Mac Mini M2 wifi issues

Further to my post earlier in this thread, I spent some time over the weekend, trying everything I could think of and that has been mentioned here, to resolve this issue, but to no avail. My Mac mini M2 still won't connect reliably, or stay connected to a combined 2.4Ghz/5GHz network, and offers slow speeds when connected to the 2.4Ghz only network.

I already had the macOS Ventura 13.2.1 update installed, which hasn't helped at all.

Here's what I tried:

• Reset my Calix Gigaspire Blast u6 Wi-Fi 6 router to defaults which created a single combined 2.4/5Ghz network.
• Mac would only connect at 2.4GHz and would disconnect within a few seconds.
• Tried turning on and off and different combinations of various settings in the router (802.11ax, 2.4Ghz, 5Ghz, DFS, MU-MIMO)
• Created a separate 2.4Ghz only network which the Mac would stay connected to, but Wi-Fi speeds were around half what the line is capable of (and other devices in the same location work at)
• Disconnected external devices (USB-C SSD, USB-C Monitor, HDMI Monitor) one-by-one and checked connection and speed - no change
• Tried swapping USB-C cables, which port devices were plugged into and a different HDMI cable - no change
• Put the Mac mini in a vertical position on the desk - no change
• Tried the terminal command to disable AWDL but it made no difference and I need AirDrop/Handoff etc. anyway
• My iPhone 12 and 2012 Mac mini sat on the same desk both connect to 5Ghz and at the full connection speed.

I don't know what else to try.

AbuYang,

I find it strange that your grounding tests of your HDMI cable's connector showed that grounding the connector improved packet loss. If your Mac mini is connected to the 5GHz channel and your port and/or HDMI cable is emitting 2.4Ghz interference could there be some kind of effect on 5GHz Wi-Fi? More research is needed.

I renamed my 6GHz wifi to separate it from the 2.4 and 5 GHz. So when I connect to my wifi it cannot use the 6GHz frequency unless I choose it. Thus far, my wifi has not cut out. It's only been a few hours, so I will see how it goes. Before this, it was cutting out every five minutes if that. See if this works for you guys. Is it the gateway's (router)or the Mac's issue?

The same exact thing was happening to me yesterday. I had all three bands of my wifi router (2.4, 5, and 6) in one wifi network name. Just like you mentioned I had to toggle the wifi off and on every 5 minutes. So I tried renaming all 3 bands (e.g. wifiName_2.4, wifiName_5, and wifiName_6) so I have to specifically choose which band I want to connect to. This seemed to resolve the issue. Yesterday, I left my computer (M2 Mac mini) connected to the 5GHz wifi band and it did not cut out. Today, I'm testing the 6GHz band and it has not cut out yet. Hope this helps.

Greetings,

short update from my side:

Regarding to the feedback of the Apple engineer from today, my reported issue is no in the next level of engineering (software engineering). Apple is considering a software issue that could be solved by a future update.

At the moment, my contact can not name a valid date for the next response from the software engineering team. But, she mentioned that the issue has been reported multiple times and is known by Apple. It seems to be that they are working on a fix.

I will keep you updated.

K2Kevin Siad:

"Mac Mini M2 wifi issues: New Mac Mini M2 has constant issues with wifi. Its unusable. Tried all the above, except Safe-mode, until now. Booted into safe-mode and it seemed better for a few minutes, then connection halted. Also took a look at the Wifi details (hold option, then click wifi). I noticed the RSSI drops to 0 and back up to -36dbm."

--------

Troubleshooting Mac Wi-Fi:



Perhaps this is A Faulty Device?:

So, who is the seller? If Apple, note that it comes with a one-year, out-of-the-box, limited-warranty. So, from all that we've performed, I'd say you have a faulty device. So...

Get this Serviced:

Apple might fix it, for the full charge of the damaged part. Set up a Genius Bar Appointment at your local Apple Store. There, it will be looked at and you'll be provided with your options.

The new Ventura 13.2.1 update that was released today (Feb 13) seems to resolve the issue for me as well.

There's nothing about it in their Changelog though...

About the security content of macOS Ventura 13.2.1 - Apple Support

My previous post is the fix for this issue. And it’s at a much larger scale than anticipated.

It’s affecting M1/M2 Macs, and apparently iPhone’s.

Anyone with WiFi routers that won’t let you change channels are out of luck. You’ll need wait for a fix from Apple, replace the router, or lose functionality.

Now that I know what to search for:

AWDL causing ping spikes - Patch planned?… - Apple Community

AWDL causing wifi latency - Apple Community

MacBook Pro M1 WiFi issue - Apple Community

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/wi-fi-jitter-erratic-ping-latency-due-to-awdl-airdrop-airplay.2373916/

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/451646/force-disabling-awdl-on-ventura-or-above/454060

https://www.meter.com/mac-osx-awdl-psa

https://osxdaily.com/2022/12/12/m2-m1-macbook-having-wi-fi-issues-this-workaround-helps/

The list goes on and on and on…

Nothing seems to have changed or improved for me in the macOS Ventura 13.3 update:

What's new in the updates for macOS Ventura - Apple Support

If I use the 2.4Ghz network, things work, but slowly with occasional dropouts. If I use the 5Ghz network, the internet drops out every time I use anything that uses AWDL it seems.

The Command Line Tools for Xcode won't do anything for this issue - they're just Terminal commands that work alongside Apple's Xcode programming environment. If you're not using your Mac for software development, Xcode and the Xcode command line tools don't need to be installed, and don't affect any core macOS functionality.

Those instructions are for resetting the SMC on an Intel-based Mac. See: Reset the SMC of your Mac – Apple Support (UK) and are a last resort option for fixing some power-related issues.

Apple Silicon based Macs work differently, and just restarting them does the equivalent troubleshooting remedies that various startup key combinations did on Intel-based Macs.

It was most likely just the power off and restart that resolved things for you.

In my case, booting into Safe Mode and then back into Normal Mode helped with one of my ping spike issues.

Just tried Macbrush solution (Turning off location service for WiFi and Network in Privacy settings), not working for me:

• without disk 1200Mbps up and down on wifi
• 1 SSD disk on TB4: only 800Mbps
• 4 SSD disk 600Mbps

So not a 100% fix, need more time to test if it fall not down to 100Mbps or less again

Read that 13.4 BETA has newly WIFI issues, so Apple is trying to fix something in that area....

Wifi dropping in 2016 15" MacBook Pro whe… - Apple Community

"'m having the same issue with an AUKEY usb-c to displayport adapter in a 2016 non touch bar 13" pro (that I needed to get for 60hz 4k output!). Incredibly consistent, every time I plug it in the adaptor works great but wifi completely stops working."

Read the entire thread.

I have a 2.4 GHz network and a separate 5 GHz.

The network are separated because some old IoT devices won’t connect an hybrid wifi network.

I could not connect to the 5 GHz network with my mini M2 pro. 2.4 GHz was working fine but is a bit slow nowadays.

I read here and could not find the answer to give a thanks that changing the hdmi cable could solve the issue. I was very doubtful but I removed my HDMI 2.1 cable and used an old and shorter HDMI cable and it worked! I have 250 Mbit/s with 5 GHz wifi. I lost the 4K at 120 Hz.

2 possibilities:

• the grounding of the cheap hdmi 2.1 cable was defective and this 2 m long cable acted as an antenna and interfered with the radio part of the WiFi chip.
• the radio part of the WiFi chip in the M2Pro and the hdmi cable are too close and some interference may occur.

I will try a new and shorter Hdmi 2.1 cable and I may try optical HDMI cable to be sure that the cable is not an antenna.