Late 2013 Macbook Pro Retina 13'' Wifi Issues

Galileo123, you are not alone. This problem is widespread and it is the software which is faulty not the hardware. Sure there may be a few instances where it is hardware but this is rare with apple kit.

I am using bootcamp windows 8.1 on my retina 13 to work around the wireless problem.

If you look a few pages back, the next version of OS X Mavericks will update the wireless driver and fix the wireless driver which is currently broken.

People posting about replacing their wireless base station and/or laptop is not a fix for this issue.

I would recommend that people bootcamp install windows 8.1 to test before agreeing or recommending a hardware swap. That also goes for the apple service geeks at the stores!

I am experiencing the same issues on a 15in rMBP. Bad pings, dropped connections, having to turn Wifi on/off after waking....incredibly annoying.

Shawn, I already am in the third time of hardware replacement and this time the Airport card is replaced inside. Still the problem persist. Before that on the first and second round, the airport card (first) then the logic board and display(where the antenna is located) were replaced. Per yesterday, Customer hotline decided to pull the unit out of the service center for replacement. Reason is that they have exactly the same model as mine side by side and the reference model has no ping and wifi drop connection problem. Mine, even after almost all of the parts inside were replaced, still exhibits the same problem. Carl_UK has mentioned a software fix coming up in Mavericks 10.9.2, I am thinking that the fix might just be more of a work around on the underlying hardware (manufacturing) problem perhaps coming from component and manufacturing tolerances.

I am also starting to wonder whether aynone in this thread has tested or observed the same symptoms when using ac (not b/g/n). I am suspecting that with Bluetooth ON and ac this might be a worst possible combination where problems can pop up again (especially is you happen to have a unit with a combined component and manufacturing tolerances on the boundary).

Unfortunately for me, this is only the latest in a long line of issues. I previously owned a Mid-2010 MacBook Pro. I was experiencing this weird phantom graphics glitch that would leave strange artifacts around open windows. After months of repairs, phone calls, emails, and chats, I just finally received this Late-2013 rMBP as a replacement a couple days ago. (The previous mid-2010 MBP had the logic board replaced four times, RAM once, the HDD twice, the display twice, a bad battery, and during the last repair they had also replaced the keyboard.)

I was very happy to finally get a replacement computer, which was also a significant upgrade from my mid-2010 model. Then yesterday, these wifi issues started appearing on my brand new replacement.

I sent an email to the customer service rep that has been overseeing my replacement indicating that I am willing to wait for the 10.9.2 release to see if that resolves my issue -- but, if it doesn't, I want to be able to get an outright replacement, and not have to go through multiple repairs (again.)

I have not yet tested my router with different ac/a/b/g/n configurations. I have however changed the channel my 2.4 and 5ghz bands are "broadcasting" on without any difference. I have tried with Bluetooth on and off with no noticeable differences. I have tested other devices in my house, multiple PC's, phones connected through WiFi, and no other device in my house displays the same problems.

galileo123 wrote:

I am also starting to wonder whether aynone in this thread has tested or observed the same symptoms when using ac (not b/g/n).

Hi. I tested ac on a new airport extreme. The maximum speed that i measured was 10-15 MB/s read, which is not great for once. Then i tried to stream HD videos and i got random stuttering. By then ithought it might be the airport extreme, or Interference with other networks. I returned the router and rolled back to my old Trendnet 2,4 GHz n router.

Again, HD content streaming didnt work, low/adaptive bitrate SD content such as online TV was ok. But here comes the big problem: Many times, while i was simply surfing the web, the connection slowed down like crazy. Then pages got stuck while loading. Unbearable, really.

Then over Christmas i went to a place with 2,4GHz g WiFi. Here it worked ok, "only" it disconnected every once in a while. So i had to manually turn off and on the WiFi. Also i used VPN a lot, which seemed to help.

Finally, back home i called the "apple tech support" and they were not very helpful. I have no time to go to any repair centers. So i returned it and got a full refund. I rolled back to my lenovo T420s (n wifi) and streamed the same HD videos via my trendnet n router: No stuttering at all! So it clearly outperformed the 802.11ac connection between two state-of-the-art apple devices. What a disappointment. :-(

Now i thought about this for a bit. I have already bought some apple accesories, mouse, keyboard, Ethernet adapter, so i ordered another one. If it shows the same problem, i will ask apple for the new driver that was given to some people. If it works, I am happy. If not, end of my apple days.. Wish me luck.

In response to the post above, my testing was done with both AC wireless and non-AC wireless, both bands exhibit the same sorts of problem.

Hello everybody,

I bought rMBP in October 2013 and last friday (24/01/2014) i started suffering wifi issues with a drop packets to my gateway and a big delay in other ones.

After read some other comments and blogs, i fixed my issue. For one hand, Kismet helped me telling which channels are using my neighbours and for other hand i've changed my AP settings to use 802.11abg , not N.

Finally, my rMBP is working fine!

I don't like this AP settings i would like Apple help me fixing this issue in my device for use 802.11N too.

Marc

I just bought a 2013 rmbp and talked for waaay to long with apple support while they had me delete applications and boot into safeboot to try and fix the issue.

It would be nice for apple to just admit it's a software problem (if its that) so I don't have to waste their time and mine doing pointless trouble shooting.

They gave me 30 days return which is nice but I have a feeling it will be going back sooner.

Yes unchecking "Wake for Network Access" worked for me to and immediately solved the problem with my late 2013 retina MBPro.

It does take a few seconds to reconnect when waking from sleep but this is no big deal.

Can confirm the same erratic ping response on my late 2013 rMBP 13-inch, running 10.9.1.

Fix works for me too, as per Cart Man's post.

Hi All,

I thought I would relate to you the issues I have faced with my unit.

Original Unit: Late 2013 MBP 13" 2.4Ghz 16GB RAM (Date of Manufacture 25/11/2013)

Issues: Dropped Wifi Connectivity (on AC and N) every 5 mins, Fails to reconnect to Wifi on wake from Sleep. Long pings to Local Gateway (at 1ms intervals) Normal Pings (at 0.2ms intervals). Approx 5% dropped packets

Did the genius bar thing, troubleshooting, diagnosis and ended up with a replacement MacBook (after having rather animated discussions in store with the Genius that was reviewing the issue).

New Unit: Late 2013 MBP 13" 2.4Ghz 16GB RAM (Date of Manufacture 23/01/2014)

No longer seeing any issues with dropped wifi connections which indicates to me there was likely a hardware fault in the original unit. Still seeing erratic pings on 1ms intervals but 0.2ms intervals are fine. 0% Dropped packets. Have yet to give the unit a week of testing to present with any other issues but if and when they do I will come back and report here.

Cheers

Allan

i got my new MBPr yesterday, but it has the same problems. It losses the connection quite often and even if it works, I am getting a maximum speed of 1.5 MB/s on my 150 Mbit/s 802.11n WiFi.

Hello, I have exactly the same problem. The Wifi is very slow on my rMBP 15'' that I bought 2 months ago.

The guy at the store told me that he heard about that but nothing official so he cannot be sure to be able to fix the Macbook pro. It's unbelievable, I left my 1900 euro machine at the store and they may not be able to fix it !!!

PING 10.0.0.2 (10.0.0.2): 56 data bytes

64 bytes from 10.0.0.2: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=101.009 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.0.2: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=21.516 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.0.2: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=98.111 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.0.2: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=91.099 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.0.2: icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=96.603 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.0.2: icmp_seq=5 ttl=64 time=10.593 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.0.2: icmp_seq=6 ttl=64 time=33.945 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.0.2: icmp_seq=7 ttl=64 time=3.061 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.0.2: icmp_seq=8 ttl=64 time=77.857 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.0.2: icmp_seq=9 ttl=64 time=102.810 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.0.2: icmp_seq=10 ttl=64 time=23.244 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.0.2: icmp_seq=11 ttl=64 time=46.114 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.0.2: icmp_seq=12 ttl=64 time=69.044 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.0.2: icmp_seq=13 ttl=64 time=2.958 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.0.2: icmp_seq=14 ttl=64 time=13.772 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.0.2: icmp_seq=15 ttl=64 time=37.264 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.0.2: icmp_seq=16 ttl=64 time=60.548 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.0.2: icmp_seq=17 ttl=64 time=83.420 ms

I also tested with a mac mini and it works fine on the same LAN with the same Wifi N.

I tried with another Wifi box, in a G mode, same result. The rMBP is slow. So it's not a compatibility problem with my Wifi box.

I did a video in French :

http://youtu.be/TZvK9r8X8YA

Sorry it's in French but I think we can understand what I show.

Why does Apple not test their laptop before going to the market 😟

Thanks for reading me.

I returned my second 2.6 ghz/t tb ssd macbook pro late 2013 as well. In time for a full refund.

Just got myself a second hand 2012 15 inch 2.6 ghz . which i equipped with 1 tb ssd and a 1 tb hd...

No wireless issues at all. Just as fast a the new model but with an extra 1tb.

It is a bit heavier though and it tends to get a bit hotter as well......