2018 MacBook pro wifi problem

[AppleHater]

This problem comes and goes every week. About once a week, internet connection stops working and safari and chrome won't load any pages as the loading bar stops moving after little bit. I have tried basic troubleshoot methods such as rebooting and renewing lease with no luck.
When I use LAN cable, the internet works. So, it must be a wifi problem. Have you had this problem and know what to try?
I thought about bring it to apple store but I don't know they can help me as it works right now.

 

[Howard2k]

Wifi problems can be a nightmare to diagnose.

First thing is to provide some details on your setup. If you have dual band (2.4 and 5) then separate the channels and use the 5GHz if you can.

Then during the actual incident, if you have two devices both connected to the same 5GHz network and can confirm whether they both lost service, that would be where I would start.

 

[maflynn]

So, it must be a wifi problem

Have you tried using different wifi networks, i.e., does this just occur at home? Try going to a local starbucks and see if the wifi improves or is the same.

 

[Stingfello]

I've had similar problems, but it only occurs for me on 5ghz networks (confirmed on 3 different networks). 2.4 is constantly solid. 5ghz will drop maybe once every other day... sometimes once a day. wifi indicator just goes grey. I can reconnect right away, but it won't automatically do so. base TB 13.

 

[AppleHater]

Wifi problems can be a nightmare to diagnose.

First thing is to provide some details on your setup. If you have dual band (2.4 and 5) then separate the channels and use the 5GHz if you can.

Then during the actual incident, if you have two devices both connected to the same 5GHz network and can confirm whether they both lost service, that would be where I would start.

I have 2 identically setup 2018 MacBook pros and only one has the problem. I have Orbi as router and I can't tell which frequency it connects to.
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Have you tried using different wifi networks, i.e., does this just occur at home? Try going to a local starbucks and see if the wifi improves or is the same.

I have tried other wifi including hotspot from my iPhone and when it doesn't work none works.

 

[Howard2k]

I have 2 identically setup 2018 MacBook pros and only one has the problem. I have Orbi as router and I can't tell which frequency it connects to.

All things being equal, if one MBPro is working great, and one is not, then I'd consider the possibility that the one that keeps dropping connections has a faulty wifi component.

You could consider doing a backup and then a clean install and see if you can reproduce the problem with a clean install. That would seal the deal for me and it would go back.

If the clean install works perfectly well then it's likely to not be a hardware issue and it's a configuration challenge somewhere. You could then restore and troubleshoot further.


You could also consider backing up and then removing the /etc/sysctl.conf file. Then reboot and reconfigure the wifi. But again, kinda sounds more like a hardware issue to me if the problematic Macbook is giving you issues on multiple networks.
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I have tried other wifi including hotspot from my iPhone and when it doesn't work none works.

I'm not clear on this. Are you saying that when the MBPro loses the connection at a Starbucks your iPhone loses the connection too?

 

[solouki]

WiFi connection issues, redux...

Hi AppleHater,

Yes, I've experienced WiFi connection issues on three 2018 MBPs. The following link describes the problems I've had on the first two 2018 MBPs:

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...bridge-os-error.2128976/page-95#post-26679910

On the third 2018 MBP (just received it a couple days ago, so I'm still testing it), I've had WiFi connection issues causing the macOS 10.14.1 update to fail ... [In particular, while the update was not downloading, I started a ping of www.apple.com and found 28% lost packets on the 2018 MBP. At the same time (simultaneously), I started a ping of www.apple.com on a 2016 MBP attached to the same WiFi router, and found 0% lost packets -- so the WiFi issue was specific to the 2018 MBP.]

The third 2018 MBP also failed to receive an AirDrop of a 28GB Folder of files (it only transferred 4.5GB and then stopped/failed), but when I restarted the AirDrop the second time it completed the transfer. (AirDrop uses Bluetooth to establish a private P2P WiFi connection, so for the first AirDrop attempt the WiFi had problems, but then an immediate subsequent AirDrop worked properly without any WiFi issues.)

The third 2018 MBP also failed to unlock with my Apple Watch, claiming the signal was too weak, but I immediately then attempted to unlock the 2016 MBP and an iMac with the Apple Watch, and both unlocked normally. All three machines are on the same desk, so only the 2018 MBP failed while the other two were successfully unlocked. (I believe the Apple Watch unlocks the Macs via WiFi, so this is probably also a WiFi connection issue.)

I've use the 5GHz band 802.11ac and have tried several different WiFi routers...all have had the same WiFi connectivity issues on the 2018 MBPs. (Intriguingly, when the WiFi connectivity has problems, the WiFi hardware is still operating, i.e., WiFi packets are still being sent/received by the 2018 MBP during the time that Safari/Mac App Store/rsync/ssh/ping are not working.)

In summary, in my hands, I've had three 2018 MBPs that have had rare, random, and often intermittent WiFi connection issues. (By "intermittent" I mean that these WiFi connection issues will often resolve themselves, often within a minute or two, but I have waited 150 minutes without the WiFi connection being re-established and I had to manually fix the WiFi connection. By "rare" and "random" I mean that these WiFi connectivity issues happen rarely and at any time -- I haven't been able to figure out how to cause them with impunity, they just happen. And because these WiFi issues are intermittent I'm sure that I don't catch but a small fraction of them.)

Hope this helps. If you wish, you might read the post in the link above for further details.

 

[AppleHater]

Just my MBPro dropping signal not my phone.

 

[William Forrest]

I believe the MacBook Pro WiFi problem described here is the same as the one posted elsewhere on MacRumors. There I posted:

My 2017 Macbook Pro 15 inch, serial number C...925 just started giving those WiFi errors. It's getting no information through the WiFi connection (I call it 'WiFi deaf'). I can tell because when I click the WiFi icon, it shows only my own, home router. When the WiFi is working, I see 5-10 other connections available. I have no router password on purpose -- anyone who detects my signal could use my internet connection, even me! Even though the Mac asserts there's a connection, there isn't. I can't contact anything on the internet, for instance google.com. I can't contact my HDHomerun over-the-air TV box which is plugged into the wireless router. It's done it about twice so far. Each time starting around 6 PM. Turning off then back on WiFi doesn't fix it. Just as despair sets in, miraculously WiFi starts working again. Typically after about 2 hours of panic. This condition exposes how dependent on the internet I've become.

So far, it's happened twice. Next time, I'm going to hook up a wired connection to my router, just to prove beyond any reasonable doubt that the problem is my Mac's WiFi reception which has 'gone South', i.e. failed.

A colleague suggested I do an SMC reset. I haven't, because the problem is intermittent, so that would be ambiguous.

By the way, this very Mac has shown the left-front USB-C failure problem. That too is intermittent, so I can't get Apple to repair it. In that case, I have 3 other USB-C ports, so I'm not just hung out to dry. Intermittent WiFi is much worse, since that's akin to instantly being transported to a Desert Island, with nothing on the horizon.

 

[William Forrest]

See my reply to Marc Janssen elsewhere for my update.