My iMac keeps turning WiFi on by itself

HI Izzy877, this thread is not about a wifi connection dropping out. We are talking about when the user manually turns OFF the wifi connection for our MacMini computers in order to use a wired ethernet connection to our network router instead. Our wifi connection tries to randomly turn itself back ON. Different issue than what you are describing but glad your issue was resolved by updating your router firmware.

I have this same problem. Admin account on iMac OSX 10.9.5

You can't trust anyone any more, and I have about as much faith in apple as I had in Mircoshite when I made the switch many years ago.

If an admin user clicks on WIFI OFF in the menu bar, it should **** well STAY OFF!! and it always used to until recently. WTH is going on?

I know, this is an epically old thread but then again this problem is still bugging me

(I'm stuck with ElCapitan on my Mac mini, so I can't tell if it's been fixed with Sierra)

+ I'm running PokerStars too - so you may be on to something there.

Did you manage to find a solution, though?

I hear you, but it doesn't make a ton of sense to me at all. In my mind, if a user forcibly shuts down his machine's WiFi connection (as I have done for years) that should take precedence over anything else trying to use it, and if needed an error should come up saying "xxxx can't connect due to WiFi being switched off" as happens with various other apps.

WiFi should not have the "off" option if it doesn't work 100% completely 100% of the time, as it always did.

Maybe Apple is just making spyware now and using the information they sell to try and stave off the slow collapse of the share price after the big boom caused by the iphone releases etc. Just speculating, but without any comment from Apple, that's all I can do unfortunately

I've been having this issue with my mid 2011 Mac Mini for well over a year now. I've posted on the Apple communities and got a few replies with suggestions to reinstall the OS, etc which I find to be a pretty drastic measure to take for something Apple should be fixing. I've completely deleted the wifi settings from system preferences and it still continues to try and connect to wifi randomly. It doesn't happen every time I turn my computer on but most of the time. My question at this point is if anybody knows if the Sierra OS upgrade resolves this issue.

Can you look in system preferences, users and groups, your user account, login items tab?

See what programs are loading at startup and list it here so we can see if there is anything suspicious.

Also, if you do not need wi-fi at all, you can delete the wi-fi settings in the system preferences, network pane.

Select the wi-fi settings and click on the minus sign.

Warning: If you need wi-fi later, you will need to set it up from scratch. But it's not very hard to do.

Jason Scott5 wrote:

I have an iMac running osx 10.7.2 and I want WiFi disabled because it's connected directly to a home ethernet. The **** things keeps turning Wifi back on by itself. If I disable wifi, sometimes within about an hour its back on and sometimes its a day or two but it always happens and annoys the **** out of me.

I've tried enabling it so you need the system password to change the wifi settings but it still tries to turn it on by showing a password dialog all the time now.

Anyone else having this issue or no a way to stop it and "permanently" turn off wifi..?

Thx,

Jason.

I'm running 10.8.5 and I just noticed my 2007 iMac was doing the same thing. actually it's not turning the Wi-Fi back on, it is trying to turn it on/it is searching for Wi-Fi sometimes after I wake it from sleep. We don't need the extra radiation or whatever that it produces when it's doing that. wonder if it's got something to do with the fact that I use speakable items? Any ideas appreciated , thanks

I've been having this issue for Months as well on a 2010 iMAC. I thought it was Mavericks issue as it started about the time of the upgrade. But since upgrading to Yosemite about a week ago it is now happening more frequently.

I've checked Activity Monitor while it is trying to turn on the Wi Fi but see no operations out of the norm?

Just want to chime in and mention that my 2014 Mac Mini running 10.9.5 has started turning its wifi on all by itself. It's done this twice in the past week.....both times after leaving it on overnight.

For what it's worth, I have never turned wifi on on this Mac as I have no need or desire to do so.

The only items I have running at login are 1) Garmin Express 2)iTunes Helper 3)Digital Power Station (Bongiovi)

I will try Mr. Fauque's suggestion of deleting my wifi settings.....but this wifi "auto on" after sleep does seem like odd and worrisome behavior.

One possible cause could be you permitted an app to do this and even if this app was on your phone or a tablet that does not conenct to the cloud any more the app will try to update your stuff (and inform the nsa about the website info filled in) every once in a while.

Same issue with my Yosemite. I have recently noticed (for 3 consecutive days) that in the early morning (let's say around 2:00 a.m.) it turns on without my noticing. I am the only person using this computer. Using "system preferences" I have gone into "networks" selected "Wi-Fi" and then selected "turn Wi-Fi off." Then I chose "advanced" and while there I have selected "Require administrator authorization to" and then I selected the option "turn Wi-Fi on or off." I have also changed my administrator password.

As for the items that "open automatically when you log in" the programs are "ituneshelper", "fitbit" (which I have deleted from my computer), and "realplayer downloader agent."

Please note, I have undergone 72 minutes of full body radiation prior to a bone marrow transplant (because of leukemia). I was told that because of all this radiation I would get other cancers (and I have had one other which I for the time being have beaten). As a result of my "delicate" situation I do not wish to have the Wi-Fi on in my house. (For the record I only used my fitbit once once I realized it gives off low level radiation.)

I have deleted the "Wi-Fi" option as you have suggested. I would have preferred not to have done this because there might be future occasions where I might want the Wi-Fi on for short periods of time.

Thank you for your time.

Story continued from above message...

Since deleting the "Wi-Fi" option from above, tonight (early morning) my menu bar keeps indicating that my Wi-Fi is on. I turn it off from the menu bar and it turns on again. It turns on again after varying times, eg. 4s, 20s, 28s, etc. I do not see any Wi-Fi accounts listed but I would like this message to stop.

Okay, now I have found a commonalty. The moment I stopped playing a Poker Stars tournament the "nonsense" in my menu bar stopped. I don't know if this is coincidence. I'll get back to you on that tomorrow.

Here's a thought. Does anyone with this issue happen to have Location Services enabled? Since Macs do not have a GPS radio in them how do they know here they are located? The answer is they use WiFi to triangulate with other WiFi signals in the area. Go to System Preferences -> Security&Privacy -> Privacy -> Location Services and make sure they are disabled. Could be that Location Services is turning WiFi on when it needs to look something up. It's worth a look.

Hi Ikrupp

I have watched this thread hoping for some suggestions as I have this problem and it's driving me nuts. Oddly I only noticed it starting around 4 months ago. It never did it before and I changed nothing major on my system. I have checked and my Location Services was ticked (on) but underneath it lists which apps can use it, and nothing ticked in there so it shouldn't be trying to ping like you suggest. But i turned it off anyway so will watch closely and see if WiFi comes back on, I have a feeling it will but hoping not! thanks