New rMB wifi problems?

[matt2053]

Has anyone heard about any wifi issues with the new Retina MacBooks? Here's the problem I experience:

I'm online, using my internet connection, and all of a sudden, I can't get any websites to load, if I'm streaming something it stops, and I see my Skype and Dropbox menu bar icons indicate they are offline. My wifi icon still shows a strong connection.

I can always resolve it by turning wifi off, and then back on. But about every 10 minutes I have to go do it again!

This only happens on my home network where I'm connected to an Airport Extreme in bridge mode using 802.11n. At work we have the exact same model Airport Extreme on the exact same firmware and I don't have the problem.

I'm using a brand new retina Macbook. I did not have this problem on my old Macbook Air. I don't have this problem on my wife's 2011 Macbook Air. I don't have this problem on my iPhone or iPad. So I have to assume it's a Macbook problem, but I can't figure out why it only happens when I'm at home.

I've searched around and can't find anything in various forums. Just wondering if anyone else here has heard anything similar.

 

[bcaslis]

These sort of problems almost always are a router problem (even though it appears to work fine with other devices). First thing I would do is power cycle the router and then see if the problem re-occurs.

 

[Theophil1971]

Ya, I'd guess it was the router. This happened to me a week or so ago. Strong signal indicated, but no activity... So I checked a few other devices (iPad, iPhone, etc...) and they were all affected too. After a few mins, things were normal. Either my router choked, or the ISP had an issue.

 

[matt2053]

Ya, I'd guess it was the router. This happened to me a week or so ago. Strong signal indicated, but no activity... So I checked a few other devices (iPad, iPhone, etc...) and they were all affected too. After a few mins, things were normal. Either my router choked, or the ISP had an issue.

In my case, *only* my retina macbook is affected. I have two iPhones, an iPad, an Apple TV, and a MacBook Air which are all NOT affected.

But sure I'll try a whole network power cycle and see if that helps.

 

[bcaslis]

In my case, *only* my retina macbook is affected. I have two iPhones, an iPad, an Apple TV, and a MacBook Air which are all NOT affected.

But sure I'll try a whole network power cycle and see if that helps.

This is exactly what I was saying. Every example I've ever seen or reported in forums is where the router works fine with all devices but one. Usually a power cycle fixes this, in some cases a new router fixes it.

 

[ZipZap]

Before you spend too much time looking at your router consider that what you described seems specific to the rMB. Too often, folks look for solutions everywhere but the obvious.

Since all your other devices are fine, I would only suspect your rMB.

Take it in and get it replaced. A tall order given the availability. Or call Apple and arrange for an exchange. Insist that they send a replacement, and you will return the bad one. Let them have your credit card number if need be.

Bad WIFI chips is a common issue with Apple.

 

[fatefulwhisper]

Had this issue w/ my rMB after doing a migration from my MBA. I decided to try formatting the hard drive, re-installed Yosemite, and created a brand new user/profile from scratch *without* migrating my old settings over. It was a bit time consuming, but I wanted to start fresh, with no old settings intact.

In the end, doing that was worth my time--I've had no issues for almost 3 solid weeks now. Wifi works as it should. I suspect maybe migrating older network settings may have messed it up somehow. Did you migrate old settings to your new rMB? If so, you can try reading this article to see if it will fix it: http://www.techrepublic.com/article/pro-tip-how-to-troubleshoot-wi-fi-issues-in-os-x-yosemite/

Or, failing that, a re-format/re-install w/out migrating will work too (as I have done).

If that still doesn't work, then yes, it could be a hardware fault on your rMB and you should have your rMB replaced.

 

[pasadena]

If everything else fails, you might want to read this : http://furbo.org/2015/05/05/discoveryd-cluster****/

 

[Mr. Buzzcut]

If everything else fails, you might want to read this : http://furbo.org/2015/05/05/discoveryd-cluster****/

I've had these issues and there is just no excuse for it when using all Apple hardware and software. Everyone praises OS X but this is just one example of the fundamentals under the hood not working as they should.

OP, if it works at work, it is not likely the laptop. It may be your home AE or something on your network. It could also be a neighbor's network interfering. Exchanging it is probably a waste of your time.

 

[rkho]

I've noticed issues connecting to Personal Hotspot over Wifi on a handoff-enabled iPhone 6 Plus, but that's about it.

 

[Theophil1971]

In my case, *only* my retina macbook is affected. I have two iPhones, an iPad, an Apple TV, and a MacBook Air which are all NOT affected.

But sure I'll try a whole network power cycle and see if that helps.

Did it help? Could be a DHCP error or conflict.

If not, could be you need to get the MacBook checked out.

Sorry to not be more helpful. Any problem I've had with wifi on a Mac has been sorted at the router.

 

[TommyBoy5]

YES! I've had this problem.

It was driving me crazy on my 1.2/512 rMB. It happened at least a couple times an hour. I would change from my regular 5Ghz connection to our non-5Ghz connection and it would work again. I had to do this several times a day.

Turning off wifi and back on worked as well. I'm on an Apple Airport as well with 12 Apple devices connected and this is the only one with a problem.

Here's the solution for me:

It was the 1Password5 extension!!!! As soon as I disabled it everything worked like a charm. Maybe it's their bug in Yosemite or Apple's or who knows, but I read on some help forum that it gives that symptom and as soon as I disabled it everything is great.

So now I'm using Apple Keychain and it seems ok for now. As soon as 1Password fixes this issue I'll be back to using it.

 

[dmitrivich]

I think this is a Yosemite problem, not a rMB problem, per se. It happens on my MBA, but only after I updated to Yosemite. Never any problems with Windows devices, so it's not the router.

Fortunately, it only happens every couple of days to me.

 

[3bs]

Happens to me too and strangely enough, other tabs that were working, work just fine. My Twitch stream is still working and if I try to load some
other sites they load. The same site that won't load in Safari works fine in Chrome.

Have you tried if Chrome to see if it works when you have this issue?

 

[MUBiomed]

Happens to me as well on rMBP and rMB. It seems to be a Yosemite issue to me as well. I never had any trouble on Mavericks with the same rMBP.

 

[bmustaf]

Apple has never really head great WiFi support. Tons of issues across the line, it seems they never really have had any driver that's really been any good, and while I haven't had many issues, I've had the same issues folks here mention transiently and sometimes consistently, and also on my rMB.

AAPL WiFi implementations just tend to suck.

 

[Axeros]

It's a Yosemite problem

Ars Technica - Why DNS in OS X 10.10 is broken, and what you can do to fix it

My current work around:-

sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.discoveryd.plist

sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.discoveryd.plist

sudo discoveryutil mdnsflushcache && sudo discoveryutil udnsflushcaches​

 

[jsmith189]

Yep, happens quite often. I've done a few workarounds I found online (here and here) which seem to help but doesn't completely fix the problem. Just annoying that it's happening on my rMB but when I check my phone it's completely fine.

It started basically out of the box, I set it up and couldn't connect to WiFi. At all. No matter what I did. I ended up having to hotspot to my phone, download the latest update (which basically killed my monthly data) and it finally started "working". But yep, still drops out quite a lot.

NEVER happened on my old rMBP, I was always confused at why everyone was complaining about Yosemite WiFi issues. But since switching to a new device, I think it might be software related rather than hardware and/or router related, or at least how the software plays with certain hardware.

 

[matt2053]

OP here with an update.

I powered down my entire network (router and Airport Extreme).
I powered off my Apple TV.
I powered off all devices.
I booted my router.
I booted and connected my Airport Extreme.
I booted and connected my Macbook.
I booted and connected my Apple TV.
I booted and connected my other devices.

Within one hour, the exact same problem returned. I was on my Macbook browsing in Safari, and suddenly a random page just won't load. I look in the menu bar and Dropbox and Skype are offline. I have a full strong wifi signal to my Airport Extreme.

I turn wifi off and back on. It works. 20 minutes later, repeat. Every other device on the network works flawlessly.

That was last night. Today I'm at work with the same Macbook. It works here flawlessly.

It's only a problem with my Macbook, when on my home network. Super frustrating!

 

[3bs]

OP here with an update.

I powered down my entire network (router and Airport Extreme).
I powered off my Apple TV.
I powered off all devices.
I booted my router.
I booted and connected my Airport Extreme.
I booted and connected my Macbook.
I booted and connected my Apple TV.
I booted and connected my other devices.

Within one hour, the exact same problem returned. I was on my Macbook browsing in Safari, and suddenly a random page just won't load. I look in the menu bar and Dropbox and Skype are offline. I have a full strong wifi signal to my Airport Extreme.

I turn wifi off and back on. It works. 20 minutes later, repeat. Every other device on the network works flawlessly.

That was last night. Today I'm at work with the same Macbook. It works here flawlessly.

It's only a problem with my Macbook, when on my home network. Super frustrating!

Have you tried Chrome when this happened? It just happened to me and Chrome worked fine while Safari wouldn't for the new page I was trying to open even though I'm writing this in a Safari tab that oddly works.

 

[matt2053]

Have you tried Chrome when this happened? It just happened to me and Chrome worked fine while Safari wouldn't for the new page I was trying to open even though I'm writing this in a Safari tab that oddly works.

It's not the browser. I mentioned in my last post and in the OP that when it happens I can see Skype and Dropbox go offline in my menu bar.

 

[Dayv]

I was having similar problems with wifi on my new MB. I would notice it the most when doing airplay audio streaming, as I would get audio dropouts that would last about 30 seconds at a time. If I tried to do anything else over the network during these dropouts, that would also hang.

It didn't seem to be the discoveryd problems people have reported, as it was always transient and never affected DNS.

One troubleshooting step I tried based on some of the troubleshooting articles I read was to reset the SMC. That seems to have fixed it, but I won't feel certain until it continues to work for a few more days.

 

[matt2053]

I was having similar problems with wifi on my new MB. I would notice it the most when doing airplay audio streaming, as I would get audio dropouts that would last about 30 seconds at a time. If I tried to do anything else over the network during these dropouts, that would also hang.

It didn't seem to be the discoveryd problems people have reported, as it was always transient and never affected DNS.

One troubleshooting step I tried based on some of the troubleshooting articles I read was to reset the SMC. That seems to have fixed it, but I won't feel certain until it continues to work for a few more days.

Thanks for the suggestion. I just reset SMC and when I'm back on my home network tonight will see if there is any improvement.

 

[mplex]

I am having wifi issues as well with the latest Airport Extreme as well as our Aruba network at work. My first issue is that the rMB does not always move over to the 5Ghz network at the house on the airport extreme, but cycling the Wifi fixes it. Haven't had this issue on my old Air or any other devices, they swap back and forth depending on distance to the AP just fine. I also have very slow performance or no connectivity (high packet loss, extreme latency) that cycling the wifi fixes. There are definitely issues with the wireless on this laptop and I have to cycle it a couple times a day to keep it running fast. I have also noticed sporadic transfer rates that don't happen with a gigabit USB ethernet adapter even when I'm right next to the AP.

I'm a network engineer by the way, and at this point we are used to new Macbooks having wireless issues until patches are released. It's kind of par for the course and I just toggle it for now when it gets slow, but it's super annoying to say the least. I expect these to go away in a few months, fingers crossed.