2018 MacBook Pro randomly losing WiFi connection

I'll say it again...

I've made no changes to anything except my MacBook Pro, which I disabled the unlock with Apple Watch feature. So far, this seems to have resolved MY issues. I'm not worried about the AppleTV using AWDL because it works fine. The MacBook Pro is the only device in my home with issues.

I will not move to make changes to other devices unless this step does not work. Time will tell.

For what it's worth, some more details on my scenario / results... iPhone6 in the vicinity that has been linked to my laptop, but no watches or Apple TVs. I didn't do any testing with iPhone variations.

Also, my circumstances were a bit different - my VPN client will drop and reconnect when it sees any network interface go up/down, not just the main one carrying the traffic. (It's a security feature.) I believe a lot of my issue was that the awdl0 interface was going up or down every 2-3 minutes - most people would not notice when this happens. Mind you, I was also seeing poor performance, but it was secondary to this interface "flapping" problem, which also causes loss of VPN. I figured they were one and the same; they might not have been, and I might also have been seeing signal performance issues. But I never got disconnected from the AP.

Anyway... after reading the fellow's article on medium.com, I initially tried:

• Disabled Wake for WiFi Access in Energy Preferences
• Allow me to be discoverable by: No One in Airdrop

Doing these two steps reduced my issues by 90%. Shutting down the awdl0 interface completely eliminated my symptoms (and might have handled 100% from the beginning if I'd tried it).

From what I've read, the signal interference issue stems from the MacBook Pro trying to simultaneously do connections to an access point / SSID, at the same time it tries to do ad-hoc WiFi connections to other devices, such as an AppleTV or an Airdrop peer that's not connected to a common SSID. I'll wager something similar may be happening with the watches.

Shutting down the awdl0 interface seems to disable the "listener" for those services. Apparently this disables ad-hoc connections, but doesn't disable services that can share the access point.

Well, a quick update: After disabling auto unlock with the Apple Watch, my Wi-Fi is now stable for 72 hours!

Now I'm checking the reverse case. the first step was the reactivation of airplay on my ATV3 yesterday afternoon. Second step: reactivating the auto unlock and see how long the Wi-Fi connection lasts.

I have fixed the issue for the time being by disconnecting the HDMI Cable connecting the second monitor.

Just a quick update: After I deactivated the "Unlock with Apple Watch"-Feature - while awdl0 is still active - my Wi-Fi ist stable for about 30 hours now!

Mine is a 2018 MacBook Pro that had the issue after 10.13.6 install. What solved it was connecting to the 2.4g Wifi band (which allowed it to connect to internet) then I switched to 5g and haven't had an issue since.

Going to apple to make sure no hardware issues cause this is a new (2 week old MacBook)

I had the same issue, on my MacBookPro 13inch, with the latest Mohave, after I experiment I found a solution, what was I login and change the channel of the 2.4 Ghz router from channel 1 to channel 11. That was it, no more drop out for me....

Initially I tried other channels but it din't work, so I guess you have to find the best for you, i think this happens when they are many wifi spots around your location and they create interference.

I have had many long discussions with Apple Care about my wifi signal disconnecting. After submitting wireless diagnostics reports and a major capture data report, engineering determined that the problem was malware, a virus that somehow infected my brand new MacBook Pro. Apple had me install Malwarebytes, which revealed a problem and removed it. At this moment I've gone 2.5 hours without a problem, a new record. I'm hoping against hope that the problem has been solved. BTW, I also installed the free Avast protection program, which may help detect malware attacks.

THIS REALLY HELPED ME when I couldn’t access internet though it said I was connected:

If you have taken all these steps, please ignore this.

  1. Start up in Safe Mode. Launch Safari and test.   Click the “Restart” button at the bottom.

       https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262

    2. WiFi troubleshooting https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202663

    3. Deselect Proxies, if selected.

       System Preference > Network > Advanced  > Proxies Tab

       Unlock the lock if you have to.

       Under "Select Protocol”, uncheck any box if check marked.

       Click "OK" then  "Apply”.

Do you have any third party Profile installed?

System Preferences > General > Profiles

Did you edit etc/host/file. recently?

Third party adware/malware also can cause this kind of a problem.

Without proper wifi connection, we cannot check

Oh, sorry. I didn't know your connection goes completly down. In this case have Console.app constantly opened + press option+SHIFT on wifi icon to reveal Debug menu and Enable Wi-Fi logging. In Console.app filter those wifi events. Ping with timestamp can be good to see when connection goes offline + look at corresponding timestamps in Console.app

It does not matter if you own an Apple Watch or not... go into System Preferences, Security & Privacy, and under the General tab make sure that "Allow your Apple Watch to unlock your Mac" is not selected. This resolved my issue for months now.

Make a New Location, Using network locations in Mac OS X ...

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2712

10.5, 10.6, 10.7 & 10.8…

System Preferences>Network, top of window>Locations>Edit Locations, little plus icon, give it a name.

System Preferences>Network, click on the little gear at the bottom next to the + & - icons, (unlock lock first if locked), choose Set Service Order.

The interface that connects to the Internet should be dragged to the top of the list.

Instead of joining your Network from the list, click the WiFi icon at the top, and click join other network. Fill in everything as needed.

I resolved that issue with the next tutorial.

For me I used “Create a New Network Location with Custom Settings” information

http://osxdaily.com/2018/11/19/fix-macos-mojave-wifi-problems/

I have resolved the issue . The issue was with external USB SSD . It was causing some interference with wireless card .

Yes issue is the ARP table on macOS. arp -d 192.168.0.1 triggered the network connection. Look at images (1st shows the ARP packet request to resolve IP to mac address after deletion; 2nd proof that the connection works).

https://imgur.com/a/Q7tTHLt https://imgur.com/a/1utR4fZ

I have seen scripts that renew DHCP if they see outage.

Next: possible solution here:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5483424 (unicast ARP vs multicast ARP)