mac osx 10.9 Mavericks wifi issue

Update: after removing /Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth.plist all works again (in the immediate).

Turning off Bluetooth is among a long list of recognized "fixes" for some users.. you say "all works again" does that mean you are, or are not, Using Bluetooth, paired to the Win 7 PC?

Thank you for clarification.

OK, I'll be more clear: I've not turned off my bluetooth, I only removed (deleted) Bluetooth plist.

Now Mac and Win7 are NOT paired, because I expect same behaviour if I pair them again.

IMHO I think that adding a particular BT device will enable some additional auto-configuration stuff that take place at resume, interferring with wifi config. A sort of device "query" that includes also remote BT devices.

I'd be curious to know if users who had this problem also paired their Mac with Windows via BT (as I did).

From what I gathered the issue is not isolated to paring a Mac to a specific device... notice that in his list of things to try Linc Davis (a level 10 member of the community) did not query what Bluetooth device was paired... he just said "turn off Bluetooth and test".

Update: I appologize in advance for this being a long response but as there are several variables to this story, I would rather err on the side of too much info than not enough:

I purchased a macbook pro 15" retina model at the first of the year. From the start I had intermittent problems with wi-fi. Because my office is in the back of the house with doesn't have the best wi-fi coverage (even though the windows machines never had a problem), I assumed that was the cause. I ordered Cat5 cable.

Before the cable arrived, I left on a business trip. During the trip I was unable to log in to any of the hotels ( a different hotel every night for 3 weeks) that only provided wi-fi and no ethernet. Calling Apple tech support they had me do the following to clear the Wi-fi settings:

01) System Preferences

02) Click on Networks, then highlight "Wi-Fi" on the left

03) Click Advanced

04) Tag all networks shown and click the minus sign to erase all.

05) click “OK” , then click “Apply”

06) Close Networks

07) Open Spotlight: type “Keychain”, goto Keychain Access”

08) On the left side under “Keychains” highlight “System"

09) Below that under “Category”, highlight “Passwords”

10) “View”, “Sort by”, “Kind”

11) Select all that are “Airport Network Password”

12) Delete all those selected.

13) Open new Finder window

14) “View”, “As Columns”

15) “Go”, “Computer”, “Macintosh HD”,”Library”,”Preferences”,”System Configuration"

16) “View”, “As List”

17) While holding “Command”, Select the following files:

com.apple.airport.preferences.plist

com.apple.network.identification.plist (this one might not be here)

NetworkInterfaces.plist

preferences.plist

18) Drag these 4 files to the trash.

The support person told me that because WEP is a standard that is slotted to be retired during 2014, the retina models produced during the past couple years had hardware changes that prevented them from working well with WEP. (basically telling me that it was a "feature"). Although the steps above did work initially, I still experienced frequent drops and at times unable to log in.

I called again a little frustrated and this second tech (I now suspect the first tech was possibly just a janitor that was walking by the phone bank when I originally called) had me reboot the computer into Apple diagnostics to check whether the wi-fi issue was software or hardware. (basically hold "D" while starting up, see link: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5781). It was determined pretty quickly that my issue was hardware. Apple was nice enough to replace my computer for me while I was on the road.

When I got home, as I had already order ethernet cable, I went ahead and wired my office. No issues till tonight when I'm on the road again. Unable to login to the hotels wi-fi. In addition, I have had intermittent issues the past week with my mouse being laggy. Tonight, not only was the mouse laggy, but my mac wouldn't recognize my external drive unless it was plugged directly into the usb jack (normally it's plugged into an Ankor USB 3.0 9 port hub). After reading tonight about issues with 2.4ghz mice having confilcts with USB 3.0 hubs, I unplugged the mouse. It might be a coincidence, but on a hunch I then attempted to login to the hotel wi-fi. It connected immediately.

I don't know if any of the above is an answer to our wi-fi issues, but hopefully someone can connect the dots and figure out a solution.

Good luck.

hey guys i finally got mine working

just in case you've tried everything and it's still not working

you might wanna get a wifi analyzer app to check for the best network

channel with least interference, preferably none.. and then go into

your router settings and change it to the new channel

apparently the inability to connect after waking up from sleep was cuz my neighbour was on the

same channel as me causing all the interference

good luck guys, hope it works for you

Under "everything" my list starts with routers and settings... about fourth on that list, after firmware, enable g/n and 5GHz radio band is changing the broadcast channel from "automagic" to manual & selecting a different standard channel band. Channels 1, 6, and 11 are the most common channels used, and many routers will use one of them as the default channel. To solve the but the general idea to solve the WIFI issue is to be as far away from nearby router signals else as you can.

Deleting the file /Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth.plist and reconnecting to the wirless router followed by a restart fixed the issue for me. Thanks to suggestions posted on this forum.

I have the exact same problem with my 13" MacBook Air purchased in June of 2013. I have spent many hours on the phone with Apple Tech support and they would not admit that the problem is on my MacBook Air. They said it must be the wireless routers I am trying to connect to. Of course that is nonsense because I can use a 2010 MacBook Pro on the same network with no problems.

My symptoms are that when my MacBook goes to sleep and I wake it up, it will not reconnect back to the same network that it was connected to before it went to sleep. Sometimes, if I wait for 15 to 20 seconds, it will find the network but will not automatically reconnect. I must manually put a checkmark on the network. And often, it will not reconnect unless I turn wireless off and back on.

An interesting fact is that if I manually put the MacBook Air to sleep by selecting sleep from the sleep menu, it has no problem reconnecting when it wakes up. But if it goes to sleep on it's own, the problem exists.

TURNING OFF BLUETOOTH FIXES THE PROBLEM.

But that is not a good solution.

It appears to me that Apple has a huge liability problem with the MacBook Air and is hoping to find a solfware solution. But everything they have tried has not worked. The problem is most likely with the hardware.

Also, note that my MacBook Air works perfect with my Airport Supreme wireless router which has wireless AC.

But it fails with Netgear 300 wireless N routers.

I have tried every suggestion I have found on this discussion thread and nothing has worked.

Well it is. . . and it ain't Your (and most Mac Laptops since mid '13 are ready to use/ or do use

802.11ac Wi-Fi) it's stated to be (802.11a/b/g/n compatible) & Bluetooth 4.0 standard.

However many older routers by default were up to work with 802.11a/b/g/n (2.5GHz) and may need firmware updates to communicate with 802.11ac (in its' backward compatible mode). That mode works best if your router is set up for 802.11 g/n 5GHz communication... if you have older 802.11a/b/g devices and you have to support them, it means some adjusting or finicking of the router (or your laptop) settings.

If you think the problem is with the wireless router, then answer this question...

Why does it make a difference if the MacBook Air 2013 goes to sleep with energy saver as opposed to manually making it sleep?

Try this test with a wireless router that you are having problems with. (I can make this fail every time with a Netgear N300 wireless n/g router)

Using a MacBook Air 2013

1. Unplug the MacBook from a power source so it is on battery power.

2. Turn bluetooth ON. (It does not need to be connected to any bluetooth device)

3. Set the energy saver Preferences to "Turn Display Off After:" 1 min

4. Connect to your wireless network.

5. Wait one minute for the MacBook to go to sleep.

6. Wait one more minute and then wake it up.

Now you will notice that the MacBook is no longer connected to your wireless network.

If you wait 15 to 30 seconds for the network to show up in the list of available wireless networks, you will notice that no wireless networks have a checkmark on them. If you put a checkmark on the same wireless network that you were connected to before sleeping, it may reconnect. But often it wil not and you will need to turn wireless off and back on again to get it to connect.

Now repeat the above steps. But this time put the MacBook to sleep manually instead of waiting for energy saver to do it. (Select sleep from the Apple Menu or use your screensaver hot corner)

This time you will see that there is no problem. The wireless network is still connected.

WHY?

NOTE: The above test may need to be done in an area where there are multiple wireless routers availbe to choose from. I have not tested in a location where there is only one router to select from.

Rich Love - I did not mean to imply the problem rested only with the router, but with the inception of the 802.11 ac wireless standard, and older routers play a part in that (they'd have to as the standard was not even in discussion when some of them were built).

Because there does not seem to be one "surefire cure" the problem clearly has many parts including software, and ability to work with a non 802.11 ac router. There's more to wireless than just the card. The antenna themselves are different in order to best work with that signal and still be backward compatible for those places where there is no 802.11 ac signal... in addition with the rumor that an OS update can/may fix the problem points back to software - and wake from sleep may well be included in the problem and the fix.

I am running the latest 10.9.2 and the problem is not fixed.

hey change the channel of your wifi router, it worked like charm for me.. hope it helps you cuz i tried all the smc, and pram crap and none of them worked, cheers 🙂

Hi changing the router channel from automatic choice to manual seems to have solved it (for yesterday anyway) keeping my fingers crossed.

I downloaded a piece of software called inSSIDer which shows you all the strengths and channels of nearby wifi users.

You simply choose the one with the highest 'link score'

I also set mine to manual so it didn't pick another one.

Hope this helps

Jack