Some OS X Mavericks users like me have been plagued with a problem sometime since the release of OS X 10.9 last fall: Our Macs won't wake from sleep and reconnect to the local Wi-Fi network. Apple says the problem is fixed in OS X 10.9.4. Has it been fixed for you?
OS X 10.9.4 has been in testing for weeks, first available to registered Apple developers in late May and more recently to customers who enrolled in the company's AppleSeed program, which provides pre-release software to a limited number of Mac users.
On Monday Apple posted 10.9.4 for the general public. According to the release notes, the update "fixes an issue that prevented some Macs from automatically connecting to known Wi-Fi networks" and "improves the reliability of waking from sleep."
Back in April I told you about a way I'd discovered to at least temporarily fix the problem. It involved blasting your Mac's Bluetooth prefs and starting over from scratch. Indeed, it did fix my problems, but they eventually returned after I'd started adding back in Bluetooth devices.
What was so maddening about it is that even after I removed the Bluetooth device profiles, the problem kept happening. Only taking the scorched earth approach — deleting that Bluetooth plist file in Mavericks' Preferences folder would do the trick.
Apple doesn't note any changes to Bluetooth in this release, and as usual, its release notes are vague enough that it's unclear what exactly was done to fix the Wi-Fi wake from sleep issue.
I've updated, of course, and I haven't seen the problem manifest itself. But it's only been a couple of hours, so it's really too soon to tell.
Now that the update is out in the world, I encourage you to download it and install it to see if it makes a difference. Then report back here and let me know.
Reader comments
Does OS X 10.9.4 fix your Mac's Wi-Fi wake from sleep issue?
It seems to have fixed the issue, not only from sleep, but Wifi in general is far more resilient, I was losing connectivity at least once a day, seems to have solved these issues.
Well, just bought iMac- and experiencing sleep -wifi issue !
the same here mbp retina
What ^ said.
Haven't had the issue and everything seems to be working fine with the update eight hours in.
Sent from the iMore App
Yep much better response and wifi seems to be connecting faster and less glitchy.
Wifi is pretty much instantly on when I come out of sleep mode now. They fixed it for sure.
One day into the update, unfortunately my iMac is still facing the same wifi issues...
Things were going great yesterday after updating. I thought my issues were fixed for sure. Woke up my iMac this morning... NO WIFI! Had to do the whole reset/restart sequence again (the only sort of "fix" that works for me)
It seemed so fixed yesterday that I put the energy saver settings back to default but the first time I tried to wake it up today, although it did wake up, unfortunately the cursor was frozen. Back to never going to sleep again.
I feel like it got worse... or that could by my 3 month old MacBook Air...
The wifi problem is still there :( It wakes up, searches for networks, there are networks available but doesn't connect.
I never had this problem, until I upgraded my 13" 2-yr old MacBook Pro to 10.9.4. Now it has exactly this issue. All the time. Not happy.
No fix. In fact it is worse than before I updated.
Prior to updating, I had to manually connect to my default wireless connection. After updating, WIFI doesn't work at all . Has rendered my expensive retina pro useless.
Come on apple, better testing procedures, purleeze.
I have updated my Macbook Pro to 10.9.4 yesterday, though i never had any issues with wifi or anything else what that matter, but since this update my Bluetooth shows Not Available. And I have been trying to get any sort of help from anywhere but it seems to me that its only me who is having this issue.
You're not alone. I'm having this problem on my Macbook Pro too, but not my desktop iMac. I've tried everything known to mankind, and nothing will fix it. Wifi is working fine however, and I haven't had any waking from sleep issues yet.
I updated my aluminium MacBook ( c2008/9) yesterday, it is now Mavericks 10.9.4, and found I have no Bluetooth, no wifi, no battery indicator and no date or time. Tried switching on wifi and got the spinning rainbow ad infinitum so had to force quit system preferences. Eventually telephoned Apple Tech Support and chatted with a very helpful lady named Jennifer. Advised to power off, restart holding down Alt key, enter Recovery mode, choose Recovery 10.9.4 and let it run. Over seven hours later this was completed but no change whatsoever. All the applications still work fine but no wifi, bluetooth, date/time etc. I plan to call Apple Tech Sp at 9am. Very disappointing, this is the first issue major I have had since I converted to Apple. How do I revert back to OSX 10.9.3?? Help!
2009 iMac - the update seems to have fixed the wake from sleep issue but WiFi still keeps disconnecting after that. MacBook Pro standing right next to the iMac has a rock solid connection.
The iMac didn't have any WiFi issues prior to Mavericks - I only installed it 3 weeks ago and ever since no WiFi. Before that it was on OS X Lion and totally fine.
Hey Peter, Thanks for being on this. I'm using a late 2009 Macbook (white) and since upgrading to Mavericks the problem I'm experiencing is intermittent (very) slow wifi after wakeup, which seems to be a slight variation of the problem most have described. After restarting, wifi speeds return to normal (my typical downloads using Comcast are about 40 Mpbs, and they slow to a crawl at about 1.5 Mpbs after wakeup at least once a day pre-10.9.4). The 10.9.4 update seems to have helped; since installing on Tuesday I've had to reboot twice, so I'd say Apple is on the right track but they'll need to put in more work if they're seriously interested in a permanent fix. My sense is that they don't really care, and only issued this update because bloggers such as you who've called them out. For what it's worth, aside from the wifi problem - and honestly, it's First World problem - I've been very happy with Mavericks. My Macbook runs much faster with it than Snow Leopard.
I just bought a brand new MacBookPro with 10.9.4 and within less than 24 hours the problem occurred on the new machine (which I bought to replace the old one that started having those problems and others when I updated to Mavericks). Frankly, Mavericks is just awful. It took me forever, for example, to get connected to this site for purposes of making a comment because connections often slow down to a complete stop before completing. They also absolutely ruined the Pages program by taking out very useful functions and making it impossible to just copy and paste Excel charts to a Pages document without going through all kinds of contortions and even then you can't get them quite right. I absolutely hate Mavericks. It offers nothing new that is worth all this trouble and the fact Apple would release it with these sleep problems and still not fix it is maddening. I can't even get my new MacBookPro to turn on again at this point and the Apple tech couldn't help me so I'm returning the damned thing. It's not fixed!!!
I am running on both my Imac 2012 late & 2009 MBP 10.9.4 and with the Imac I am continuously having issue disconnects from wifi like every 5 min, not only from wakeup but also from restarts or sleep mode, did all the common things I can do but no fix, I can reconnect it does it but not automatically, my 2009 MBP is fine on the same version. I want to know exactly what is going on under the hood, how can I enable MAX debug or logging for this?
Thanks
Ruben
Just left the windows world 3 months ago and purchased a MacBook Air. The Wifi issue was driving me nuts. I wondered if it was a problem with my Mac. When the update came down I noticed it was supposed to fix my issue. I can say after the update I have not had any problems with my Wifi staying connected. After waking from sleep it works as it should.
The 10.9.4 update has actually CAUSED the Wi-Fi wake from sleep issue for me! I had NO problems at all before now!
Brand new mbp late-2013 with 10.9.3. Wake issue present. Yesterday updated to 10.9.4 issue only got worse. Have to reset the WIFI to make it work now after sleep
I have an 2 iMacs and a brand new macbook pro all still take too long to wake up and connect to wifi. No fix yet
Hi, i had been struggling with this as well for quite some time (mbp retina late 2012, 10.9.4) and this thread convinced me to look at this annoying problem again. I found extra food for thought here : http://howtoapple.com/mavericks-wifi-issues-fix/
What solved the problem for me was to go to System Preferences > Energy Saver and (quite paradoxically) uncheck 'Wake for Wi-Fi network access' in the 'Power Adapter' tab. This retrospectively made sense since i don't think i was facing this problem when only on battery. Hope this helps.
Thanks pgtmp. That seems to solve the issue for me by now.