What to do when your Mac says Wi-Fi hardware isn’t mounted

Just about every Mac offered considering the fact that the mid-2000s with couple exceptions provided a Wi-Fi card, module, or chip that’s element of the motherboard. Hence, it’s stunning to any Mac person who fires up their Mac or is in the middle of applying when they see a information that reads “Wi-Fi: No components installed” in the procedure Wi-Fi menu equally vexing is “Wi-Fi: Not configured” when you have manufactured no adjustments and were just using it. In each scenarios, a components trouble could be the root. But you ought to run via other troubleshooting to start with.

Fix Wi-Fi: not configured

It’s attainable that network options had been disrupted or corrupted, disabling Wi-Fi access in a way that can be effortlessly fixed by means of the Network choices pane. To locate out if which is the case, stick to these steps:

1. Go to System Preferences > Community.
2. Find the Wi-Fi adapter in the checklist at left. It will be grayed out and have the label Inactive beneath it.
3. From the gear menu, find Make Services Lively.
4. Click Utilize.

An exclamation mark inside the Wi-Fi fan will disappear, and your computer will scan for networks or hook up to a recognised a single.

Test for components faults

If hardware is the concern, the Wi-Fi fall-down menu may perhaps inaccurately browse “Wi-Fi: No hardware put in,” although audience have found “not configured” and other problems as very well. There could be a reduced-amount configuration difficulty or a hardware problem, and you ought to remove configuration issues to start with.

Try out these troubleshooting steps in get:

• Restart your Mac: This clears the condition in numerous scenarios.
• Get started in safe and sound mode: Safe mode fires up a confined range of expert services in macOS and could reveal a conflict. See Apple’s techniques to start off up in harmless method.
• Create a new user in macOS: From time to time the dilemma is with a user account. Test making a new user in macOS, restarting, and logging into that new user account. Does Wi-Fi work now? Then there’s a thing corrupted in the other user’s low-degree options that may well call for reinstalling macOS. (You can find the guidance to build a new person in this column.)
• Eliminate the Wi-Fi community entry and restore it: The column “How to deal with a missing Wi-Fi entry in macOS” gives the actions.
• Crystal clear the components point out (Intel Macs): On Intel Macs, you can reset the System Management Controller (SMC). That solves the trouble for some people. (Apple silicon M-collection Macs have no SMC to reset.)
• Reinstall macOS: Make a Time Device or other total backup of your Mac, restart into macOS recovery, and reinstall macOS. This is a non-damaging installation, but you need to have a backup in scenario things go incorrect.

If none of the above solves the issues, it’s time to strike the repair shop. If your Mac continues to be below guarantee, keep information of your screening handy and call for a fix. If it’s out of guarantee, the fix might be costly as with most Macs unveiled in the past 10 to 15 decades, a entire motherboard substitution may possibly be necessary. You may get by with a components alternative, described upcoming.

Choose for a hardware Wi-Fi replacement

If your Mac operates macOS 10.15 Catalina or earlier, you can obtain an cheap 3rd-social gathering Wi-Fi USB dongle, these types of as the Edimax AC1200, which arrives with motorists from the maker for OS X and macOS through Sierra, or the speedier 802.11ac (Wi-Fi 5) TP-Connection Archer T3U (by means of 10.14) or T3U As well as (by means of 10.15).

For these employing a much more recent model of macOS or who want driver-totally free accessibility to 802.11ac or 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 5 or 6), a USB-C adapter, mini-dock, or comprehensive-sized dock with gigabit ethernet can pair with a wi-fi bridge. This is less convenient for a notebook, but a fair solution for a desktop Mac that can’t plug in by way of ethernet right. A lot of low-expense, large-general performance wi-fi bridges can hook up to a network as if the bridge were being a normal Wi-Fi adapter.

Request Mac 911

We’ve compiled a list of the queries we get questioned most regularly, alongside with answers and inbound links to columns: go through our super FAQ to see if your question is protected. If not, we’re normally on the lookout for new difficulties to resolve! Email yours to mac911@macworld.com, such as display screen captures as proper and whether or not you want your whole title applied. Not just about every problem will be answered, we do not reply to email, and we can't supply immediate troubleshooting assistance.