Q: Macbook pro retina drops wifi when usb 3.0 stick connected

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u3EBxuAPXQ

I had the same problem with a 2015 Mac Mini with a 2TB USB 3 drive attached.

Disconnecting isn't an option given my use, so I went low tech to solve and connected a USB 2 hub and moved the USB 3 drive to that.

No 5GHz frequency available on my router as some have suggested can resolve.

Lose of transfer speed isn't a great issue given the use, so that will do.

This problem seems staggeringly stupid.

I've been having lots of strange problems connecting to wifi with my MacBook Pro out of the blue. I recently got a USB multi connector. Attached to it is my external HD (not located to the rear of my laptop but on shelf next to it,) printer, and tablet. Besides having the HD somewhat near the computer could the multi connector be causing issues? Wifi seems to drop when I restart my computer and the USB hub is connected. I lost days of work over this and even ordered a new router. I'd suggest anyone having wifi issues to look into this USB thing first.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I bought my Dad a USB 3.0 hub for Christmas, and we spent a good part of the day troubleshooting before landing here. As odd as this may sound, it was exactly what the doctor ordered. We tried adding a black tape insulator to the end of the USB connector. It did not help. Still had to pull the cord out just a millimeter or so. Completely broke to completely fixed. No voodoo, no radio wave interference, it's all in the plug.

Hi, i've just purchased the anker 4-port USB 3.0 hub (bus not mains powered), purely to give me easier access to the USB ports on the mac mini......resulting effect, is that i've lost wifi take the hub out its back again. Has anyone tried a usb 3.0 extension cable in between the hub and mac mini or macbook pro? Might be worth a try to see if it resolves? Going to find one today and try this myself, as i like the aesthetics of this hub and don't need to travel with it so happy to have a longer unpractical cable, just  a shame this is happening due to a clear design fault by anker or apple.

Has anyone found an alternative hub that works without fault?

Thanks from me as well - have a a 2014 mac mini which would drop wifi and wireless keyboard when any one of 3 USB 3.0 devices were attached (all of which work perfectly with windows laptops)

Moving the devices out 1-2mm solved the issues for all the devices - working perfectly with the mac and everything else OK as well...

Not great from Apple - but at least we have a resolution - I would recommend anyone with similar issues to at least give this a go.

Thanks again to higherdestiny for resolving this one - has saved me a lot of hassle...

Update.......Buy a USB 3.0 extension cable

Anker refunded me in full and let me keep the device, however i decided to purchase a USB 3.0 extension cable to test my theory of breaking the direct connection between the mac mini and the USB hub. It arrived today and it worked no matter where i then placed it, even right on top of the mac mini as i predicted, the earthing issue explained above within this thread can be solved by simply having a cable in the middle breaking the direct connection, this also saves having to do the 1mm-2mm pull out trick which can only be annoying or be  recipe for disaster.

So in summary, if you want to use a USB 3.0 hub with mac mini with no issues, just buy an extension cable to break the direct connection and prevent the electrical earthing/2.4 ghz wave issue.

Came back here via an email link to vinceremedy's second response, and it wasn't here. It was a followup to his first assumption that an extension cable would solve the problem. He verified it worked. Thanks to his efforts and higherdestiny's we have a superior solution to anything Apple has offered up. You guys are to be congratulated. We bow in your direction.

Upon my response, vinceremedy's second response magically appeared. Apple? Really? I'm on your side, but seriously, this does not constitute, "It just works."

OMG... I can't believe this. I just finished migrating my mini to a new one, thinking the WiFi/BT board was going, only to find it had the same problem once I put it back under my Thunderbolt Display. Google'd and sure enough, found this thread. My issue seemed to be related to a 4-port Amazon Basics powered USB3 hub and a late 2014 mini. Seems to be regardless of where the hub is positioned...if it's plugged in, WiFi tanks.

Thanks higherdestiny I could not believe that this worked! I do agree there is some grounding issue, I ended up getting some plastidip and putting some on at then end of the usb tip so that it works each time. For what the cost of these machines are, this is an issue that Apple needs to address.

Thank you so much for posting this remedy.  My Anker hub was causing the wifi on my Mac Mini to drop.  The trick involving slightly moving the USB connector worked fine but as I had a USB 2 extension available I tried inserting this between the hub and the Mac and all was fine.  So if you're not bothered about having the USB 3 speed boost you can use any old extension cable.  I didn't buy the Anker for its USB 3 capability but just because it had good reviews and I needed spare USB ports.  All sorted - thanks to your advice!

Best

Chris

Hi All, the post by higherdestiny and an earlier response from Apple suggest the problem is really related to a lack of proper screening in the macs that allow RF interference from usb devices, specially hubs. I bought a new Sabrent usb 3 three port rotating hub for my MBP. When connected it kills the wireless network. If you start off a ping in terminal to some device you should see a time of between 3 to 9 ms depending on where the ip address is located in the world. Plug in the usb hub and the time shoots up to 10000 to 20000 ms plus lots of dropped packets sometimes all dropped packets.Pull the hub out slightly and it works much better. A few dropped packets and some longer times up to 15-20 ms.

I wrapped the hub in Alu foil and inserted it back. No dropped packets but a few longer times of 15 ms. Conclusion, a shielding problem on the mac aggravated by the RF from the hub. Can't see how this can be resolved without opening up the hub and Alu foiling the insides. BTW the exact same behavior on either of the two mac usb ports on the MBP retina.

The Sabrent hub is not "CE" approved so is also a suspect in this problem.

Wow, thank you!

On my early 2015 13" MacBook Pro retina, attaching the Vantec NST-266S3-BK NexStar USB3 drive enclosure (Samsung EVO 750 in there, the Vantec supports UASP) kills my wifi connection. I can see a ping to 8.8.8.8 suddenly dying when I attach, and starting back up when I remove the drive.

Following the advice of the OP, if I carefully insert the USB so that there's a millimeter between the plastic housing and the laptop body, my network connection stays up.

I have the drive itself as far away from the laptop as possible (about 40cm) to the right, but the problem still manifests.

At the moment, this strikes me as Apple being quite sloppy. However, I'm planning to test this same drive on my super cheap and plastic Linux-running Acer laptop to make sure.