Mac Mini M2 wifi issues

Hi, guys it is me again. Just a reminder, I have a Mac Mini M2 Pro with the wifi unstable connection issue.

I am still waiting to hear from Apple engineering team, but at the same time I think I solved the problem. It has been 3 days and I have good connection.

As you know, the problem is not perpetual, so we have connection time to time. When I have connection, I open the wifi interface entering 192.168.2.1 and see that my Mac mini is using 5G and radio 1. I have no idea what radio 1 is, but forget it for now. Then I turned off and on wifi to lose the connection and it happened after a few tries. It started to say there is no connection. Then I checked the modem interface from my phone and see my mac mini is in radio 2. I waited for 20-30 minutes and there was no connection at all. I restart modem and got the connection again then check the modem interface I was in radio 1 again.

I live in Canada and my ISP is Bell. I have not contacted yet Bell about radio 1 or 2, but so far I think it is the problem I have. I hope that means something for some of us.

AbuYang, do you have any way of routing your HDMI cable straight out from your Mac mini then plugging the other end into your display without making the cable perpendicular close to your Mac mini? Is this your HDMI cable I highlighted in this photo? Is your HDMI cable looped back around where some part of the cable is parallel to your Mac mini?

Let me share some of my recent experiences with the 5Ghz WiFi network and MacBook Pro M2 and solution.

We have some of FortiAPs in the company and some M1, M2, 2019 and 2016 MacBook Pros. Last week, some M2 could not connect to 5GHz WiFi. Other models have no problems at all. The issue is that when M2 tries to connect 5GHz WiFi, the WiFi icon will show an exclamation mark and say the network is connected but no Internet. After my testing and research, I found out that there are some channels in which M2 will have no connection. See my chart, the green channel means the connection is working, and the grey channel means no Internet when M2 is connected. So if you have control of your router, please test the channel one by one by selecting the specific channel only and let your 5GHz Wifi run only with one channel. Then you will know what channels your M2 has trouble with. In my case, the upper channel (161 on most AP)will not work with these M2s, but channel 36 works fine. I am not sure if it's WiFi adapter issues or driver issues. I will test it with a new external WiFi adapter.

OMFG

I've been having wifi issues with my mini; first the M1 and now the M2 pro. EXCRUSCIATINGLY SLOW...9mbps...and sometimes I had to wait a whole 5 minutes for the speed test to START to perform. Unreal. Every other device on the network was lightning fast so clearly it wasn't an ISP issue. I've had to use ethernet to get a decent connection. That's right....2023, brand new Mac mini...and I need to use ethernet. How is this even possible? I've scoured the discussion boards and discovered options like splitting my SSID which disrupted everything else in the house (ring cams) so that was a no go.

I came across a discussion that mentioned connecting your monitor using the hdmi port on the mini was causing interference with 2.4G and throwing everything out of whack. The suggestion was to get a hdmi to usb-c adapter to hook up the monitor and lo.....and f'in behold....it worked.

Yup...using the hdmi port on the mac mini will make your wifi (and life) miserable. My prediction for the next mini will be that they eliminate the hdmi port altogether or at least they should...if they have ANY pride left.

Apple....you aren't exactly giving these machines away. We pay good money and expect QUALITY. If we wanted all these **** problems, we'd get a PC at a fraction of the cost. Get your **** together. Jobs is rolling in his grave.

I just moved it. I had it placed on top of my Mac mini (just like I do with my Mac Studio at work). After moving it, Airdrop is being more consistent so far. I transfer files via Airdrop several times a day, so I’ll quickly know if this was the issue. If it is, the the Max Mini M2 does have an interference vulnerability not seen on other Macs.

K2Kevin Siad:

"Mac Mini M2 wifi issues: Are you on Comcast or using the Xfinity Xfi wifi modem/router. I noticed I lost all wifi late last night to all machines. This morning this Mac mini wifi issue seems to be resolved for now (While on phone with Apple reporting the issue)”

———-

I am Leasing my Router from Xfinity:

Maybe there was a weak signal —one too weak for the signal. Could be due to the weather, depending what it’s like where the ISP is located.

I lost power two or three times yesterday due to a power surge or sag, and my modem restarted by itself.

I am leasing the modem from the ISP. So, contact them if your are leasing it. If it dies, then it would be on the ISP(if circumstances are met).

Same problem. I’ve returned the device hoping it was faulty and hoping the replacement will resolve the issue where the Mac Mini Pro can’t connect to the 5Hz. Also, the Wi-Fi speeds are poor for 2.4GHz as well. I would have thought Wi-Fi 6e would be an improvement to older devices using a Wi-Fi 6 router.

I had the same issue. I noticed that my iPad mini was still connected in the display settings as a monitor (was testing feature). One I selected disconnect, haven't had any wifi drops and slowness. For reference, I had prior done a couple reboots and would re-gain performance briefly and then it would drop out. Also, I am Xfinity/Comcast 1G.

This wasn't an issue on day one but started suddenly. Again, after disconnecting my iPad in Display settings, haven't noticed a single drop or perceived slowness.

Hope this helps someone.

Just got the M2 Mac mini for my wife and I am having the exact same issue. I have to turn the wifi off-and-on to get it to work again. I have the Xfinity wifi 6E gateway with 1 gbps connection. The M2 Mac mini is our only computer that has wifi 6E and is the only one that gets cut off. I don't know if that's the issue, but Apple has to resolve this issue ASAP. I've seen posts regarding this issue since December. BTW I has to turn the wifi off-and-on just to get to this page and again just to post it. Ridiculous!

+1

toggling the wifi off and on will cause it to temporarily behave normally, but connectivity will inevitably die again a few minutes later. Its literally only a few feet from my mesh wifi extender. Every single other device in the house work fine. Both my personal and work laptops positioned in almost an identical place as the Mac mini work fine. I don't know if its a garbage driver, faulty hardware, or terrible case design (it wouldn't be the first time Apple designed a product where the case interfered with RF signals...), but the product is defective. I'll wait until next Friday for a new driver, but if they don't release one, or that's not the problem, its going back to Apple

Same problem on my Mac Mini M2 PRO, just arrived on today, everytime when it back from sleep mode, the wifi is not useable, no matter to choose which wifi network include the iphone hotspot, problem exists. connection signal look full, but 90% of packages are lost. Tried restart the machine, reset the network setting, problem the same.

btw: im sure this is not my wifi network problem, got 30+ devices connected all the time in the last years, some of devices are next to this mac mini and they even got a faster speed.

Tried to disable the Handoff, Airdrop, Airplay Receiver, seems like problem get solved for now, let's see for another couple of days. Heard from others the wifi problem is caused by os 13.1/13.2 with m2 chips, new macbook pros have same issue.