7.7.9 Firmware update reduced range of Airport Extreme

Same issue for me. What’s more: I updated to 7.7.9 and my speeds dropped from 60-70Mbps down and 10Mbps up to 1-2Mbps down and about the same up. I thought maybe it was my provider, so I rebooted modem and router - no change. I downgraded to 7.7.8 and performance went right back up. I did this twice to be sure - once from my iPhone and once from my MBP. Each time I updated to 7.7.9, performance dropped to nothing. Each time I reverted back to .8, performance came back. It’s not the modem or the provider - it’s something with the 7.7.9 update.

Major issue too here with 7.7.9 firmware, I explain:

- issue is when you have a 5ghz separate network.

- you can confirm issue with airport utility for IOS only, the Mac’s one don’t show the issue.

The issue is about the WPA key, when using a separate 5ghz SSID, Airport seems modify the key for this SSIS only with a unknown one.

On airport iOS utility, click on the Airport, modify, advanced to be “show the passwords”. You will see that WPA key for 2.4 and 5ghz are different !!

If you are using only one SSIS, you have only one WPA key and don’t have any issue.

Apple confirm again his bug wave...

I recently updated two of my 802.11ac base stations with firmware v7.7.9 and did NOT have this same issue that you are experiencing with yours on the 5 GHz band, but of course, anything is possible.

A number of things come to mind:

• The firmware update did not completely take.
• The 5 GHz band radio is starting to fail.
• There is additional Wi-Fi interference on the 5 GHz band that wasn't there before.

The higher frequency Wi-Fi band does have more difficulty traversing through objects, like walls. For sufficient bandwidth for high definition streaming you would want the base station and wireless client to be in the same room.

Some things you can try:

1. Perform a "factory default" reset on the base station, and then, re-set it up.
2. Downgrade to an earlier version of firmware. If the issue goes away, you can either leave it at that version or try upgrading it again. (Note: The major change in the latest release was to address the Krack hacking issue.)

I also tried to update the firmware 7.7.9 on my AirPort Time Capsule after getting prompted. I got an update failed message, and the device would not restart from AirPort UI. I had to restart by power cycle (unplugging). Then the AirPort UI showed that it was running 7.7.9, but I had serious internet internet connectivity issues (even with a wired connection), and wireless signal strength problems similar to those described above. I could not restart the AirPort device using the AirPort app UI and again had to power cycle, which only temporarily improved the problems.

I tried contacting Apple support for advice -- no useful help at all. Agent had not even heard of the security issues this update is supposed to fix.

So, after experiencing these issues for a couple of days I decided to revert to firmware version 7.7.8. Reverting to 7.7.8 seemed to work, but then I got a message on reboot: "An error occurred while updating the firmware. -6,727"

I think this may have still been the issue with 7.7.9, since, of course, until the reboot it was still running 7.79. So, I restarted by power cycle again and now the AirPort UI says the version is back 7.7.8

So far after the reversion to 7.7.8 all seems normal, back to good performance. I did make a config change (user disk access) which required a restart to apply and it came back normally.

Of course, I do want the security fixes in 7.7.9, but at this point I think I'll leave it be.

I just got off the phone with apple senior tech. I mentioned to them that the forum is actually more helpful right now on this issue as they are escalating my case to the engineer level. I did go back to the previous version 7.7.8 and it fixed my issue with the dropping out of wifi signal. Apple had me upload the log files so I believe that they are getting on this.

any updates for this issue?

I rolled back to 7.78 since then and got back to full speed.

But my airport extreme is constantly flashing that amber light prompting me to update.

Open AirPort Utility

Click on the picture of the AirPort router

Hold down the option key on your Mac while you click on the actual version number

A drop down menu will appear to allow you choose earlier firmware versions

Last week I upgraded to 7.7.9 and also had issues with distance. During the upgrade via wifi I received a failure error 6727 although the version did go to 7.7.9. I performed the upgrade again via ethernet and it was successful with no errors. I only use the 5GHz band and I had lost WiFi in the bedroom after the upgrade. I enabled the 2.4Ghz band with spotty connectivity in the bedroom. The next day I downgraded to 7.7.8, bedroom connectivity was working again and I have been there since. Today I decided that I wanted the Krack protection and proceeded to upgrade via wifi to 7.7.9. The upgrade completed with no errors. My wifi connectivity has definatly improved in the bedroom compared to the first upgrade but I believe 7.7.8 was still stronger/more stable. I'm going to give it another couple of days to see how it performs but as I said, I see an improvement over the first time I upgraded.

After the 7.7.9 update, my devices started to show up offline. Even the Extreme base station itself would show offline in Airport Utility. I found this article and just backrev'd to 7.7.7. I am going to see how things go for the day or so. Thanks!

I had the same problem. I turned off file sharing in the AE settings, updated the AE, and then turned file sharing back on. Stable so far. Possible hung/runaway process issue with file sharing/USB external drive controller.

It's far more likely that the update prompted a reboot, and as a result, the station had to find a new channel to broadcast under. It's also likely that whatever it found wasn't as ideal as the last. When you are in a crowded area, and a wifi router reboots, it often causes a number of wifi routers to reboot and shuffle their broadcast channels while they attempt to find a 'new' best channel.

It's often a good idea to simply unplug the router for 5 mins or so to allow the others to shuffle and latch on to their channels and then bring the airport back online. It will then have a good look at what's currently in use instead of seeing a lot of routers rebooting and picking a potentially bad channel.

My network reduced by 50% after upgrading to 7.79

The rollback to 7.78 solved this problem immediately.

7.79 clearly has issues for some users.

I will not update until 7.80 comes out

Hello, same problem. Make a downgrade to firmware 7.7.8. This helps.

Probably you have fixed the issue by now, but since I didn't see it posted here, I would like to share a similar experience I had and fixed.

After an update, most of my devices stopped being able to see my 5GHz network, trial and error method helped me discover that those updates reset the channels to "Automatic" and that for some reason the channels in themiddle were invisible to my 2013 Macbook Pro and My Thinkpad, along my Chromecast. Moved to the lower-most channel (62 if I recall correctly, not in the mood to confirm) and the 5Ghz network was back in sight, working as usual. You can try this and let us know if it worked or if the issue persists.