Lion - Wi-Fi doesn't automatically reconnect when reawakening after sleep

Hey all,

I resolved this problem on my MBP by doing this:

1. Turn off Wifi.

2. In System Preferences, go into "Network" and delete the problematic Wifi network that doesn't seem to be reconnecting automatically after waking.

3. Open the "Keychain Access" application.

4. Make sure that "All Items" is selected on the lefthand side under "Categories".

5. In the search box in the top right corner of the window, type in the problematic Wifi network name.

6. You should see one or two keychain objects appear in the search results with the same name as the problematic Wifi network.

7. Delete these two keychain items and then close "Keychain Access".

8. Turn your Wifi back on and rejoin the network - hopefully the problem should be resolved for you!

Cheers,

Ruban

I read a post on mac rumors that suggested turning off bluetooth(the post suggests that you can turn it back on and it will stay fixed), tried that and I've not had this problem since.

rob ellis wrote:

I read a post on mac rumors that suggested turning off bluetooth(the post suggests that you can turn it back on and it will stay fixed), tried that and I've not had this problem since.

Wahoo! This worked for me too, at least the last couple of wakes its connected straight away, even after turning BT back on again 🙂

Well while this does work, it only works while BT is off. If I turn BT back on then the symptoms seem to continue... Luckily I rarely use BT so its not a huge issue.

FWIW, I'm still encountering the same issues (tried all recommendations in this thread and others). For me, I can get internet access back after waking the computer by either reselecting my wifi network, or disabling and reenabling airport. Reselecting my wifi network does not work all of the time though.

I was able to capture wireless packets on a different computer from the time I woke my computer until I regained internet access by reselecting my wifi network. What I noticed is very strange -- the wifi card wasn't sending any packets at all (not even probe requests) until I selected the airport icon (56 seconds after waking the computer). I then started noticing probe requests, but still no attempts to join my AP (and still didn't have internet access). Once I selected my AP, I saw the WPA2 auth frames and then the data frames from loading a web page. The airport icon indicated it had been connected this whole time FWIW.

Unfortunately I still don't know what's going on under the hood when I haved to disable and reenable airport to regain internet access.

APs Tested: Airport Express, D-Link 601 w/ dd-wrt

(paraphasing an old TV show)

INTERESTING...very interesting.....

I can recreate the issue at will and while all of those "corrective" actions do work, I also have been able to re-establish a connection by having my browser RELOAD a page...granted it may take a request or two but I found that to be a fairly easy way to get the connection working again. I'm really curious if that works you anybody else as well...?

I can tell you all that Apple is aware of this and it is being looked into...have no other information at this time.

Yes it's a PITA.

Has anybody out there tried to do a CLEAN installation of LION? I was thinking about doing it but I'm not 100% certain how to do it and I'm also not certain if it would do anything at all....

Thanks...Scott

I just turned BT off and it connected fine. I rarely use BT so I'll stick with this for now. Thanks!.... Kelly

I have had this problem with an older MBP and now after updating to 10.7.2 my new MBP is suffering from the same issue. I have tried nearly all of the above and other suggestions with little or no improvement.

I did notice a few odd things and attempted others -

- rss feeds will work (with new items listed) but web pages will not.

- many times the preferred network pane showed my network but listed the security to none. I was finally able to rectify this by using keychain to delete all aiport connections and connect again but it took 2 times.

- did the multiple locations trick which has at least got me connecting to the network after a sleep - can't go anywhere but it connects. The main help with adding a location is that it's easier to go to Network Settings.

- renewing my DHCP lease gets me a good connection (usually).

- updated my airport express and changed from WDS to just a normal wireless network (no difference)

Really wish I didn't have to deal with this as it's not only frustrating but as I work out of my house doing all this when a computer just goest to sleep is insane.

Apple?

Turning off bluetooth did the trick but this is not a solution for me. Apple please fix this issue...............

So, here's something interesting. To all still having this issue:

1) Do you have an iPod/Pad/Phone that you have sync'd with the problematic system?

2) If so, and you have the time, please report any success or failure with these 4 steps for disabling wifi Sync in iTunes:

a) Click on the device(s) on the left and uncheck 'Sync over Wifi' (this disables sync for the individual device)

b) Go to the iTunes menu -> Preferences -> Devices and check 'Prevent iPods, iPhones and iPads from syncing automatically'. (this shuts down at least one sync-related daemon)

c) Quit iTunes and leave it closed. (may not be neccesary, but can't hurt)

d) Restart the computer

It's been 24 hours which is too short to say if this actually worked, but after two wake cycles my computer connected to my wifi network immediately and my syslog output had about 1/10th the content it previously had (even when the connection was successfully being established before).

I'll post back soon if this doesn't work, but here's what led me down this path:

I noticed a ton of log output related to the usbmuxd daemon and _AMDeviceAttachedCallbackv3 function. These messages appear to be realted to iTunes wifi sync with iOS 5 ('AMDevice' = Apple Mobile Device, usbmuxd handles iPhone/Pad/Pod sync and communication). Initially I thought usbmuxd was only operating on the actual usb device, but it appears this daemon is reused for communicating with iOS5 devices on the local network (maybe it's time for a name change? 😉).

There may be something to this but my system now seems to be working correctly. After changing many things with no luck I tried turning off home sharing. While I'm not sure why this would make a difference I've been able to put the computer to sleep several times and have connection when it wakes up. iTunes sharing may be similar in its effect.

Turning off bluetooth worked for me. This isn't a solution, but it at least isolated the problem for me.

Quick update: 72 hours and holding strong by just disabling iTunes wifi sync.

Also, it looks like usbmuxd also mux's bluetooth iTunes sync, so I could see the correlation there... Still awaiting a response to my bug report with apple though.

I too have the same issue. I recently bought a 27" imac and set it up to use an existing Linksys router. This past Sunday I bought a Time Capsule-2TB to replace the LS and used the same name/password when setting up the TC. Worked fine up until I did a firmware update for the TC. Now like you all whenever I login or the imac wakes it won't auto connect to the wifi. Could it be the lastet firmware is the culprit? Annoying to say the least.

Apple please find a solution FAST.

Just got a firmware update that says...

This update includes improvements delivered in MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 2.2 that enables Lion Recovery from an Internet connection, resolves issues with Apple Thunderbolt Display compatibility and Thunderbolt Target Disk Mode performance on MacBook Pro (early 2011) models.

now that mine's working... I wonder - ah, what the heck!

But remember - Apple reads these boards and does try to address things in them!