Are you one of the many, many OS X Yosemite users who have been plagued with intermittent, seeming unsolvable problems with Wi-Fi dropping since upgrading from Mavericks? The end to your problems may very well be coming down the pipe.
Apple has begun seeding a new developer beta of OS X Yosemite, version 10.10.1. The second beta to be seeded, build number 14B23, comes just a week after Apple released the first beta.
As with the first update, Apple is asking users to focus their testing on Wi-Fi connectivity, Notification Center and Exchange accounts in the Mail App.
Note the focus on Wi-Fi. OS X Yosemite has been plagued with problems involving randomly dropping Wi-Fi connections since its release. So far, no one is entirely sure what is causing the issue, although some people say it can be addressed by disabling Bluetooth, iCloud or deleting your Wi-Fi connection and re-adding it. But nothing fixes 100 percent of the problems.
With Apple stressing that testers should look at Wi-Fi for the second beta in a row, it looks like Cupertino is making a serious effort to fix the issue in the next OS X update. The question remains, though, when it’ll be seeded to the hoi polloi … or if it will fix Yosemite’s Wi-Fi issues for good.
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
15 responses to “The next OS X update could fix Yosemite’s rampant Wi-Fi woes”
Since Yosemite? I’ve been having problems with wifi dropping since upgrading to Mavericks.
Wi-fi was completetly gone. Searched the net and found a fix related to Key-Chain. I did that and problem fixed.
Apple has lost all of its advantages with this “update”. It’s almost as buggy as a Windows… Seriously, I’m a long-term fan of Apple, but Yosemite and the iOS update we had in July make me wonder if Apple is conscious that design is not the only reason of its past success, but also the reliability of its system.
Actually, these days I think Windows is actually less buggy than Mac. I remember Win8 working flawlessly. I just changed all my things to Mac this year, but still staying in Mavericks. I might actually go back to windows when these Macs die. Apple has been really not good with software these days. Even my IOS8 in 6+ is full of bugs.
I LOVE Yosemite. However, Mavericks and myself are NOT friends!!! Every problem I experienced with Mavericks has been alleviated with Yosemite.
Hi FrankieJo, I am still in Mavericks “HELL” right now with myriad conflicts most notably from a slowing system (lots of “spinning pinwheeels!”) and finding that I CANNOT upload or attach files — all of my web browsers and Apple Mail hangup/freeze when I get the dialogue box to attach a file. I just keep force quitting my web browsers and Apple Mail to get them back up, but I have NOT been able to find any good tech answers and solutions (I’ve been trying a lot of stuff!).
Do you mind me asking if you had the same “slow-down” and “freezing/hangup” issues as I have had with Mavericks OS X 10.9.5)??? And have you still found that Yosemite has addressed those issues and NOT affect your WiFi connectivity like so many other Mac users??!! I’m just wondering if I should make the effort to do the download upgrade to Yosemite yet (or wait until the other software updates like 10.10.1 comes out)??!! Thanks!
I don’t know if it’s due to Mavericks or not but I have similar problems – endless beachballs, having to force-quit most apps repeatedly. I might as well be running Windows! So if anyone has experience with Yosemite solving or even just helping a little with such problems, I too would love to hear it. Thanks
I’m sorry it took so long to reply, but I couldn’t get back to this post.
As for your question, should you upgrade to Yosemite, my answer is; ABSOLUTELY.
I had nothing but problems with Mavericks. Yes, I had “slow-downs”, “freezing/hangup” issues. My wifi would just cut out, for no apparent reason. Most of the time (I hesitate “saying all the time” but very close to it), when I would have a couple of apps running simultaneously, I would either get the “beach ball” or the error message, ” The “whatever app you may be using” quit unexpectedly.
I’m just really surprised that so many people are saying Yosemite is the cause of their problems. I have had nothing but success. Yosemite has so many great features. It’s a beautiful interface, and it doesn’t bog down my system. I’ve never been so happy as when I found out I no longer had to deal with Mavericks.
Hope this helps
I had the same experience, macbook pro late 2013. Originally had mavericks, had constant problems with the wifi and apps crashing. Since Yosemite i have nothing but smooth sailing, my wifi always reconnects after sleeping and its really rare to have a beach ball or kernel panic.
Waaaaaah….Yosemite!, what a joke. I have no wifi consistency whatsoever. I have spent days on forums hours on phone to apple trying to fix. My iMac and MacBook both failing. There goes any income from my work from home. My friends comp and my ipad run super fast wifi. I hope this comes soon. This is beyond frustrating.
Of all the things to not work. I am lucky to get 20 mins at a time before spending an hour on troubleshooting
Poster is a documented troll
documented troll? are you saying that I am? i have never posted anything related to this in my life. I find that extremely rude and offensive. I am just a user voicing my frustration as everyone else is on here!
Are you kidding me? I thought that this problem was with my router, of course it had to be the new update. I experienced the same issues on my ipad and iphone after updating to 8.0. It seems to be gone with the new update. They need to release the update for Yosemite NOW. It is WAY TOO BUGGY!!! I really regret ever upgrading past lion since the upgrades seem to have gotten progressively worse over the years.
Mine was dropping out every couple of minutes, but I’m in a “noisy” space. I did a couple things on the router/AP that seem to have helped. (Also I had similar issues when Mavericks was new.) Anyway, I changed from channel 6 to 11, turned off “short guard interval,” and turned off WPS. I’m sure it won’t be the same for everyone, but the experience has me wondering if part of this bug has to do with being on a crowded channel.
I live in a place with another person. Both my updated macs are having this issue, her 2 mavericks macs are running perfect as is my ipad… hours on ph to apple changing settings on comp and routers have had no affect…