Losing network or internet connection after sleep/wake

I spent $3,000 on a brand new iMAC that can't stay connected to WiFi for more than 5 minutes. Absolutely unacceptable that this does not have a true fix/patch by now. I have tried everything stated and nothing is a permanent fix, turning off Bluetooth is not a solution as I have Bluetooth keyboard/mouse that came with the iMac.

Originally I thought this was an issue with my Airport or Modem. I bypassed the Airport and plugged directly into the modem, the problem persisted, thus ruling out the Airport. I then had the Cable company swap the modem, the problem still persisted. I have had a Dell plugged in at the same time as the iMac, the Dell never stalls, the MAC does every 5 minutes or so and EVERY time after I "wake it up". When it is "stalled" it shows a full WiFi connection in the top right, however when you launch Safari/FireFox/Chrome, the page will never load. Interestingly enough, you can PING during this time.

I tried turning off automatic IPv6, did not work, I switched the DNS servers to Google, this did not work. I completely wiped out my entire WiFi network and rebuilt it from scratch then re-added it, this did not work. I have another iMAC in the kitchen that is 4 years old, it works fine. I have several iPhones in the house, they never lose connection. This is most definitely an issue with Mavericks.

I originally restored this new iMAC from a Time Machine back-up from an old MAC Mini. I thought perhaps some random Network Preferences came over with the restore that was causing this, and thus decided to try completely wiping it, and re-installing the OS from scratch. I manually backed up all user's data, completely erased/reformatted the HD, then reinstalled Mavericks from scratch, and manually migrated data. No Time-Machine involved... the problem STILL EXISTS.

I will repeat, THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS for a brand new iMac that can't stay connected to the Internet for more than 5 minutes... LOL.

FYI the quickest TEMPORARY solution is to simply turn WiFi Off then back ON in the top right... This fixes it, but it is absolutely ridiculous to have to do this several times in one sitting.

I too am having this problem, and have been having it ever since I upgraded to Mavericks when the upgrade first became available. I do not know which Mac OS X version I was running previously, but I have time Machine backups which may be able to tell me this if someone can tell me how to find it. I just upgraded to a new MacBook Pro from the model available 3 years ago. Both of them continue to lose the Airport network connection when they go to sleep. I am glad to know that I can renew the DHCP Lease to fix the problem. Previously, I would unplug the Airport and plug it in again. Curiously, the HP wifi printer will also lose its connection to the wifi network. I find this a very curious result. I hope that Apple can find a definitive solution real soon.

I should also add that I have an ATT Uverse wifi network at home, and this problem has NEVER occurred. It seems to be an AirPort-Macintosh issue.

I spoke with a "Senior Advisor" today who recommended I do the following which I will try when I get home, but fear will be temporary solutions as I have seen above:

1. Boot in "Safe Mode" and see if the problem persists whilst in this mode. (To do this, hold down SHIFT while the computer is booting up...)

-Apparently if it does work correctly in "Safe Mode" then this will help them narrow down what is going wrong tremendously.

2. He said DO NOT delete the entire "Systems Configuration" folder as someone mentioned earlier. However there are 3 files to delete that are within that folder:

-Navigate to //Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration

Delete these 3 files ONLY:
NetworkInterfaces.plist
Preferences.plist
com.apple.airport.preferences.plist

Reboot, and see if it works.

He also wanted to verify that I am on 10.9.4.I will be testing these within the next day or so and will have an update. I suspect neither will work, but these are 2 things I have not tried yet so will give them a shot.

I followed the steps outlined in the original post 9 days ago, and so far the problem seems to have gone away.

I'm on a macbook pro mid 2012 running a clean install of mavericks, updated to 10.9.4 via the App Store. I didn't imported any previous network settings from the old ML install.

Some further details: I have an HP 6700 Officejet premium on this same network. It too loses its connection to the network when the MacBook Pro "falls asleep". The only solution I have found is to unplug the Airport then plug it back in again. Both devices are able to join the network after this. Again, I have ATT Uverse at home, and this has never happened, either the previous MacBook of the newly acquired one. Perhaps Mavericks is changing a setting somewhere in network space that causes both devices to lose their network connectivity. The problem would seem to lie in Mavericks itself, because I never had this problem until I upgraded to Mavericks.

For the record, my problem still exists. Deleting the Network Preferences config files did not help at all, I am fully up to date on 10.9.4 and the problem exists in Safe Mode as well... Beyond baffled that this has not been addressed properly.

While I have not solved the problem, which would seem to be specific to the Airport/Mavericks interaction, I did find a work around. In System Preferences/ Energy Saver, I checked the box the prevents the MacBook Pro from sleeping automatically when the display is off, the box that says Wake for Wi-Fi network access, and the box that says Enable Power Nap while plugged into a power adapter. While I am in the office using the Airport, the laptop is always plugged into the power adapter, so this is not a problem. And since I made this change last week Thursday (8/27/14), the MacBook is no longer losing its connection to the network. I have been able to close it, take it home, then bring it back the next day, and the Airport network connection is immediately, and so far reliably, re-established.

All, after taking the iMac to another network it appears that this is indeed an Airport/Mavericks interaction issue. I replaced my airport with a Linksys router, and have never once lost the connection since. As I previously stated, I have several other older MACs/iPhone/iPads in the house which have never had a problem with connections.

Great job Apple, your new OS forced me to switch router brands and never recommend Airports to anyone again.

It worked! (and it was so annoying before that!!) Thank you so much! 🙂

It worked. Simple as that. Thanks!

poppincurbs, I have tried everything listed on this discussion as well as elsewhere, and everything works for a couple of weeks, and then we are back to clicking on the wifi icon, turning it off then turning it on. I had hoped the new Yosemite would have fixed Apple's wifi problem, but I have read that Yosemite has the same issues.

Before I discard my Airport Extreme, I am hoping you will post back in a month or so to see if getting a different router continues to work. I find it hard to think that the router is the problem, since no other computer or cell phone on my wifi network drops connection. Only the iMac, and only after I updated from Mountain Lion to Mavericks. iPhone, Samsung Galaxy S5, and an hp laptop as well as my older iMac running Snow Leopard never, ever drop connection. Only the iMac running Mavericks does this.

So very annoying that Apple has been unable to solve this problem, after all this time.

Greetings! Welcome to the Apple world.

My MacPro has lost its IP address after wakeup from sleep since Yosemite was installed. This only appears to happen when connected to my Airport Express network. Fortunately, or prudently, i run two wifi networks. The other network using my service providers wifi modem, seems to start just fine (only 5 wakes so far mind you). My other apple devices (iPhone 5 and iPad air, and series 2 iPad) are just fine with my AE modem. XP and W7 machines will also connect and wake just fine with the Apple AE modem(s).

The user community has seen this before. Apple really should be addressing this issue. It has been around, as a result of previous updates in OS, for years now it appears.

With those of you with 2 or more wireless networks, try changing your other (non-apple) wireless networks to channel 1 or 11, change the network name, and change the password. My ISP told me to do this on my ARRIS device specifically because I had mac products. It was a pain in the butt, but so far so good. Tonight is the real challenge.

I have the same problem recently after I upgraded from Mavericks to Yosemite. After many flustrating search for reasons/solutions, I bumped into this thread and applied your solution. It worked! Thanks, and what a relief.

I agreed that this is just a work around. Apple should acknowledge this problem and provide a formal explanation and solution for it.

My more talented resources have advised that this is a widespread issue. See:

http://www.macrumors.com/2014/11/03/first-yosemite-10-10-1-beta-now-available/

in other words, as we say in Canada, Apple screwed up...

In my world...I've been running off my service providers modem, airport express excluded, and two days with wake ups without grief.