Ventura 13.2.1 - wifi dropping on MBP and Mini

In my case the problem looked like this: if I tried to ping the router, it delivers and receives 5 packets, then has no route to the router for the next 5-8 packets, then successfully sends/receives 5-6 more and so on.

The problem was with the little snitch firewall. I disabled it under Settings -> Network -> VPN & Filters -> Filters & Proxies.

Not sure if update would help as the little snitch's update server is down at the moment. Could be an OS-level bug of Filters & Proxies.

It's happening with the latest stable update Ventura 13.3 in the MBP M1 Max. It's happening because of AWDL.

Disabling it using the below command seems to fix the issue.

sudo ifconfig awdl0 down

Unfortunately, the service gets auto-enabled after a few minutes, you can check the status by using this command

sudo ifconfig awdl0

No straightforward way to disable it completely.

Just to add that I originally thought I had the same problem as reported here, but it turns out that during/after one of the OS updates, the system must have triggers the DDOS protection in my router, as the mac address had been blacklisted - once I removed that from the router settings, all was fine again.

Download and run Etrecheck. Be sure to give it Full Disk access before running.

Copy and paste the results into your reply. Etrecheck is a diagnostic tool that was developed by one of the most respected users here in the ASC and recommended by Apple Support  to provide a snapshot of the system and help identify the more obvious culprits that can adversely affect a Mac's performance.

Copy the report

and use the Additional Text button to paste the report in your reply.

Then we can evaluate the report to see if we can determine the cause of the problem.

I am having the same Issue on my MBP 2017

That only solution we could come up with was to turn off the wi-fi 6 on our network

Hello christof21,

Thank you for reaching out in Apple Support Communities. You've done an excellent job with the troubleshooting steps that were performed. If you're using a VPN or have a third party security software installed on your Mac, we suggest to temporarily remove it and test to see if the Wi-Fi connection remains connected. This may cause the Wi-Fi network to not remain connected to your Mac. Here's our support article with additional details: Check VPN (Virtual Private Network) and third-party software to help resolve network connectivity issues - Apple Support

We look forward to hearing back from you with an update.

Kind regards.

christof21 wrote:

this thread seems to have gone dead but my sadly my problem hasn't magically resolved itself.

It's clearly an issue with MacOS and I need some sort of fix or answer to what the issue is and what is being done to fix it.

At the moment, the issue is rendering both MBP and Mac Mini pretty much useless with the wifi constantly dropping and then not even connecting or seeing any wifi networks.

I would suggest that you try to systematically turn off each bluetooth device in the vicinity, one at a time, to try to see if one bluetooth device is interfering. Another option -- switch to the 5 GHz WiFi, as Bluetooth is at 2 GHz.

mbp, ventura, 13.3.1

The only element that seems to make a difference is to NOT plug anything into a port.

At least then, the wifi sustains whilst using bluetooth trackpad & keyboard.

Not very helpful.

Apple, please resolve asap. A major problem IMO.

For the OP: If it's your home router and wifi access point then two other things I'd try.

1. see what wireless channels the wireless selects automatically and then, assuming you can, set it to fixed channels (2.4 and 5GHz) which are different from and a long way from (numerically) the channels it chooses automatically. You might be seeing interference and this might help.

2.Give the problem devices static IPs and make sure they are bound to their mac addresses in the router. You can use the IPs that are assigned by DCHP, but once you've changed from DCHP to static you'll should update the bind list just to make sure there are no clashes in future. You'll have to power cycle the router and the Macs once you've done it.

I have disabled the DOS protection inside my router. So far so good. Will update you about it.

Am seeing the same issue with a brand new out-of-the box M2 mini and Ventura 13.2.1.

Cannot connect to home wifi, on the phone for hours with tech, have half-functional connection via phone tethering. Was asked to reinstall Ventura after all the safe mode reboot, various troubleshooting, etc. 36 hours and 55 minutes remaining on install.

Initially it did not look like the box is capable of bandwidth hopping or channel conflict resolution, but rebooting router had compatible channel / band and initially appeared to connect but then failed. Something is majorly horked and it's not my environment - wif6 new(ish) capable router and all other Mac devices (ranging from unsupported old iPad to Catalina to M1 Ventura work laptop to multiple iPhone generations on most recent connecting are flawlessly. Appears to be combo of Apple Silicon on the mini and latest Ventura.

On verge of returning my new purchase. Deeply disappointing.

Do you have bluetooth dropouts as well as WiFi issues? I understand that the wifi and bluetooth are intimately connected in the MBP.

I use a bluetooth keyboard and trackpad, and routinely get total dropout. The onboard keyboard and trackpad on the MBP are not affected. Restart required to get bluetooth operational again.

These dropouts don't coincide with the WiFi failures on the MBP, but are equally aggravating!

Don't put the laptop to sleep. Just use the screensaver. The drives in that year model are solid state so there's no downside to not putting the laptop to sleep.

I am having the issue with my 16” 2019 MacBook Pro. It worked absolutely fine prior to upgrading to Ventura. I normally wait a few months after a new OS release in the hopes that most bugs would be ironed out however it seems this issue is still ongoing and no answer from Apple?

Ive reset DNS cache, reinstalled the OS, turned off VPN, used CleanMyMac X, tried disabling Bluetooth, changed DNS server, used other browsers and nothing has worked. Every other click of a web link gets me the grey screen ‘cannot connect to server’. I then have to reload the page and hope it comes up. My laptop is now pretty much useless to me. iPhone and iPad work fine on the same network with no drop outs at all.