I'm using a MacBook Pro M2 Pro model with MacOS Ventura v13.3.1 (a). When I reboot, I cannot connect to known Wi-Fi networks until I login. This is causing issues with my multi factor push notifications since there is no network connectivity. Is there a setting I need to change in order to establish a Wi-Fi network connection so my MFA push notification will work?
Thanks!
MacBook Pro (M2 Pro, 2023)
The internal SSD in Apple Silicon Macs is hardware encrypted from the factory. When you power on the Mac, you need to authenticate to unlock the disk encryption and boot the Mac. What you see when you first power on the Mac is a simulated visual representation of the login screen. It's really just the bare minimum necessary to collect your username / password so it can unlock the disk and continue booting. The technical term for this is the pre-boot authentication screen. Once the progress bar finishes, the Mac is booted and networking established. There is actually a second login screen that looks the same but is the real login screen. Then macOS will automatically sign-on using the password you entered on the pre-boot authentication. If you boot into Safe Mode you will see both sign-on screens and you'll note they look almost 100% the same.
When restarting or powering up, you will need to enter your password so it can boot the operating system and connect to the network. If you enabled FileVault you can open Terminal and type "sudo fdesetup authrestart" and enter the username and password and when the Mac reboots it will single-sign-on (SSO) into your Mac desktop screen.
Once booted, if you sign out of macOS you are brought to the real sign-on screen and not the pre-boot authentication simulated sign-on screen.
If you are using MFA to sign-in to macOS or your corporate network, you should consult your IT department. There's a number of ways to configure things that only they can configure. For example, there's software such as JAMF Connect which plugs-in to the sign-on screen to allow you to authenticate using an identity provider such as Okta, etc. to sign you into the corporate cloud infrastructure, etc.
The internal SSD in Apple Silicon Macs is hardware encrypted from the factory. When you power on the Mac, you need to authenticate to unlock the disk encryption and boot the Mac. What you see when you first power on the Mac is a simulated visual representation of the login screen. It's really just the bare minimum necessary to collect your username / password so it can unlock the disk and continue booting. The technical term for this is the pre-boot authentication screen. Once the progress bar finishes, the Mac is booted and networking established. There is actually a second login screen that looks the same but is the real login screen. Then macOS will automatically sign-on using the password you entered on the pre-boot authentication. If you boot into Safe Mode you will see both sign-on screens and you'll note they look almost 100% the same.
When restarting or powering up, you will need to enter your password so it can boot the operating system and connect to the network. If you enabled FileVault you can open Terminal and type "sudo fdesetup authrestart" and enter the username and password and when the Mac reboots it will single-sign-on (SSO) into your Mac desktop screen.
Once booted, if you sign out of macOS you are brought to the real sign-on screen and not the pre-boot authentication simulated sign-on screen.
If you are using MFA to sign-in to macOS or your corporate network, you should consult your IT department. There's a number of ways to configure things that only they can configure. For example, there's software such as JAMF Connect which plugs-in to the sign-on screen to allow you to authenticate using an identity provider such as Okta, etc. to sign you into the corporate cloud infrastructure, etc.
I realize this is nearly a year old thread but I was also having this same problem. I had just enabled FileFault on a new Macbook Air during setup. My Macs are connected to an Active Directory domain and all users were unable to login because the network wasn't connecting until after the local user account signed in first and then signed out. This just saved me countless hours of researching I don't think I would have put two and two together with this one! thank you thank you thank you.
Confirming the disabling file fault solved my problem.
Wi-Fi not connecting prior to login
