There could be various reasons for your Mac Not Connecting to WiFi Network. You will find below a number of ways that should help you fix most Network Connectivity issues on your Mac. Mac Not Connecting to WiFi. Assuming that there is no outage of Internet Service in your area, the problem of a Mac Not Connecting to WiFi could be due to any of.
There could be various reasons for your Mac Not Connecting to WiFi Network. You will find below a number of ways that should help you fix most Network Connectivity issues on your Mac.
Mac Not Connecting to WiFi
Assuming that there is no outage of Internet Service in your area, the problem of a Mac Not Connecting to WiFi could be due to any of the following reasons.
- Problems with ISP or Outages in your area.
- Problem with Modem/Router
- Problem with WiFi Network
- Overcrowded DNS servers
As you can understand, no troubleshooting tips can help in case your Internet Service Provider is going through problems. All that you can do in this case is to call your ISP and find out the reasons for the problem and when you can expect the service to be restored.
Hence, let us take a look at other methods that you can make use of to Fix the problem of your Mac being unable to connect to WiFi Network.
Check Connections
Many times, network connectivity issues are simply related to loose or disconnected cable connections. Make sure that the Ethernet connection between your Modem and WiFi Router are correct.
Make sure that both your Router and Modem are switched ON and working normally.
Power Cycle Modem/Router
Before going ahead with other troubleshooting steps, let us make sure that the reason for loss of WiFi Connectivity on your Mac is not related to problems with your Modem/Router.
1. Disconnect the Modem/Router from Power Supply. You can either pull out the Power cable from the Wall Socket or use the ON/OFF switch on the Extension cord to Cut-off Power Supply to Modem/Router.
2. Wait for 60 seconds
3. Connect your Modem/Router back to its Power Supply.
Reboot Your Mac
Restart your Mac and you may be surprised to see your Mac connecting to the WiFi Network after this simple step.
1. Click on the Apple Icon in the top-menu bar of your Mac and then click on Restart in the Drop-down menu.
If this step has fixed the WiFi Connectivity problem, it is likely that your Mac was going through a minor technical glitch and restarting the Machine fixed this problem.
Turn WiFi ON/OFF
If restarting the Mac did not help, try turning the WiFi OFF on your Mac and Turn it Back ON again after waiting for a few seconds.
1. Click on the WiFi Icon located at the top right corner of your screen and then click on Turn WiFi OFF option.
2. Wait for 30 seconds
3. Click on the WiFi Icon again and this time select Turn WiFi ON option in the drop-down menu.
Disconnect Bluetooth
Sometimes Bluetooth can interfere with WiFi Network and some users have reported being able to connect to WiFi Network after disabling Bluetooth on their Macs.
1. Click on the Bluetooth Icon located at the top right corner of your screen and then click on Turn Bluetooth OFF option in the Drop-down menu (See image below)
Forget WiFi Network
Making your Mac forget its WiFi Network and then rejoining the Network may help in fixing WiFi connectivity issues on your Mac.
1. Click on the Apple Logo in the top-menu bar of your Mac and then click on the System Preferences… option in the drop-down menu.
2. On the System Preferences screen, click on the Network option.
3. On the Network screen, click on the WiFi Network in the left Menu and then click on the Advanced option (See image below).
4. On the next screen, select the WiFi Network that you wish to forget and then click on the minus (-) sign (See image below).
5. You may see a pop-up, prompting you to confirm that you do want to Delete the WiFi Network.
6. Finally, click on OK to save this setting and close the Network screen.
After removing the Network, rejoin the network by connecting back to your Wi-Fi Network.
1. Click on the WiFi Icon located at the top right corner of your screen and then click on the WiFi Network that you want to join.
2. When prompted, enter your WiFi Network Password.
Renew DHCP Lease
In case your Mac appears to be connected to WiFi Network and you are still unable to connect to Internet, you need to take a look at TCP/IP settings on your Mac.
1. Click on the Apple Logo in the top menu-bar of your Mac and then click on System Preferences… in the drop-down menu.
2. On the System Preferences screen, click on the Network option.
3. On the Network screen, click on WiFi in the side-menu and then click on the Advanced button.
Mac Ethernet Won't Allow Manual Download
4. On the next screen, click on TCP/IP tab and see what is listed in IPV4 Address section. Click on Renew DHCP Lease button, in case there is no IPV4 Address or if the IPV4 address starts with 169.254.xxx.xxx”
5. Click on OK to save the revised settings.
Change SSID or WiFi Network Name
Your Mac will have a problem identifying and connecting to WiFi in case the SSID (Service Set Identifier) or the name of your WiFi Network is the same or similar to someone in your area.
In case your Router came with a default SSID, it is important that you change it to something unique and not likely to be shared by others in your area.
Unhide Your WiFi Network
You may have chosen the option to Hide your WiFi Network for security reasons.
Hidden Networks do not broadcast their SSID or Network Name over WiFi and this makes it difficult for devices to connect to Hidden WiFi Networks.
According to security experts, Hidden WiFi Networks can be discovered using other ways. Hence, consider Unhiding your WiFi Network Name in case you find that your Mac is frequently having problems connecting to WiFi.
You may consider using a VPN service in case you are concerned about security of your WiFi Network.
Change DNS Servers
You may want to change the DNS servers on your, in case you are experiencing network connectivity issues on your Mac – Dropped Connections or Poor network connectivity.
Such issues might be related to the DNS server of your Internet Service Provider (ISP) being crowded or too busy during certain times of the day.
Mac Ethernet Won't Allow Manual Pdf
While you can switch to any DNS provider of your choice, Google and OpenDNS are two of the most popular and free DNS providers that you can make use of. Both these DNS providers are highly reliable and are likely to be much faster than the DNS Servers used by your Internet Service Provider.
After switching to Google DNS, you should see an improvement in WiFi Connectivity and better browsing speed on your Mac.
If Apple hasn’t yet made the Ethernet network port on your Mac obsolete by not including it, as is the case with most Macs sold today, then it may have accidentally broke the port last week in an OS X kernel extension update. Many users complained about the issue online: they had randomly found their Macs no longer connecting to the Internet and their Ethernet port simply not working. Apple has now officially acknowledged the problem on its support pages. Luckily, the software problem isn’t permanent and the bug can, usually, be easily resolved.
Apple has already fixed the Ethernet software problem for users going forward. Here’s the fix if you were affected …
If your Ethernet port has stopped working on your Mac, check System Information to find the version number of the Incompatible Kernel Extension Configuration file installed. If the number reads 3.28.1, you’ll need to update the configuration to get the Ethernet port working properly. It seems that Apple accidentally blacklisted its own networking kext, which is the cause of the issue.
To check your Incompatible Kernel Extension Configuration version number, hold the Option key and click the Apple menu. Then open System Information. Find the Software section and select Installations. Look for rows labelled ‘Incompatible Kernel Extension Configuration Data’ and find the most recent version installed. If the number is 3.28.1, you need to update the profile.
If you can connect to WiFi, then luckily updating the file to restore the functionality of the Ethernet cable is easy. Open Terminal. Type the following command into the command line; it will ask for your admin password:
sudo softwareupdate --background
Quit Terminal and restart the Mac. After rebooting, the Ethernet port should work again. If you can’t connect to WiFi, the steps are a bit more involved. You’ll have to restart the Mac in Recovery mode and manually delete the offending files through Disk Utility and Terminal.
rm -rf “/Volumes/Macintosh HD/System/Library/Extensions/AppleKextExcludeList.kext”
Read the full steps on Apple’s Support Site and take care not to delete anything but the file in question. If you don’t mind losing data, it may be simpler to use Recovery Mode to just Reinstall OS X. This will fix the problem when OS X is started afresh, but obviously has the big downside of deleting other data. Make sure you have recent backups in any case.