Q: New Macbook Air - wifi connectivity problems

wifiguru - Sorry, too late.  I returned this third unit just now and got my money back.  That one would "hang" after minutes instead of seconds, like the first two did.  Aside from the wasted time, having to wait for a Genius Bar appointment so I could get my refund was the only irritation. 

I think Apple would do itself a favor by stopping this MacBook Air Mid-2013 supply chain altogether until they get to the bottom of the problem and get the fix on all MBAs.  If my home wifi hadn't showed the problem I would have had a false confidence, and then venturing out into the world with any of those three units, would have become very, very unhappy that Apple had this known issue but sold me the unit anyway.

Randal, I think it's almost worse that some units don't have any problems, because that may be encouraging Apple to keep selling these units without knowing which ones are "ticking time bombs" of deep customer dissatisfaction (while I'm of course happy that you and your wife are happy campers).

@carbon_dragon, if your Airport Time capsule offers multi band network, then most probably that is the case. Hopefully we can all get ot the bottom of this, very soon.I got carried away and already personalized my MBA, and don't wish to return my replacement, again.

Hi, @watou. Could you please indicated whether you  have the i5 or i7?

@Eurodance -- All three (now returned) units were MD761LL/A, "MBAir 13.3/1.3/4/256 Flash" -- i5.

I am almost sure now that this issue happens to most of MBAs on some certain routers. I have walked around my part of the city with my laptop and I haven't had any issue connecting and staying connected with all the random networks I found. It all fails with my rather ****** router (the cheapest one provided by the ISP).

I bought myself a cheap and tiny ASUS WiFi adapter as a temporary solution (I'm wondering whether it drains battery power faster than internal Airport or not) and it works perfectly. I'll wait a couple more days with this workaround, also checking other spots and getting the overall impression of the laptop (which is superb aside our issue we're speaking of) and watching where the story goes before I make a final decision (I still have two weeks tho).

And yes, I have an i5/13.3/1.3/4/128 Model.

Good luck everyone!

I strongly agree, our company are delaying our MacBookAir replacement because of this problem, even considering switching to windows ultrabooks. Everybody should return any MBA shoving this problem. The main reason for getting an Air, IMHO, is the portability and therefore this connectivity problem is really bad publicity for Apple. Where it a desktop machine one might live with a fix for ones specific network but not for a portable unit. Return them and inceease the pressure on Apple to fix this!

I have the same problem.

I think a thread about their flagship laptop  >  60,000 views + what seems many customers (repeatedly) returning new MBAs has Apple's attention.   I'm another person holding off for now until the issue is resolved.

It seems the WiFi problem affects both 11," / 13," and both stock /custom configurations.   Although  folks who accepted  beta firmware invite are not suppsed to talk/post about it (non-disclosure clause) some say  the fix did not work, some say it has.  Some say they have not had the WiFi problem even traveling all over the world. 

But if adding a WiFi dongle achieves steady connectivity - one would hope  Apple is investigating what seems like a really big clue.

@watou thank you so much for sharing that! In a strange way, I'm pleased to hear that -- I finally feel confident that the issue is spread equally between i5 and i7, and that's of course my humble opinion

 Eurodance

I can confirm now that this issue is indeed somehow related to the encryption mode set on your router as I changed mine to Open and then to WPA2 and the issue hasn't been happening to me on either.

I have also read a discussion on VK (lost the link unfortunately) that one guy experiencing the same problem installed Windows 7 via BootCamp and everything worked smoothly from the environment. So hopefully it's a temporary software issue.

Yet I would love to hear more from Apple.

@mukaltin, I'm glad that changing to WPA2 worked out for you, but I don't think that's a global fix, since my Airport Extreme has been set to WPA2 from the get-go for few years now.

 Eurodance

I'm currently facing the decision of whether or not I should return this computer (13"/128 SSD/i5). I only have a few days left before the window to return is gone.

Realistically, what are the chances of me being indefinitely stuck with a computer that has this problem? I know Apple is working on a solution, and the fact that the ability to connect to WiFi is questionable won't be an issue for me for another month or so (currently only using this computer at home). Eventually if they couldn't solve this issue, Apple would have to offer me a replacement, right? Or am I putting way too much faith in a very large corporation? Being without a computer isn't really an option now. I live too far away from an Apple Store to exchange it. What should I do?

This is not the first time that something like this is happening with Apple. Many times I've returned iPhone devices within the 14-day period, because they were borderline DOA and had some sort of issue -- whether it was defective battery, screen, microphone, speaker, home button, reception/antenna, you name it! Maybe it's just my luck with Apple devices, but then again, I never had an issue with the iPods, Apple TVs, iPad or any other Mac system. So none of us are imagining things, this is what happens when corporations rush to push their products out, cut corners, skip certain tests, etc.

@squarestation, as you've mentioned you also have the WiFi issue, and chances are you have the Audio Fluctuation issue, as well. Given those issues, my suggestion would be to return it for full refund and get a replacement, or return it and see if you can manage to wait a little until they address these issues.

Or, you can try to call Apple Sales Support and see if they can extend your 14-day period to 30 days, given the issues with the MBA.

Mixed WPA2/WPA protocol work as well for me. I really suggest working with your router's security settings if you need a quick fix for this WiFi issue. The only mode that shows constant connection loss for me is flat WPA. Hope it helps.

@Eurodance

I don't have the audio fluctuation issue as far as I know, although I have primarily been using headphones. I wasn't aware that that was even an issue.

I have called Apple, and I was basically told that this is a known issue and they're working on a fix. I didn't mention anything about a replacement and would rather not go through the potential hand-wringing necessary to make that happen, but I may not have a choice. I got education pricing when I bought this computer. $50 isn't a huge deal, especially if returning this one and getting a replacement solves my issue, but if it solves nothing, I'll be a little frustrated. Even being without a computer for 5-7 days is very inconvenient. If nothing else, it would get me another 14 days to see what happens.