The Problem
I recently I’ve been having some problems with my MacBook Pro. At first, I would seem to get disconnected from the internet randomly. After a few weeks, I finally figured out what the pattern was to the problem.
One morning sat down on the couch, opened my MacBook, and as was becoming normal, I was unable to connect to the internet. The AirPort icon on the menu bar was fully black (meaning that the signal was good).
So I went into the browser and tried to to the router address. To my surprise, I could fully connect to router. I mean fully. I could log in. I could change the settings. I could ping different websites. It all worked flawlessly. But as soon as I went back to my browser and attempted to connect to a website, any browser, it would complain that I wasn’t connected to the internet.
I would turn off the Wi-Fi a few times, and eventually it would connect fully. So then an idea came to me: Maybe it was related to the fact that I just woke it from sleep. I thought back. Every time I could remember, I had just opened the computer, and it would have difficulty connecting.
So I tried it. I made sure I could access different websites. All signs were a go. Then I closed the lid, and waited for the status light to start flashing. After it did, I would wait a few seconds, and then open the lid. I logged in, opened Chrome, and tried gmail. Gmail is currently unavailable it would tell me. So I opened Safari, and tried again. Same story. After going to the AirPort icon turning it off and on a few times, it came back. I decided to try it again. Sure enough same story. So I tried it a few more times.
After having successfully reproduced this exact approach 6 times, I decided it was time to call Apple. I talked to a rep one day, who walked me through a few steps, that failed to get any results, and before we could go through everything, I had to leave for a meeting. I called back a few days later, and got a Wonderful rep. named Ryan. After 17 minutes on the phone, my problem was solved. I was ecstatic.
The Solution
So the solution to the problem was actually pretty simple. I post it here, so that it might help others (or me if the problem recurs sometime). Remember to back up before hand, as it is possible that you might lose something.
I would also recommend storing your Wi-Fi password on your computer (especially if your password is as complex as mine is).
Here’s what worked for me:
- Open Finder.
- From the Menu at the top, choose ‘Go’ -> ‘Computer’.
- Open your hard drive (probably called ‘Macintosh HD’).
- Open the ‘Library’ folder.
- Open the ‘Preferences’ folder.
- Locate the ‘SystemConfiguration’ folder (likely at the bottom).
- Drag this folder to your desktop (as far as I can tell, this is to back it up incase something goes wrong)
- Once the copy is complete, drag the original to the trash.
- In Finder, open Applications (If you don’t have it on the sideback, use ‘Go’ -> ‘Applications’).
- Open the ‘Utilities’ folder.
- Open ‘Keychain Access’.
- Select ‘login’ from the list of Keychains.
- In the list to the right, locate an object with the name of your wireless network.
- Select it and press ‘delete’ on your keyboard.
- Select ‘System’ from the list of Keychains.
- Repeat steps 13 and 14 above.
- Restart your MacBook.
- Once your computer has restarted, connect to your wireless network.
With any luck your computer will now no longer have issues with your wireless network. This worked perfectly with my D-Link DIR-655 router, on which I could reproduce the wireless network issues flawlessly. Since I performed the steps above, my wireless connection has worked flawlessly.
Update: If this has worked successfully for you, you can go ahead and delete the SystemConfiguration folder that you copied to your desktop. It was designed as a backup, and is no longer needed.
28 comments
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Walt Gastaldi
March 25, 2012 at 9:25 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Jamie thanks for the procedure. I have a macbook pro 13 with Lion and use the Airport Extreme router at home. It started not connecting after wake up when I was in Japan at the hotel. So maybe it was a problem with the wifi at the hotel. So when I got home, it did the same thing it would connect after a couple of minutes after wake up. So I found your post followed the procedures and bingo….it works great.
Thanks for your time
Walt
Walt Gastaldi
April 3, 2012 at 8:25 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Hey Jamie sorry to bring this up but, I just installed the latest update 10.7.3 and have the same problem again. I followed your procedure and it works the first time but after it wakes up again, it takes a couple of minutes to get internt.
thanks
Walt
Jamie Starke
April 3, 2012 at 1:58 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Hey Walt,
I’m sorry to hear that it’s not working anymore. Unfortunately I don’t know what else could be causing the problem. If your MacBook is still under warranty, I would call Apple support. If not, this related thread on Apples Forums seems to have popped up recently: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2258749?start=105&tstart=0
Kirk
April 25, 2012 at 6:55 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Hi Jamie,
Thanks for publishing this fix. I had a similar problem (mine was all the time, not just after entering sleep mode), and this cleared it up immediately. Great when something works so easily.
Kirk
jennifer
May 3, 2012 at 4:48 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
thank you so much for these instructions! I hate it when computers don’t work for me. you were extremely helpful thanks again
Barbara
July 6, 2012 at 2:28 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Thank you so much for this, Jamie! It worked!
5 minutes later, though, it happened again. So I went through your procedure again, but this time on reboot it’s *not* working. I’ve have no WiFi connection and my signal indicator says “no airport card installed” (again – it was saying this intermittently earlier)… Of course I do have an airport card installed. Are you familiar with this error message and its cause? Thanks for any insight!
Jamie Starke
July 6, 2012 at 6:53 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Unfortunately I haven’t had that error myself. My best bet would be either drivers or the wireless hardware is failing. Sorry I can’t offer more help.
Ant
July 8, 2012 at 6:08 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Thank you!! After hours of trying, this is the solution that works!!!!!
Samuel
July 16, 2012 at 6:40 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
thank you very much, this worked, i was on dis d whole night but nothing worked, your solution worked like 1234,, thanks very much
Sara
July 29, 2012 at 1:54 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
THANK-YOU SO MUCH! I was getting quite frustrated with my internet. Then, I found your solution – and it worked like a charm. Quick Question – what should I do with the system config folder on my desktop – put it back?
Cheers!
Jamie Starke
July 29, 2012 at 2:03 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Glad I could help.
Great question. If the solution above worked, you can feel free to delete the SystemConfiguration folder you copied to your desktop. It was really just there as a backup, incase something went wrong. But if this worked successfully, it is no longer needed.
Ruben
July 30, 2012 at 6:42 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Thanks much for sharing – this fixed the problem.
Chew Keng Sheng
August 1, 2012 at 3:33 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Hry thanks. It works! I’ve got this problem since returning back to Malaysia from Singapore. My MacBook kept refusing connection but following the steps suggested, it works fine now! Thanks
Oumar
August 17, 2012 at 10:32 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
This was helpful thanks à lot.
AK
September 18, 2012 at 4:23 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Worked like a charm. (MBP on OS X 10.6)
Thanks a ton!!
Eric
November 8, 2012 at 6:28 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Thanks so much!
It works perfectly.
Much regards,
-Eric
.
John-PVAZ
November 26, 2012 at 2:59 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Thanks. I have fought a very similar problem with my 2011 MBP and my new Airport Extreme. In following these directions, I found that I had multiple keychain entries for my network SSID, some going back a couple of years. When my MBP would hang up, it would usually do so coming out of sleep but sometimes on initial start. I could still see the Airport with Airport Utility and a restart of the router would put things right. i can only conclude that some of the time, the Mac was going back to the old set of settings for the old Extreme and there was some kind of hardware mismatch. Thanks for the detailed procedure. Hopefully my notes here will add to the knowledge base on this issue.
The Bunk
December 8, 2012 at 11:20 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Thank sweetheart, worked fine.
The Bunk
December 8, 2012 at 11:23 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
PS: MacBook Pro 5,5 OS 10.6.8
eleni
March 4, 2013 at 11:54 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Well this didnt work for me.I have a Mac Book pro and yesterday while i was connected to internet suddenly a message appeared that iam out of network.I tried to connect to to internet many times , i restarted the modem for several times, i did the procedure you suggest and still…. nothing. i have 2 more computers at the house and 2 mobile phones that are connected to internet and have no problem with the wireless connection . it really drives me crazy…
5everthankful to you
March 13, 2013 at 8:06 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
This worked and I’m really happy. Followed all the steps and everything’s back to normal, although I am interested in why this happened in the first place… Thanks for posting the solution(:
5everthankful to you
March 13, 2013 at 8:06 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
This worked and I’m really happy. Followed all the steps and everything’s back to normal, although I am interested in why this happened in the first place… Thanks for posting the solution(:
Jim
March 19, 2013 at 8:43 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Hey Jamie… It took me several tries, but it finally worked! Thanks man.
Smita
March 26, 2013 at 8:56 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Thanks a lot. worked like a charm
Barbara
April 15, 2013 at 10:30 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
I cannot believe of all of the things I have tried before this actually works perfectly!
Thanks so much-it was a great step by step instruction and very easy.
Tabb
May 18, 2013 at 7:06 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
omg!!! this worked! Thank you so much!!
5.18.2013
MacBook Pro 15
Anita
June 5, 2013 at 12:46 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
I was going crazy, until I found your post. Thank you so, so much for sharing! Many blessings!
Sander
June 10, 2013 at 3:50 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
This worked perfectly, thank you so much! Question: I have the same problem with my Iphone, do you have a similar solution for that as well? Thanks in advance!