Wifi can't turn on

[Elstar]

Hello,

I am facing a very persistent issue since some days ago. My wifi connection suddenly disappears. That is, it turns off without me doing anything. Furthermore, when I press the button in system preferences > network 'turn wifi on' nothing happens and the wifi starts turned off. The only thing that works for me is restarting my Macbook while keeping the option, command, P and R keys pressed simultaneously. It also sometimes works to simply restart it. It doesn't always solve it though. It is however a temporary solution and the problem soon resurfaces. Perhaps the problem could be caused by a network profile called Eduroam, although i'm not certain. Previously I never had any problems whatsoever related to the wifi. This is all very odd and new to me. It could perhaps also be related to the this new version of Macos that i'm running. It's only recently since I installed it.

I'm running Macos High Sierra 10.13.6
My MBP has the following specs: 2,3 gHz Intel Core i7, memory: 8GB 1600 MHz DDR3

I hope one of you could help me out here. I'd appreciate it a lot.

 

[chscag]

Welcome to our forums.

Have you tried turning off your modem/router and then turn it on again? Also if you click on the WiFi symbol in your top menu bar and at the same time hold down your Option key, you should see a new menu with the item "Open Wireless Diagnostics". Why don't you try that to see if that helps solve your problem. There is also another menu item which states WiFi Logging that you can try to determine why your WiFi disconnects.

If your modem/router setup is old, it may be disconnecting on its own. And since you have a MacBook Pro, you can try taking it somewhere that has free WiFi (Starbucks, McDonalds, etc) to see if your MBP stays connected on their network.

And explain to us what this network profile called Eduroam is? Are you at home or at a university using their WiFi network?

 

[Elstar]

Thank you for your reply. It is in no way related to the modem/router itself. This problem pops up wherever I take my Macbook, so both at home, in the train (there's internet) and at the university Also, the wifi works fine on other devices. It is just that it switches off my wifi and I can't turn it back on. Even though other devices recognise there is a connection and can use it. Perhaps it's a software bug of running High Sierra 10.13.6. Maybe updating to Mojave does the trick. Sadly I can't update as the wifi is bound to be turned off in the time it takes to download it.

Eduroam is a Wifi network available in every university in the EU. It created an configuration 802.1X profile on my computer. I've now deleted it and this will hopefully solve this issue but I have my fingers crossed... I will keep you posted.

 

[gsahli]

Thanks for the additional info. I think you should try Apple Hardware Diagnostics:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202731

 

[Elstar]

Thanks. I have now removed this 802.1x profile of Eduroam and since then the problem has not reoccurred yet. Hopefully it stays that way. I'll keep you updated.

 

[chscag]

What might have been happening is that the Eduroam profile may have had priority in your network preferences whenever it is present. You can manually change that priority from your System Preferences, Network options.

 

[Elstar]

Thank you. Yesterday I removed this profile and since then my laptop hasn't had this same occurrence. So I think it's been resolved thankfully.