Closing lid/rebooting loses Airport preferred network

I'm having trouble getting Airport to hold its default network (i.e. which one to join) between powerups/sleeps etc.
There are a few visible wireless routers in my area, but my one has a hidden SSID. Joining my network manually is no problem - I just select 'Other' from the drop-down Airport menu on my menu bar, enter the name and password of my wireless network and I'm on - no problem.
Soon as I power down or close the lid for a second - then re-open - it won't rejoin that network. I just want it to select it and be on by default all the time. Each time I have to manually reconnect. What am I doing wrong?
Adrian

I am pasting a solution from "Centurion" that was in another thread that solved the same challenge for me; I hope it helps for you too.
I came upon this earlier:
So I reinstalled OS X.4.5 and it fixed the problem BUT I then applied the patch to X.4.6 and the problem came right back.. So, what is the deal, I'll tell you. For some reason, after installing X.4.6 OSX corrupts your saved WPA/WEP password in a cache. So when you initially connect it doesn't work, but after you turn it off, then on again, it fetches the uncorrupt password from the keychain and it works. Want proof? Ok, do this:
- Go to System Preferences
- Click Network
- Highlight AirPort and click Configure
- Choose "By default, join: Preferred networks"
- Select your access point and click edit
- Click on "show password"
At this point you should see a crazy corrupt password.. Proof that it is jacked up. Now:
- Exit that window back to the access point list
- Remove your access point with the "-" button
- Launch your keychain and delete your access point keychain entry.
- Reboot
- Go back to the "By default, join:" page and click the "+" this time to add your access point. Enter the correct password, save, reboot, BAM, FIXED!

Similar Messages

Airport preferred networks no longer auto-connect

So I am wondering if there are other OSX users that are running into a similar problem I am finding.
I travel a lot and there are a few hotel hotspots that get added to my list of preferred networks.
But as the list grows, even by one, I no longer auto connect to my home network and now my work network.
I know how to clear up the problem but it is annoying that it happens in the first place.
I like to get a show of hands of others that run in to the problem.
cheers,
Noah

So I am not the only one.
I've noticed that if I connect my Macbook Pro to my home Network using Airport and then decide to move the computer close to the 4 port router and hook up via Ethernet (the need for speed), the next time I use wireless I have a **** of a time trying to get it to connect wirelessly. On one occasion I spent an hour trying to get it to connect and when if finally did I couldn't see that I did anything different. It was like the MBP was going "Yeah OK buddy, I'll connect when I am good and ready". Damit, the MBP nearly became a frisbie.
Chris

AirPort - Preferred Network Order

I have a MacBook Pro running Leopard (10.5.2). Here's the situation:
I'm a university student, and I connect to one of several wireless networks, depending on where I am. Usually, Leopard connects to the proper network because there's only one available. However, when I am on campus there are two separate wireless networks. When I am in class, I connect to one (we'll call this network "class"), and when I am at work, I connect to the other (we'll call this one "work"). The "class" network SSID is broadcast, but the "work" network SSID is not. Neither network requires a password to join.
I have set my network preferences as follows: "Ask to join new networks" is checked in the Network Preferences pane when I click on "AirPort". When I click the "Advanced" button, I have the "work" network at the top of the list of preferred networks. "Remember any network this computer has joined" is checked, but "Disconnect from wireless networks when logging out" and "Require Administrator password to control AirPort" are not.
The "work" network is faster, so I want to connect to it whenever possible. However, it has a limited range compared to the "class" network, so most of the time I connect to the "class" network.
I have placed the "work" network at the top of the "Preferred Networks" list, but the problem is that after a couple of days it drops all the way to the bottom of the list. It appears to me like Leopard is re-ordering the preferred networks based on usage, which is totally not what I want. Is there a way to force Leopard to leave my preferred networks list alone?
Message was edited by: sworisbreathing
Message was edited by: sworisbreathing

I have a MacBook Pro running Leopard (10.5.2). Here's the situation:
I'm a university student, and I connect to one of several wireless networks, depending on where I am. Usually, Leopard connects to the proper network because there's only one available. However, when I am on campus there are two separate wireless networks. When I am in class, I connect to one (we'll call this network "class"), and when I am at work, I connect to the other (we'll call this one "work"). The "class" network SSID is broadcast, but the "work" network SSID is not. Neither network requires a password to join.
I have set my network preferences as follows: "Ask to join new networks" is checked in the Network Preferences pane when I click on "AirPort". When I click the "Advanced" button, I have the "work" network at the top of the list of preferred networks. "Remember any network this computer has joined" is checked, but "Disconnect from wireless networks when logging out" and "Require Administrator password to control AirPort" are not.
The "work" network is faster, so I want to connect to it whenever possible. However, it has a limited range compared to the "class" network, so most of the time I connect to the "class" network.
I have placed the "work" network at the top of the "Preferred Networks" list, but the problem is that after a couple of days it drops all the way to the bottom of the list. It appears to me like Leopard is re-ordering the preferred networks based on usage, which is totally not what I want. Is there a way to force Leopard to leave my preferred networks list alone?
Message was edited by: sworisbreathing
Message was edited by: sworisbreathing

Leopard airport issues - Preferred Networks

I am having an Airport / Preferred Networks issue with new Macbook (Dec 07) currently running 10.5.1.
I have a Netgear wireless router that uses WPA for my local network. It has worked fine for around 8 months with Powerbooks & ibooks running Tiger, various PC's and an iphone.
My macbook however will not remember the preferred networks I set up. Everytime I wake it from sleep it says 'none of your preferred networks are available' and then asks if I want to join my local network. The password is remembered correctly and it attempts to join. Roughly 70% of the time it will then give a Connection Timeout error two or three times before connecting.
I have tried the following:
-Deleting the network location in System preferences.
-Deleted Airport Keychain entries and restarted laptop.
-Reset network location using System preferences, restarting laptop again.
-Created a new user account and still found the same issue.
Does anyone have any other suggestions or is it a matter of waiting for 10.5.2?
Thanks, Graham

The issues appear to be due to improper settings of routers and/or networking issues, which appear to be more prevalent on third party routers though can also affect Apple routers if their firmware isn't up to date. It is not an operating system specific issue, even though it can often appear to show up when upgrading. The reason for this is numerous routers haven't followed specs that are industry wide.
I suggest looking over these tips*:
http://www.macmaps.com/WIFI1048.html
As well as making sure when you upgrade to follow these tips:
http://www.macmaps.com/upgradefaq.html
to avoid the most frequently encountered problems.
- * Links to my pages may give me compensation
Message was edited by: a brody

Preferred Networks: default ... ?

Perhaps a naive question. (?)
.. With AirPort On, and with "default" showing in my main menu bar drop-down menu - along with other networks found, does default in fact mean that I'm accessing my own Router and ISP Address. ?
Related to this question, ...
In "Network" > (Advanced) > "AirPort" Preferred Networks, ...
— With "Remember network this computer has joined" selected, and with my having checked a few others [in fact] (momentarily.), I currently have those others "minused" out, with only "default" showing (and working).

Hmn. Not much responses to the question of mine, above.
Perhaps not made clear.
Here it is again. .. With these elements, illustrated here just below in place, .. "What does the term default in fact specify, exactly. ?"
.. Of note important, I have neither, any type of additional "AirPort" junction box, i.e. "Extreme Base Station", or "Time Capsule"—but only the main card that's installed - in machine. This, nor, any additional devices that I'm working to clue into, apart from my mouse and keyboard, otherwise.
Any help. ?

Setting up preferred network

I have a home network via ATT uverse and I can't seem to set up my laptop to use it as the preferred network. I have to manually find my network every time I log on or come back after it has been sitting idle.

System Preferences/Network- Unlock padlock.
Highlight Airport.
Network Name-select your name.
Click on the Advanced button.
Airport/Preferred Networks-delete all that is not your network.
Place a check mark next to "Remember networks this computer has joined."
Click the OK button and lock the padlock.
Restart your computer.

I lose connection with network whenever put MacBook Pro to sleep or reboot. Lost network configuration. Have to use diagnostics to relocate and reconnect. What is the fix?

I lose connection with network (router: Airport Extreme, latest firmware) whenever MacBook Pro put to sleep. Have to use diagnostics to reconnect. Tells me network configurations have changed, then reconnects me to network. What is the fix?

Try the following, in order, until (hopefully) resolved:
1a. Delete Preferred Network(s)
System Preferences > Network > AirPort > Advanced > AirPort tab
Under "Preferred Networks," delete the network(s) you regularly use from the list.
1b. Delete AirPort Keychain Entries
Launch the "Keychain Access" application located in Applications/Utilties.
Click on the "Kind" filter at the top, and look for any "AirPort network password" entries...and delete them.
1c. Add Preferred Network(s)
System Preferences > Network > AirPort > Advanced > AirPort tab
Add the preferred network(s) using the "+" button.
Restart or log out then back in.
2. Move System Configuration Files
(Note: You will have to reestablish your network connections settings.)
Go to /Library/Preferences
Move the SystemConfiguration folder to the desktop.
Restart your Mac. (Note: OS X will rebuild the files that are now sitting on your desktop. If this doesn't resolve the issue, you can move the folder back to it's original location.)

Airport Time Capsule: None of your preferred networks are available

Just got the brand new MBA and an AirPort Time Capsule and set-up went fine, except that whenever my MBA goes to sleep and I open it back up, I've lost my wireless connection and get the message "None of your preferred networks are available." My network is among those available in the list, and it remembers my password, but I must select it every single time. Why won't it remember my preferences and automatically find my network. I shelled out $300 for this Time Capsule because it was supposed to be "lightening fast". My $45 Vizio router had me connected all the time - much faster, wouldn't you agree?

Make sure the box next to Remember networks this computer has joined is checked.
No other boxes should be checked.
Click OK, then click Apply.
It is easy to miss "Apply", and if you do, the settings will not "stick" on the Mac.
Restart the Mac.
Hopefully, your new Time Capsule network name does not use the same name of a previous network. That will really confuse things. If that is the case, use a new wireless network name and a new password for the Time Capsule.

Airport doesn't automatically connect to my preferred network

I had my hard drive replaced and ever since my airport doesn't automatically connect to my wifi network. I have specified my network as my preferred network in my system preferences.
I need to re-connect to the network manually (ie: I need to select my network form the drop down list) each time I wake my computer up from sleep mode.
How do I have my airport automatically connect??

Go to System Preferences then select the Network icon.
Select the airport adaptor then click advanced
the first tab "Airport" has all your recent SSID's listed.
Select the desired network and drag it to the top of the list and check the " Remember Networks this computers has joined."
Apart from that the next best thing would be to removed all the networks from the list and add that network you wish to join to verify its configuration

"Preferred Network" option missing from Airport tab

My computer was just joining networks, so I switched my MPB to "By Default, Join: A specific network". Now I find that I've got to tell my computer to join the wireless network at work. Since I'd like my computer to join both my home networks without interaction from me I read the help file to figure out how to do it. The help file said to choose "Preferred Networks" from the "By Default, Join:" popup menu, but the popup menu on my computer only had one choice, "A specific network".
Anyone know what might have happened to the other options in that popup menu?
Thanks,
Chris

Replying to my own post, bad form...
I don't know why "Preferred Networks" was missing from my "By Default, Join:" menu, but I discovered that I could get the option back by creating a new location and migrating my old settings to the new location.
Chris

802.11: "Preferred networks" vs. "A specific network"

I've got a new MacBook Pro and it appears that -- at least in my opinion -- has eliminiated one of the key advantages OS X networking has over Win XP.
With my G4 PowerBook, I can create a one-to-one relationship between locations and network access points. For me this is critical, as my work location has multiple access points -- some on our corporate network and some open to the internet. For the corporate nets, I have a static IP address and need various proxy configurations to be stored, whereas for the public nets, its DHCP and no proxy info needs to be stored.
On the MacBook Pro, it appears to me that I can't force network settings to access one and only one access point per location setting. Worse, I can't even change the prioirties of access per location.
This causes unpredictable behavior when my truly preferred access point is momentarily out of range. It appears that the MBP is grabbing another access point automatically. When this happens, my network settings are incorrect, and my connection is broken.
Am I missing something obvious? 'Cause this is the exact problem I've had with XP for years -- and something that has always been a ton better on Mac.
17 in MacBook Pro Mac OS X (10.4.6)
various Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Thanks for the suggestion, but the behavior described in the article is the actually the issue. Here's the problem: in my work environment, there are three VLANs with three APs, all three are always visible from my desk. According to what I'm doing, I need to shift between them a couple time per day.
Physical Location: Work
Access Points Available:
- "Internet" (closed SSID, DHCP, no proxies)
- "Corporate" (closed SSID, DHCP, proxies)
- "Development" (closed SSID, static IP, no proxies)
Location "Outside Network"
- Preferred Airport: "Intenet"
- DHCP
- no proxies
Location "Inside Network"
- Preferred Airport: "Corporate"
- DHCP
- appropriate proxy settings
Location "Development Network"
- Preferred Airport: "Development"
- static IP
- no proxies
So the "Preferred network" option would work (though less than optimum) if I could change the order based on location. It would be optimum (and better than the 10.6.4 PowerPC version) if I could change the order and add/delete netwoks according to location. Unfortunately, there seems to be only one preferred network list that is global for all locations. And that causes the unpredictability that I tried to describe.

HT3606 why does airport change networks in 10.5.8

How do I get my Airport to remember which network I regularly use?
It seems to constantly default to a different one

Go to System Preferences
Click Network
Highlight AirPort and click Configure, or Advanced in 10.5?...
Choose “By default, join: Preferred networks”
Select the wrong access points and Remove those access point swith the minus button.
Reboot
Go back to the “By default, join:” page and click the plus this time to add your access point. Enter the correct password, save, reboot, or...
Instead of joining it from the list, click the WiFi icon at the top, and click join other network. Fill in everything as needed.

"None of your preferred networks is available" annoyance.

The spousal unit has an iBook G3 running the latest OSX. There have been no problems up until now.
After a few days of network problems in the house which necessitated replacement of the cable modem, her computer continually pops-up the message, "None of your preferred networks is available" whenever the lid is opened. Of course, I have selected the preferred network, asked that it be remembered, etc., etc., but the problem persists, regardless of what I do. I've run permissions, erased the selection in keychain, deleted all other networks in the selection list, reset, rebooted, etc.
Surely this is a bad plst problem or some other file needs to be discarded and allowed to rebuild . . . or whatever. Anyone have any ideas?

hdansmith wrote:
Where is this .plist located?
Thanks
It's in the local user's Library->Preference folder
You drag it onto your desktop (don't trash it immediately) and then log out and back in. Rebooting is probably better - and system creates a new default .plist to replace it.
Message was edited by: nerowolfe

Preferred network list...

Hi there - I have had a new MacBook Pro for a few weeks now and it is great! - a god improvement over my ageing PowerbookG4.
anway - I have wireless 'b' network at home in use by various macs and PC's - the MBP was fine and registered my home wifi network as a preferred network, but in the past two days it has decided it doesn't want to have it as a preferred network and always asks me if I want to connect manually. this is getting annoying as everytime I shut the lid or logout or whatever, it drops off the network and asks me if I want to connect on reopeneing.
How do I go about putting it back on the prefferred list?
I have opened network options in the system pref - and the advanced tab - the network SSID is listed there - but still it doesn't want to connect by default.
my networ kit is a Linksys router (cable broadband conection) with an airport express downstairs to use airtunes. The network is secured using 128bit WEP.
thanks for any help as this is doing my head in!!

Thats just it - I don't have the option to click a "by default join.." button anywhere. the MBP is running OSX 10.5.1 - I think this is one of the 'new' things in leopard a I am sure I had that option on my powerbook
thanks,
Graham

DVI to VGA Adapter Closed Lid Mode Distorted Picture on TV

Hi
I managed to hook up the DVI to VGA adapter and view on my Sanyo TV. Nothing fancy just a older TV.
I am feeding through the Yellow Video output into the video input on the TV. (Also tried s-video)
Viewing with the macbook lid open no problems. Remembered that I could close the lid.
Followed the instructions online about connecting, closing the lid and waking up using my bluetooth mouse.
First time things went well - able to use Front Row and View Slideshows etc. also steaming video from Safari, (TV Land for my kid)
Then the screen began to flash - and change to black with rolling images.
Like you used to have in the 60-70's black and white TV - multiple images rolling past over and over.
I tried rebooting - starting new connections, using different cables, using both VGA and S-Video directly into the TV and not through my reciever.
Any ideas!
I can't use closed lid mode at all. I must instead, dim my screen.
Help?
Thanks
Buddy

Thanks, BSteely, I have the latest QT and iTunes already. Closing the lid seems to kick the MacBook external display into some special mode that Front Row can't display videos in. For example, you get the Front Row interface, but as you select movies/TV shows, the preview window on the left side is blank. Open the cover, and have both displays going, and you can see the previews fine (and of course, you can see the movies/TV shows play fine as well when you click on them)
Running Quicktime Player full screen works fine without Front Row in either open or closed lid mode. So it is apparently something wrong with Front Row itself.

Closing lid/rebooting loses Airport preferred network

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