What to do when your Mac won’t detect a Wi-Fi network

Has your Wi-Fi network disappeared from the macOS interface? Here we show you the different ways to solve the problem of connecting to your Wi-Fi network

The Mac and any other device with an Internet connection It can play a trick on us by simply not showing us the Wi-Fi network to which we connect daily.The problem can be more serious when the user does not recognize us and cannot connect, although this may simply be due to a type of interference. This and other similar cases can happen throughout the day, so In this article we will show you different ways to fix your internet connection when the Mac does not detect the Wi-Fi network.. We also recommend in this article how to improve the Wi-Fi on your Mac.

If you have a Mac laptop or desktop and a nearby Ethernet connection, use it as much as possible.

Of course It is not the most practical solutionfirst of all because Newer Mac laptops no longer feature the Ethernet port which used to be present in older computers. However, if you consider buying a USB-C hub adapter, choose one with an Ethernet port. You don’t know when you might need it. Also keep in mind that the internet router should be nearby to avoid inconvenience.

Why Wi-Fi on Mac may be unstable?

There are many reasons but The most common ones may come from the internet operator’s own router.from the secondary router if it is split or from the Mac in the background. In a very personal case, the dual-band router often fails on the 5G connection telling me that the password has not been entered. On the Mac side, it sometimes does not show the corresponding connection. Luckily, I have resorted to the first solutions outlined in this article.

Turn Wi-Fi on and off on your Mac

Control Center on Mac, turn off Wi-Fi

1. Open the Mac Control Center or if you have the direct shortcut in the menu bar, Click on the Wi-Fi control
2. Disable the connection by clicking on the switch icon
3. Allow approximately 5 minutes to pass. before turning it back on
4. If the problem persiststurn off Wi-Fi and Restart your Mac
5. Then turn on Wi-Fi and check if the issue has been resolved.

Restart the internet router

If the problem has not been solved previously, it is a matter of checking if the Wi-Fi network appears on other devices. To attack the problem quickly, it is advisable to restart the internet router.If possible, turn it off for 5 minutes and then turn it back on.

A first boost to the Mac: reset the PRAM

PRAM is the memory responsible for storing the system configurationso if you still don’t have a Wi-Fi connection, another advisable tip is Reset this memory on those Macs with Intel processors.

1. The procedure must be performed with the Mac turned off
2. Turn on your Mac and then press the Cmd + Option + P + R keys for 20 seconds
3. Keep pressing the keys until you hear the power-on sound

Shortcut to reset PRAM on Intel Mac

On Macs with Apple silicon this option is no longer possible as the system does it by default when needed. Still having problems with your Wi-Fi network? Let’s move on to more complex steps.

Delete PLIST files from Wi-Fi network

Now we will have to Delete macOS preferences and settings filesare based on lists that contain attributes or properties of the process. In this case, we are going to locate and eliminate those that are related to the Wi-Fi network that is giving us connection problems.

Find and Delete PLIST Files from Wi-Fi Network on Mac

1. Turn off Wi-Fi on your Mac
2. Go to Finder and click on the Go menu and then Go to folder
3. Enter the following route: /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/
4. Once inside the container folder, look for the following files:

• com.apple.airport.preferences.plist
• com.apple.network.identification.plist
• com.apple.wifi.message-tracer.plist
• NetworkInterfaces.plist
• preferences.plist

As a final step, select these files together pressing together with the Cmd key each one; press the secondary click and proceeds to send them to the dump. Immediately afterwards, Restart your Mac so that the system itself inserts new filesThis ensures that your Wi-Fi connection will be fresh (as if your Mac was new).

Clear the cache on your Mac

As a final preventive step, You should delete cache that is no longer useful and may cause interference with your Wi-Fi network.

Find and delete the cache on your Mac

1. Open Finder, click the Go menu, and then click Go to Folder.
2. Enter the following path: ~/Library/Caches
3. Select the elements that contains said folder and delete them

If you notice disconnections or interruptions in your internet service, call your provider.

It is important to mention that These types of failures could spread and become more serious to the point that they cause interruptions or disconnections to the Internet.. This is already a separate issue for your Mac and it belongs to your internet service providerIt doesn’t hurt to check out the site Downdetector and contact your provider to verify that there are no nearby failures in the last few hours.

Downdetector, a website that reports problems with internet services

It is also It is advisable that you can contact them so that they can check the quality of your connection.. It is likely that the provider’s router starts to fail after a few years of installation or they simply start to register problems with their servers.

We hope that these tips have served the purpose of solving the problem of connecting to your Mac’s Wi-Fi network.If you need it, we will leave you Other advice from Apple regarding this issue.

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