an Amplifi Alien (WiFi 6). This was before I knew about AWDL and it forcing channels. I have not tested it since changing to my enterprise setup.

I'm curious on what you find. I'd switch back to test along side you, but people are home atm and i'll get yelled at. Besides, my test wouldn't be any better than yours.

As Julian mentioned (I agree), that update is simply CLI tools. As expected, it made no change, but at least those who are still planning on Calling Apple support, will have everything updated so they can avoid extra troubleshooting steps.

Individually, I tested 2.4Ghz channels 1 through 11 (except 6) and 5Ghz channels 36, 44 (only helps in UK), 48, 153, 157, and 161.

All identical as the picture I posted above with the red squares. Reverting back to only 6/149, problem solved.

Since i am on channel 44 for 5Ghz my pings are low.

But, i just noticed some interesting things:

When i switch to my 2,4ghz Wifi, behaviour is like in your picture with the red squares.

I think channel 6 might not be right channel for 2,4ghz (i live in germany)

The interesting part: Exact same behaviour on my 10 year old retina Macook Pro (running Big Sur)!!

Ping even times out occasionally (only 2,4ghz). I think this has always been this way, but i have never noticed it doing normal browsing etc.

Another interesting thing i noticed is, that if i click on the wifi symbol while i'm running the ping, i'm kinda simulating the channel switching leading to higher pings. I assume this is because opening the wifi menu tells the OS to scan for WiFis on all channels, leaving the current channel for a short amount of time.

I'm interested if your Ping times increase when you click AirDrop in the side panel of a Finder window (it starts looking for nearby AirDrop devices), or when the Displays system setting pane is active?

Very good info to have, thanks! Apple introduced AWDL in 2014. I've got links of reports of it affecting Big Sur, Monterey, and Ventura.

I also have a technical document that explains exactly how AWDL works, it's 13 pages long. It's WAY over my pay grade. Here's a snippet:

"(2) Master Election. Apple uses fixed social channels (6, 44, and 149) for coordination using Periodic Synchronization Frames (PSFs). A node starting its AWDL interface monitors the social channels for some time to discover other nodes in range. If AWDL Action Frames (AFs) are received, the node can adopt an existing master. If no frames are received, it assumes the master role itself."

Interesting... thanks for checking. Now I'm wondering what's different about my setup that's causing my pings to increase to the extent that my connection effectively goes offline (can't connect to anything on the Internet, although Wi-Fi is still on).

This will sound like T1 support, and honestly I wouldn't want you to try it... but have you re-installed MacOS?

I lost count how many times I've done this for support, to please them. More than i'm willing to admit. It never helped, and now I know why.

Just dawned on me, why not try the hotspot on my phone and run the test?... Removing home networks from the equation. Make a wild guess what hard-coded channel it uses.

I'll give you a hint, no jitter/high latency when pinging the gateway.

Ahh ok. Try this, assuming you’re using an iPhone. Connect to the hotspot then hold down option and click the WiFi icon. Record what channel it is on and what the gateway IP is.

Use terminal “ping x.x.x.x” (where X is the gateway IP). This will simulate a home network. Don’t use websites. That pings your public IP from an outside network.

Bet you find you’re on 6/149 or 44, and pings are stable.

“sudo ifconfig awdl0 down” will re-enable automatically. While testing, every 30s or so, run that command. Still doing it?

Please use “ping”. PrettyPing is PrettyAnnoying to read.

After this, if the 5,740 issues are still persistent, maybe you should consider re-installing MacOS. Your Mac has the most issues out of everyone.

For me, AWDL doesn't re-enable itself unless I actively try to use something like AirDrop, Sidecar etc. I did those tests 4 hours ago leaving AWDL off and it's still off now. As mentioned previously, if I click AirDrop in a Finder sidebar, or the Displays system settings pane, AWDL will enable itself then, and my connection will drop.

I prefer PrettyPing - far easier to spot any patterns in the pings at a glance than scrolling up and down through a plain list of numbers, and shows the information in more compact area - better for screenshots.

I may try the re-install route. Haven't yet found a suitable alternative router to test with.

I'm not sure how yours doesn't re-enable automatically, for everyone else, it does. This is a popular script written specifically due to that.

https://github.com/jamestut/awdlkiller

It won't hurt to give what said a try. Again, please use "ping".