Q: Wifi is incredibly slow on OS X El Capitan

I wondered if anybody could advise me. I've gone through this thread but can't see if there might be a solution that would be most appropriate to my problem.

My WiFi on El Capitan occasionally slows down to the point of not being usable. If I turn it off and turn it back on again, it'll work for about a couple of seconds. Rebooting always solves the problem, but I don't want to keep doing this. It's often worse after being on another WiFi network, for example at work, but there doesn't seem to be a simple pattern. For example, it worked yesterday at home after returning from work, but this morning it stopped working again until the reboot.

Any advice or referring me to a particular post/solution, would be really appreciated.

Mine became exactly like this after downloading El Capitan - and it was perfect for YEARS before El Capitan.

I found out [after reading endlessly on the internet] that my particular issue came from an El Capitan conflict with my Bluetooth - which powers my Apple mouse. For me, turning off my Bluetooth [& restarting] always works - but then I have no wireless mouse and have to use my cumbersome trackpad [on my Retina Macbook]. It's to do with Bluetooth using the 2.4 Ghz router network. Closing that down [the 2.4 Ghz network] on my excellent [French Orange] router has worked - at least for me. But the whole issue, complained about by so many users recently, is ridiculous - and an absolute pain in the *ss. I still can't use my Apple mouse.

It's MUCH more than high time that Apple took its head out the sand and FIXED THIS NONSENSE.

MBPRO late 2011, Running El Capitan 10.11.3, horrendously slow Safari, WiFi connectivity flaky.

Turning off the wake for network access check box under System Preferences > Energy Saver > Power Adapter seems to help. I have tried every other recommendation on this thread nothing else helps. It seems to work better if I move very close to my router. None of my other devices including my Windows laptop has this issue. Seems to be very specific to something happening on my machine.

Well, the 10.11.4 update is already available and the difference is clearly visible. Hope we will from now on sail in calm waters.

And Apple, please do not rush with new upgrades. We feel much better now, thank you.

I'm glad someone is happy! I have 100Mbps wifi in my house. I get 60 to 80 through my iphone and between 1 and 2 Mbps on my Macbook Pro.

What a joke.....

After all trails and errors I finally got it working. Problem was USB 3 hub connected to my mac mini. I read somewhere that external usb hard drive is problem if its too close to mac. Just removed USB HUB and right now my mini is lightning fast on wifi. Just sharing my experience if it works for someone. Thanks everyone

I have had the same issue but was experiencing this on Mavericks, not El Capitan. I tried to update to EC last night to see if it would fix my problem but to no avail. stubble on this thread in my search to find a solution.

Same problem as most people, my iphone and Ipad can get 14mb download but on my iMac,it fluctuates up and down and on many occasion, just grinds to a halt and cant even open google.

I will give a few suggestions a go tonight but the only thing I can think of that changed was my Mrs moving the Imac about 2 foot further down the table. I wonder if the above is the problem as the external hardrive is now closer........ will report back.

Well, tried different wifi channels, pram reset, cleared cache, add and removed wifi and still fluctuating wifi speed from 15mb down to 1mb. Even took away all start up apps, nada

I'm experiencing the same problem, and it's been driving me crazy!!!

I've done everything they've said to do and I even got my internet service provider in to check it as well.

Nothing works, wifi cuts out all the time.

This has caused me so many issues!

Yes, I've tried this, thanks to jubamad

- Turned off the router, wait 10 secs, turn on again - FAILED

- Cleared Safari/Chrome cache, etc - FAILED

- Reset Mac - FAILED

- Renewed DHCP lease - FAILED

- Delete, add new WIFI connection - FAILED

- Then I suggested resetting PRAM (turn off Mac, then hold Command + Option + P + R and tap power button) Wait for 2 Apple chimes and release keys. - FAILED

I can only run 1 window at one time, I have to turn off all other devices, I have to disconnect Gdrive, bluetooth, and anything else that needs a cloud or wifi, and then maybe I get some speed up, but then it drops out about 4-16mins depends on my luck.

I'm running between 4-8mbps.

The internet service guy who came out ran the speed test from his phone and he's getting 12mbps.

So many issues with OS X EI Captain!

Finally fixed it, yeah!

Try this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUpI4ynT5qk

Hi,

iMac ( 2009 )

El Capitan 10.11.4

I am also sufferring with these kind of wifi issues since the EL capitan OSX software upgrade.

My iMac is  a little bit older i.e. from 2009, but not too old, and it always works fine before this software upgrade, no networking issues previously noticed.

Now i encounter 2 kinds of major problems with my wireless configuration,

The wifi is very very slow ( even using a 802.11n with a efficient router and Internet provider)

The connection may drops and downloads fails on error and need to be restarted several times to complete.

The first issue could be noticed while trying to download, for test purposes, an iso file 4.5 Gbytes or more, using a wifi N and/or G, the download rate is very very slow ( close to 2MB/s)  and the second issue and occurs randomly but very often is that the download may fails on error, i  also test trying downloading from several different locations and same problem even using firefox or Safari.

Also noticed, for example, more than 3 hours was needed to download the latest 10.11.4 software update...

On Applestore downloading a simple 82 Mbytes application may need 20 minutes ...( Faster on my phone ...)

After reading some discussions i also try to follow your tips but it didn't help.

Deleting the network configuration, adding it back, deleting the pref* files, changing the MTU, rebooting but same problem.

Testing using wifi 802.11g instead of the 802.11n link type didn't help too.

I also already perform  the same kind of downloads tests on a Windows 7 system without any issues.

Any advices may be appreciated.

And an software update is urgently needed...

I also have MacBook Pro 2009 and only 4 GB RAM. I did not follow removal of the .plist, prefs, etc., but my web browsing is satisfactory with 10.11.4 update.

It is not blazingly fast but it beats iPad Mini (9.3.1) tablet browsing on the same home router. Go figure.

Yes this worked much better than swinging the dead chicken over the router. Not looking a gift chicken in the mouth. Thanks.

Update 10.11.5 is in beta testing. Keep your fingers crossed.

Hi. Same problem, on the latest Macbook Pro Retina 13 (2015).
I have fiber internet on 200 mbit/sec speed (188 mbit/sec download and 176 mbit/sec upload (Speedtest)), using cable connection, on my Windows-netbook.

Using Wi-Fi on this Windows-netbook, speed the same ~ 180/160 mbit/sec.
But, my Macbook Pro Retina 13 (2015) internet speed ONLY 70 mbit/sec!! How??
I turn off Skype and all cloud services, but the speed is same.

P.S. Wi-Fi-router: TP-Link TL-WR1043ND (450 mbit/sec wifi speed, with gigabit LAN/Ethernet)