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

Since upgrading to Mavericks whenever my MacBook Air goes to sleep (if I leave it idle) the wifi disconnects and it can take up to a minute to reconnect when it wakes.


Basically what happens is, as soon as it wakes I have no internet connection, the WiFi indicator is pulsing, meaning it is searching for networks, but it takes ages to find any, then after some time, usually between 30 secs and a minute all the networks in my building pop up and it instantly at that point reconnects to my WiFi network.


It is incredibly frustrating I was so used to the Mac being an instant on tool, now it takes longer to get on the internet than booting up my windows PC.


Any ideas what might have caused this?

Posted on Oct 28, 2013 4:08 AM

Reply
483 replies

May 4, 2014 10:05 AM in response to seb101

This link fixed my problem completely!!


http://www.imore.com/how-fix-mavericks-wi-fi-zapping-bluetooth#comment-form


The skinny:

Open Finder and click Go > Computer.

Navigate to Macintosh HD > Library > Preferences

Move the file com.apple.Bluetooth.plist to your desktop (enter password when prompted).

Restart (ta-da!)

Test going to sleep (make sure to wait a minute to make sure it actually falls asleep -- older macbook models, when the sleep light starts blinking it's alseep.. when it's solid it's still writing your data to disk)


If it works, which it should, feel free to delete the file from your desktop completely.

May 6, 2014 3:47 PM in response to Mike Erstad

Worked perfect with me.

No bluetooth, dropbox sacrifice, or energy saving changes.

Just re-ordering device cleaned this annoying wifi issue once and for all.

Thanks Mike!!!!


My problem started when I turned on Bluetooth the other day. What fixed my problem was from a previous post in which you

launch System Preferences

select Network

click on the gear in the lower left corner

select Set Service Order

click and hold on Bluetooth and pull down and below your WiFi (what ever name you gave it)

click OK

restart

close your laptop lid for a minute and reopen...

WiFi connected right up


I'm guessing the computer is trying to connect to a Bluetooth device and caused the WiFi to time out befor it connects to whatever Bluetooth device it's looking for....


Hope this helps,

Mike

May 7, 2014 9:47 PM in response to seb101

I am wondering if people are experiencing this issue if they transitioned to the Mid 2013 model via Time Machine (ie. Migration Assistant) which is what I did. My 2011 MBA worked fantastic, and then I loaded up the 2013 model and since I never even ran it fresh out of the box I really don't know what is causing it. I have only used the machine after the complete restore, which could hint that the problem may be related to an incompatible piece of code that got brought over from the previous computer.


Anybody care to chime in? How many people out there had this problem with a fresh install (ie. no Time Machine restore)?

May 9, 2014 9:30 AM in response to BMWRocks

Apple Tech Support SOLVED my problem. They had me delete the com.apple.Bluetooth.plist file from the Library > Preferences folder. I also had a rogue file, com.apple.Bluetooth.plist~orig file that was deleted. After the reboot I reconfigured my paired bluetooth devices and I no longer had to have Bluetooth disabled in order to reconnect after resuming from sleep. This is a similar answer to above, although I did it the hard way by first going to the Apple Store twice with no success.


I'll write back in if the problem resurfaces.

May 11, 2014 2:38 AM in response to seb101

After much poking around the web to discover what the issue could be, I came across an interesting article that may have discovered the REASON and a SOLUTION (albeit not optimal):


The problem appears to be caused by an interaction with Bluetooth and specifically Bluetooth devices that use Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) which is used to stream bluetooth audio from devices such as Bluetooth headsets and Bluetooth speakers.

The problem is caused when the Mac goes to sleep and wakes back up. It tries to connect to the A2DP device that was last used by the Mac. If that device is not powered on or is not in bluetooth range, it will keep trying to connect to that device (for an unknown amount of time). While it is looking for that Bluetooth device, the 802.11 wifi is also looking for the last wireless router or access point and fails to find it.

Why the wifi is unable to reconnect after waking from sleep is not exactly clear because wifi is a different protocol than Bluetooth. One hint is that it only seems to fail with wireless routers that run on the 2.4 Ghz band. That is the same frequency that Bluetooth uses (even though Bluetooth hops through different smaller bands within that frequency.)

The solution? Go delete your ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth.plist file and reboot your mac. DON’T reconnect any speakers/headphones or anything that streams music to bluetooth. You CAN reconnect other peripherals such as a mouse/keyboard/trackpad and they will continue to work and not cause wifi issues.

So far (about 24 hours), this has worked like a treat for me, hope it works for everybody else too.

Here is the article that goes into more depth:

http://carnationsoftware.com/LastA2DPDevice_Mac_Wireless_Problem.html

May 11, 2014 5:03 AM in response to whoischich

Hello everyone,


My experience- The wifi issue unfortunately did not get solved even after deleting the bluetooth pref file and restarting my mac.

I use a Belkin router..So,I rebooted the router through the Belkin Router monitor app and so far ,I have found the wifi network to be comnnecting 2-5 seconds of waking up.


Please try the above.Do let the community if it works.🙂

May 13, 2014 4:05 PM in response to whoischich

I have a Mini Boombox device that I got from NPR when I donated, and it is a Bluetooth audio device. I reconnected it after having deleted the .plist file, and then I streamed some audio and without turning or disconnecting anything I closed the lid on my MBA and let it sleep for 10 minutes. While it was sleeping I took it out of range of the Mini Boombox and lifted the lid and within 10 seconds it connected to WiFi without a problem.


If anyone would like me to test another situation please suggest and I will see what I can do to help. Making it fail is the only way to figure out what is going on here.

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

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