M1 MacBook Air Wifi issues

[JustCrusin]

My wifi woes continue on my MacBook Air M1. Constant speed issues and dropouts. A call to Apple wasn't really helpful as I'm still having issues after they had me add this to the network DNS settings. All other devices in my house seem to work fine from the exact location as where I am using the pro. I have an Orbi mesh system.

Anyone have an idea? I love this device and do not want to return.

DNS settings they had me add:

As you can see a speed test with my new Macbook and iPad Pro next to each other is no comparison.

Macbook:

iPad Pro:

 

[edhchoe]

No problem here.
Faster on my MacBook Air m1

 

[edhchoe]

BTW, I have eero 6 router. It is on sale on Amazon right now for $223. It comes with 30 day money back promise.
It also has data usage per device function which can be useful.

 

[circatee]

My wifi woes continue on my MacBook Air M1. Constant speed issues and dropouts. A call to Apple wasn't really helpful as I'm still having issues after they had me add this to the network DNS settings. All other devices in my house seem to work fine from the exact location as where I am using the pro. I have an Orbi mesh system.

Anyone have an idea? I love this device and do not want to return.

DNS settings they had me add:

View attachment 1682495

As you can see a speed test with my new Macbook and iPad Pro next to each other is no comparison.

Macbook:
View attachment 1682496

iPad Pro:
View attachment 1682497

Since purchasing the MBA, did you happen to restart your router?
Also, on your MBA, is IPv6 active (more than likely not being used by your router currently, unless you use Comcast)? If so, maybe turn IPv6 off, reboot and try again...

 

[Mind The Mac]

My wifi woes continue on my MacBook Air M1. Constant speed issues and dropouts. A call to Apple wasn't really helpful as I'm still having issues after they had me add this to the network DNS settings. All other devices in my house seem to work fine from the exact location as where I am using the pro. I have an Orbi mesh system.

Anyone have an idea? I love this device and do not want to return.

DNS settings they had me add:

View attachment 1682495

As you can see a speed test with my new Macbook and iPad Pro next to each other is no comparison.

Macbook:
View attachment 1682496

iPad Pro:
View attachment 1682497

I am sure you may have checked this, but just in case. Does the Orbi confirm the M1 Mac is on the 5GHz band? I’ve had my iMac (albeit Intel based) switch out to the 2.4GHz which obviously reports a slow speed. Just to eliminate it from being the problem.

 

[JustCrusin]

I am sure you may have checked this, but just in case. Does the Orbi confirm the M1 Mac is on the 5GHz band? I’ve had my iMac (albeit Intel based) switch out to the 2.4GHz which obviously reports a slow speed. Just to eliminate it from being the problem.

Yes. Unfortunately it is on the right band.

 

[JustCrusin]

Since purchasing the MBA, did you happen to restart your router?
Also, on your MBA, is IPv6 active (more than likely not being used by your router currently, unless you use Comcast)? If so, maybe turn IPv6 off, reboot and try again...

Thanks. No option to disable, but I have rebooted my router and confirmed it has the latest firmware.

 

[Warrennn]

Are you using Sidecar? (using an iPad as a second display.) It cuts wifi speeds by at least half on my machine.

 

[Zazoh]

Check to see if there are any differences between the machines by going to
Apple menu
Hold Option Key
The top item changes from About this Mac to system info
Click System Information

On the hardware section there is a listing for WiFi, maybe it is network, I’m going from memory (on my iPad)

See if values are same. Especially the info with band.

They have you using Googles DNS. Sometimes this is better than your Internet Provider, sometimes not. Make sure it is same as MBP.

 

[ascender]

To be honest, if all the settings look the same between the two devices and you've rebooted the router, it could just be a hardware fault on the new laptop.

The other things to try before talking to Apple again will be a clean reinstall of Big Sur along with the usual resets too - SMC and NVRAM (I'm assuming those are still a thing with the M1).

If there's still issues, I'd book a Genius Bar appointment. If you've done all those things and still have the issue I think they'll just swap it out. Only other thing I'm guessing they might do is a firmware refresh, but seeing as its brand new I suspect they'd just swap it.

 

[JustCrusin]

Are you using Sidecar? (using an iPad as a second display.) It cuts wifi speeds by at least half on my machine.

No sidecar for me, yet. Good thought though.

 

[Bmolad]

Have you fixed the problem ? Having same issue on my MacBook Air m1 which I received yesterday

 

[JustCrusin]

Have you fixed the problem ? Having same issue on my MacBook Air m1 which I received yesterday

No. My problem seems to be when my Mac drops to the 2.4ghz network on my Orbi and doesn’t gracefully switch back to 5ghz. Apples response at this point is to take the MacBook somewhere else and try another router. It’s so annoying. There is another thread of people who are also having this issue with the new Pro.

 

[Bmolad]

No. My problem seems to be when my Mac drops to the 2.4ghz network on my Orbi and doesn’t gracefully switch back to 5ghz. Apples response at this point is to take the MacBook somewhere else and try another router. It’s so annoying. There is another thread of people who are also having this issue with the new Pro.

Do you think it’s possible that it might be a big sur problem? Seems like other people might be suffering the same problem but they don’t have the m1 macs. I’m hoping it’s not hardware

Problems with WiFi on macOS Big Sur | Apple Developer Forums

developer.apple.com

WIFI issues with Big Sur

I have been using Macs since 2008. I have had more problems with Big Sur than any other MacOS since I started using them. I am currently running a 2019 MacBook Pro and a 2019 iMac. WIFI works for a while after a restart and then quits. I have reset the PRAM and SMC on the MacBook Pro. I...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[JustCrusin]

Do you think it’s possible that it might be a big sur problem? Seems like other people might be suffering the same problem but they don’t have the m1 macs. I’m hoping it’s not hardware

Problems with WiFi on macOS Big Sur | Apple Developer Forums

developer.apple.com

WIFI issues with Big Sur

I have been using Macs since 2008. I have had more problems with Big Sur than any other MacOS since I started using them. I am currently running a 2019 MacBook Pro and a 2019 iMac. WIFI works for a while after a restart and then quits. I have reset the PRAM and SMC on the MacBook Pro. I...

forums.macrumors.com

Interesting. Possibly. I hope a fix comes soon. It’s very annoying to have my iPad right next to my Mac killing it in speed and connection.

 

[andresarmento]

Hello,

I received my MacBook Air today, i am having the same issue : constant speed issues and dropouts with wi-fi. Really bad.

I think that there are some incompatibility with my router, because when i connect the Mac to my Hotspot phone (shared 4G), it works very well.

I am waiting to trying connect to different router...

UPDATE : with my Raspberry PI i created an access point (connected by ethernet to my router) and it works. It is not the perfect solution, but for now it ok. Good speed and no issues.

 

[faxao]

No problems so far (two days) with my MBA M1 wi-fi (router RT-AX88U) 🤞🏻

 

[intrivil]

No problems so far (two days) with my MBA M1 wi-fi (router RT-AX88U) 🤞🏻

Hi,
If it's not too much trouble from you, can you please download this file 2 times to see if your MBA M1 has wifi 6 problem ?

Test Files

It's just a test file on the internet. You can search on google.
Basically when I download a large file from Onedrive, the above site and others site, I get a network disconnection.
Thanks.

 

[faxao]

Hi,
If it's not too much trouble from you, can you please download this file 2 times to see if your MBA M1 has wifi 6 problem ?

Test Files

It's just a test file on the internet. You can search on google.
Basically when I download a large file from Onedrive, the above site and others site, I get a network disconnection.
Thanks.

Sure, no problem. I did download the 10gb file twice with no disconnections whatsoever. It is indeed much slower if compared to the Speedtest.net but I guess it is something related to the website itself.

 

[MacManTexas56]

orbi is terrible, not sure why people are still buying them. Eero is the way to go.

 

[JustCrusin]

orbi is terrible, not sure why people are still buying them. Eero is the way to go.

I just spend god know what on the Orbi a year ago..I think the wife will kill me if I tell her my new MacBook needs a new router.

 

[rogermyoungsr]

Has anyone figured this out yet? It's driving me crazy.

 

[JustCrusin]

I upgraded my router to an Orbi with wifi 6 and had the same issue. I switched to a TP-LINK mesh router and have only had the issue once in 3 weeks.

No reason anyone should HAVE to upgrade their router for their laptop to work.

 

[JustCrusin]

...and then mere minutes after writing this it happened again. Ugh!

 

[jeyf]

i would return the MBA to apple
but
are you sure no other wifi computer works any better?
apple gave you bad information.