Q: Late 2013 Macbook Pro Retina 13'' Wifi Issues

Hi guys,

Have the same problem of erratic/slow ping + wifi connectivity issue with my new late-2013 rMBP 13''.

My old mid-2010 MBP works perfectly fine on the exact same network so it definitely comes from the laptop.

After almost an hour trying to troubleshoot and fix the problem with AppleCare (I refered them a few times to this discussion) they suggested the problem might come from the WiFi Chipset.

I am now waiting for monday to take it to the Apple Store for exchange... although I doubt it will help as it seems that pretty much everyone with a new rMBP late-2013 is affected.

Hope Apple is working on this!

If i might ask a simple question?  how do you check your ping rate?  I also have a brand new 2013 macbook pro retina 13" - I have already had it place, the first time for the hardrive..  have been having real slow internet connectivity specifically at work, using a netgear wifi router.

I am past the 14 days by a week or so.  If this new laptop is also defected, I would like to know so i can work on a replacement.  Can anyone advise me how to test?

Much appreciated.

David, if you live in the US and purchased your computer through Apple's online store, there is an extended return policy for the holidays. See the first paragraph at http://store.apple.com/us/help/returns_refund

Not sure if this applies if you're not in the US or if your purchased it in a physical store, but I hope this helps.

I'm getting my replacement rMBP this afternoon and keeping my fingers crossed the slow connectivity was a hardware issue that has been fixed since they delayed my order by 3 weeks.

I got my second macbook pro on Nov 14th, so unfortunately I am out of the 14 day window.  I would think if this is going to be a widespread problem for apple, they would probably put some program in place to fix or replace the new machines once the issue is resolved. 

Most times my internet connectivity is fine.  It is just when it is connecting to a wifi network, or after the machine goes to sleep and looks for the network again.. oh, and it seems like the speed is not as robust as it was with my old macbook pro 2009.

The problem is this issue's impact on real work is relatively small. Apple may simply try to ignore it.

As mentioned before - I only noticed it because my wife was complaining she couldn't listen to her favourite radio via Internet. And this radio buffering was bad so many interruptions.

In reality most users doesn't bother with ping so they don't notice

I agree with the others that it is designed to save power - which is fine, but it does not wake up in some cases - which is wrong and should be fixed.

I see the problem while streaming youtube or time machine backup

as soon as I start manually transferring file - no problem with latency.

The problem is this issue's impact on real work is relatively small. Apple may simply try to ignore it.

I doubt that - I use my rMBP on a work network with 20-30 clients. The rMPBs are messing with the network for everyone. I don't think Apple can ignore that.

Changing the router channel from Auto to 6 completely fixed connectivity issues for me.

My work just purchased me a new rMBP 15" and I am having the same issue described by everyone else. What bothers me is that apple hasn't come forward and provided any information regarding the issue. Is this a faulty hardware issue?...if so, I will get a new machine. If this is a new OS issue that can be solved via firmware update I can wait until that comes out. I certainly don't want to send this box back, wait for a new one to arrive, and then experience the same problem–AND have to setup my env all over again.

Apple -- What is the point of this forum? For people to ***** to each other about these things? Hack together solutions themselves? Please be more proactive and engage with your users and customers. After all, all we want to do is use your product.

Yep - agree with all comments.

I have been on phone with care - they send me to genius - genius say arrange a swap - spoke to apple re swap but no point in swapping until apple nail the problem as I will just get another machine with same problem. A real shame that Apple are not taking this a bit more seriously - if this was about windows people would be getting very irrate.

Here people are being very constructuve and saring sensible testing but apple seem to continue to ignore that a problem exists.

I have bought a a new retina mac book pro to replace a  3.5 year old mac book pro - sadly my old machine overall is quicker than the new machine - the only let down which drags the new machine behind my old machine is the terrible network performance.

I know someone said change the wifi base unit to channel 6 to fix the problem (a tad difficult when the wifi access point is not yours - can just imagine a trip into starbucks and ask for a latte and can you set you wifi network to channel 6 please) not really a suitable fix.

I have till 1st of Jan to get new hardware - I am holding out for apple to wake up and will swap to a new machine in late dec in the vague hope that apple are on a new batch of components or realise how to sort the firmware.

Ideally if it is firmware - I would gladly sacrifice some battery life and have decent wifi (the point that I have just the same problems when on mains power I guess indicates this is not a power save item that inteligently uses power).

I would ask everyone keeps posting - the hotter we make this dicussion group the more chance there is that Apple will take notice and get it fixed.

Good luck! In my case, the hardware exchange didn't change anything ... Like I wrote before, the woman from Apples technical support told me I could exchange it a second time but doubts that this will change anything.

So I'm sticking to my second rMBP 15" and wait for a firmware update. In the meantime I'm using an ethernet cable wehenever I can.

This whole thing is very annoying and not what you expect when buying a 2500€ machine.

I'm having the same problem with my new MBPr 15" I got about 3 1/2 weeks ago. The thing is, I don't remember the internet being rubbish at the very start. It only seems to be the last couple of weeks that it's started to get slower - mostly getting stuck for a bit half way through loading the next page. I had a load of extensions added to Safari, and I foolishly assumed it was just those. Now I've finally taken them all off, unticked everything I can - and found out it changed nothing - I can see that lots of other people are experiencing the same thing.

Is the 2 weeks return thing universal - or do people with Apple Care get longer to return their machine?

The fact that store managers are routinely denying that these problems are in fact a real problem - even when the evidence is right in front of them - suggests corruption from above, i.e. they've been told about the problem, and they've been told what to say when a customer comes in. I'm seriously not impressed with that.

£2000 on this machine, and the wifi *****.

I went through 3 rMBP Pro 15 with nVidia; all had same issues; all were exchanged at genius bar as they could not figure out what the issue was and it was within 14 days; I had variable ping rates and dropped packets on many different networks where my old computer worked fine and other Macs had no issues

I spent 90 minutes  on  the phone with Applecare; they either kept trying to tell me that nothing was wrong or it was my network/router; I was pretty persistent

Finally they ran a test on my mac which he forwarded results to Apple engineering

I got a call back a day later that this is a known issue and they are working on an update

Hopefully we will get a firmware update soon; really annoying a $2500 laptop with crappy Wifi; I nearly bought a USB wireless card before I got the call back

If you look around the same problem is being reported in mackbook air & imac threads here and @ macrumors.

As mentioned few posts before I made a test in a store with 5 different macs - 4 were affected - only old macbook pro classic was OK.

This problem is not limitted to rMBP. For MBA its already more than half a year and NOTHING has been done to resolve it!

Maybe we all just need to keep replacing.

I was out of my 2 week replace policy but because i went to genius they said they would arrange a swap (mine is a china build as upgraded processor).

When I called to plan in swap they said I had up to a month to takeup the swap - so I have till 1st jan.

perhaps all on here should push for a swap - sale of goods act etc - the more that keep getting swapped will most deffinatly get apples attention as I assume machines which are swapped get refurbed and sold for less margin plus the cost of sending a replacement/pickup old machine.

I am going to swap mine over xmas period when it is least inconvienient - if the replacement is still a problem as i expect it will be - I will push for another swap in jan and another in feb - as we are all saying - we are paying big bucks for a product that should work (flawlessly like previous MBPs in my opinion) - I have not given apple a chunk of cash to take a step backwards.

I encountered mentioned issues with my rMBP 13 Late 2013 only at home. I hade the same picture: wi-fi connection on my MBA 2011 is stable without lags and interruptions, but on rMBP it is horrible. What is really weird that I have very confident connection at the office on rMBP. It made me think that situation can be with interoperability of MacBook and router, moreover I have really old router at home: Tenda W268r N-Router.

So, I opened router configurations and changed it's WAN Settings from using "mixed b/g/n mode" to "g mode" - my router doesn't have just "n mode". After 5 hours - no issues and interruptions, continue observation.

Obviously it can't be considered as a fix - just workaround until Apple provide corresponding firmware update.