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theorist9

macrumors 68040
Original poster
May 28, 2015
3,845
3,033
I'm using MacOS 10.13.6 on a mid-2014 MacBook Pro. I'm having two issues with my WiFi Preferred Networks list:

1) The system is not respecting my preferred networks: I have only one home network, but my laptop is easily able to detect my neighbors' networks as well. Several months ago I put my home network at the top of the WiFi Preferred Networks list (using Apple menu > System Preferences > Network > WiFi > Advanced). Yet when I go into a different room of my apartment (one room away from my router) my WiFi network keeps switching to that of a neighboring unoccupied unit, even though I have maximum signal strength from my network in all rooms of my apartment (and thus can always switch back). When I re-checked the settings, my network was still at the top. So the system was not respecting my settings.

2) The preferred network changed on its own. Most recently, when I checked the WiFi Preferred Networks list, the list of preferred networks had the network in the unoccupied unit at the top of the list. I never switched this (and I'm the only one that uses this computer).

Sometimes, when my internet goes down, I will manually switch to the WiFi of the unoccupied unit to confirm it is a system issue rather than one specific to my router. But manually switching to another WiFi should not cause my Preferred Networks to change.
 
Last edited:

prisstratton

macrumors 6502a
Dec 20, 2011
543
127
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
I had a similar experience to you. I had helped a neighbour with their computer. When I returned to my own home my MacBook Pro would keep connecting itself to my neighbours network. I went through the same steps as you have tried and I could not get my Mac to stay connected to my own router. In fact, it would even seem to prefer to connect to that network over my own.

In the end the only way I could make it “stick” with my own router was to remove my neighbours network name from the saved list of networks.
 
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theorist9

macrumors 68040
Original poster
May 28, 2015
3,845
3,033
I had a similar experience to you. I had helped a neighbour with their computer. When I returned to my own home my MacBook Pro would keep connecting itself to my neighbours network. I went through the same steps as you have tried and I could not get my Mac to stay connected to my own router. In fact, it would even seem to prefer to connect to that network over my own.

In the end the only way I could make it “stick” with my own router was to remove my neighbours network name from the saved list of networks.
Thanks for your reply. I'll keep your solution in mind, but I'd rather not do that, since it's convenient to be able to (as I described) check the other router when my connection goes down.
 
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