Late 2013 Macbook Pro Retina 13'' Wifi Issues

Note if you read the thread on Thunderbolt GigE adapters you'll see it was addressed in OS X 10.9.2.

Interestingly, since updating to the latest OSX version (10.9.3) five days ago I have not had any troubles connecting to my network and internet via Wifi anymore. The issue I was having was a failure to connect after booting as well as after waking up from sleep mode in more than 50% of the attempts. Sometimes manually deactivating and reactivating the network adapter, sometimes just waiting for 5-10 minutes would fix this. If not I used to have to reboot my router in order to get the macbook to connect properly.

As I have stated above, this issue has not occured since 10.9.3 anymore. I can't really make a comment on connection speed, since I have not been measuring it, but it seems also to have improved.

Have anybody elses wifi issues been improved substantially with 10.9.3?

Applier that's true, I ran 2 tests, first witht Bluetooth Off and everything was great, the second one with Bluetooth On and results where awful ping latency incredible high.

Bluetooth Off 🙂

64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=184 ttl=255 time=4.777 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=185 ttl=255 time=2.205 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=186 ttl=255 time=2.877 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=187 ttl=255 time=2.837 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=188 ttl=255 time=2.280 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=189 ttl=255 time=2.981 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=190 ttl=255 time=2.838 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=191 ttl=255 time=2.131 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=192 ttl=255 time=2.335 ms

^C

--- 192.168.1.254 ping statistics ---

193 packets transmitted, 193 packets received, 0.0% packet loss

round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 1.287/3.242/77.116/5.387 ms

Bluetooth On 😕

PING 192.168.1.254 (192.168.1.254): 56 data bytes

64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=0 ttl=255 time=123.488 ms

Request timeout for icmp_seq 1

64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=1 ttl=255 time=1449.394 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=2 ttl=255 time=475.135 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=3 ttl=255 time=1144.201 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=4 ttl=255 time=161.733 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=5 ttl=255 time=605.118 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=6 ttl=255 time=285.173 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=7 ttl=255 time=1528.698 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=8 ttl=255 time=544.414 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=130 ttl=255 time=2.389 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=131 ttl=255 time=1.227 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=132 ttl=255 time=1.711 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=133 ttl=255 time=6.321 ms

^C

--- 192.168.1.254 ping statistics ---

134 packets transmitted, 134 packets received, 0.0% packet loss

round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 1.227/165.051/1528.698/344.615 ms

Applier wrote:

Hello, I have the same wifi problems with my MBPr late 2013 when I use my Magic Mouse via Bluetooth. But without Bluetooth connections wifi is working properly.

Bluetooth uses the spectrum in the 2.4GHz band, where cheap Routers, microwave ovens, baby monitors, some portable phones, bad USB cables, and all your neighbors' Networks are competing with each other. A more expensive dual-band Router gives access to faster transfers using the 5GHz band, and often gives far better results.

Sorry, but this kind of general advice is not helpful here. There are millions of notebooks out there where bluetooth and wifi get along on 2.4GHz. Also this is obviously not what causes the wifi problems with the MBPr's because there are many people here (including me) experiencing problems with BT turned off anyway.

I insist this is a problem with the broadcom driver in Mavericks (try and run Windows and see for yourself), and unless apple fixes it, the problem will not go away, whatever magic or advice will be posted in this thread.

Thanks for your explanation, I checked the one supplied by my telephone/dsl service company and it's working in the 2.4Ghz band like you said. Now its very clear that I should invest in a better router.

Also I want to comment that with 10.9.3 update, reconnecting to my router after sleeping my mac (closing lid) is no longer and issue, it reconnects instantly.

I think an earlier poster said that he had problems with wifi connection even with the dual band Apple Airport so buying a better router does not necessarily solve the problem. A better router may give you faster transfer speeds but you cannot be sure a dual band router will cure the problem. Hate to spend a lot of money and come home and still have the same problem. Aside from that my Google Nexus 7 tablet uses bluetooth to connect to my Bose mini Soundlink and there is no conflict and connects instantly. My Windows laptop connects instantly as well so why oh why should my 'superior' Apple not? It's only the most basic action of any operating system.

I have a fully spec'd out Late 2013 15" rMBP that was working perfectly fine untill about 5 days ago. I woke up my laptop only to see that I was connected to my network but not to the internet. I have an Airport Extreme and 2 Airport Express' on my network. Using Airport Utility all my routers were available and connected, however underneath the Internet icon there was an "orange dot" showing a disconnected error. I tried resetting my routers to no avail. Next I reset my cable modem thinking there was an issue with my cable provider, but that didn't fix the problem either. So I decided to call Charter support to see if there were any outages in my area, while I searching Charter's website for their support number on my iPhone, I realized that my iPhone was working perfectly on my network, I then grabbed my iPad Air and sure enough it was also running smoothly on my network, I went back to my laptop and still no connection. I went with the trusty old reboot and my rMBP was up and running. I have no idea what is going on or how to fix the issue. I have read a majority of the comments here and do not seem to have issues with slow pings, only with reconnecting to my network. A few days ago my Airport Extreme received a firmware update and that was around the same time my computer stopped reconnecting, not sure if they are related or not. I conect to my network at work with no issues ever, a 2Wire modem for Uverse that is only 802.11 g. I hope we can keep this thread going until the powers that be realize they have an issue with their $3k laptop.

10.9.3 is claimed to fix some of the failure to reconnect after sleep and similar problems.

Do you have a link? The Broadcom driver version in 10.9.3 is still 6.30.223.154.63, its the same driver that has been around for months since the 10.9.2 beta.

It may be something else in Mavericks that causes all these problems, but it is highly unlikely. Also i have already tested 10.9.3 a bit now and the 802.11ac performance is still the same (very bad). I will test on some 2.4GHz networks next week.

Hi Grant,

Unfortunately 10.9.3 did not fix my issue. I had already updated to 10.9.3 before posting. I do hope that this is something that can be fixed with a patch and that it will be done soon. Having to reboot my laptop every time renders sleep mode useless. I might as well shut down after very use now.

The best I can do is this quote on a news site, not very specific:

"The problem with Wi-Fi reconnections in cases of active Bluetooth is also corrected."

This article has also been suggested lately:

http://howtoapple.com/mavericks-wifi-issues-fix/

I must admin first, that I've read this complete articles before asking here:

- 2013 MacBook Air WiFi Problems (high latency, dropped connections) [Updated]

http://www.midwesternmac.com/blogs/jeff-geerling/2013-macbook-air-wifi-problems

- New Macbook Air - wifi connectivity problems (the 141 pages all of them)

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5100655

- How-to Fix OS X 10.9 Mavericks – Wi-Fi Issues

http://howtoapple.com/mavericks-wifi-issues-fix/

- Late 2013 Macbook Pro Retina 13'' Wifi Issues (the 44 pages all of them)

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5535320?start=630&tstart=0

- And some other pages looking for "macbook pro late 2013 network issues"

https://www.google.es/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=macbook+pro+late+2013+networ k+issues

I have my "old" 2008 Macbook Pro, and I've bought a new one (late 2013 version). I've experienced serious network issues, not only WiFi as everybody is claiming on the Internet, but also ethernet network issues, and I'd like to share here my benchmarcks.

I've tried everything described in those articles and others I found, as to:

- clean PRAM

- reset SMC

- delete System Configuration folder (bluetooth and/or wifi and/or complete folder)

- upgrade to 10.9.3

- change order (to put Wifi first) in network preferences locations

- disable iCloud completely

- disable "Wake for Wi-Fi network access" in Energy Saver

- disable bluetooth

- create a little script to ping every 0.2 the router

- reinstall everything (fresh install 10.9)

All tests were done in a clean environtment (just the current testing device connected to the network), and even reseting router in each test. My network is a 100Mb fiber optic. (I performed other tests in 3 other 100Mb networks and in a 50Mb network, and results are the same). I also did tests with a Windows 7, and Windows 8 laptops and have no problems at all (obviously).

I did all tests with http://testvelocidad.eu, a page when you can check network speed.

TESTS WITH MACBOOK PRO 2008

Ethernet. Speed shown in tests (in Mbps): 74, 79, 71, 82, 74, 81, 89, 70, 25, 76, 81, 83, 77, 79 (average 74.3, top of 89!)

Wifi. Speed shown in tests (in Mbps): 45, 48, 50, 44, 41, 47, 39, 45, 43, 36, 41, 42, 49, 50 (average 44.2, top of 50!)

NOTES:

- This Macbook connects to my WiFi with 802.11n

- Bluetooth does not affect the tests at all

- The graph grows normally and test is running well

TESTS WITH NEW MACBOOK PRO LATE 2013

Bluetooth OFF

Ethernet. Speed shown in tests (in Mbps): 43, 45, 42, 40, 40, 30, 35, 44, 37, 35, 39, 48, 37, 36 (average 39.3) << SLOW !! Top 48

Wifi. Speed shown in tests (in Mbps): 24, 23, 18, 21, 24, 25, 22, 23, 20, 24, 19, 23, 21, 20 (average 21.9) << SLOW !! Top 25

NOTES:

- New Macbook connects to my WiFi with 802.11g, impossible to get a "n" connection even touching everything in router. I had an option to just connect to "n" networks, and then WiFi does not even recognize my network.

- I tried with DHCP, and static IP (both in WiFI and ethernet tests)

- I tried changing the MTU manually to 1453 as some forums said (in WiFi test) (https://www.google.es/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=macbook+wifi+issues+change+m tu+manually)

- It's curious when running the test (both in WiFI and ethernet tests), the graph is growing and after 4/5 seconds, it shows flat line for the rest of the 10 seconds test, never grows again (http://cl.ly/image/1w473J0L0J2I)

Bluetooth ON

Ethernet. Speed shown in tests (in Mbps): 41, 45, 40, 39, 47, 46, 46, 43, 42, 41, 46, 47, 49, 47, 42, 44 (average 44) << SLOW AGAIN !! Top 49

Wifi. Speed shown in tests (in Mbps): 3, 5, 4, 3, 2, 4, 5, 4, 4, 3, 3, 2, 3, 3, 3, 3, 4, 3 (average 3.3) << DRAMATICALLY SLOW !! Top 5

NOTES:

- It's curious when running some of the tests, that after 2 seconds, the graph is frozen, does not move at all for 3/4 seconds and then the test finishes suddenly, it seems the network hangouts for a while!

Summarizing questions happening JUST IN NEW MACBOOK PRO:

- Why Bluetooth is affecting drastically the WiFi performance ? (from average to 25 to 5)

- Why even turning off Bluetooth I can't get the same network Wifi speed as old laptop does ? (from average to 44 to 21)

- Why I can't get the same network ethernet speed as old laptop does ? (from average to 74 to 44)

- Why can't Ethernet connection can't get more than 45/50 Mbps in all cases ?

- Why can't I connect to 802.11n networks (more people happening,http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/131455/why-doesnt-my-macbook-pro-retina -connect-to-802-11n) ?

I know I can change the laptop for other new (store staff told me so, and I have Apple Care too), but I think this will happen again, since it's a hardware/software issue from Apple.

Thank you for any help

… and now ask yourself if it is even legal to advertise 1300 MBit/s for the MacBook Pro with Retina Display (late 2013) …

dont get a replacement, it will be the same. (mine was). If you can, test Windows. For me it cofirmed it cant be the hardware.

@Marcel: The real pitty here is that the hardware is top notch, it can well be advertised as such. Only there is no support on Mac OS X and Apple leaves us all hanging for more than half a year now. By the time they'll figure it out, i will have a new notebook.

Funny enough, there are no problems with the iOS devices (have an iPad Air running on the same WiFi), which is where the money is made nowadays.