Wifi keeps dropping since update to MacOS Sequoia 15.2

jos.plompen wrote:

Thank you Steve626, for taking the time and effort to answer my post.

I will look into Etrecheck. I never heard of that road, so that might be very helpful.

It is not that I don't want to explore if the problems are caused by the VPN. It's just that I don't want to discuss "you don't need a VPN, because it doesn't give you the protection you think you get".

I completely uninstalled VPN and that did not make a difference. The problem still occurred.

I much appreciate your respons.

PRP has provided superb advice. Note that the CleanMyMac link PRP provided has ~ 10,000 instances in Discussions for CleanMyMac and these are not users praising that tool, these are users who are having problems with it or trying to remove it. While PRP's suggestion for a "clean erase/install" may seem severe, this software can be quite challenging to remove.

Not to argue about VPNs, you have a right to install and use them; I have noted in the past that using a commercial VPN (which is different than a corporate VPN provided and configured by an employer to access its secure network) is like hiring a security guard to take your postal mail from your personal mailbox by the curb to your front door, all while opening all your mail and reading it while bringing it from the curb-side mailbox to your home. Having the guard might make you feel a little more secure, and yet ... maybe not so much. I think one problem shown in your Etrecheck is that you have 3 or 4 different VPNs all embedded somewhere on your Mac! VPNs can easily cause WIFi dropouts because:

• Simple Firewall settings can make the Mac reject a VPN connection, causing a dropout; and some VPNs cut off the WiFi when the connection to the VPN server is interrupted. Are you using the built in Mac Firewall, or do one or more of those other security tools you have possibly reject a competing VPN? Also, VPNs add additional processing for the network connection, thus reducing the connection speed and sometimes making dropouts occur. My employer's VPN can cause a reduction by as much as 2x in network connection speed, and also once in a while a network transitory interruption that would be otherwise unnoticed causes not only the VPN connection to drop but also all internet connections to "freeze," sometimes a reboot is required. What I am saying is that VPNs increase network fragility and even the really secure ones can have intermittent issues. You have 3+ commercial VPNs and this creates many ways for them to combat with each other as well as with the built in Mac security. Even if you "turn them off" they are still loaded into the system and running in the background unless completely uninstalled.

It looks like you are trying to piecemeal remove potentially offending items that were installed in the past. That may or may not work, some of the components of these tools are "hidden" and might not be accessible except through special steps. I have actually followed PRP's suggestion of complete erase/reinstall one notable time, it was when I "inherited" my college-age daughter's MacBook Air ("Dad, it doesn't work anymore") and had to wipe it to get rid of "stuff" she had installed. It worked and that laptop, a 2010 MacBook Air, is still running smoothly.

One reason that these problems sometimes surface after a significant update or upgrade to the MacOS is that each new version of MacOS makes some changes, especially to security and networking elements of the OS. So something that was in remission or lurking without impacts in the past may now be incompatible and create havoc. WiFi dropping is pretty serious havoc, there is clearly something notable that is wrong, somewhere in your setup.

Once this type of software are installed and embedded into the computer CleanMyMac aka BrickMyMac 

Start Over from Scratch 

Heavy Handed - Yes ?

Effective in removing this software - Yes 

For Apple Silicon computer >> Use Disk Utility to erase a Mac with Apple silicon.

CleanMyMac , aka “ BrickMyMac “

New macOS Malware "Cthulhu Stealer" Targets Apple Users' Data

Specific to CleanMyMac aka “ BrickMyMac “

To put the CleanMyMac in context and the damages it may have or has already done.

This application can or will Muck Up your User Account ( Home Folder ) of this machine.

It does not touch the Operating System itself unless you consider your User Account ( Home Folder ) as part of the Operating System

Then in that specific context - it has Mucked Up the Operating  System

In which case, the Operating System is hosed 

Always make a Time Machine Backup  before  proceeding 

If going this route - I suggest Not using Startup Assist to migrate everything back.

This will probably Re-Introduce ( CleanMyMac aka BrickMyMac ) back into the Operating System 

Without harping on the usage of Commercial VPNs you may consider your option very carefully 

They may not be what one believes they are doing for the computer and what they actually are doing behind the scenes 

https://gist.github.com/joepie91/5a9909939e6ce7d09e29

A - System extension blocked - There are system extensions awaiting user approval.

A- System modifications - There are a large number of system modifications running in the background.

A - Configuration Files:

  /etc/hosts - Count: 12

A - qbittorrent.app - Great  Source for picking up Cracked Software that can contain all kinds of Malware and Adware 

A - Antivirus software: Apple and CleanMyMac

A - Launchd: /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.macpaw.CleanMyMac2.Agent.plist

A - AdBlockVPNMacOSProvider - version 2.1.8 (App Store - installed 2024-11-27)

 A - NordVPN Threat Protection Pro™ - version 8.33.0 (Nordvpn S.A. - installed 2025-01-20)

A - [Waiting for authorization] DuckDuckGo VPN Network Extension - version 1.120.0 (Duck Duck Go, Inc. - installed 2025-01-03)

With that may restricted placed upon potential replies.

To skip the Q&A session, just download the Application Etrecheck directly from the Developer. 

It’s a diagnostic tool that doesn’t change your computer at all. It gives you a clear and easy-to-read list of both your hardware and software. 

You can get it for free or pay for extra features. And don’t worry, the report won’t reveal any personal information. 

Once you’re done, just copy and paste the full report using the Additional Text Icon.

jos.plompen wrote:

• Ever since I updated to Sequoia 15.2 Wifi keeps dropping.

I have a MacBook Pro with M1 Pro, 14-inch, 2021.

I tried amongst others:

disabling VPN

None of my other devices have this problem (iPhone 12 Pro iOS 18.2, MacBook Air M1 Sequioa 15.0.1)

Any knows what causes this and how to fix it?

BTW: I appreciate helpful comments that are on topic, not comments on why one should use a VPN or not

Most commonly, something is installed that causes these things after an OS upgrade. Something installed that might work with 15.0.1 but not so well with 15.2.

There are many posts here from VPN users who eventually traced problems LIKE yours to their VPN, or its configuration, or it being not fully compatible with 15.2, and so forth.

But since you indicated you don't want to explore such VPN possibilities (not "helpful" or "on topic") I'll leave it at that.

However I do second PRP's suggestion about Etrecheck as that will show what is installed, users may know that one or the other does not work well with 15.2, for instance. If your other laptop running 15.0.1 is configured much the same as the laptop that is having problems, that almost certainly points to something installed that is not fully compatible with 15.2.

jos.plompen wrote:

And do you know how I get rid of this:

System Extensions:

    [Waiting for authorization] NetworkProtectionSystemExtension - version 1.102.0 (Duck Duck Go, Inc.)

        Application: Not found!

        Description: DuckDuckGo VPN

One way is to get FindAnyFile and have it search for all occurrences of "Duck" in the name of any file, including hidden directories and files. Next step after carefully deleting those items (making sure you are deleting only pieces of that DuckDuckGo tool set and not something unrelated), would be to search for all occurrences INSIDE the contents of files. This will result in many more hits, and many will be false alarms, but one needs to sort through them.

For CleanMyMac, I don't know what the best approach might be. The company is called MacPaw and one can do similar searches for text strings, but some pieces of the software might not show up in such searches and remain behind. That is why PRP, who has graciously spent inordinate amounts of their personal volunteer time trying to help scores of users who are trying to remove such tools, has suggested a complete redo and clean erase approach.

I think your Etrecheck report shows multiple issues (see PRP's summary). Sometimes it can be the COMBINATION of such multiple things that cause things like WiFi drop outs. It's a lot to try to fix bit by bit. By the way, Apple's standard approach, when no hardware issue is found and a user reports a hard to diagnose issue after installing lots of potentially conflicting stuff, is to erase the computer and set up as new, basically what PRP recommended. It's a brute force approach that people here in Discussions usually don't recommend except as a last resort, but unless there is a hardware problem, it is almost guaranteed to work.

steve626 wrote:

jos.plompen wrote:

Thank you Steve626, for taking the time and effort to answer my post.

I will look into Etrecheck. I never heard of that road, so that might be very helpful.

It is not that I don't want to explore if the problems are caused by the VPN. It's just that I don't want to discuss "you don't need a VPN, because it doesn't give you the protection you think you get".

I completely uninstalled VPN and that did not make a difference. The problem still occurred.

I much appreciate your respons.

• PRP has provided superb advice. Note that the CleanMyMac link PRP provided has ~ 10,000 instances in Discussions for CleanMyMac and these are not users praising that tool, these are users who are having problems with it or trying to remove it. While PRP's suggestion for a "clean erase/install" may seem severe, this software can be quite challenging to remove.

Not to argue about VPNs, you have a right to install and use them; I have noted in the past that using a commercial VPN (which is different than a corporate VPN provided and configured by an employer to access its secure network) is like hiring a security guard to take your postal mail from your personal mailbox by the curb to your front door, all while opening all your mail and reading it while bringing it from the curb-side mailbox to your home. Having the guard might make you feel a little more secure, and yet ... maybe not so much. I think one problem shown in your Etrecheck is that you have 3 or 4 different VPNs all embedded somewhere on your Mac! VPNs can easily cause WIFi dropouts because:

Simple Firewall settings can make the Mac reject a VPN connection, causing a dropout; and some VPNs cut off the WiFi when the connection to the VPN server is interrupted. Are you using the built in Mac Firewall, or do one or more of those other security tools you have possibly reject a competing VPN? Also, VPNs add additional processing for the network connection, thus reducing the connection speed and sometimes making dropouts occur. My employer's VPN can cause a reduction by as much as 2x in network connection speed, and also once in a while a network transitory interruption that would be otherwise unnoticed causes not only the VPN connection to drop but also all internet connections to "freeze," sometimes a reboot is required. What I am saying is that VPNs increase network fragility and even the really secure ones can have intermittent issues. You have 3+ commercial VPNs and this creates many ways for them to combat with each other as well as with the built in Mac security. Even if you "turn them off" they are still loaded into the system and running in the background unless completely uninstalled.

It looks like you are trying to piecemeal remove potentially offending items that were installed in the past. That may or may not work, some of the components of these tools are "hidden" and might not be accessible except through special steps. I have actually followed PRP's suggestion of complete erase/reinstall one notable time, it was when I "inherited" my college-age daughter's MacBook Air ("Dad, it doesn't work anymore") and had to wipe it to get rid of "stuff" she had installed. It worked and that laptop, a 2010 MacBook Air, is still running smoothly.

One reason that these problems sometimes surface after a significant update or upgrade to the MacOS is that each new version of MacOS makes some changes, especially to security and networking elements of the OS. So something that was in remission or lurking without impacts in the past may now be incompatible and create havoc. WiFi dropping is pretty serious havoc, there is clearly something notable that is wrong, somewhere in your setup.

👍

Respectfully, what part of the Operating System is Hosed does one not understand

To Only answer your question related to Beta and nothing more

The version of Etrecheck appearing from your latest Report

It showing version EtreCheck version: 5.7.2 (5247)

The Current version From the Developer is 6.8.7 ( 68068 )

Where you gone the defunct version, is beyond me

Get rid of this and use the current version of Etrecheck

jos.plompen wrote:

Thank you Steve626, for taking the time and effort to answer my post.

I will look into Etrecheck. I never heard of that road, so that might be very helpful.

It is not that I don't want to explore if the problems are caused by the VPN. It's just that I don't want to discuss "you don't need a VPN, because it doesn't give you the protection you think you get".

I completely uninstalled VPN and that did not make a difference. The problem still occurred.

I much appreciate your respons.

I know you are replying to @steve626 but I too appear there

Depending on when you uninstalled the VPN versus the time the Etrecheck Report was generated

Sadly, you may need to revise the statement regarding Uninstalling the VPN

Looking at the report very quickly

It reports More than 1 VPN is or was installed with possible elements still installed

A detailed review of the Report will coming short