WiFi slow until restarting wifi on Mac?

The way forward that does not require deep analysis is the first make certain your internal Router internet channel selection (setting INSIDE your Router) is "automatic". Then cycle the power to your Router so that it chooses the "best" channel available at that moment, based on commotion form other Routers nearby as well as signal levels.

or you can look around "by hand". Hold down the Option key while you click on the Wi-Fi icon in the menubar. One option that appears there is "Open Wireless diagnostics". Choose that, and click the (continue) button for an analysis of your settings. consider any diagnosis and suggestions it makes.

From there, you can choose SCAN for its "window menu, and you get a list of all nearby Routers. I suggest you click on the Channel column to sort by channel number. looks like this older one:

(drag and drop on Preview to see larger and scroll)

you can use this information to see what other Routers are competing with yours.

first, try it in Safe Mode.

"Works in safe mode, fails in regular mode" implies "it's something you added".

if no difference, hold down the Option key while you click on the Wi-Fi icon in the Menubar. This produces a snapshot of Current operating conditions, similar to this older one. Transcribe or screenshot the result and post back here for readers to analyze.

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In general, your mac will connect first to the channel and band it was on before, and then the strongest signal.

whether that is the 5GHz band depends on your "network neighborhood" -- the other Routers nearby that are sharing the Wi-Fi signal band.

The best general way to proceed is to make sure your Router is set to "automatic" channel selection. then when it wakes up, it listens for other traffic, then chooses the least cluttered channel to use. It is not an accident every debugging procedure seems to start with, "cycle the power to your Router..."

there are tools inside network diagnostics that can tell you the channel assignment of Routers nearby, but without a chart of how wide the spectrum being used is, that is not a lot of help. there is a chart on Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WLAN_channels

scroll down to the BIG chart that shows spectrum spread.

OR use an inexpensive Utility like WIFI Explorer, that has a "spectrum" display.

I have the new MacBook Pro 14 M3 Max as well. Every 2 or 3 days (of heavy daily use), suddenly WiFi speeds drop to 1 or 2 Mbps. Turning off WiFi from the menu bar and turning it back on a couple of seconds later fixes the problem and my speeds are back to 300 Mbps or so.

Next time it happens, I'll check which band I'm connected to. Have you found any permanent solutions yet?

Csgcg--

I and other readers would like to help you figure out what is happening on your system.

But I can't think deeply about YOUR specific issues when you camp on the end of an existing discussion that already has so many other Users details on it.

to get your issue the attention it deserves, please start a NEW discussion, including exactly what model-year Mac and what version of MacOS.

Hold the option key and click on the WiFi Icon in the menubar, and post the snapshot of conditions that shows up, as was done above.

Jim Norman--

You have camped on another user's problem and tried to add your issue as if it were the same. For networking problems, there is almost never a cross solution that works for all. Every "network neighborhood" is unique.

Yours is NOT the same, and to get best results for yourself, you should start a new discussion, post model-year and MacOS version information, and produce the Option Wi-Fi snapshot suggested above.

On a new discussion, your issues can be considered separately instead of being mixed with this (likely) unrelated problem, and a solution for you can be worked on.

There is also a "brute force" way to manage networks that do NOT include all three bands 2.4 GHz, and both 5 AND 6 GHz bands. That is to split the Wi-Fi into two parts, (two WiFi-network-names) and selectively connect to the one you prefer. I have done that in the past with my Home network, but after doing more deep analysis, I am moving toward re-combining them in the future.

Nenineko27 wrote:

[...]

Not sure what to do

to get your issue the attention it deserves, please start a NEW discussion.

Hold the option key and click on the WiFi Icon in the menubar, and post the snapshot of conditions that shows up, as was done above.

happened for me too so many times, i dont know whats wrong. Once it does this, no matter which wifi connection it will be either disconnected or super slow. The only way to fix it is a reboot. This has happened since I got my M1 macbook, dont remember seeing this in my previous intel macbooks.

you have connected in the 5 GHz band on channel 40, with an 80 MHz channel, using 802.11ac. Your raw signal (RSSI) at -54 is strong, suggesting you are in the same room with your Router. Noise at -83 is acceptable.

Your transmit rate of 526 M bits/sec is perfectly fast, far faster than most home Internet connections. You are using 64 patterns per signaling interval and both of your antennas are working together.

If that data rate holds, you have a great connection with nothing to worry about.

Your 80 MHz channel uses every adjacent channel from 36 through nominal 40, and on to 48. Any other nearby networks using any of those channels will interfere with yours. neighbors' use of channel 32 and 34 could cause problems as well.

I just bought the new M3 and I am having the same issues since I started setup. My bf has a macbook air and we have been running speedtest and compared everything on the network setup but we can’t find the issue. We sit right next to each other. He has an awesome speed connection and mine just goes on and off..☹️ have bee thinking on getting a wifi extensor but still makes no sense cause his wifi works just fine. Not sure what to do

for me that isnt the issue, even if I choose the 5g signal its slow. Its slow no matter what I do, turn on and off wifi, change wifi connections etc, only thing that resolves is a reboot. That too sometimes I need to do multiple reboots.

I have an m1 pro. When I read your article, I turned off and turned on the wifi tab, the problem was fixed.

I also next time it happens, I'll check which band I'm connected to. Thanks for info..