Macbook M2 Pro Wifi disconnecting

I had this exact problem with my brand new Macbook PRO M2 16 inch and I was losing my mind for about 1 hour until I figured out how to fix it. Turns out it was pretty simple:

1) Open Wi-Fi Settings

2) Click "Details"on the wifi connection.

3) Click "TCP/IP"

4) Go where it says "Configure IPv6" and it should normally have "Automatically"option selected. Change that option to "Link-Local Only"

Now connect again and it should work without problems.

I'm just posting this so others can see and perhaps fix their issue because I searched everywhere and couldn't find such a fix.

By far the easiest way to cause poor performance, instability, overheating and crashing is to install ANY third-party speeder-uppers, Cleaners, Optimizers, or Virus scanners. or a VPN that you installed yourself.

The idea that a third party, with no special knowledge of the inner workings of MacOS, can somehow find a simple way to protect your computer — that is not already being done by MacOS itself — suggests that the MacOS developers are somehow "holding out on you". That is absurd.

You should remove any and all (other than Apple built-in) virus scanners, speeder uppers, optimizers, cleaners, App deleters or VPN packages you installed yourself, or anything of that ilk.

The channel in use is determined by settings inside your Router.

You need to access your Router and change the 5 GHz setting from "channel 60" to "Automatic"

Then when your Router powers up, it will listen to what is already on the airwaves around you, and choose the least-busy channel.

It is not an accident that every debugging procedure starts with "Cycle the power to your Router". This will make Router set to "automatic channel selection" look for the least-busy channel NOW, and solves a LOT of issues.

If you need help getting access to your Router to change your Router settings, post back with make&model of your Router.

now that we have that out if the way,

Hold down the shift key while you click on the Wi-Fi icon n the menubar. you get a snapshot fo current operating parameters, like this older one, screenshot, photograph, for transcribe the values and post back here for analysis.

You are using 802.11ac rules. You have connected in the 5 GHz band with an 80 MHz channel on centered on channel 60, which uses everything in the spectrum from 52 to 64.

RSSI is raw signal strength, with -40 dB right next to your Router, and -67 is time to find another network, urgently. yours is -58, which is not a problem.

You are using both your two antennas and a 64 patterns per signaling interval to achieve a transmit rate of 650 M bits/sec, very nice.

I don't see no hardware problems. what could be knocking you off the air is any other Router using channels between 52 to 64, which will collide with yours. Also any Router using a 160 M channel from 36 to 64 will clobber yours.

With the Wireless diagnostics window open, choose SCAN off its Window menu. You get a screen like the one below. Click on the channel to sort by channel, and post the result.

There is a program called WIFi Explorer that shows all the networks in the vicinity (including yours) and also the signal strengths. You can see what channel you are on and also what the other networks are using (which channels). It's a bit more informative than the Apple Diagnostics. You can use what it shows to choose a different channel. This has to be set up in your router configuration. Most routers are set to auto select the channel, but you can override that manually to see if it helps. You can usually do this via a web browser, or an app for a cell phone.

One way to start is to simply reboot the router, which forces it to re-pick its channel.

What you want is more speed and better reliability. That comes to those with strong enough signals, whose signals do not overlap with other Router's signals in their network neighborhood.

The Wi-Fi explorer "Spectrum" graph does the looking up of how much spectrum is being taken up by other networks, so that you can avoid those others. For skeptics, it can also show you that you really need to do something about it.

What works for most Users is to change simple settings in your Router for "automatic" channel selection rather than a fixed channel. Then when the Router wakes up after a power cycle, it will listen for a moment, then choose the least-used channel. That alone fixes MANY of these issues.

Changing Router settings means connecting to your Router using a web browser, and adjusting its internal settings. Readers can help you if you get stuck.

Grant Bennet-Alder wrote:

<< any other Router using channels between 52 to 64, which will collide with yours. >>

the two Routers in that list after yours are using nominal channel 52, and they are clobbering your data.

I agree that changing channels might be worth a try. But those other routers on channel 52 are more than 50 dB down versus the poster's signal level! They are even lower than the noise level on their channels.

also note that 'Open Wireless Diagnostics' is an option to try LATER.

<< any other Router using channels between 52 to 64, which will collide with yours. >>

the two Routers in that list after yours are using nominal channel 52, and they are clobbering your data.

Grant Bennet-Alder wrote:

the guys trying to talk in the 2.4 GHz band are all having a bad day.

Maybe, but remember the signal strength is as measured from your computer, so if they were to run WiFi Explorer from their location their own network might be much stronger than others.

In any case, a view like this might help the poster determine if interference from other nearby networks might be an issue. Another factor can be the location within the network and what the local network looks like. The poster indicated that some other devices do not suffer the disconnects, but they might be located closer to the router(s). It would also helpful to know the make of the router, model, and how many nodes there are, if it is a mesh router, for instance, and the relative locations of the various devices and the router nodes.

I have a mesh router with three nodes and it pretty much fill every corner of the house with a strong WiFi signal that dwarfs any competition from neighbors' networks. Its strength and use of wide bandwidth I think (can't prove this, it's a theory) forces my neighbors' routers to select other channels. Before I got the mesh router (Linksys) I had just a single router unit and there was one location where I could see that my neighbor's signal was stronger than my own!

my snarky comment was to guide readers to understand that this 2.4 GHz display was NOT 'Business as Usual' abut instead a very real problem.

To be reliable, fast, and stay connected, you must be nearly alone on your part of the spectrum. Overlapping with competing Routers used to be problematic. Now with higher data rates in 802.11ac, symbols in one signaling interval are more complex and persist longer -- and get clobbered more easily that previous and/or narrower channels.

this is the "spectrum" graph form Wi-Fi Explorer, not expensive on the Mac App Store and includes a few days trial:

the guys in the 2.4 GHz band are getting nearly nothing done. 5 GHz is not much better, but they could spread out and solve that problem.

eva2910--

post your make&model-year MacBook Pro, and your option-Wi-Fi snapshot.

You would get better attention if you started a NEW discussion that a title that night attract the Readers you want to reach.

Massimmilian0 wrote--

<< yes multiple people can be on the same WiFi, however this time around I made sure (before posting anything) literally nobody was using it, as nobody was in the building + I changed temporary the password to a new one to make double sure no one would interfere>>

That is very laudable, but completely beside the point. Everyone using the same Router cooperates very nicely, because the Router makes them take turns. The time you spend reading your screen is used to transmit other network users' data.

The issue I am talking about is not from Equipment YOU control, it is from Routers that belong to your unseen and likely unknown neighbors, who set up their Routers that compete for the same radio channels you are trying to use.