Mac Mini M2 wifi issues

My solution :o)

Investigating a bit and seeing the different configurations of my Wi-Fi 6 router (Mitrastar) I have
been able to see that the default option for the 5ghz Wi-Fi bandwidth is set to 80mhz. I have changed
this option to 160 mhz

Everything has been solved!! 5ghz wifi is working perfectly now and it's the first time since
I bought the macmini that it gives me the real speed contracted in the speed test with
absolutely no loss!

I have reactivated handoff airplay and AWDL because in my case this does not solve anything.

I haven't had to separate the SSIDs either, I've been testing all day and it's still perfect
with this change made.

Returned my Mac mini because of this issue. Waited a week or two and ordered another one once it sounded like some people were having luck with 13.2.1. Had the same issue with the new one BEFORE I updated to 13.2.1. (massive packet loss, 90% reduced download and upload speeds) Updated last night and so far the issue is resolved. But I am not convinced the fix will stick. Connected to Eero home network with 5ghz and 2.4 on one ssid.

So I've been dealing with this issue for nearly 2 month. It has something to do with WiFi 6. When I turn off "Wi-Fi 6E Mode" in network settings everything works fine. However, if you want to use Wi-Fi 6E like I do just because, I have to go through a series of steps to get a stable connection (see diagram below). I have to do these steps every time I restart the Mac or Wi-Fi router which has been unavoidable lately here in the SF Bay Area due to crazy weather causing power outages. That said, If you don't have a Wi-Fi 6 router or don't really need the speed, just turn off "Wi-Fi 6E Mode". But APPLE, you have to fix this issue, your customers don't need to have to jump through hoops just to use one of your highlighted features.

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 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.

I'm putting this here guys. hope it helps. My Mac mini m2 pro can't seem to connect to wifi 5Ghz, however after checking with apple support. This Mac mini setup is wifi 6e (802.11ax)2 , seems not to be working great with wpa2. I changed my router to wpa3 or wpa and its working fine now.

FALSE ALARM - Everything is fine! The SSID of the 5Ghz network had 24Ghz in the name, and the SSID of the 2.4Ghz network had 5Ghz in the name.

So now that the SSIDs correspond to the correct networks, it was the 5Ghz network that worked all along - its the 2.4Ghz network that is slow. My bad. 🙃

I think the main issue is that the HDMI cable, it any cable going into the Mac Mini M2 (or PRO) is too close to the radio receiver.

I use two screens. One is connected with HDMI, and the other with an HDMI to USBC cable. So far, going on for 2 hours, I have seen no drop immediately. I will revisit this reply in the next few days to update if there has been any change

I bought an M2 Pro in March and experienced the same wifi and bluetooth issues discussed here. I exchanged it for a different one and while the problems persisted, it wasn't as bad as the first Mac mini. Using two Samsung 4k monitors with Spectrum 500mbps wifi, I was getting between 15-125mbps. My old MacBook Pro on the same desk would get upwards of 450mbps. After reading that some had success with swapping out the HDMI cables to new ones, I went to Amazon and purchased one 8k HDMI cable (into an 8k HDMI port) to see if that made a difference. Lo and behold, swapping one of the HDMIs upped my wifi speed to 250mbps. Seeing that that improved speed, I purchased one more matching 8k HDMI and now get consistent 450mbps wifi. I have not done a packet loss test or anything as it seems to have fixed the problem. I would highly recommend everyone experiencing problems upgrade their HDMI cables.

Could you do an experiment, cwedits? Could you somehow ground the HDMI cable’s sheath by either touching and holding the sheath with a finger or by attaching a grounding cord/wire to the sheath while doing Wi-Fi speed tests? One theory is that improper shielding is causing Wi-Fi interference from the HDMI connection of the M2 Mac mini.

Hi, I just unboxed my Mac Mini M2 Pro and got the same issue. After spending 2-3 hours with Apple customer support, I was recommended to contact with my internet provider which is Bell. They update the modem firmware and the problem just solved in 5 minutes. I hope this solutions work for some of you.

So, it's really weird. If I touch the TB3 adapter, the pings go to "normal time"... 2-3 or 4 ms. But when I let go, they jump back up to 400-800 ms... in that range, with some dropped packets. The same thing happened when I would just touch the power cord as well. Or if I just put my finger over the HDMI port on the Mac Mini M2. It occasionally spikes up to around 135ms. I also had an external dock connected to my Mac. It was a USB-C Dock with various ports. Once I removed that (and removed it from the space) I'm seeing an actual patter with the ping responses. They basically go down to normal, with a cycle of about 8-9 normal responses, one at 50 something, one at around 100 and then another around 150. But after 5 minutes or so, it went chaotic. Then it went back to this cycle.

I wonder if it has to do with HDMI cables being really EMI noisy...

https://tech.ikarus.sg/wfh-bad-wifi-hdmi/#:~:text=HDMI%20cables%20are%20really%20noisy&text=Without%20proper%20shielding%2C%20the%20RF,WiFi%20being%20the%20first%20sign.

And if using an HDMI cable with ferrite cores would help.

AbuYang,

what are your ping statistics if you ping google.com all while grounding the HDMI plug versus a video of you pinging while never touching the HDMI plug? What are the ping statistics if you stop the ping (press Control + C to finish the ping)? What the difference in packet loss between pinging while holding the HDMI plug versus not touching the HDMI plug at all?

I'm still having issues. When HDMI is plugged in, I get about 20mbps down, with packet loss, and eventual cut-off of wi-fi. With HDMI unplugged 5 seconds later, I get 100+mbps down with no loss. Wi-fi access point is 6 feet from computer.

EDIT: M2 Pro, running 13.4