Network share randomly switching over to wifi?

[Kaitlyn2004]

Have a MacBook Pro M4 Pro connected to a dock with a 2.5g Ethernet. A TrueNAS system with a mounted SMB share.

By default it works “fine”. But I’ve noticed randomly even more significant than usual speed drops, and that’s because it seems to switch over to wifi. If I turn off wifi, the speed bumps back up.

In my settings the service order has Ethernet first and I’m not seeing anything indicating it’s failing or dropping connection or what?

I will want to fallback to the wifi when I’m not at the dock… but when at the dock I absolutely want to use the faster 2.5gigabit connection.

Any idea why it’s randomly ignoring my Ethernet connection and going over to wifi? Any suggestions to fix/mitigate? The biggest annoyance is it’s seemingly random and behind the scenes, and not entirely obvious outside of me doing a file transfer and noticing the speed is less than usual

 

[Bigwaff]

Perhaps related to when MBP sleeps? Try keeping MBP awake to see if it “switch over to wifi”.

 

[Kaitlyn2004]

Perhaps related to when MBP sleeps? Try keeping MBP awake to see if it “switch over to wifi”.

At least in this case, that never happened. I was actively at and using the computer the whole time - actively doing tests…

 

[FreakinEurekan]

I'd work with the dock manufacturer on that. Seems that the Ethernet is "dropping out" or otherwise causing macOS to think it's unavailable, so macOS is failing over to Wi-Fi. Apple isn't going to be much help with that when using a 3rd party dock; it'd be up to the dock maker.

In the meantime, you can continue reacting when it happens as you have been, or I'd think you could create Shortcuts for "Docked" and "Undocked" to disable wifi when docked.

 

[Kaitlyn2004]

I'd work with the dock manufacturer on that. Seems that the Ethernet is "dropping out" or otherwise causing macOS to think it's unavailable, so macOS is failing over to Wi-Fi. Apple isn't going to be much help with that when using a 3rd party dock; it'd be up to the dock maker.

In the meantime, you can continue reacting when it happens as you have been, or I'd think you could create Shortcuts for "Docked" and "Undocked" to disable wifi when docked.

What do you mean create a shortcut? Is there any way to do that automatically when I dock or undock?

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Probably not automatic, but maybe. I'd just drop a shortcut to them in the dock or desktop that you can run to turn on / turn off wifi.

Shortcuts user guide to get started.