Q: OSX Yosemite Wifi issues

So far so good!

I followed a thread from someone and so far it's paying off!

All I did was take my Mac to the Genius Bar in my nearest Apple Store & after deleting lots of corrupt files, all is good!

Just hope it lasts!

Richard Crome

From my iPhone

Could you maybe be more specific about the corrupt files you deleted? Which files are these and where are they located?

Thank you much. I've been recently keeping up and not read all the threads. After reading your response, I went to the beginning of this thread. It's amazing the impact this has made on a lot of Apple Users who rely on the integrity of their Apple systems for personal and business use. I am still cheering Apple on in spite of the premature release of Yosemite. It would seem that a public release would be the only way to find this mixed bag of issues. Some of which could not be caught and reproduced "in lab" so-to-speak. I, for one, should have known as this historically has been the case with major Linux Distribution changes and upgrades following major computer component changes in the market. Thank you again for your response.

I surely would like to know, too, Pitiger! Also, to all posters here and especially in this thread, it would very much help if people posted their system configuration: which Mac, which iDevices involved, which router, WiFi issues only or Ethernet too, WiFi on the 5 GHZ or 2.4 GHz band, which security used (WEP, WPA, WPA2, WPA Enterprise?), use of USB3 external devices, etcetera... Thank you!

You're welcome, John. Indeed you're right that the impact of these issues has been enormous for some users. How many users, however, is very hard to estimate. Which issue exactly, is equally hard to tell with so little configuration specific parameters undefined, as stated above.

And as to lab testing vs. real life testing: I agree with you completely. Apple engineers will have the latest and the greatest, whereas we, poor mortals, have only a rag tag collection of hardware to go on.

Well, investigations seem in progress, hope they get to the bottom of this. Still, I do not feel comfortable when actual users are expected to perform beta testing, especially not of retail software- be it free or not.

I will try but the Genius Bar tech girl was working very fast!

Anyway in my trash are the following files she deleted which I've attached.

Let me know if you can see this file, if not I'll type it all out!  Once deleted she just rebooted and it's all been good since.

Good luck

Sorry, your attachment did not go through. What Mac model do you have and Modem/Router? That's the thing about the Genius Bar. They hook up their magic Diagnostic Pad and follow screen prompts or take it to the back, abra cadabra, your Mac comes out gleaming like King Arthur's Sword. The Genius's don't tell you everything, do they? I hope they rendered a good fix for you. Please do share. Yosemite needs to work for all.

Well I must report that by some miracle; my wifi has stabilized both at home and at work. The only update that was applied was the last Safari update.

I did up date the firmware on our LINKSYS Router at home; however the one at the office is still running the older firmware; but my access at work has also been consistent.

Any one else have similar things happen?

Okay, in the Library/Preferences/System Configuration folder she deleted the following files (going by what I see in my Trash)

CaptiveNetworkSupport/Settings.plist

com.apple.accounts.exists.plist

com.apple.airport.preferences.plist

com.apple.Boot.plist

com.apple.Boot.plist~previous

com.apple.captive.probe.plist

com.apple.discoveryd.BSP.plist

com.apple.network.eapolclient.configuration.plist

com.apple.PowerManagement.plist

com.apple.smb.server.plist

com.apple.wifi.message-tracer.plist

NetworkInterfaces.plist

preferences.plist

As for what I'm using

Macbook Pro 15" Retina

Router - Virgin SuperHub 2, 2.4 or 5GHz, WPA

Again hope this helps

Yes please, RitchieC, we'd very much like to see those files and indeed your attachment did not come through! If all else fails you can make a .PNG screenshot of it by pressing command-4 or command-shift-4 (according to your keyboard layout), uploading that to this website via the camera icon in the menu bar, and inserting inline as per instructed. Thank you!

Sorry, RitchieC, this post was too late. I"ll get to reading yours now, seems blazingly interesting, thank you!

Thank you. Indeed this has been previously posted, however The Genius Bar took it further. They almost, but not quite deleted all but the minimum System Config Prefs. This, in conjunction with the Safari update posted by Frank Kruszewski seems to work fine when first applied. Then further reading the threads here, it seems after a couple of days as OS X "breaks in" with new config files the irritation re-emerges. I experienced no WIFI at start up "hit and miss", Ethernet connected. Random Recovered Files folder dumped in trash can once and twice a week. In the folder it contained "A Document Being Saved By Storeassetd". Not sure what that is but it started when I gave Yosemite a .local Network unique name. Before that I experienced random network naming changes. Example: Starting out the name was My-Mac-Mini.local.  A week or so later My-Mac-Mini-3.local. In System Prefs under Networks I used Set Service Order to put WIFI at the top of the list. Still hit and miss during boot up.  I, like you, hope your post helps others. Sorry I know this may be winded and too much information. We now need to be vigilant and bombard Apple with TMI. In this case too much is going to be more successful than being too elusive. Just like hexdiy, we also need to provide our Mac Model and Mac hardware configuration. Apple is watching this thread. Thanks again.

Many thanks, RithcieC!

This list goes far beyond most user's knowledge and indeed seems invaluable. At least now we know where to look.

Very shrewd of you to check your trash folder (and not so clever of the genius not to empty it, luckily for us).

It seems all of these .plists will build up again after restart, but never mind. In the meantime alert us if your WiFi goes astray again.

Awaiting a more permanent fix, this may have brought us a most valuable workaround. Try this at your own risk people (not you RitchieC, your YO1010 has probably been fixed), and certainly not before backing up, either with Time Machine, preferably also with Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper!, the 2 latter of the 3 are bootable so will have your system back up in no time.

Possible fix for Yosemite WiFi issues (I repeat, possible and not till after due backup):

Go to  your Library/Preferences/System Configuration folder and delete the following:

CaptiveNetworkSupport/Settings.plist

com.apple.accounts.exists.plist

com.apple.airport.preferences.plist

com.apple.Boot.plist

com.apple.captive.probe.plist

com.apple.discoveryd.BSP.plist

com.apple.network.eapolclient.configuration.plist

com.apple.PowerManagement.plist

com.apple.smb.server.plist

com.apple.wifi.message-tracer.plist

NetworkInterfaces.plist

preferences.plist

And startup afresh (you're reading right: a restart will purportedly be the same, but may not clear caches as well as a fresh startup does).

Make sure you have a WPA or WPA2 security password enabled on your router.

Please chime in with your results.

If in trouble, revert to your backup.

If to no avail, you"ll never be able to say you haven't tried. One experiment is better than a thousand expert opinions.

I reverted back to Mavericks and have Windows 7 Pro Boot Camped. I might give it a whirl again. hexdiy, do you think that putting my Mini in an OEM state, deleting these files, PRAM and SMC reset prior to performing Yosemite upgrade is do-able? Or will Mavericks regenerate the configuration files prior to upgrade? What about clean install in OEM state and deleting these files after Set Up is complete? Then naming .local Network. In my case. Thanks.

Indeed this has been previously posted, however The Genius Bar took it further. They almost, but not quite deleted all but the minimum System Config Prefs.

Quite right, John.

This, in conjunction with the Safari update posted by Frank Kruszewski seems to work fine when first applied. Then further reading the threads here, it seems after a couple of days as OS X "breaks in" with new config files the irritation re-emerges.

As I've posted before, it seems that caches rebuild themselves, as well as some files like .plists. This is probably why so many "fixes" here are so temporary. After rebuild, issues return, inevitably.

I experienced no WIFI at start up "hit and miss", Ethernet connected. Random Recovered Files folder dumped in trash can once and twice a week. In the folder it contained "A Document Being Saved By Storeassetd". Not sure what that is but it started when I gave Yosemite a .local Network unique name.

Storeassetd is probably a Discoveryd process for the Appstore. Incredible how much network activity Discoveryd tries to poll.

Before that I experienced random network naming changes. Example: Starting out the name was My-Mac-Mini.local.  A week or so later My-Mac-Mini-3.local. In System Prefs under Networks I used Set Service Order to put WIFI at the top of the list. Still hit and miss during boot up.

This duplicate network name issue is not indigenous to Yosemite, but has been spooking us from Lion upwards. It is caused by your router spoofing your Mac's MAC address under Bonjour Sleep Proxy when your Mac receives a network wakeup call. Easily solved by unchecking "Wake-On-Lan" in System Preferences.

I, like you, hope your post helps others. Sorry I know this may be winded and too much information. We now need to be vigilant and bombard Apple with TMI. In this case too much is going to be more successful than being too elusive. Just like hexdiy, we also need to provide our Mac Model and Mac hardware configuration. Apple is watching this thread. Thanks again.

Same goes for me, John. As for my network: it is my neighbours'. My Mac is an ancient battered Core Mono 1.83 GHZ with 2 GB of ram. My interest of Yosemite is mainly journalistic. So I can only rely on secondary sources such as your own.

But you have my sympathy as well. Never mind Alien #1 :-)

hexdiy, do you think that putting my Mini in an OEM state, deleting these files, PRAM and SMC reset prior to performing Yosemite upgrade is do-able? Or will Mavericks regenerate the configuration files prior to upgrade? What about clean install in OEM state and deleting these files after Set Up is complete? Then naming .local Network. In my case. Thanks.

Being a hardware person, John, yes I think it is very doable. Do you have another Mac available? Then start your Mini in Target mode, link it to that other Mac with an appropriate FireWire cable, start Disk Utility on that other Mac. Select your Mini's disk and reformat/partition using "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" for the volume and "GUID partition table" for the disk. Then reinstall OSX from a bootable image or USB stick.

Or much simpler since Lion: start up your Mini standalone via command-R (recovery partition), start Disk Utility, select your Mini's disk and reformat/partition using "Mac OS Extended (Journaled) for the volume and "GUID partition table" for the disk. Next redownload Mavericks from your previous purchase in the Appstore and install. Done.

Mavericks is no longer present in the Appstore, but if you have downloaded it before, it should still be available in your purchases.

Probably renaming your .local network will only be optional.

Mind you, make sure you have an external Time Machine backup first. This will allow you to use Migration Assistant to put back most of your apps and all of your data problemlessly. Some apps will have to be restored manually (Adobe products for instance). iTunes library and playlists and iPhoto library may prove a chore.

Good luck!

Sorry for the offtopic, people. But I think this may be instructive for some.