My mac just started dropping the wireless connection after about 12 to 16 minutes. It sill looks connected but is not. After a restart it connects for another 12 minutes or so. It is not connected to the power when it does this. I did try changing the sleep time and it did not help.
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macbook pro 13 inch wireless drops??
- Thread starter nzvlnr
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I have noticed similar things with my all Apple gear and I have tracked it down to that they just not seem to handle situations where another wifi router is on the same channel. I had that previously and I changed my wifi channel to one no one else was using near me and never saw the problems until just last week again when my neighbour got the same 5G router as I have and it is on the same channel the same problem started again, my MBP, Apple TV, iPad and iPhones drop connections sporadically, even it shows wifi is on you cannot get thru. It "fixes" itself temporarily just rebooting the wifi router and Apple gear but comes back again very soon. Only thing that seems to work is to find a free channel no one else uses. I have many diffferent Windows machines here too and none of them has any problem in the same network, so I guess it is just the (poor) way these "apples" handle conflict situations.
I have a few Apple devices and I live in a fairly dense urban area. I have overlap on both my 2.4GHz and 5GHz channels and don't experience this issue.
@nzvlnr - are you using 2.4GHz or 5GHz? Have you tried a different channel? Is your network split into a 2.4GHz and a 5GHz SSID? Or do you run them together?
If you can provide some details on your setup we might be able to help you further.
I just split the 2.4 and the 5 GHZ in an attempt to rectify the situation. I didnt notice a drop after this. But it only happened in the master bedroom, when I was in the living room in never dropped. I will have to try and test again after this change ( I only had it in the living room after the split of the SSID) but from my WAP location, it is the same distance in the living room or the master bedroom.
The oddity is it never shows a disconnect in the wireless connection notification. I even have the wireless diag running and nothing blinks. Its like it is still connected!!
I guess there are many factors that can affect but I have witnessed this happening with all my Apple gear when all Windows machined in the same network kept working ok, oh and my Panasonic plasma build in wifi and Chromecast also had not problems. So definitely ”apples” have problem coping in not so optimal situations. I have been always able to fix that by finding free channel and in case all were occupied then let overlapping with the weakest ones works too. Usually mentioned issue with ”apples” was when foreign overlapping channel was strong enough that it could have been used succesfully in my house.
It was interesting to see that MBP acted in this case as if it had wifi connected. IOS devices just kept dropping wifi sporadically and a while later connect again but MBP just acted as if the wifi was fine but then failed in diagnostics and i could not even ping the router.
Hi all,
I have described similar WiFi disconnects before on these forums ... and I have found them on three different 2018 MBP 15s and now on a 2019 MBP 15. Same story on all of these machines, and the WiFi disconnects are not true disconnections as the WiFi hardware is still working, and for me at SNR=45dBm to 50dBm, i.e., at extremely strong signal-to-noise ratios. I find them on the 5GHz bands with no nearby routers on the same channel, I find them in the middle of the morning when no neighbors are up and on WiFi. In my hands these WiFi issues are relatively rare (a handful of times per day), they are random (occurring under all types of circumstances), and they are often intermittent (meaning that they often fix themselves after a minute or two), but I've also waited for over 15 hours without the WiFi issue fixing itself. On the other hand, these WiFi issues can always be fixed by simply stopping and restarting the WiFi service on the offending T2 MBP, no need to restart the router. While the T2 MBPs are experiencing WiFi problems, all of my other computers, including other non-T2 MBPs, an iMac, a Mac mini, a couple PCs running either Windows or Linux, and several Raspberry Pis, all maintain WiFi without problems while the T2 MBPs are suffering these WiFi troubles.
So, in my hands, the only common thread linking these WiFi troubles are the T2 MBPs, the T1 MBPs and older Apple computers do not experience these WiFi problems. I have also used Wireshark to capture the few packets that the T2 MBPs are sending/receiving even while they are suffering their WiFi disconnects. I have also seen pings go from 0% loss (i.e., WiFi working properly) to 99% loss (i.e., WiFi not working properly) but not 100% loss --- WiFi is still operative at some low level, in other words, but at a level so low that services often time-out before a connection is established.
These WiFi issues cause numerous other WiFi related problems, such as broken ssh pipes, broken rsync file transfers, failed Time Machine backups, failed Software Update updates, failed AirDrops midway through transfers, failed Safari loads, failed Mac App Store updates, disconnected VNC sessions, beach balling of Internet video playbacks, failed Mail sends, etc.
Solouki
I have described similar WiFi disconnects before on these forums ... and I have found them on three different 2018 MBP 15s and now on a 2019 MBP 15. Same story on all of these machines, and the WiFi disconnects are not true disconnections as the WiFi hardware is still working, and for me at SNR=45dBm to 50dBm, i.e., at extremely strong signal-to-noise ratios. I find them on the 5GHz bands with no nearby routers on the same channel, I find them in the middle of the morning when no neighbors are up and on WiFi. In my hands these WiFi issues are relatively rare (a handful of times per day), they are random (occurring under all types of circumstances), and they are often intermittent (meaning that they often fix themselves after a minute or two), but I've also waited for over 15 hours without the WiFi issue fixing itself. On the other hand, these WiFi issues can always be fixed by simply stopping and restarting the WiFi service on the offending T2 MBP, no need to restart the router. While the T2 MBPs are experiencing WiFi problems, all of my other computers, including other non-T2 MBPs, an iMac, a Mac mini, a couple PCs running either Windows or Linux, and several Raspberry Pis, all maintain WiFi without problems while the T2 MBPs are suffering these WiFi troubles.
So, in my hands, the only common thread linking these WiFi troubles are the T2 MBPs, the T1 MBPs and older Apple computers do not experience these WiFi problems. I have also used Wireshark to capture the few packets that the T2 MBPs are sending/receiving even while they are suffering their WiFi disconnects. I have also seen pings go from 0% loss (i.e., WiFi working properly) to 99% loss (i.e., WiFi not working properly) but not 100% loss --- WiFi is still operative at some low level, in other words, but at a level so low that services often time-out before a connection is established.
These WiFi issues cause numerous other WiFi related problems, such as broken ssh pipes, broken rsync file transfers, failed Time Machine backups, failed Software Update updates, failed AirDrops midway through transfers, failed Safari loads, failed Mac App Store updates, disconnected VNC sessions, beach balling of Internet video playbacks, failed Mail sends, etc.
Solouki