I have a MacBook Pro early 2015 and am running Monterey. I’ve been on vacation and when I started up upon returning the wifi button is greyed out. When I tried to access wifi in network preferences a pop up comes up saying ‘Preferences error’ There was an error in network preferences’ Then an ok button which makes the pop up go away but not the problem! I have no idea how to fix it. I have restarted many times to no avail, any suggestions?
MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 12.0
Hello teejtee,
Thanks for posting in the Apple Support Communities.
Let's run Apple Diagnostics to see if this is related to the hardware of your MacBook Pro. For assistance with this, check out the following resource: Use Apple Diagnostics to test your Mac - Apple Support
Prepare your Mac
1. Shut down your Mac.
2. Disconnect all external devices except keyboard, mouse, display, Ethernet connection (if applicable), and connection to AC power.
3. Make sure that your Mac is on a hard, flat, stable surface with good ventilation.
Let us know of the results and we'll work from there.
Have a great day!
Hello teejtee,
Thanks for posting in the Apple Support Communities.
Let's run Apple Diagnostics to see if this is related to the hardware of your MacBook Pro. For assistance with this, check out the following resource: Use Apple Diagnostics to test your Mac - Apple Support
Prepare your Mac
1. Shut down your Mac.
2. Disconnect all external devices except keyboard, mouse, display, Ethernet connection (if applicable), and connection to AC power.
3. Make sure that your Mac is on a hard, flat, stable surface with good ventilation.
Let us know of the results and we'll work from there.
Have a great day!
teejtee
Thank you for the update.
We recommend that you check if the issue persists when signed in on a different user account.
The article below can help if you do not have any other user account to test with.
Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac
If you are experiencing the issue when signed in on a different user account, we recommend that you check if the issue persists while on safe mode.
Below is an article to help guide you through the process.
How to use safe mode on your Mac
Take care!
Hi Kamote0628
I have tried starting my laptop in safe mode and sometimes the wifi connects and sometimes it doesn't. I tried a guest user account and still wasn't able to connect to wifi. As I mentioned in an earlier reply, it is sporadic. The wifi might or might not connect on safe mode...and if it does then I wait for 30 seconds, and then restart. Sometimes wifi connects after restarting sometimes it doesn't. I've tried this all day though and it didn't work. Not sure if it matters but the wifi icon had an ! mark in it and the Network error continued to show.
However, I reset my NVRAM, PRAM and SMC. After all this, I restarted my computer normally and voila! Wifi connected! HOWEVER, about 15 mins later, I lost the connection but the wifi symbol had a slash rather than a exclamation point and I didn't get the network error. We restarted the modem and then my laptop and wifi is working. My husband said that the internet signal appeared to be quite weak so I am hoping that resetting the NVRAM, PRAM and SMC worked and that when I lost the connection the last time that it was due to that and not a network error, Dare I hope?
Hi, teejtee.
If the issue does continue to persist afterwards, and on multiple networks, you'll need to reach out to Apple to look into this with you further as it may indicate a physical issue with your computer.
If you need to do that, you can get started here: Apple Support
Cheers.
Hi Brandon, thanks for your help! There are a couple of things that have happened since I posted. The wifi found the network and joined our network as normal but then it went off again awhile later. Same thing, wifi button was greyed out and the same network preference error was given when I went to network settings. Since then it sometimes will find the network if I start in safe mode then wait 30 seconds and restart. Sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn’t. So the problem seems intermittent.
I ran apple diagnostics as per your suggestion and there were no codes… all was good. The first time I ran it, my wifi was working so I ran it online- no codes. I tried it again but selected offline, again no codes all was good. So I waited til wifi disappeared again and retried the process but the system didn’t let me run it without being connected to the internet so I’m not sure why.
I have an intel processor and when I ran the process for apple diagnostics it was a bit different than described in the link you sent. I held down the D while the laptop was starting up. Rather than a progress bar or a language preference, I got a page where I needed to choose a network and so when I tried running the diagnostics when the wifi wasn’t available it wouldn’t procede past that. I am wondering if this could be a problem originating with my internet provider. The weird thing is that we have 2 phones, another laptop and a desktop that are all able to join the network. What do you think?
Unable to turn on wifi
