Mac Mini M2 wifi issues

I think the grounding of the video cable shows that the Mac mini is not unaffected by HDMI, DVI-D, DisplayPort, etc interference just as previous Mac mini's, MacBooks Pro's, and others have shown to be. HDMI to DVI-D cables are notorious for causing 2.4GHz Wi-Fi interference. HDMI cables have been reported to cause 5GHz Wi-Fi interference.

https://tech.ikarus.sg/wfh-bad-wifi-hdmi/

Some people have found well shielded HDMI cables are eliminating Wi-Fi inference for them.

Moving my thunderbolt hub help my issues a lot. I had it on top on my Mac mini. When I moved it to side a few inches away, my airdrop started working again and my Wi-Fi started connecting to the 802.11 ax bands correctly.

So I have had this problem with both my iPad Pro and my 2023 Macbook Pro (both with M2 chips). I noticed that when I first got my Macbook, I had the same wifi issue where it would work and then it would all of a sudden have weak or no internet connection. Mean while my partner's M1 Macbook Pro and my old intel macbook worked fine any where around the house. It would be so annoying and embarrassing because I would not have stable internet for work zoom calls.

After digging deep in this wifi researching rabbit hole, I realized that both of my M2 devices have wifi 6E. I connected the dots and assume that my router does not have wifi 6E technology. So under Wi-Fi Settings...>Details...>Wi-Fi 6E Mode>Off. By default it on "automatic" so I'm assuming that if I turn this feature off then it wouldn't automatically trigger wifi 6E mode? Only time will tell... lol

Went through initial setup, updated to 13.2.1, but still had issues. Swapped out HDMI cable and it started working. The cable I was using is an extra long one from like 2007 or so.

I turned off wifi 6E in settings and my issues went away. So it is definitely 100% wifi 6E. It’s been stable for me for over a month now.

Eimer92, USB-C to DisplayPort has been reported to cause Wi-Fi interference. Which brand and model of USB-C cable are you using to connect your display?

Found something that seems to potentially be helping. Under System Settings -> Networking right click "Ethernet" and make inactive. Then do the same to "Thunderbolt Bridge". Not sure why, but after doing this my wifi got dramatically faster and more stable. Have only been testing it about 15 minutes, but so far seems to make a big difference.

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…

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."

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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.

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?

This worked for me, I have a Deco mesh router which combines all bands under one SSID. So to test this solution I connected a mini router that I use for travelling which does separate 2.4 Ghz and 5Ghz signals, connecting the new Mac mini M2 to this router fixed the issue, no packet loss and strong signal.

Pretty amazing that Apple didn't fix this one yet.

While this was the solution for me, unfortunately it does not persist through a restart and toggles back on periodically also.

The problem seems to be that Apples Wireless Direct interface hijacks your wifi to speak to other Apple devices around it, this causes the jitters and slowdowns.

One potential fix is putting your wifi channel on the same channel as the Apple Wireless Direct network, which is for 5GHZ - channel 44 in EU and 149 in US. This way the device wont have to switch channels when it uses the apple direct network interfaces.

Second potential solution is turning off services which use this Apple Wireless Direct Network, like Handoff, AirDrop and broadcasting as an Airplay receiver.

I tested both of these ''fixes'' and they seem to improve wifi availability and performance a lot for me. I still hope Apple fixes their terrible wifi performance so we don't have to resort to this.

This! This is the answer!! Changing wifi channel to channel 149 solves the issues!

But here's the rub, I have a dual 5ghz band router with both bands under a single SSID. When the Mac connects to the band I set to channel 149 everything is good. When it connects to the other band wifi is trash again. I'd like to keep the single SSID for other devices that have better wifi implementations than the mini. Is there any way to force the mini to use the band on channel 149? You used to be able to "sudo/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Resources/airport --channel=NUMBER" but that does not work in Ventura. Is there any alternate way to force the Mac to use that band/channel?

I tried speaking with AppleCare but all they had to offer was that I should talk to my ISP... I have my own router that I can administer. I do not need to talk to my ISP about anything. This thread seems to have better research info on the topic than AppleCare unfortunately, so maybe someone here knows the answer.

Edit: One caveat, using channel 149 seems to also make airdrop non-functional. Not ideal having to choose between having internet or having air drop.

I had the same issue as everyone else here, a mac mini M2, basic configuration... wifi dident work, but i inactivated ethernet, thunderbolt bridge and airdrop handsoff, and now it seems to work... streaming video, downloading games. I use a phone hotspot as my only connection so i paniced a bit when wifi dident work.

I just got a macbook pro with an M2 pro chip and am also extremely disapointed by the wifi support.

I can not connect to eduroam at work at all. Here is what my IT team told me:

Update for the eduroam issue on Ventura. It appears to be a known issue to the Networks team, I will be discussing this further with them. It is only impacting M2 Macs (it isn't a Ventura issue but a hardware issue). As soon as Apple have provided a solution we will be contacting you by email to let you know that Eduroam is available again. Unfortunately, we have not been provided a current timescale for this from Apple.

At home I could initially only connect to my wifi when being within 5 meters from the router... Fortunately the workaround of separating my 5GHz and 2.4GHz networks into distinct SSID and only using the 2.4GHz one now allows me to use the wifi at home. This however obviously has an impact on all my other devices which were handling the combined 5GHz and 2.4GHz with no issue whatsoever but now have to be configured appropriately.

I tried bypassing this problem by keeping a combined SSID but forcing the new M2 mac to only use the 2.4GHz channel but it looks this feature has been removed in recent Mac OS versions...

https://gist.github.com/zackseuberling/2109d7979d43d5ef1cc920b70e931dc0?permalink_comment_id=4068325#gistcomment-4068325

Certainly not the experience I was expecting for such a high-cost device. Very frustrating.