Q: 2012 Retina Macbook Pro WiFi problem

So, I too started to have these problems, along with a faulty USB port. Reverted the OS to Lion with Internet Recovery and network problems went away. The USB was still bad so I took it to the apple store. They fixed it, and right after I decided to try my luck in installing Mountain Lion again, it worked. Now I am on 10.8.2 again, no issues.

So,my feeling is that it is not a problem with 10.8.2 itself, but with the upgrade process. I believe the installation of the update was what broke the network. But this is of course just my experience. If possible, you can try backing it up with Time Machine, running Recovery to the factory installed OS (mine was Lion) and then copying the data back to see if it fixes it.

I didn't have any issues until I did the upgrade. Now my wifi keeps dropping.  Sometimes it will last for 30 minutes but most times less than that.  If I sit in the room my router is in it works fine but any room outside of that, even in the hallway it drops. Super frustrating!! Come on Apple! The playstation will still work with the wifi and my phone still connects to it as well. Just the MBP drops it.

Further to my discovery and possible (Temp) Solution. I am using Cisco Corporate Wireless at work and Linksys (Cisco) at home. I had drop outs in one office and then went to another office running a different firmware on the AP's and I stopped getting drops outs. At home I moved my wireless over to my Belkin AP+Router and the performance is fantastic and not one drop out....just a thought and feedback on what is working for me at the moment.

Hi all,

perhaps it's the same issue, but let me describe what my problem with wifi on my Macbook Pro Retina looks like. I have no problem connecting to my router, but after a while the connection just drops. By "drops" i mean i don't get any message that i got disconnected, and safari doesn't say there is no connection, the status bar just stops somewhere on 1/10 of its length and stays just there. It think it started to happen about a month ago. Sometimes the connection drops after 15minutes, sometimes 10 seconds after i turn on my mac. I checked it on three different ISPs and three different routers - same thing all over again.

By the way - i have a standard 15" Macbook Pro Retina.

Any help will be appreciated!

Quick note, as i see sometimes it can matter - i don't have anything connected via usb, I am using magicmouse but even without it it's still the same.

2nd quick note - i have no other macs or macbooks around, but a few other laptops, pcs, ipads and iphones work perfectly fine with any of the routers i checked my macbook on

Many suggested to turn off the Bluetooth .

That was not the problem for me. I downloaded iStumbler and noticed there were networks on the same channel and frequency of mine. However, my iMac, iPad, and iPhone were all working but my macbook pro retina.
Change the channel of your network and you should be fine.

Best,

Zanca

This reminds me of the **** that wireless caused with linux laptops.....10 years ago.

This is worse than a joke.

Utterly pathetic.

My Retina remains tethered to my thunderbolt cable.

Is there a wireless accesspoint from netgear, belkin etc that reliably solves this problem?

So 10.8.3 is out , What are people seeing , is this fixed. I'm on my non 5ghz system now to see if this is fixed.

What are other peoples experience ... as Release notes dont seem to mention airport anymore, the developers builds said please test wifi.

10.8.3 made it worse for me. Even more unstable wifi-connection with my TimeCapsule.... :-(

Bought a Netgear R6300 WiFi Router and it hooked up to my MacBook Retina wireless with no problems.

I guess I'll get rid of these airports.

Was a lot easier than the 2 hours that I spent on the phone with apple tech support with no resolution of the problem. It took about 10 minutes with the new hardware.

Weird thing was my OLD macbookpro worked fine with the Airports.

Oh, well this thing is working again.  Good luck to the rest of you guys.

wondering HOW on EARTH THIS answer could solve the question.... Which is NOTHING close to a software problem....

It IS a hardware problem. And a BIG one. A design FLAW. I went to my dealer in Hamburg, describing the problem.... And he offered me my money back... Said "Apple KNOWs about THIS problem and there is NO FIX...." He also asked me to consider... "Is THIS really a big problem....".. Then went on "If it is, you CAN get a FULL refund"

I THINK that the rMBP is a GREAT machine... WITH a HUGE design flaw... Is BT interfering with WIFI enough to make me wanna wait for a NEW model......??? NO ---

The rMBP IS a super computer. And I chose to KEEP it.... With the DESIGN FLAW which Apple IS silently admitting to

Apple NEED Jon Ivy.. for LOOKs.. but they ALSO need someone wiht a science degree to assure that his looks are WORKING...Which they are NOT !!!!

Mice, Trakpads, CPUs ALL looking great... with a reliabilty of ZERO

Interresting. Read in this thread that networks on the same channel could confuse the MacBook Pro. Downloaded istumbler and noticed that my guest network (that airport feature) was on the same channel. Turned it off and now it works. so far so good...

Mine is just the same after 10.8.3 update, I did as Jan tried and downloaded iStumbler and noticed my Guest account sharing the same Channel on my Cisco Linksys but made no difference at all when switched off. I am also running a Belkin router and it works like a dream and incredibly quick and as expected. I would be keen to know if others are predominently experiencing problems with Cisco / Linksys routers/wireless AP's....or if not what makes are you using and getting the problem.

I came here looking for a solution to my wifi problems.  This is very dissappointing to hear there is no solution!!

My scenario:  Wifi signal strength is 100%, but pages take FOREVER to load, or they just plain dont.  Its worse than the dialup days!

I have installed a BRAND NEW Netgear R6300 dual channel router.  $200 later, and no improvement.

I used IStumbler, and there are no other networks in the 5Ghz range.  Just mine.

Problem appears in both the 5 and 2.4Ghz range

Bluetooth is diabled.

All other wirless devices act fine (ipods, windows laptops, etc).  It is ONLY my brand freaking new retina MBP.  If this is really a MBP issue, then it has just become the most overpriced POS computer I have ever purchased.  Seriously, the thing depends on wifi, there is do disk drive or even an ethernet port built in!!  How on earth can they release this with such an obvious problem??

Please help!

After watching 10.8.3 NOT being able to fix the problems I had hoped for, I called my dealer. Told him that the device is malfunctioning. And that I wanted either my money back of a device that works...

He stated : We dont have such a device (addressing the rMBP)

The design flaw is known he confirmed and he asked me to wait a couple of days... So I am excited about whats cooking. I'll report back !

I may have found a working solution!

So far at least, it has been working for me.  I found it buried deep in the comments on this article:

http://osxdaily.com/2012/08/02/fix-os-x-mountain-lion-wireless-connection-proble ms/

search for username 'UNIX' and follow the instructions carefully in his post.  Its only been a day, but so far no dropped connections, and my wireless is screaming like it should.

Hope it helps!