New Mac Mini M2 has constant issues with wifi. Its unusable. Ethernet works perfectly, but when using wifi the connection will consistently drop packets. Wifi works perfectly with older Mac mini M1, MacBook Pro, Intel Mac in the same small office. I have turned off all other devices and still have same issue. Did a factory reset and same issues.
Mac mini (2023 with M2)
**Solution discovered** (but Mac MUST release a fix for this soon. Very unhappy with my new Mac Mini M2 Pro.)
it is a problem with Wi-Fi 6 routers that combine all the bands under one SSID (Wi-Fi name).
If you have Spectrum, their “smart” router doesn’t have the function to separate the bands and therefore will NOT work. You need to get another router and the bands have to be named separately as others have said in the posts.
this is an issue that shouldn’t be an issue, and I’m surprised no fix has come for this yet so regular people don’t have to become network professionals to get their internet to work!
___Will___, does touching the HDMI cable's plug as it attaches to your Mac mini reduce or eliminate packet loss and increase download speed as it does for user AbuYang?
Copy of AbuYang's video:
He found that packet loss also decreased to zero doing so doing so.
AbuYang, upon further reading I've learned that HDMI cables are known to emit radio frequency interference around 2.4GHz. One company tested 30 common HDMI cables and found that only 11% of them were properly shielded and met electromagnetic compatibility requirements. The frequency HDMI cables emit can interfere with some or many Wi-Fi channels.
Given that the Wi-Fi channels are:
1: 2412 MHz, 2401-2423 MHz
2: 2417 MHz, 2406-2428 MHz
3: 2422 MHz, 2411-2433 MHz
4: 2427 MHz, 2416-2438 MHz
5: 2432 MHz, 2421-2443 MHz
6: 2437 MHz, 2426-2448 MHz
7: 2442 MHz, 2431-2453 MHz
8: 2447 MHz, 2436-2458 MHz
9: 2452 MHz, 2441-2463 MHz
10: 2457 MHz, 2446-2468 MHz
11: 2462 MHz, 2451-2473 MHz
12: 2467 MHz, 2456-2478 MHz
13: 2472 MHz, 2461-2483 MHz
14: 2484 MHz, 2473-2495 MHz
There is no wonder why poorly shielded HDMI ports and/or cables are causing Wi-Fi interference.
Out of curiosity, AbuYang, what type of Wi-Fi network are you connected to? A 2.4GHz or 5GHz Wi-Fi network?
(comment: 11% was in their report, I don’t know how you get get 11% of 30 cables. That’d be 3.3 cables.)
Hey Ken Shimabukuro
I don't want to jinx it, but since having the logic board replaced 6 days ago, there haven't been any wifi issues.
I've had wifi diagnostics running since then and no network loss.
I checked both before and after system reports, but couldn't see any difference in hardware/software versions etc.
I'll update here if I see any further issues.
Everyone is talking about HDMI and WiFi issues. That is the symptoms but not the root cause. I believe the root cause is the psu/pdu designed for the Mac Mini M2. Everything you connect to the Mac Mini requires power including HDMI and WiFi. Apple wants to make M1/M2 computers to be power efficient. But I don’t think they properly designed power distribution correctly especially when you have many devices connecting through USB-C and USB-A ports that power to power on.
I have a Mac Mini M2 Pro. Here is what I have connected.
Recently, I’ve added 1 more SSD drive to Sitecom hub. Boom, the WiFi started to drop. Shutting down the Mac Mini, unplugging the power, and holding down the power button for 15 seconds did not resolve my WiFi issue. In the past this process worked. The difference is I’ve added more devices.
By the way, I have a 2018 Intel Mac Mini with the same amount of devices connected with the same amount of usage. No WiFi issue.
Lack of power will affect the WiFi signals.
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No interference to the WiFi by touching the cable. It been running great for over a week.
Me too...I returned the first mini M2 Pro and the same issue on 5Ghz, it is a bit slower just on initial hook up, but then after a few minutes to ~a day, it will lose data rate and be non useable.
Swap to 2.4Ghz, and it works normal.
Reboot to temp-fix the 5Ghz , then the same issue happens again and again.
My problems resolved once I moved the hub off the top of the Mac mini. Now airdrop works! It’s the first time I’ve run into anything like this with a Mac but it certainly is sensitive compared to the studio system.
Prior to 13.2.1 I had wifi issues - they have been resolved 100% with the update. Performance is rock solid and I do have an external drive thunderbolt
K2Kevin, by any chance is your display connected via HDMI? If so, if you hold its HDMI plug like user AbuYang did does your Wi-Fi behave better too?
I just bought a 2023 MacBook Pro and have the same issue. Here are some things I've tried that did not help so others can save time:
Am currently trying the approach mentioned here, but it's not a long-term solution. Apple needs to release a fix for this ASAP.
It has been suggested to me that, while older devices use 802.11 ac for WIFI, the new MBP uses 802.11ax (x instead of c – this is why, for some people including me, older devices work just fine on the same network). The new Mini uses x as well. I'm also told that, while there should be backwards compatibility in general, there are too many routers to test all combinations and so things do sometimes go wrong, pending a software update.
I have a "Senior Advisor" from Apple's support team looking into this. In my personal opinion, people should hold off on buying these brand-new devices until Apple acknowledges and fixes the issue.
Solution: I had the same problem with both Ethernet and WIFI.
Under Networks I disabled/inactivated "Thunderbolt bridge" (translation from Swedish, could be different in your language) and now my internet connection works as it should.
Please replay with your result.
Best regards
For the time being it seems as if I found a solution today with an employee of the Apple Store Düsseldorf. At his suggestion, I simply changed the HDMI cable to the monitor. So far, 5GHz has been running without any problems or drops in speed.
I got around the problem by doing this. My Mac Mini M2 is located too far away from the main wifi router to connect using an ethernet cable. So, I connected to a nearby 2nd MESH wifi router using an ethernet cable. The 2nd MESH router is connected wirelessly to the main router. If you have 2 or more MESH routers with built-in ethernet port, connect to one of them. Hope this helps.
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
13.2.1 seems to have solved my WiFi issues and sidecar now works properly when I connect my mini to my iPad and laptop (was unusably choppy prior to the update). I am optimistic that I don't have to bring it back at this point.
Mac Mini M2 wifi issues
