Wifi disconnects after sleep and takes long time to reconnect with Mavericks

I encourage everyone to report this issue to Apple so that they can fix it. The more people who bring this to their attention, hopefully the harder they will work to resolve it...

http://www.apple.com/feedback/

Try unchecking 'Wake for network access' in Energy Saver Preferences.

This solved it for me on both a new rMBPro and a new iMac.

Thank you, but as with so many proposed fixes, this seemed to work at first but now the problem has reappeared. After sleeping all night wifi reconnected but it took forever. I did verify that wifi was still at the top of the service order list.

@Roland4518: Try my "Back to my Mac" solution I posted yesterday. I left my mac on sleep all night and in the morning after waking up it connected almost instantly.

I've had this problem from day 1 on a brand new Macbook Air bought September 2013. Pleease fix this Apple!

Thanks. In my iCloud settings "Back to my Mac" is not checked, and as far as I know never has been (I've only had this MacBook for a few weeks).

I have been following this thread for awhile and we are creating confusion for every new person that reads this thread. When they go to the last pages, to get the latest info they just see a lot of confusing info. They are seeing alot of suggested fixes, trying them and they dont work, or they do work, but there are so many suggestions that no one knows what to try. So I have a proposal. Lets do this right. Copy and paste this post. If you try one of the suggestions and it works for you, bump up the "success count", if it doesn’t bump up the failure count. Because when multiple people have something working we can have confidence it should work for us.

Problem:

Since upgrading to Mavericks whenever my MacBook goes to sleep (if I leave it idle or if I close the lid) the wifi disconnects and it can take up to a minute to reconnect when it wakes. When searching the web you get the message “Not connected to the internet”

Why it happens:

Wifi and Bluetooth conflict with each other when the computer wakes. If a bluetooth device was paired, and was disconnected while the mac was sleeping, the mac will first look to repair that device. Since the device does not allow the mac to pair, the mac continues to search for it for up to 1 minute and then will timeout and allow the wifi to ocnnect.

How to test it:

Close the lid of your mac to let it sleep, open it and login, does it take 0-5 seconds to connect Wifi (Wifi icon becomes solid black and can surf the web) if so you are good. Else if wifi icon is gray or shows searching and you cannot surf the web for 30s to 1 minute or until you select your wifi network you have the problem.

Potential ways to get around this (Please add to success/fail count as you test! )

1) EASY - Turn off Bluetooth (Top Right corner menu bar Bluetooth Icon > Turn Bluetooth Off, icon will become gray)

Test it works: Turn bluetooth off, close lid, open, and surf web

Disadvantage: Obviously you cannot use bluetooth.

Success Count: 100+

Fail Count: 0

2) MEDIUM - Delete the plist and reboot your mac (Open finder, select ‘Go’ at top menu bar, ‘Go to folder’ > Library/Preferences, delete this folder if you have it: SystemConfiguration (if you have it) and this file: com.apple.systempreferences.plist (More info https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4301)

Test it works: Turn Bluetooth on, close lid, open, and surf web

Disadvantage: Issue returns if after doing this fix, you disconnect a Bluetooth device while the mac is sleeping.

Success Count: 1

Fail Count: 0

2) EASY – If you have unpaired a Bluetooth device while mac was sleeping, repair that device. Unpair it while mac is awake.

Test it works: Turn Bluetooth on, close lid, open, and surf web

Disadvantage: You must have the device available of course

Success Count: 1

Fail Count: 0

3) EASY - Allow Bluetooth devices to wake this computer (Top Right corner menu bar Bluetooth Icon) > Open Bluetooth Preferences > Advanced > Uncheck Bluetooth devices to wake this computer

Test it works: Turn Bluetooth on, close lid, open, and surf web

Disadvantage:

Success Count: 0

Fail Count: 1

4) EASY - Disconnect all bluetooth devices (Top Right corner menu bar Bluetooth Icon) > Open Bluetooth Preferences > Remove all connected devices

Test it works: Turn Bluetooth on, close lid, open, and surf web

Disadvantage:

Success Count: 0

Fail Count: 1

i have tried all of the elixirs and found the only one that truly works is shutting off BLUETOOTH - replaced my mouse and no problems since - finds WIFI wo/problem.

i do have an issue with the WIFI signal - FIOS - which i thought contributed to the problem because i find that this issue is less when i am in a different environment and non-FIOS router. Not sure why this is because my PC does not have any problems with the signal - only MBKR2012. The WIFI signal flucuates from excellent to poor every 30sec - not seen simul on PC.

But that is for another thread!

okay, for anyone who don't have patient to look through every post in this thread and jump to the last page, now congratulations, thanks antzcrashing's post and in my own case I found that this problem can be solved when you TURN OFF BLUETOOTH, although this is really not a true solution which we can only wait when apple release a new system update

@ yaodis - Yes, turning bluetooth off while sleeping, or turning wifi off/on has been the easy 'fix' for this since like 2006. I also don't think it has anything to do with re-pairing, as antzcrashing had indicated, as my BT device is always paired and working upon wake... it's the WiFi that doesn't reconnect (also, in my experience, it often doesn't reconnect at all, not just a 30 sec to 1 minute delay). Fortunately, it's working again for ME after the 10.9.2 update (others haven't been so lucky), but I'm assuming (based on past experience) that it will be back in 10.9.3 or 10.9.4 or 10.5, etc.

EASY

A) Turn Bluetooth OFF before sleep (obviously, only works well with laptops). After it wakes, it will immediately (or almost immediately) reconnect to WiFi, then you can turn Bluetooth back on.

or

B) After wake when WiFi doesn't connect (it just searches) because you left Bluetooth on, turn WiFi off, then back on again. It *should* then reconnect fairly quickly.

and/or

C) Pray that Apple someday actually finds and fixes this bug (submitting as DTS419 suggests can't hurt!), and hope that it gets fixed for you in the next OSX point release, and that it stays away for several successive point releases.

The other solutions (in my experience) are only temporary, or might be dealing with other issues not core to this actual problem (ie: there are lots of reasons WiFi might not connect, or BT devices have issues). If A or B don't work, it's probably something else going on and you might want to seek out other threads for tips.

I have the same problem!! Please fix apple!! Also the bluetooth on this macbook pro Aug 14' *****. It loses range even when close by, 2 feet.

Apple does NOT read or respond to these threads, you have to give them feedback to get things done:

100K people have read this and other threads, if all of them leave a quick feedback maybe apple will fix/respond. Even if a temporary fix works it is not a full solution and apple should push an update

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

Please give apple feedback! Use this:

Subject:

Wifi drops and does not connect at wakeup after OS update to mavericks

Comments:

Using the mavericks operating system, when I put my mac to sleep it does not recognize wifi upon wakeup. Safari says "No internet connection". I have to manually re-select the wifi connection. In addition, sometimes wifi will drop randomly while surfing and i get the message "No internet connection". This is very frustrating especially since the main use of my laptop is web search. Please fix!

Thank you, antzcrashing! That was very helpful. I have filed my feedback.

You have the right idea, but we need to be more specific with the problem. What is common to all of us is that the wifi problem is related directly to Bluetooth. Please mention in your feedback to apple that the problem is related to Bluetooth so they can zero in on the issue.

I am fine with reporting it as a Bluetooth issue, anything that gets Apple thinking and seeing this issue. I suggest it is more that just a Bluetooth issue, because I have also found that when I download Dropbox, upon powerup, I cannot connect Dropbox nor Wifi. Turning off the setting for "start dropbox at powerup" resolved the issue. So it seems there are conflicts with many of Mac's internet/bluetooth/wireless services at powerup & wakeup.

Regardless, any report of the issue to Apple's feedback site helps the cause