My friend had that issue and contacted Apple Care. Advisor created technical assistance ticket or something and Apple Engineers told him "Keep your hard drives away from mac via longer cable, some accessories affecting wifi health negatively." So he started to use longer cables for some accessories and issue resolved.
Did the same just now. Longer cable with the same specs: wifi 710 mbit. So still it is slower than without anything attached. There must be something with the mini's shielding or whatever.
Yes, that can help it for sure but I know many people have these on their desks close by so trying to let people know about the issue. Thanks for the info on this also as it all helps.
Craig - I have a M4 Mac mini Pro sitting atop a Qwiizlab aluminum stand. No hub, just the stand. Ran a few speed test. 1) Ethernet cable - 540-595 Mbps. Disconnected ethernet cable. 2) M4 on stand using Wifi 480-525 Mbps. 3) M4 mini without the stand 480-525 Mbps. 4) Wifi with stand and Acacias NVMe SSD under the Mac mini 535 - 580 Mbps. 5)Wifi - Mac mini sitting (without stand) directly atop the Acacias SSD 535 - 580 Mbps. In summary, I am seeing little to no effects of Ethernet vs. Wifi with or without the Qwiizlab, or using WiFi with the mini sitting directly atop the SSD. I suspect some mini's WiFi is being affected by EMF radiation. Keep in mind the mini WiFi antenna is behind the plastic base at the bottom of mini. I would also check whether the WiFi signal drop is related to the WiFi band being used. I am running a Deco X20 mesh WiFi with dual channel 2.4 AND 5 Ghz. Also, doubtful, is the mini pro antenna different from the baseline mini antenna? B. Thanks for the channel. Good stuff. Happy to participate.
Thank you. If you get a change maybe check if you lose signal at the 2.4 frequency and not the 5 Ghz. I think there is something to that. Thanks for all the helpful info too.
@@craigneidel The 2014 mini's at least when new had issues between bluetooth and USB3 - BT would cut out with a USB3 device connected Guess what frequency BT runs at ... 2.4 GHz Isn't there a WiFi antenna cable to the Apple logo on top as well ?
RFI (radio frequency interference) can affect anything that relies on EMF (electro magnetic frequencies) to communicated. Microwave, Infrared, Radio, and even visible light, can be affected by other devices emitting RF and metals that interfere with signals going in or coming out. If you remember the iPhone 6 had a problem, not with the antenna but with it's placement when the users hand was coming in contact with the antenna and affecting reception. Mac Mini, ever since the advent of the unibody design, have placed the WiFi antenna in the base. Something emitting RF signals or blocking signals will reduce reception. Speed reduction will depend on how much signal is blocked or interference is present. One poster mentioned inverting the Mini results in better signal. That, too, has always been true with the unibody minis. Shielding the antenna won't improve reception but degrade it further. Shielding the interfering device would improve reception.
Yes, for sure. I just thought it was important that people know that placing all these devices could (maybe not all the time) but could affect wifi speeds and sometimes by quite a bit.
Article on MacRumors talks about this and it showed the new Mac Mini the WIFI antenna is on the bottom of the around the air intake vents. So this guy took his Mini and placed it upside down and both his WIFI and Bluetooth speeds both increased. So putting your Mini upside down puts the power button a better place and the antennas too.
Yes, but it doesn't look great like that. Funny, but yes it's on the bottom and I just wanted to let people know that placing these items close by can affect speeds by quite a bit at times.
Tks, turning my Mac Mini upside down down seemed to increase materially increase the load from 180 to 240. However, I go sucked deep into this Rabbit hole and found my WiFi testing with Ookla Speedtest could very materially 20 minutes later.
@@craigneidel good point about real time. I just re-rested with my SanDisk Pro 4TB Thunderbolt 3 and do not get a performance drop testing with Ookla Speedtest when I attached the the drive after test started. I am testing with a Thunderbolt and not USB.
I had the same hub and found the wifi went down. I did many tests and found when I hooked up the hub with a USB-A 2.0 cable, my wifi speed went back up. This is with the Mac mini on top of the hub. The down side was the SSD speed went down. From 900 MBs down to 15 MBs. Then I also bad issues with anything I plugged into the hub, I would lose the connection. This makes me feel it was something with the Thunderbolt Connection of the hub. I do have external Thunderbolt 4 drives, but they are about 8-10 inches away from the Mac mini. I ended up sending the hub back and I purchased another hub, but it is waiting to be shipped through Amazon. I will try my other drives closer and also the hub when it arrives in a couple weeks. Thank you for this video
Thanks for the info on that. Yes, it would not be ideal as the speed will go way down on the hub but if it fixes the wifi issue that is some data we can use. Thank you again. Let me know what you find.
Get the Mac Mini far away from the metal rack! It's like a Faraday cage. Try these tests on the floor or wooden desk, not on a wire rack. A piece of wood sitting on the rack doesn't convince me that you've eliminated the effect of the wire rack. I'd prefer to see this 20 feet away from the wire rack.
I'm going to guess that that metal cabinet/rack is the majority of the problem. Have my Mac mini on wood table and wifi speed doesn't change whether the ACASIS NVMe drive is on top, on the bottom or on the side. Same speeds. My bet is @mixxsky comment is on the money!
I think, you're on the right path. During the baseline tests, the signal quality (i.e., RSSI) could be just good enough to avoid a noticeable problem. Then, add in the infamous USB 3 (and newer?) interference and the connection runs aground, so to speak.
I have tested it away also. It's slightly less but I know it not the rack also as I can move in the accessories close to the Mac mini and watch the speeds drop in real time. Even if away from the rack.
The wifi antenna is likely located near the base of the M4 mini where there is no metal case. Just guessing that locating the Mac on top (or near) a lump of metal is affecting the RF signal sufficiently that there are more errors and so packets need to be retransmitted more frequently, causing a lower overall effective speed (or it's negotiating a lower speed with the wifi access point). Try turning your Mac Mini upside down: the speed should improve. So either accessory designers should put it on top of the mini, or they should make taller (plastic) stands...
Yes, that is what I assume to. It's best to get a longer cord and maybe connect at a distance but I think some of the cords could be the issue also if not shielded correctly.
very rarely do I run my Mac on wifi. always connected via ethernet yes I get that this could slow blue tooth. I did move external drives as far away as I can and will live happily. thank you for your testing and publishing the information. best wishes
I have a Mac mini over a plywood table getting terrible 1 Mbps.... I contacted support, and they asked me to do a few things. Didn't solve. Then, they advise me to put the Mac mini standing (vertical) with the bottom facing the router. Yep, the speed went to 120 Mbps.
@craigneidel ok so the speed dropped again, and it's really bad. I cannot even use the internet properly it's not loading even a Google search. Tried a few things, but it doesn't work. On My laptop, the speed is great. Not sure if I waste more time trying to find a fix with the support, get a refund or what.
@@snowpony001 I noticed the more stuff you have around your pc, the worst the internet becomes. I have 1 usb hub with keyboard, mouse, and camera. I also have a mic plugged directly. So, what I did was keep the usb hub as further as it could get. I also keep it further from the monitor and other peripheral. It's much better now! I took the pc to the apple store to run tests and there were no issues. So I didn't bother to get a replacement because the result will likely be the same with another device.
Thanks for posting about this. I have M4 Mac mini I just set up on New Year's Eve with a ZikeDrive Z666 containing a Orico 4TB SSD. Using WiFi I got 580.2/51.0 with the drive behind and off to one side but only a couple of inches away. When I put the drive on top of the Mini I got 533.2/50.3. The current cable is so short its not possible to get the drive under the mini. I tried the same combination 10 minutes later and got 704.0/54.8 to the side and 600.6/54.4 on top. The mini is currently sitting only 6" away from a home wifi node. I am waiting on a second monitor and a two monitor desk stand, due next week, which will give me more of an opportunity to play with spacing and speed. But a definite loss on the download side here also.
I just did a test. My screen and my Mac mini are both on a wooden shelf with the mini sat just underneath the right hand corner of the screen. My wooden desk sits underneath the shelf. There’s a Samsung T7 drive connected to the mini through the rear thunderbolt ports and sat about 8” to the right of the mini. The kit is all upstairs while the router is downstairs sat next to a TV. I see no difference in speed from using my iPad Pro while sat 6’ from the router and the mini with the SSD plugged or unplugged - it’s all about 270Mb/s download and 25Mb/s upload, which is what I pay for. I don’t have other kit to test a range of variables but I’m happy!
@ianforber there has to be some Mac minis more affected than others as some see the issue and some are not. But the t7 seems not to be affecting things like the other drives so that could be it to. Thanks for the test.
@@craigneidel I’m also wondering whether it’s dependent on how fast your WiFi is in the first place. Perhaps having only 270-ish means the overall system is less likely to notice a reduction?
TRY THIS!! It's radio Radio frequency interference is mirroring causing phase cancellation of the radio waves reaching your router. This happens because of certain types of recycled metals or very cheap metals in products. Contamination of recycled metals is super common all over the world. This is a common issue with on chip Wifi devices like single board computers and a ton of development devices. So to know for sure if its a mirroring issue you should put a piece of aluminum foil between the mac mini and the device this will cancel out the mirroring effect. Test with the mac mini on the foil then without and then between the mini and each device. If the foil stops the problem it is the metal they are made of is poor quality. So when they make a batch of devices the forges aren't completely cleaned and tin, potassium, and other metals or the wrong temperature can cause the metals to freakout this happens at small metal foundries that make little trinkets for the computer world. They may have made a batch of something else like cheap spoons and then didn't clean the forges before this run of computer SSD enclosures was made and some got contaminated with other metals. So try the Foil it might tell us its the metals. Great info by the way, you can also tell Apple about your issue without being a developer on the apple Bug report on the apple developer website. Just google Bug Reporting - Apple Developer and file your bug issue there in as much detail as you can. They do check them and fix them.
I'll need to give that a try and thanks for the detailed description in the post. Also thanks for info to let people know about issues. Yes, I'm still testing various things but it's a pretty large issue for me with most devices next to it but for some it's not as bad. So a more difficult issue to solve than I thought.
@@craigneidel Everybody's got some foil in the kitchen and its super easy to test it that way it helps to stop the frequency mirroring. Just make sure its not recycled aluminum foil or you might get the same problem. Cheers!
Thanks for conducing this test Craig! With the placement of the power button and the wifi issue with hubs and external storage, I'm now convinced that the Mac Mini is meant to be placed upside down.
Hi. Several weeks ago, I encountered a peculiar issue while connecting my external SSD to the M1, M2, and M4 Mac Minis using a short cable. In an effort to enhance performance, I positioned the SSD enclosure as far from the device as the cable would permit. This adjustment resulted in a noticeable improvement in the Wi-Fi signals. Despite this, I find myself grappling with intermittent signal drops. To mitigate this, I occasionally rearrange the position of the external SSD enclosure, and each time I do so, the problem seems to resolve itself. It is a curious situation that underscores the delicate interplay between technology and its environment. 🤦♀
Yes the distance matters but I would think many people are placing their SSDs very close and don't know this. It also seems to be happening to only half of people etc. or slightly more.
I've got my M4 mini on a wood shelf with the two external drives on a multi-port hub that's about 2' away from the mini, ran a test on the router's 5G band, and got 148 down/23 up. Then I ran the same test on my M3 Pro MBP 14, sitting on a different desk (again, wood), and got 128 down/23 up. What the comparison tells me is: 1) I have a slow WiFi router, not slow devices; 2) Having the mini away from the external drives eliminates their WiFi interference, and; 3) I'm wise to avoid those stands for now until the kinks get worked out (I'm almost bought one yesterday). I usually have the mini hard wired to the internet (584/23), so this experiment was just for the purpose of comparing notes with you.
The Quizlab case is made of metal, which will weaken the wifi signal going into the circular shaped antenna on centre bottom of the M4 mini, particularly if the material has some iron in it. The shape of the case makes the situation even worse by having the circular cutout on the top which acts like a short-circuit to the electro-magnetic field wifi signal and the base which blocks the signal, a double whammy ! I put my M4 mini on its side (standing up) so that wifi signal can freely go into the antenna, and also make it much easier to access the power button. It also further reduce the footprint even though the M4 mini is already very small.
@@craigneidelI I can’t explain that part …😮 try connecting an empty metal enclosure to verity if it also impact the wifi speed, meaning to take the ssd out. I suspect the usb-c / tb cable together with the connected enclosure impact the wifi signal. The bottom line is that anything near the mini will impact the wifi signal, particularly when the signal is not strong enough for the mini. It’s all about the signal / noise ratio provided the wifi circuit is in perfect order. The wifi router also impact the bit rate. If the signal strength is already at the borderline, any slight change of the environment will start impacting the speed.
I noticed this right away when i bought my Mini M4. Did not know of any problems at that point. But i had also bought the satechi Dock that is made for the older Mac minis. But i got that one by misstake and thought id make it work in the meantime while looking for a fitting dock later on. After inserting an external SSD inside the satechi dock and had everything up and running i started noticing the problems right away, the wifi disconnecting and dropping significantly ;/ At first i thought it was the M4 and was so disappointed. Started searching the internet but took a long while to find anything or anyone having the same issue. So just could not figure out why. The annoying thing was i quite recently in this same time period got anew router for my apartment. So i also thought that could be an issue...only clue i had was that my older 2014 Imac worked fine on that. So i decided that was not the issue. Finally i found someone else on reddit having some issues..and after that a few more. They had tried moving the M4 around. And so i did as well, putting it on the side and the Wifi went straight up again. Maybe not full speed but at least acceptable and no disconnection at least. I do have another USB external drive connected to the M4 as well but thats a bit further away, did not think about that yet since its acceptable now, but maybe that was also causing some issues. Will try that out as well soon. But another thing is when im now searching for another Dock to fit my M4, i hope they by then fixed the issue somehow and made the external drive you put in there enclosed somehow ot not interfering with the wifi on the M4 at least. Thanks for putting this out, we need more people testing and coming up with better solutions for sure :)
Thanks for the data on this and I see it's a bigger issue than the news is reporting. It sounds like many are having the same issue. Some say they don't have it so I'm trying to determine if only half of the Macs are not shielded correctly and maybe Apple fixed something later or if this is just something people are not noticing. But it can be quite a large drop.
Basically when you place anything metallic including ssd because of the circuit board near the base of the Mac where the wifi antenna is located you will cause a mismatch of the antenna to the WiFi frequency. This will reduce the effective range of the WiFi board in transmission, and receive. Effectively it’s like a partial faraday cage. The only real solution to resolve this issue is to modify the WiFi board to accommodate external antennas.
Yes, I just wanted to let people know not to place these types of devices so close to the computer also and even 10 inches away makes a huge difference.
Thanks Craig for the content , yes we are aware there is issues with hubs for m4 Mac mini cutting off wifi & bluetooth speeds...I have the Colorii stand only and have zero issues with speeds...Getting 746.79 download and 53.09 Upload speeds....there is something in these hubs that cuts the signal....
I can't link websites, but check the Mac rumor forum for the Mini. I posted links for articles relating to USB 3.0 and USB 4.0 interference and disruption of 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz WiFi and Bluetooth connections. Basically, the high speed operation of USB is such that it is emitting RF into the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands, and knocking out WiFi and Bluetooth, or degrading the signal due to interference. I can only suggest wrapping the USB enclosures and cables in aluminum foil to create a Faraday shield around the devices. Also keep physical distance between the devices and the computer.
Yes, but having SSDs wrapped in aluminum foil is not only ugly but will also keep heat in which is very bad. Yeah, I tried it both on 2.4 and 5 GHz and it's the same really. There Mac is having issues with a ton of stuff and isn't shielded correctly. At least that is my opinion now but still testing.
I haven't checked my WiFi as i use ethernet, but I did buy a Sabrent Thunderbolt 3 to Dual NVMe M.2 enclosure and I noticed if I place it on TOP of my Mac Mini M4 Pro that it would loose connection to the nvme enclosure. At first i thought it was a defective enclosure, i got a replacement and it still lost connection to enclosure. However, if I place it away from my MacMini M4 Pro, at least 5-8 inches away. It works just fine with no nvme disconnections.
I don’t have Qwizlink. I have the basic Mac 4 Mini connected to a 4TB Samsung SSD. These devices are adjacent to each other as well as my router, all on a wood desk. I am served by fiber optic. I did an Ookla test which reported a download speed of 610. I tested my 2019 iMac which is on a different floor in the house, connected to WiFi by an extender, getting 170 download and 124 upload, also on a wood desk. My iPhone tested nearly the same as the results for the Mac Mini.
Thanks for the info but you need to test it both ways. Test it with the device close and then test it with the device far away or after it's been removed and that's the difference we are looking for.
Thanks for the test though and I appreciate that. But you are testing for the difference of wifi when the device is close to Mac and connected vs not connected and far away. But thanks again for time you took.
I have the M2 Pro Mac Mini with the Satechi Hub, and plugging it into the "wrong" USB-C port would basically kill my Wi-Fi. When I say "kill", I mean completely. 0 Mbits. I managed to find a port where that works but it's curious. I do lose my Wi-Fi every now and then and it's really annoying. Always thought the Mac Mini had a design issue that didn't bother anyone but me. It's sad to see the brand new design of Mac Mini still has that issue...
Thanks for the comprehensive video. There has been a consistent issue with the Bluetooth on Mac desktop, starting with the unibody design of the Mac mini. Every unibody, Mac mini, as well as the next year, suffers from Poor Wi-Fi in town Bluetooth performance. Ironically, see exact opposite of the laptops-Apple has the best intentions design on the laptop that I have ever used or seen. Sadly, it appears the Apple's made it worse on the M4 Mac mini. You'd think that in the 15 years they have between developing original unibody Mac mini, and developing this new Mac mini, they would have made any effort or progress to fix this problem. Also, Qwiizlab isn't really that great. I've used 2 of their hubs, one with a Mac mini, and one on a Mac Studio, they both had a lot of issues. I even made sure to make the extra effort, power them with an external USB-C power supply, and they still disconnected and have all kinds of issues. Qwiizlab did replace one of them for me, but the other one I have also has issues, but it's outside the warranty period. Also, them telling you not to use the first unit, because of a shipping issue, was probably an outright lie. There's other users that have reported issues with these docks a few weeks ago, s it seems as if.Qwiizlab was rushing to get a replacement out to you before you did the testing, and weren't honest with you about the issue.
Thanks for the info and your experience with all this. Some people are reporting no issues though and others have the issue. But I know for sure I have the issue as I can test in real-time to see the drop. Yes, I know the hub had a wifi issue before and it was not shipping but I wanted to try the new version. Some people are telling me it works fine though and others get the same issue.
Hi, I have not read all the comments already posted and therefore others may have already made the same comments. The difference between the upload and download speeds are unrelated. That is because the upload speed is limited by the upload rate provided to you by your WAN service provider. The significant drop in download speed is to be expected as the external peripheral is acting as a wide-band electromagnetic field source (wide-band RFI source) and the RFI is almost certainly swamping the WiFi circuitry in the MAC mini. You can significantly reduce this RFI source be enclosing the peripheral in an effective faraday shield and using a really good shielded cable between the peripheral and the MAC. The difference between the two hubs you received is the improves shielding of the 2nd hub to partially address the RFI issue. To improve the WiFi performance the two main issues that need to be addressed are improving the shielding of the RFI generated by the peripherals and physical separation between the peripherals and the MAC. A much simpler approach to solving this performance issue is to not use WiFi on the MAC and instead connect the Mac mini by Ethernet to the router or WiFi range extender.
Yes Ethernet works but video is on wifi performance. Also yes you can shield things but we are seeing how universal of an issue this is and it appears to be large. I would guess that a million people have accessories near the mini but don't realize the wifi is being cut in half. Most don't want a faraday cage either and looking at issue to see options like distance etc. Thanks for the informative post on this. All data helps.
Yes, but I just have not had this large of an issues with shielding on other systems I owned by Apple. People need to really know what is next to the computer with this one.
Not just the Mac. My Synology router automatically will down grade USB3 to USB2 because of interference. Also… USB 4 operates at frequencies that can overlap with the 2.4GHz Wi-Fi band, causing interference when signals from both devices are close together.
I have my MBP elevated about 13 inches if not more so my Mac mini pro is under it on a flat surface. The Mac mini pro has a hub sitting in back of it and in that hub are two connected EXT Monitor’s and a few other things. The only thing that I have noticed with my Mac mini pro is that once one a while online that it will have a couple of hiccups instead of a continuous fluid flow, but it’s hardly noticeable. I will relocate the hub lower tonight and see if I still get that little hiccup of interference while online. I am also using WiFi but I will connect the Ethernet. Thx👍🏽 for the video.
Did a quick test. Didn’t want to make my desk any more untidy than it already is. M4Pro Mac Mini is sitting on a pull out metal tray 3.5”under the table. I have an assortment of devices(SSDs, a hub, card reader, an Wacom tablet) connected so all ports are occupied and running. Did the tests as suggested with my Ethernet cable connected and then WiFi only. 940 Mbps wired, 630Mbps WiFi. All connected devices are sharing the same pullout tray under the table. Used the Speed Test app. Hope that helps.
Yes, but do a wifi test with nothing around it and then another one with all the accessories close by. That is the test we are looking for here. Thanks for posting your results and this info also.
Had a similar incident with Mac mini m2 pro. WiFi signal dropped about 50% - discussed with 2 Apple techs - both tried everything but didn’t help. I had 2 x Samsung T7 SSD situated close to Mac mini so I moved them around 24 inches away. Never had a WiFi issue since. It’s Apple and it seems they don’t want to admit they have an issue
I’m curious when you are seeing this. If you are using the Mac and on the internet or uploading to internet? Or just general slowdown all the time if SSD is too close? I was all set to purchase and now rethinking.
Luckily, there is an Ethernet port, too. 😅. I would imagine most people wouldn't notice those drops in WiFi speeds unless at work, interacting with very large files to download. Upload speeds seem to be affected, but that's slow anyway.
Yes, but some just don't have access to using the Ethernet port. The 50% drops I notice but the smaller ones are harder to notice. But if you have multiple accessories on the desk does it add up and get worse? I'll need to review.
As others have pointed out the plastic bottom of the Mini is the "entrance" for the WiFi waves. Therefore I believe the metal construction of the ring that holds the computer in the Quizzlab dock compromises this functionality. I have an Audient iD4 audio interface that is an all metal construction sitting on top of my M4 Mini (very similar dimensions) and this does not influence the signal in any measurable way. I get a download speed of 210 Mbps on the Mini and 310 Mbps on my MacBook Air M1 in the same location. Upload speed is a very consistent 53 Mbps on both machines and this is the maximum for my Internet connection.
The WiFi antenna is in the middle of the bottom of the Mac mini. It’s the aluminum that’s causing signal loss. The base needs to be made of plastic. This is why iPhones have plastic antennas inserts to allow the antenna to breathe. Remember when Apple had to move the antenna because people’s fingers were in the way This is the same thing. The base needs to be plastic or made of wood to prevent signal loss. I learned this by watching an M4 Mac mini tear down when they were swapping the memory.
Yes, it's on the bottom. The base is made of plastic on the Mac mini. Thanks for all the info in the post too. I'll do another video if I find out more.
My long story short - I believe Apple has some design problem and quality control on the M4 mini. While I didn't test the WiFi, but the Bluetooth connection had been flaky on my first M4 mini since literally during initial setup of the Bluetooth keyboard which is no more than 2 feet from the mini, followed by glitchy mouse cursor movement then regular drop of headset connection. I made an exchange at the Apple Store. (My first Apple product exchange during to issue) The 2nd one is much better, but still experience a headset connection drop only about 10 feet away from the machine after about a week of use. All the mouse, keyboard and headset were used with my old M1 mini which was traded in for the M4 and sat at exactly the same place as the M4. I never had such problems with the M1. A major recall may be necessary.
@@craigneidel A follow-up on the 2nd M4 mini - I am starting experiencing more and more interference on the headset Bluetooth connection. The interruption is happening under the exact condition as the 1st one when I walk into the bathroom in my bedroom. This 2nd mini is going back to Apple in the next 2-3 days before the return period runs out. I'll also have a chat with the worker there.
Thanks for the video. I just bought a M4 and it arrives on Monday. Now I'm wondering if I made the right decision. I will have my M4 connected to Ethernet. That being the case, can I have my peripherals close to the M4 without them being impacted? Their wifi signal won't be degraded?
@@kevinmutz9662 if you are using Ethernet you are fine. Also just keep accessories like 8 inches away and it really helps. M4 mini is a great system so don't worry.
High frequency radio waves (wifi/bt) behaves like light and a little like hearable sound. Line of sight at a short distance is best. If you cant have both, try to get one. Then we have reflections, directional antennas, wall density and all that, but line of sight and short distance is the key. But there are many factors. Antennas doesn't like metal objects close, etc, etc.
@@craigneidel in your case, i think you have the metal-object-close-to-antenna-problem. Think of it like this: Visualize a TV-sat antenna or a reflector in a flash light. You will have no signal/light on the wrong side of that reflector. Wifi waves are very short so there is a lot of reflections that "normaly" fixs this problem. It goes "around corners". But the radio energy can get "grounded". Hard to explain. So many factors. SSD/M2 cases are probably grounded/shielded. Not good close to antennas.
Yes, but I'm just trying to see how many people have a similar issue with all the different setups. I think it about 60% experience some loss of speeds.
It’s not only the WiFi. I have 2,4 Ghz wireless mouse that does not work, if the dongle is attached to USB C hub. The orientation of hub matters. I believe these problems are caused by the noise at 2,4 Ghz emitted by USB accessories. There is a white paper ”USB 3.0* Radio Frequency Interference Impact on 2.4 GHz Wireless Devices” by Intel about this topic.
Thanks for that information as it helps me try to figure this out. I am finding all weird types of situations happening and many people having different things going on that others are not.
I actually had the same exact issues with the previous generation of M2 Mac Mini docks. It was especially pronounced with the Satechi hub, where the wifi signal would cut off completely when the Mac Mini was placed on top. Even lifting the M2 Mac Mini up by an inch would dramatically increase the wifi speeds. Loads of reviews on Amazon of other buyers with the same issue. I "solved" the issue by getting a wooden spacer to prop up the Mac Mini a bit, but I'm sure it still impacts the wifi speeds. Looks like it's a systemic problem if the current generation of docks is experiencing the same issues. At least the manufacturers are doing something about it this time, but the "fault" may not be on their end.
Thanks. Yes I tested 12 docks and all affected it so just not satechi with this issue. I hear you though as m1 had issues like this. But many people put these devices by their computers and many don't realize how much speeds can be affected. Thanks for the post. Appreciate that.
"Just avoid holding it in that way" Steve Jobs, 2010, about iPhone 4 antenna problem. Sort-of-bet the issue goes away when the M4 Mac Mini is placed upside down/bottoms up.
I just had an idea. If you have an portable AM/FM radio you could use that to find any electrical noise that's causing problems. I just don't remember if AM or FM will show it better. I'm leaning towards AM.
It has nothing to do with the fact that it is an SSD. I had a HomePod mini sitting on top of my Mac mini. Thought nothing about it until seeing videos on the WiFi issues. I have a WiFi 6e mesh system running at 800mb. Ran the test and was around 95 mb. Removed the HomePod and it shot up to 800mb.
Thanks for that data point. Yes, I think other things affect it but not so much keyboards or mice yet and only the SSDs when I have been testing but I have tested only a few other devices.
You can do what some people have suggested and flip the Mac Mini upside down. Anyways anything that can degrade a signal, metal, electronic noise, is going to effect every computer. I had a cell phone once where the only place in the house I could get a signal was wedged into the corner of my bedroom. I'd suggest anyone experiencing slower than normal wi-fi see about repositioning the router, different areas and different heights off the floor. I have mine sitting on top of a side table in my livingroom so my main computer and smart TV get the best signal/speed. Maybe try one of those wi-fi signal strength apps for your phone, where you walk around the house and it makes a map of the signal strength in every part of every room and outside.
Yes, but that is pretty ugly and not something I would want to do. Yes, I tried moving the router but it's the Thunderbolt 4 or SSD enclosures causing the slowdowns not really the router.
Even though I’ve a wired network connection this is good to know if my setup ever changes in the future. I was actually looking at some new Orico Mac mini docks this weekend too but I’ll hold off now, at least until after CES and some product reviews.
I had my M4 Mac Mini Pro sitting on top of a vertical laptop/ipad stand to increase airflow for the intake. I also had 2 enclosures sitting on the outer edges of the stand bottom, tested as you suggested, just wifi not ethernet. Close to half the speed with the ssd'd close to the wifi antenna. Taised the stand on the M4 box and let the drives sit on the desk below, much better and the stand makes no difference at all, in fact, best result was on the stand ssd's away from it. Also tried upside down and tanked to 15% speed. Wifi is ubiquiti wifi 6E 5 feet away for all tests.
@@craigneidel Happy to help, i hope you find the answer and whatever can be done to fix or mitigate the signal issue. Enjoying the channel, keep up the good work. 👍
The Ethernet won't be affected and this is more about wifi since it's the signal loss. Ethernet has not issues but many people can't use that as their homes are not wired for it.
From what I understand the radio is in the bottom of the mini, if you put metal on the bottom or top of the device this will affect the radio signal. I will be buying one of those mini’s along with a hub in that style, but I will not rely on wifi. I will be wiring it to my switch. I love WiFi but my personal preference is good old hardwiring a computer to Ethernet.
This happens with all kinds of equipment not just the m4 mini. I use an ASUS router in bridge mode mounted to my wall run to a switch and wire everything to it. I can’t run ethernet to the room so I use the bridge setup and it is so much faster than using built in WiFi.
@@craigneidel Happens on Mac Mini M1, though for me not as much. Piece of wood under it boosts my speed by about ~20Mbps (5 tests each.). Also moving the external SSD farther away is helps, but only a little. My enclosure is a small switchblad style though, not a big brick. Just giving another data point.
I had my CalDigit TS4 USB hub next to my Mac mini4 but it was between my router 18' away and my internet speeds dropped like yours. Move things the other way with the Mac mini 1' closer and my speeds went back up to normal. I can use my Ipad pro and my Iphone 16 pro and they both get much higher wifi speeds being on the desk close to the mini. This proves to me that the mini has awful wifi reception.
HI, interesting subject. I have a Mac mini M4 and the same Satachi ssd box as you with Samsung 1 To Pro based on your previous videos. Without Satachi SSD attached my results are 758 mb/s download 47.7 up load. With Satachi connected my results are 547 mb/s download and 50,7 upload. 38,5% a huge difference. Satachi and Mac mini are side by side on wood desk. How Satachi or Apple explain that issue ?
Yeah, it just isn't Satechi. It's just about anything I test for external SSDs and I have about 10 of them for testing. So it's good to know this as people need to move the devices away from the mini.
@@craigneidel Hi, for your information, I move my Satechi away ( 6 inches ) from my Mac mini and I have the wifi speed is similar . With or without Satechi connected my wi fi speed is 750 mb/s. Good amelioration ! Thanks for the advice.
I have the Quizlab Aluminum Stand without the Hub. Received it yesterday. Your video got me thinking. I connect via ethernet. So I disconnected it and did some speed tests. On Wifi only I did 3 tests on the stand and 3 tests off. On the stand I got an average of 582/511. Off the stand I got an average of 587/528. No significant difference. Connected via Ethernet was a consistent 616/616, Now sitting within 3" of the Mini is a Samsung T7 SSD on the other side 6" away is a 50 watt powered PA speaker, likely not shielded for use with computer. The Mini sits under my monitor. It appears to me that SSD, Powered Speaker and Monitor makes very little difference in WIFI speed on or off the stand. My WIFI is connected via 5GHZ. Too much trouble resetting to 2.4 GHZ to test. I will say that Quizlab was very quick in shipping and delivery direct from China. Still working on creating videos that look as good as yours.
I am surprised that you did not test the Mac Mini on the stand WITHOUT the SSD installed. That would isolate whether it is the stand or the SSD in the stand.
It's both. I tested the other SSD enclosures underneath it and when plugged in it lost a ton. When not it lost some but not as much. Plus I am still testing.
I’ve been experiencing a weird issue with my M4 Mac mini connected to an LG C3 as my main monitor. Sometimes the display disconnects and reconnects for a split second, and I’ve also noticed an orange tint on the screen occasionally. On top of that, my Mac mini wouldn’t connect to my 5GHz Wi-Fi network. After some trial and error, I found out that unplugging the HDMI cable fixes the Wi-Fi issue. Turns out, the cable itself was somehow interfering with the 5GHz connection! What’s baffling is that this same cable has worked flawlessly on multiple other setups, running 4K 120Hz HDR with zero issues. tried to cover the cable in alu foil that somewhat resolved the issue, but reddit is full of with post like this Wifi issues
Thanks for this info. Yes it appears the mini has various degrees of issue with shielding itself from accessories or cables. That is another piece of the puzzle and that for that data point. I'll try and test.
Given the thing is made of metal, it could be attenuating the antenna when placed on it. This also kind of reminds me of the earlier USB 3.0 ports that didn't have proper shielding and could mess with Bluetooth and other 2.4GHz signals. They were pretty noisy (in radio frequency terms) and would just overwhelm the spectrum. So a lot of USB Bluetooth dongles were recommended to be put into USB 2.0 ports for some time.
Craig, I have a mini M4 Pro with 24G and 1T drive with a OWC hub. I put two western digital 2T drives in enclosures below and above and see no significant changes up or down speeds when placed above, below, or removed. Internet is TDS, and using Eero for wifi. Aprox 330 up and down. Could you have a weak wifi signal?
Not sure what is going on but many things could matter and that is why all the data really helps quite a bit. But I have heard from another person that the OWC is not causing the same issue but not sure if that is the same one.
If you watch the Tear down videos you will see that the WIFI antenna is in the base. Anything around the Mini will affect the signal. I tested my MM Pro with WIFI 6E on 1 BG Internet and I get 970Mb/s on my desk. However, I use an Ivanky Fusion Max 1 Dock and have it connected Via Ethernet cable instead and not on WIFI for my desk. Just keep things away from the MM to give the antenna the best line of sight to the router.
have you tried running the speed test with nothing pluged in then while its testing speed plug in say a drive to see if its an all the sudden drop if it does then its a power draw that is taking volts from the wifi and dropping it therefor its the M4 has a power supply problem on the board with ports to wifi etc. this means a ful recall of all M4 minis there is also some video problems happenbing as well with these to with some monitors now i have a video on my channel for a fix for montery users that might work for the new M4 but might not how ever the wifi is a serious problem ..
On mine I can move the devices closer to the Mac mini and I see the drop in real time. But some people are not seeing this so still trying to figure it out. But about 55% (estimate) are seeing this with their own tests.
I use ethernet and dropped wi-fi altogether. The other advantage of a hard wired connection is privacy unless you're using anti-spying software, also consistency in speed . I've also played around with powerline adapters but they can be a little flakey depending on what else is sharing the circuit, like a fridge.
The problem is the wifi antenna is on the bottom of the M4 mini....then you add in a hub that basically look and act like a tesla coil. I'm no electrical engineer, but I say something is up.
I use the Asus 5K, and also both BenQs. Plus my 5K iMac. Crazy but I have them all setup in the office and use them for various editing and testing. I know it doesn't answer your question but it's the truth as I can't really recommend one over the other. They are all good based on price vs performance. I mean the cheaper BenQ is like 90% of the PD version so I use the PD version for color correction for some side jobs etc. The 5K is great for text stuff.
My Mac mini Pro is capable of connecting to 2.4G WiFi, but it refuses to connect to 6G. It is currently situated on a transparent glass desk. I had a black metal mouse mat lying around. The moment I placed it on the mat, it successfully connected to 6G. 😊
To show you how flaky wi-fi signals can be I found out my TV tray that was positioned between the computer (not the Mac) and the fiber optic base that was less than 15' away was cutting my speed considerably.
In the video about disassembling the Mac Mini M4, I noticed that the power supply occupies the entire upper area of the Mac Mini's case. I think this might negatively affect the quality of the Wi-Fi signal. In contrast, in the previous generation of Mac Mini, the power supply occupied only a small area on one side of the case.
We have a new 2.5 GB Ethernet router and I need to add a 2.5 GB Ethernet switch and I far prefer wired Ethernet over WiFi just for stability. We can get WiFi interference from neighbors (switching frequencies can help when this happens). It can be a royal pain to do house wiring to run Ethernet but I like the consistency of it. I've seen complaints about Bluetooth on the Apple Silicon minis and radios just seem to be an issue on the AS mini models.
yes for sure. Ethernet is best but some just don't have the ability to use it where they are. I just wanted to let people know this can be a pretty big issue depending on what is around the mini (or any Mac for that matter).
Nice wormhole to get into Craig... My first thought was regarding M4 vs M4 Pro...but it's likely similar. Slightly different guts but the same case. Second, not knowing what your normal (paid for) speed is your numbers are fuzzy to me. And then have you noticed any lag? I seem to remember noticing (I'm on the M4 Pro) more often than usual some delay loading websites. These chips pop normally (even my M1) but RF could certainly be a factor. I live only half a mile or so from several TV towers. Between those and the airplane landing route I often get interference of various sorts...mostly on my over-the-air TV antenna. Please have this sorted out by my return from vacation at the end of February. 🤓
Funny. Yeah, I can watch the speeds drop in real time when I move the devices closer so I know it's them creating the interference. I'll see what I can do on this for sure.
Very interesting video for those we are thinking to buy a Mac Mini M4. In my case, I never use wi fi. Call me "old man", but I've been thinking that this technology is still in development for some time, I always use the ethernet, but I understand there will be some people that can't be use that. Greetings Craig!
USB 3 and 4 can potentially interfere with Wi-Fi, particularly on the 2.4GHz band, due to the high-speed data transmission within USB 4 which can radiate electromagnetic signals that can disrupt nearby wireless signals like Wi-Fi; this is especially noticeable when using a USB 4 device close to your Wi-Fi antenna, causing potential slowdowns or connection drops. Use Ethernet.
I have had an issue with the Mini's wifi since day one. To put it plainly, I have it in a room that is a fair distance from my AP. That being the case, I have used many other devices in that same room for a long time without issues. However, the Mini's wifi was so weak that I had to get an extender, and even then, it's still not as robust as my MBP is connecting to directly to the AP without using the stronger signal from the extender in the same room. Verdict: poor antenna combined with inadequate shielding.
My test. Ethernet with my external drive (Toshiba SSD not the fancy stand you have) near or far from the M4 Mac Mini results in 496Mbps downlink (home network baseline). WiFi with external drive under, next to, far from the M4 Mac Mini results in ~380Mbps (WiFi baseline). I then placed the M4 Mac Mini on an 8"x8" x1/8" aluminum plate and the WiFi speed is 490Mbps. It does not matter iwhere the drive is placed. My conclusion is that my external drive does not cause any issues. Further, the aluminum plate creates a good ground plane for the M4 Mac Mini's WiFi antenna and improves the signal quality. This was true for 5GHz WiFi (2.4GHz not tested). Looking at the stand you have, I believe the piece that the Mac sits on is aluminum (the piece with the hole in it). However, it bends down and looks to be on the bottom of the part where the drive mounts. My guess is the enclosure is actually plastic. Try placing a metal plate on the housing between it and the Mac. This can be steel or aluminum (not foil). Try a cookie sheet. Does your WiFi speed improve? Are you using 2.4GHz or 5GHz WiFi? Additionally, try your stand but with the drive not plugged in. Per other posters, the stand allows the aluminum to be right up against the bottom of the Mac and may block the WiFi antenna. My test allowed a gap as it had no hole in which the Mac sat.
Ethernet won't change in first test so I don't expect to see a result there. But I'm thinking this could be more of an issue with the 2.4 GHZ as many have the issue and some don't. I'll need to check my router. Thanks for all the info on this. Yes, I guess the moral of the story is that some could be really affected while others not so much. But with my setup every single enclosure I tested (and I have like 12 since I test them) all affected it to some high degree.
I have the Qwiizlab hub. I saw another video that claimed he lost all wifi signal when using the hub. I had already ordered the hub, so I waited till I got it and checked myself. I get the same wifi signal and speed that I got before, no difference at all. My Qwiizlab hub is the one with the gold interior, and the hub and Mac mini is sitting on an oak desk. My SSD is a 1TB WD SN580.
Interesting that it works for you but I'm seeing that some do and others don't with this hub. I can watch wifi in real time drop if I put it the Mac on the hub while monitoring. I tested with many hard drives
@@craigneidel After hearing about this issue I was expecting a problem too. I use my Mini connected via ethernet, so I wasn't too concerned. But, I tested it using only wifi and was surprised that I didn't have the issue. I tried it sitting on the hub and lifting it off. I had no change in speed. I always get the maximum speed that I have always gotten. I just received my hub yesterday, so maybe Qwiizlab have made some recent improvements?
My test results are similar to those in the video. My Mac Mini M4 is connected to Wi-Fi without a Satechi drive (same as yours with a WD M2 inside) attached: 800 Mbit down/100 up. With the drive attached as far away as the cable permits: 600 Mbit down/100 up. The drive is close to the mini and working: 300 Mbit down/100 up. Additional problem: I experience wifi dropouts. After some inactivity, even while browsing, webpages get stuck and also Speedtest tells me there is no internet connection. I can rule out the router or my ISP as a problem. What I have done now is use an older ASUS router as a media bridge to pick up the Wi-Fi signal and hook up the Mini with a Cat8 cable. The result is almost 930 Mbit down/100 up out of the possible 1000. But it is disappointing that the Mac Mini doesn't seem to work properly on Wi-Fi.
Thanks for that. Yes, some people are having the exact same issue as me and I see you are having that issue. It's crazy that people would need to use Ethernet if they want external SSDs or other electronic devices close by but more and more are saying it's affecting speeds.
Flip it upside down? I skimmed the video so maybe you did but, what happens then? If something being below it is bad, put it on the dock and flip the mini.
Yes the antenna is on bottom of mini so that might work but most would not keep it like that. I wanted to see what issues others are having too. Thanks for watching.
I’m losing speed when I had my Ivanky Fusion Max 1 Dual dock connected via lan cable. That hub is a beast with 2 thunderbolt 4 chips. Everything else on it is working just fine. I switch the lan cable back to my mini and the speeds were normal. Weird stuff
Thank you for the data. So you are losing speed on wifi. Yes, Ethernet fixes this for sure but this is for people that need to use wifi etc. Thanks again for info.
@@craigneidel I know, but I’m actually losing internet speeds on the dock via Ethernet cable connected to it. But, when I take the cable out and connect it to mini the speeds are fine. So, something about the mini isn’t interacting correct with docks in general I think.
This is an interference issue, not really a "Mac mini" issue. This would happen if you put any magnetic field near any computer, such as speakers that have magnets. The last Mac mini has this issue too.
Yes, I get that but since everybody is using these accessories with the Mac and I'm a Mac channel I figured it was good to see just how much of an issue it can be.
Seems like they are using crappy improperly shielded cable and or motherboard inside. USB signals affect wifi and bluetooth, bad 2.0 cable affect bluetooth and 2.4GHz wifi, and bad 3.0+ cable affect 5GHz wifi.
It's how you are holding it. -LOL Issue looks to be the location of the WiFi antennas in the M4 Mac mini. If you add a shield you would get no signal. Apple should think of a different top design on the Mac mini. Large plastic Apple Logo with the WiFi antennas under it. If you have a USB WiFi around you might see if you can get that to work with your Apple M4 Mac mini. Thing is PhD Robert Metcalfe "The Father of Ethernet" (inside joke) when talking about how to connect to the network "Hardwire is always the best". The M4 Apple Mac mini has a built in RJ-45 Ethernet port.
yes, I can walk up to the mini with the devices in real time and watch it drop speeds. Kind of crazy and others are having the same issue but some are not. That makes me think maybe it could be some minis have the issue and others do not but I'm still researching.
I'll need to test. But I was able to add stand in real time and watch wifi drop as I moved into place so I know it's the stand and same with external SSDs.
I put my Mac mini on top of my sans disk (10Bit/.sec) and my WiFi. didn’t change. I think there is a reason that many things in the real world that can cause WiFi to drop out, which is why many prefer a wired connection.
Nice video .... we should contact Satechi company to let them know about the issue ..They are coming with accessories for the new Mac Mini M4 in a couple months.
I have a almost identical dock from the Colorii model MC60. Your video made me investigate my Wi-Fi speed. Have you tried holding the Option key while clicking the Wi-Fi icon in the menu to check the actual Wi-Fi speed? I have an old Wi-Fi router that supports two Wi-Fi frequencies: 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. Initially, I configured both frequencies with the same Wi-Fi name, allowing my devices to switch between them easily. However, I noticed that my Mac mini was exclusively using the 2.4 GHz frequency. To fix this, I renamed the 5 GHz frequency and instructed the Mac mini to forget the old Wi-Fi name. Now, my Mac mini switches to the 5 GHz frequency, significantly improving my connection speed from 150 Mbps to 800 Mbps.
I tested my Mini M4 pro with an attached TB5 Trebleet enclosure using a Samsung 990 Pro NVME. I get the same speeds on right, left and top placement of enclosure which are the same as no TB5 enclosure attached. All this sits on a wooden desk.
My friend had that issue and contacted Apple Care. Advisor created technical assistance ticket or something and Apple Engineers told him "Keep your hard drives away from mac via longer cable, some accessories affecting wifi health negatively." So he started to use longer cables for some accessories and issue resolved.
Did the same just now. Longer cable with the same specs: wifi 710 mbit. So still it is slower than without anything attached. There must be something with the mini's shielding or whatever.
Yes, that can help it for sure but I know many people have these on their desks close by so trying to let people know about the issue. Thanks for the info on this also as it all helps.
The metal plate blocks the WiFi signal, don't put it on top of the display metal base
Yes, but I tried it on wood and everything else. even on full wood desk ....
Craig - I have a M4 Mac mini Pro sitting atop a Qwiizlab aluminum stand. No hub, just the stand. Ran a few speed test. 1) Ethernet cable - 540-595 Mbps. Disconnected ethernet cable. 2) M4 on stand using Wifi 480-525 Mbps. 3) M4 mini without the stand 480-525 Mbps. 4) Wifi with stand and Acacias NVMe SSD under the Mac mini 535 - 580 Mbps. 5)Wifi - Mac mini sitting (without stand) directly atop the Acacias SSD 535 - 580 Mbps. In summary, I am seeing little to no effects of Ethernet vs. Wifi with or without the Qwiizlab, or using WiFi with the mini sitting directly atop the SSD. I suspect some mini's WiFi is being affected by EMF radiation. Keep in mind the mini WiFi antenna is behind the plastic base at the bottom of mini. I would also check whether the WiFi signal drop is related to the WiFi band being used. I am running a Deco X20 mesh WiFi with dual channel 2.4 AND 5 Ghz. Also, doubtful, is the mini pro antenna different from the baseline mini antenna? B. Thanks for the channel. Good stuff. Happy to participate.
Thank you. If you get a change maybe check if you lose signal at the 2.4 frequency and not the 5 Ghz. I think there is something to that. Thanks for all the helpful info too.
@@craigneidel The 2014 mini's at least when new had issues between bluetooth and USB3 - BT would cut out with a USB3 device connected
Guess what frequency BT runs at ... 2.4 GHz
Isn't there a WiFi antenna cable to the Apple logo on top as well ?
I tried 5 Ghz also and same issues.
RFI (radio frequency interference) can affect anything that relies on EMF (electro magnetic frequencies) to communicated. Microwave, Infrared, Radio, and even visible light, can be affected by other devices emitting RF and metals that interfere with signals going in or coming out. If you remember the iPhone 6 had a problem, not with the antenna but with it's placement when the users hand was coming in contact with the antenna and affecting reception. Mac Mini, ever since the advent of the unibody design, have placed the WiFi antenna in the base. Something emitting RF signals or blocking signals will reduce reception. Speed reduction will depend on how much signal is blocked or interference is present. One poster mentioned inverting the Mini results in better signal. That, too, has always been true with the unibody minis. Shielding the antenna won't improve reception but degrade it further. Shielding the interfering device would improve reception.
Yes, for sure. I just thought it was important that people know that placing all these devices could (maybe not all the time) but could affect wifi speeds and sometimes by quite a bit.
Twisted wires on an unshielded cable is definitely the culprit.
Try using other cables 💯👍👍👍
Article on MacRumors talks about this and it showed the new Mac Mini the WIFI antenna is on the bottom of the around the air intake vents. So this guy took his Mini and placed it upside down and both his WIFI and Bluetooth speeds both increased. So putting your Mini upside down puts the power button a better place and the antennas too.
Yes, but it doesn't look great like that. Funny, but yes it's on the bottom and I just wanted to let people know that placing these items close by can affect speeds by quite a bit at times.
Tks, turning my Mac Mini upside down down seemed to increase materially increase the load from 180 to 240. However, I go sucked deep into this Rabbit hole and found my WiFi testing with Ookla Speedtest could very materially 20 minutes later.
@hms350 yes but I test in real time and watch the speed fall when I introduce the accessories. So I know it's them causing it.
@@craigneidel good point about real time. I just re-rested with my SanDisk Pro 4TB Thunderbolt 3 and do not get a performance drop testing with Ookla Speedtest when I attached the the drive after test started. I am testing with a Thunderbolt and not USB.
Ok, thanks for the data. I would say 60% are seeing this and maybe 40% are not now.
I had the same hub and found the wifi went down. I did many tests and found when I hooked up the hub with a USB-A 2.0 cable, my wifi speed went back up. This is with the Mac mini on top of the hub. The down side was the SSD speed went down. From 900 MBs down to 15 MBs. Then I also bad issues with anything I plugged into the hub, I would lose the connection. This makes me feel it was something with the Thunderbolt Connection of the hub. I do have external Thunderbolt 4 drives, but they are about 8-10 inches away from the Mac mini. I ended up sending the hub back and I purchased another hub, but it is waiting to be shipped through Amazon. I will try my other drives closer and also the hub when it arrives in a couple weeks. Thank you for this video
Thanks for the info on that. Yes, it would not be ideal as the speed will go way down on the hub but if it fixes the wifi issue that is some data we can use. Thank you again. Let me know what you find.
Get the Mac Mini far away from the metal rack! It's like a Faraday cage. Try these tests on the floor or wooden desk, not on a wire rack.
A piece of wood sitting on the rack doesn't convince me that you've eliminated the effect of the wire rack. I'd prefer to see this 20 feet away from the wire rack.
I'm going to guess that that metal cabinet/rack is the majority of the problem. Have my Mac mini on wood table and wifi speed doesn't change whether the ACASIS NVMe drive is on top, on the bottom or on the side. Same speeds. My bet is @mixxsky comment is on the money!
I think, you're on the right path. During the baseline tests, the signal quality (i.e., RSSI) could be just good enough to avoid a noticeable problem. Then, add in the infamous USB 3 (and newer?) interference and the connection runs aground, so to speak.
I have tested it away also. It's slightly less but I know it not the rack also as I can move in the accessories close to the Mac mini and watch the speeds drop in real time. Even if away from the rack.
The wifi antenna is likely located near the base of the M4 mini where there is no metal case. Just guessing that locating the Mac on top (or near) a lump of metal is affecting the RF signal sufficiently that there are more errors and so packets need to be retransmitted more frequently, causing a lower overall effective speed (or it's negotiating a lower speed with the wifi access point).
Try turning your Mac Mini upside down: the speed should improve. So either accessory designers should put it on top of the mini, or they should make taller (plastic) stands...
Yes, that is what I assume to. It's best to get a longer cord and maybe connect at a distance but I think some of the cords could be the issue also if not shielded correctly.
very rarely do I run my Mac on wifi. always connected via ethernet yes I get that this could slow blue tooth. I did move external drives as far away as I can and will live happily. thank you for your testing and publishing the information. best wishes
Thanks. The issue is many don't have access to Ethernet in a room so it can affect quite a few.
I have a Mac mini over a plywood table getting terrible 1 Mbps.... I contacted support, and they asked me to do a few things. Didn't solve. Then, they advise me to put the Mac mini standing (vertical) with the bottom facing the router. Yep, the speed went to 120 Mbps.
See they know there's an issue but won't disclose it publicly. About 60 percent see drops
@craigneidel ok so the speed dropped again, and it's really bad. I cannot even use the internet properly it's not loading even a Google search. Tried a few things, but it doesn't work. On My laptop, the speed is great. Not sure if I waste more time trying to find a fix with the support, get a refund or what.
@@craigneidel do you know if MacBooks have this issue as well?
@@viajandosemlimites5678 is this with any accessories such as ssd’s etc. attached? If so, does the speed increase when accessories are removed?
@@snowpony001 I noticed the more stuff you have around your pc, the worst the internet becomes. I have 1 usb hub with keyboard, mouse, and camera. I also have a mic plugged directly. So, what I did was keep the usb hub as further as it could get. I also keep it further from the monitor and other peripheral. It's much better now! I took the pc to the apple store to run tests and there were no issues. So I didn't bother to get a replacement because the result will likely be the same with another device.
Thanks for posting about this. I have M4 Mac mini I just set up on New Year's Eve with a ZikeDrive Z666 containing a Orico 4TB SSD. Using WiFi I got 580.2/51.0 with the drive behind and off to one side but only a couple of inches away. When I put the drive on top of the Mini I got 533.2/50.3. The current cable is so short its not possible to get the drive under the mini. I tried the same combination 10 minutes later and got 704.0/54.8 to the side and 600.6/54.4 on top. The mini is currently sitting only 6" away from a home wifi node. I am waiting on a second monitor and a two monitor desk stand, due next week, which will give me more of an opportunity to play with spacing and speed. But a definite loss on the download side here also.
Thanks for sharing your info on this. All this info is key to figuring out the best way to help shield it or make it as good as possible. Thank you.
I just did a test. My screen and my Mac mini are both on a wooden shelf with the mini sat just underneath the right hand corner of the screen. My wooden desk sits underneath the shelf. There’s a Samsung T7 drive connected to the mini through the rear thunderbolt ports and sat about 8” to the right of the mini. The kit is all upstairs while the router is downstairs sat next to a TV.
I see no difference in speed from using my iPad Pro while sat 6’ from the router and the mini with the SSD plugged or unplugged - it’s all about 270Mb/s download and 25Mb/s upload, which is what I pay for. I don’t have other kit to test a range of variables but I’m happy!
@ianforber there has to be some Mac minis more affected than others as some see the issue and some are not. But the t7 seems not to be affecting things like the other drives so that could be it to. Thanks for the test.
@@craigneidel I’m also wondering whether it’s dependent on how fast your WiFi is in the first place. Perhaps having only 270-ish means the overall system is less likely to notice a reduction?
I don't think that has to do with the drop though. Some people who reported back had 750 before and 550 after etc.
TRY THIS!! It's radio Radio frequency interference is mirroring causing phase cancellation of the radio waves reaching your router. This happens because of certain types of recycled metals or very cheap metals in products. Contamination of recycled metals is super common all over the world. This is a common issue with on chip Wifi devices like single board computers and a ton of development devices. So to know for sure if its a mirroring issue you should put a piece of aluminum foil between the mac mini and the device this will cancel out the mirroring effect. Test with the mac mini on the foil then without and then between the mini and each device. If the foil stops the problem it is the metal they are made of is poor quality. So when they make a batch of devices the forges aren't completely cleaned and tin, potassium, and other metals or the wrong temperature can cause the metals to freakout this happens at small metal foundries that make little trinkets for the computer world. They may have made a batch of something else like cheap spoons and then didn't clean the forges before this run of computer SSD enclosures was made and some got contaminated with other metals. So try the Foil it might tell us its the metals. Great info by the way, you can also tell Apple about your issue without being a developer on the apple Bug report on the apple developer website. Just google Bug Reporting - Apple Developer and file your bug issue there in as much detail as you can. They do check them and fix them.
I'll need to give that a try and thanks for the detailed description in the post. Also thanks for info to let people know about issues. Yes, I'm still testing various things but it's a pretty large issue for me with most devices next to it but for some it's not as bad. So a more difficult issue to solve than I thought.
@@craigneidel Everybody's got some foil in the kitchen and its super easy to test it that way it helps to stop the frequency mirroring. Just make sure its not recycled aluminum foil or you might get the same problem. Cheers!
Ok, thanks.
Thanks for conducing this test Craig! With the placement of the power button and the wifi issue with hubs and external storage, I'm now convinced that the Mac Mini is meant to be placed upside down.
Maybe but it won't look great. Funny.
Hi. Several weeks ago, I encountered a peculiar issue while connecting my external SSD to the M1, M2, and M4 Mac Minis using a short cable. In an effort to enhance performance, I positioned the SSD enclosure as far from the device as the cable would permit. This adjustment resulted in a noticeable improvement in the Wi-Fi signals.
Despite this, I find myself grappling with intermittent signal drops. To mitigate this, I occasionally rearrange the position of the external SSD enclosure, and each time I do so, the problem seems to resolve itself. It is a curious situation that underscores the delicate interplay between technology and its environment. 🤦♀
Yes the distance matters but I would think many people are placing their SSDs very close and don't know this. It also seems to be happening to only half of people etc. or slightly more.
@@craigneidelMost SSD drives (I am using Samsung T5, T7, and T9) come with short cables (8 to 10 inches).
@ As I said, I tried it on 3 devices and I have the same problem on all 3 devices. I think this is a general problem.
@@OnAirRecords thanks for update
Can't test that on my M1 as my WiFi isn't fast enough ... 🥲
I usually put a lot of stuff on the mini
I've got my M4 mini on a wood shelf with the two external drives on a multi-port hub that's about 2' away from the mini, ran a test on the router's 5G band, and got 148 down/23 up. Then I ran the same test on my M3 Pro MBP 14, sitting on a different desk (again, wood), and got 128 down/23 up. What the comparison tells me is: 1) I have a slow WiFi router, not slow devices; 2) Having the mini away from the external drives eliminates their WiFi interference, and; 3) I'm wise to avoid those stands for now until the kinks get worked out (I'm almost bought one yesterday). I usually have the mini hard wired to the internet (584/23), so this experiment was just for the purpose of comparing notes with you.
Thanks for the info. Yes, I just wanted to point out the issue since most people have multiple drives or devices sitting right next to the Mini.
The Quizlab case is made of metal, which will weaken the wifi signal going into the circular shaped antenna on centre bottom of the M4 mini, particularly if the material has some iron in it. The shape of the case makes the situation even worse by having the circular cutout on the top which acts like a short-circuit to the electro-magnetic field wifi signal and the base which blocks the signal, a double whammy !
I put my M4 mini on its side (standing up) so that wifi signal can freely go into the antenna, and also make it much easier to access the power button. It also further reduce the footprint even though the M4 mini is already very small.
Yes, but the signal goes way up if I unplug it and keep it on the metal. It is still lower but much closer and only loses about 40 Mbps vs. the 160...
@@craigneidelI I can’t explain that part …😮 try connecting an empty metal enclosure to verity if it also impact the wifi speed, meaning to take the ssd out. I suspect the usb-c / tb cable together with the connected enclosure impact the wifi signal. The bottom line is that anything near the mini will impact the wifi signal, particularly when the signal is not strong enough for the mini. It’s all about the signal / noise ratio provided the wifi circuit is in perfect order. The wifi router also impact the bit rate. If the signal strength is already at the borderline, any slight change of the environment will start impacting the speed.
My mini rests on an Eversolo DAC which is made out of aluminium. The effects whether the mini is on it or not are exactly zero.
Just a bit of info. Same issues at 2.4 and 5 Ghz wifi.
I noticed this right away when i bought my Mini M4. Did not know of any problems at that point. But i had also bought the satechi Dock that is made for the older Mac minis. But i got that one by misstake and thought id make it work in the meantime while looking for a fitting dock later on.
After inserting an external SSD inside the satechi dock and had everything up and running i started noticing the problems right away, the wifi disconnecting and dropping significantly ;/
At first i thought it was the M4 and was so disappointed. Started searching the internet but took a long while to find anything or anyone having the same issue. So just could not figure out why. The annoying thing was i quite recently in this same time period got anew router for my apartment. So i also thought that could be an issue...only clue i had was that my older 2014 Imac worked fine on that. So i decided that was not the issue.
Finally i found someone else on reddit having some issues..and after that a few more.
They had tried moving the M4 around. And so i did as well, putting it on the side and the Wifi went straight up again. Maybe not full speed but at least acceptable and no disconnection at least.
I do have another USB external drive connected to the M4 as well but thats a bit further away, did not think about that yet since its acceptable now, but maybe that was also causing some issues. Will try that out as well soon.
But another thing is when im now searching for another Dock to fit my M4, i hope they by then fixed the issue somehow and made the external drive you put in there enclosed somehow ot not interfering with the wifi on the M4 at least.
Thanks for putting this out, we need more people testing and coming up with better solutions for sure :)
Thanks for the data on this and I see it's a bigger issue than the news is reporting. It sounds like many are having the same issue. Some say they don't have it so I'm trying to determine if only half of the Macs are not shielded correctly and maybe Apple fixed something later or if this is just something people are not noticing. But it can be quite a large drop.
Basically when you place anything metallic including ssd because of the circuit board near the base of the Mac where the wifi antenna is located you will cause a mismatch of the antenna to the WiFi frequency. This will reduce the effective range of the WiFi board in transmission, and receive. Effectively it’s like a partial faraday cage. The only real solution to resolve this issue is to modify the WiFi board to accommodate external antennas.
Yes, I just wanted to let people know not to place these types of devices so close to the computer also and even 10 inches away makes a huge difference.
Thanks Craig for the content , yes we are aware there is issues with hubs for m4 Mac mini cutting off wifi & bluetooth speeds...I have the Colorii stand only and have zero issues with speeds...Getting 746.79 download and 53.09 Upload speeds....there is something in these hubs that cuts the signal....
Thanks, I think it has to do with other factors like shielding but also maybe the frequency of wifi but not sure yet.
I can't link websites, but check the Mac rumor forum for the Mini. I posted links for articles relating to USB 3.0 and USB 4.0 interference and disruption of 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz WiFi and Bluetooth connections. Basically, the high speed operation of USB is such that it is emitting RF into the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands, and knocking out WiFi and Bluetooth, or degrading the signal due to interference. I can only suggest wrapping the USB enclosures and cables in aluminum foil to create a Faraday shield around the devices. Also keep physical distance between the devices and the computer.
Yes, but having SSDs wrapped in aluminum foil is not only ugly but will also keep heat in which is very bad. Yeah, I tried it both on 2.4 and 5 GHz and it's the same really. There Mac is having issues with a ton of stuff and isn't shielded correctly. At least that is my opinion now but still testing.
I haven't checked my WiFi as i use ethernet, but I did buy a Sabrent Thunderbolt 3 to Dual NVMe M.2 enclosure and I noticed if I place it on TOP of my Mac Mini M4 Pro that it would loose connection to the nvme enclosure.
At first i thought it was a defective enclosure, i got a replacement and it still lost connection to enclosure.
However, if I place it away from my MacMini M4 Pro, at least 5-8 inches away. It works just fine with no nvme disconnections.
Thanks for the data on this. Yes, placing too close can cause some weird issues for sure.
I don’t have Qwizlink. I have the basic Mac 4 Mini connected to a 4TB Samsung SSD. These devices are adjacent to each other as well as my router, all on a wood desk. I am served by fiber optic. I did an Ookla test which reported a download speed of 610.
I tested my 2019 iMac which is on a different floor in the house, connected to WiFi by an extender, getting 170 download and 124 upload, also on a wood desk.
My iPhone tested nearly the same as the results for the Mac Mini.
Thanks for the info but you need to test it both ways. Test it with the device close and then test it with the device far away or after it's been removed and that's the difference we are looking for.
Thanks for the test though and I appreciate that. But you are testing for the difference of wifi when the device is close to Mac and connected vs not connected and far away. But thanks again for time you took.
I have the M2 Pro Mac Mini with the Satechi Hub, and plugging it into the "wrong" USB-C port would basically kill my Wi-Fi. When I say "kill", I mean completely. 0 Mbits.
I managed to find a port where that works but it's curious. I do lose my Wi-Fi every now and then and it's really annoying. Always thought the Mac Mini had a design issue that didn't bother anyone but me. It's sad to see the brand new design of Mac Mini still has that issue...
Something's going on.. I actually will be getting a new Mac mini to see what that does soon.
You are right I had my Time Machine backup on top of my Mimi and I moved it back as far as I could and it worked have
much better speeds now THANKS
For sure. It's kind of sucks but just something to know about since it for sure seems to help speeds.
Thanks for the comprehensive video. There has been a consistent issue with the Bluetooth on Mac desktop, starting with the unibody design of the Mac mini. Every unibody, Mac mini, as well as the next year, suffers from Poor Wi-Fi in town Bluetooth performance. Ironically, see exact opposite of the laptops-Apple has the best intentions design on the laptop that I have ever used or seen.
Sadly, it appears the Apple's made it worse on the M4 Mac mini. You'd think that in the 15 years they have between developing original unibody Mac mini, and developing this new Mac mini, they would have made any effort or progress to fix this problem.
Also, Qwiizlab isn't really that great. I've used 2 of their hubs, one with a Mac mini, and one on a Mac Studio, they both had a lot of issues. I even made sure to make the extra effort, power them with an external USB-C power supply, and they still disconnected and have all kinds of issues. Qwiizlab did replace one of them for me, but the other one I have also has issues, but it's outside the warranty period. Also, them telling you not to use the first unit, because of a shipping issue, was probably an outright lie. There's other users that have reported issues with these docks a few weeks ago, s it seems as if.Qwiizlab was rushing to get a replacement out to you before you did the testing, and weren't honest with you about the issue.
Thanks for the info and your experience with all this. Some people are reporting no issues though and others have the issue. But I know for sure I have the issue as I can test in real-time to see the drop. Yes, I know the hub had a wifi issue before and it was not shipping but I wanted to try the new version. Some people are telling me it works fine though and others get the same issue.
Hi, I have not read all the comments already posted and therefore others may have already made the same comments. The difference between the upload and download speeds are unrelated. That is because the upload speed is limited by the upload rate provided to you by your WAN service provider. The significant drop in download speed is to be expected as the external peripheral is acting as a wide-band electromagnetic field source (wide-band RFI source) and the RFI is almost certainly swamping the WiFi circuitry in the MAC mini. You can significantly reduce this RFI source be enclosing the peripheral in an effective faraday shield and using a really good shielded cable between the peripheral and the MAC. The difference between the two hubs you received is the improves shielding of the 2nd hub to partially address the RFI issue.
To improve the WiFi performance the two main issues that need to be addressed are improving the shielding of the RFI generated by the peripherals and physical separation between the peripherals and the MAC. A much simpler approach to solving this performance issue is to not use WiFi on the MAC and instead connect the Mac mini by Ethernet to the router or WiFi range extender.
Yes Ethernet works but video is on wifi performance. Also yes you can shield things but we are seeing how universal of an issue this is and it appears to be large. I would guess that a million people have accessories near the mini but don't realize the wifi is being cut in half. Most don't want a faraday cage either and looking at issue to see options like distance etc. Thanks for the informative post on this. All data helps.
@@craigneidel I understand but this problem is not specific to the Apple Mac mini, it is a generic problem.
Yes, but I just have not had this large of an issues with shielding on other systems I owned by Apple. People need to really know what is next to the computer with this one.
Not just the Mac. My Synology router automatically will down grade USB3 to USB2 because of interference.
Also…
USB 4 operates at frequencies that can overlap with the 2.4GHz Wi-Fi band, causing interference when signals from both devices are close together.
That was one of my theroies that the 2.5 vs the 5 Ghz could be something to this. Thanks.
I have my MBP elevated about 13 inches if not more so my Mac mini pro is under it on a flat surface.
The Mac mini pro has a hub sitting in back of it and in that hub are two connected EXT Monitor’s and a few other things.
The only thing that I have noticed with my Mac mini pro is that once one a while online that it will have a couple of hiccups instead of a continuous fluid flow, but it’s hardly noticeable. I will relocate the hub lower tonight and see if I still get that little hiccup of interference while online. I am also using WiFi but I will connect the Ethernet.
Thx👍🏽 for the video.
Yes, Ethernet will fix it. Thanks for the data on this.
Hey Craig, nice video 👌🏼 I just got my replacement hub which Il be testing to see if it’s “fixed” the issue .
Great. They sent me two and the second was better but still not working and lost 50 percent. Let me know what you find. Thank you.
Did a quick test. Didn’t want to make my desk any more untidy than it already is. M4Pro Mac Mini is sitting on a pull out metal tray 3.5”under the table. I have an assortment of devices(SSDs, a hub, card reader, an Wacom tablet) connected so all ports are occupied and running. Did the tests as suggested with my Ethernet cable connected and then WiFi only.
940 Mbps wired, 630Mbps WiFi.
All connected devices are sharing the same pullout tray under the table. Used the Speed Test app.
Hope that helps.
Yes, but do a wifi test with nothing around it and then another one with all the accessories close by. That is the test we are looking for here. Thanks for posting your results and this info also.
I would also test the previous Mac mini model to see if a similar shielding issue occurs.
It did have some but the M4 is designed differently.
@shooting4star2023 ok thanks for your experience with this and your data point. I appreciate that.
Very informative! Thanks for all the time you took to research this.
For sure thank you
What software are you using for the WiFi speed test and the software you use for the external hd test?
I have used a number of tools for the wifi speed tests. I can watch the speed drop when I move the items close to the mac mini.
@ ok thank you for the quick reply. Have a great day.
You too.
Had a similar incident with Mac mini m2 pro. WiFi signal dropped about 50% - discussed with 2 Apple techs - both tried everything but didn’t help. I had 2 x Samsung T7 SSD situated close to Mac mini so I moved them around 24 inches away. Never had a WiFi issue since. It’s Apple and it seems they don’t want to admit they have an issue
Yes, distance is the key here..
Just to make sure, the problem happens when you connect to WIFI wirelessly right? If you use ethernet cable there would be no issue?
@abdulmajeed-1110 Correct, WiFi only
I’m curious when you are seeing this. If you are using the Mac and on the internet or uploading to internet? Or just general slowdown all the time if SSD is too close? I was all set to purchase and now rethinking.
@sherrikrams6786 as I test speed while downloading if I move any of the SSDs close the speed drops in real time.
Thank you very much, Craig! That was interesting. I will do some testing with my M1 Max Studio to see if it is an issue there as well.
Yes see if you see any similar stuff going on. Appreciate you watching the channel.
Luckily, there is an Ethernet port, too. 😅. I would imagine most people wouldn't notice those drops in WiFi speeds unless at work, interacting with very large files to download. Upload speeds seem to be affected, but that's slow anyway.
Yes, but some just don't have access to using the Ethernet port. The 50% drops I notice but the smaller ones are harder to notice. But if you have multiple accessories on the desk does it add up and get worse? I'll need to review.
My Mac Mini is finally on its way. I had to wait but it was worth it to save $100.
Nice and good luck.
As others have pointed out the plastic bottom of the Mini is the "entrance" for the WiFi waves. Therefore I believe the metal construction of the ring that holds the computer in the Quizzlab dock compromises this functionality. I have an Audient iD4 audio interface that is an all metal construction sitting on top of my M4 Mini (very similar dimensions) and this does not influence the signal in any measurable way. I get a download speed of 210 Mbps on the Mini and 310 Mbps on my MacBook Air M1 in the same location. Upload speed is a very consistent 53 Mbps on both machines and this is the maximum for my Internet connection.
Yes, the wifi antenna is on the bottom. Yes the M4 seems to be a bit slower than even my 2017 iMac even with nothing is around it.
The WiFi antenna is in the middle of the bottom of the Mac mini. It’s the aluminum that’s causing signal loss. The base needs to be made of plastic. This is why iPhones have plastic antennas inserts to allow the antenna to breathe. Remember when Apple had to move the antenna because people’s fingers were in the way
This is the same thing. The base needs to be plastic or made of wood to prevent signal loss. I learned this by watching an M4 Mac mini tear down when they were swapping the memory.
Yes, it's on the bottom. The base is made of plastic on the Mac mini. Thanks for all the info in the post too. I'll do another video if I find out more.
My long story short - I believe Apple has some design problem and quality control on the M4 mini. While I didn't test the WiFi, but the Bluetooth connection had been flaky on my first M4 mini since literally during initial setup of the Bluetooth keyboard which is no more than 2 feet from the mini, followed by glitchy mouse cursor movement then regular drop of headset connection. I made an exchange at the Apple Store. (My first Apple product exchange during to issue) The 2nd one is much better, but still experience a headset connection drop only about 10 feet away from the machine after about a week of use. All the mouse, keyboard and headset were used with my old M1 mini which was traded in for the M4 and sat at exactly the same place as the M4. I never had such problems with the M1. A major recall may be necessary.
Thanks for the info on this and that helps for sure. Yes, I was wondering if some units could be faulty but I don't think they would ever admit that.
@@craigneidel A follow-up on the 2nd M4 mini - I am starting experiencing more and more interference on the headset Bluetooth connection. The interruption is happening under the exact condition as the 1st one when I walk into the bathroom in my bedroom. This 2nd mini is going back to Apple in the next 2-3 days before the return period runs out. I'll also have a chat with the worker there.
Thanks and let me know what they say. It seems to be an issue for sure.
Thanks for the video. I just bought a M4 and it arrives on Monday. Now I'm wondering if I made the right decision. I will have my M4 connected to Ethernet. That being the case, can I have my peripherals close to the M4 without them being impacted? Their wifi signal won't be degraded?
@@kevinmutz9662 if you are using Ethernet you are fine. Also just keep accessories like 8 inches away and it really helps. M4 mini is a great system so don't worry.
High frequency radio waves (wifi/bt) behaves like light and a little like hearable sound. Line of sight at a short distance is best. If you cant have both, try to get one. Then we have reflections, directional antennas, wall density and all that, but line of sight and short distance is the key. But there are many factors. Antennas doesn't like metal objects close, etc, etc.
Yes, for sure but I would guess this could affect many who don't have options of that.
@@craigneidel in your case, i think you have the metal-object-close-to-antenna-problem. Think of it like this: Visualize a TV-sat antenna or a reflector in a flash light. You will have no signal/light on the wrong side of that reflector. Wifi waves are very short so there is a lot of reflections that "normaly" fixs this problem. It goes "around corners". But the radio energy can get "grounded". Hard to explain. So many factors. SSD/M2 cases are probably grounded/shielded. Not good close to antennas.
Yes, but I'm just trying to see how many people have a similar issue with all the different setups. I think it about 60% experience some loss of speeds.
It’s not only the WiFi. I have 2,4 Ghz wireless mouse that does not work, if the dongle is attached to USB C hub. The orientation of hub matters. I believe these problems are caused by the noise at 2,4 Ghz emitted by USB accessories. There is a white paper ”USB 3.0* Radio Frequency
Interference Impact on 2.4 GHz Wireless Devices” by Intel about this topic.
Thanks for that information as it helps me try to figure this out. I am finding all weird types of situations happening and many people having different things going on that others are not.
I actually had the same exact issues with the previous generation of M2 Mac Mini docks. It was especially pronounced with the Satechi hub, where the wifi signal would cut off completely when the Mac Mini was placed on top. Even lifting the M2 Mac Mini up by an inch would dramatically increase the wifi speeds. Loads of reviews on Amazon of other buyers with the same issue. I "solved" the issue by getting a wooden spacer to prop up the Mac Mini a bit, but I'm sure it still impacts the wifi speeds. Looks like it's a systemic problem if the current generation of docks is experiencing the same issues. At least the manufacturers are doing something about it this time, but the "fault" may not be on their end.
Thanks. Yes I tested 12 docks and all affected it so just not satechi with this issue. I hear you though as m1 had issues like this. But many people put these devices by their computers and many don't realize how much speeds can be affected. Thanks for the post. Appreciate that.
I have the same dock with a M2 Pro Mac mini. I decided to just rely on the ethernet cable and to disable the wifi instead.
Yes Ethernet will work but this video was about people using wifi.
"Just avoid holding it in that way" Steve Jobs, 2010, about iPhone 4 antenna problem.
Sort-of-bet the issue goes away when the M4 Mac Mini is placed upside down/bottoms up.
Funny.
I just had an idea. If you have an portable AM/FM radio you could use that to find any electrical noise that's causing problems. I just don't remember if AM or FM will show it better. I'm leaning towards AM.
Ok thanks for the tip. I might give it a try.
It has nothing to do with the fact that it is an SSD. I had a HomePod mini sitting on top of my Mac mini. Thought nothing about it until seeing videos on the WiFi issues. I have a WiFi 6e mesh system running at 800mb. Ran the test and was around 95 mb. Removed the HomePod and it shot up to 800mb.
Thanks for that data point. Yes, I think other things affect it but not so much keyboards or mice yet and only the SSDs when I have been testing but I have tested only a few other devices.
what is better between buying a 27 inch iMac 2017 or a good 4K oled screen (MBA M1 16go)
You can't use the 27" as an external display if that is what you are asking.
You can do what some people have suggested and flip the Mac Mini upside down. Anyways anything that can degrade a signal, metal, electronic noise, is going to effect every computer. I had a cell phone once where the only place in the house I could get a signal was wedged into the corner of my bedroom.
I'd suggest anyone experiencing slower than normal wi-fi see about repositioning the router, different areas and different heights off the floor. I have mine sitting on top of a side table in my livingroom so my main computer and smart TV get the best signal/speed.
Maybe try one of those wi-fi signal strength apps for your phone, where you walk around the house and it makes a map of the signal strength in every part of every room and outside.
Yes, but that is pretty ugly and not something I would want to do. Yes, I tried moving the router but it's the Thunderbolt 4 or SSD enclosures causing the slowdowns not really the router.
Even though I’ve a wired network connection this is good to know if my setup ever changes in the future. I was actually looking at some new Orico Mac mini docks this weekend too but I’ll hold off now, at least until after CES and some product reviews.
Thanks and it's just something to test once you get them as it appears many have the issue but some do not.
I had my M4 Mac Mini Pro sitting on top of a vertical laptop/ipad stand to increase airflow for the intake.
I also had 2 enclosures sitting on the outer edges of the stand bottom, tested as you suggested, just wifi not ethernet. Close to half the speed with the ssd'd close to the wifi antenna.
Taised the stand on the M4 box and let the drives sit on the desk below, much better and the stand makes no difference at all, in fact, best result was on the stand ssd's away from it.
Also tried upside down and tanked to 15% speed.
Wifi is ubiquiti wifi 6E 5 feet away for all tests.
Thanks for the data and testing on this. Much appreciated. Thank you.
@@craigneidel Happy to help, i hope you find the answer and whatever can be done to fix or mitigate the signal issue.
Enjoying the channel, keep up the good work. 👍
@Tech-Head thanks for the nice words and again for the data.
Great Info Sir!
However, Haven't you tried to wire the Mac Mini Via an Ethernet Cable rather using the Wifi, and retest the speed?
The Ethernet won't be affected and this is more about wifi since it's the signal loss. Ethernet has not issues but many people can't use that as their homes are not wired for it.
@@craigneidel Thanks
For sure.
From what I understand the radio is in the bottom of the mini, if you put metal on the bottom or top of the device this will affect the radio signal. I will be buying one of those mini’s along with a hub in that style, but I will not rely on wifi. I will be wiring it to my switch. I love WiFi but my personal preference is good old hardwiring a computer to Ethernet.
Yes, if you use a wired connection that will solve this.
This happens with all kinds of equipment not just the m4 mini. I use an ASUS router in bridge mode mounted to my wall run to a switch and wire everything to it. I can’t run ethernet to the room so I use the bridge setup and it is so much faster than using built in WiFi.
Yes, it can happen with all Macs I would assume and all computers. Just something I figured was good to see.
@@craigneidel Happens on Mac Mini M1, though for me not as much. Piece of wood under it boosts my speed by about ~20Mbps (5 tests each.). Also moving the external SSD farther away is helps, but only a little. My enclosure is a small switchblad style though, not a big brick. Just giving another data point.
My Synology RT2600 has a USB3 port, but if you attach a drive to it, it will warn you the port will downgrade to USB2 to avoid WiFi interference.
Thanks for the data point on this.
thank you.
I had my CalDigit TS4 USB hub next to my Mac mini4 but it was between my router 18' away and my internet speeds dropped like yours. Move things the other way with the Mac mini 1' closer and my speeds went back up to normal. I can use my Ipad pro and my Iphone 16 pro and they both get much higher wifi speeds being on the desk close to the mini. This proves to me that the mini has awful wifi reception.
@@LarryRichelli thanks. Yes I'm hearing that a ton of accessories are causing issues with wifi signal and speeds. There has to be an issue.
HI, interesting subject. I have a Mac mini M4 and the same Satachi ssd box as you with Samsung 1 To Pro based on your previous videos. Without Satachi SSD attached my results are 758 mb/s download 47.7 up load. With Satachi connected my results are 547 mb/s download and 50,7 upload. 38,5% a huge difference. Satachi and Mac mini are side by side on wood desk.
How Satachi or Apple explain that issue ?
Yeah, it just isn't Satechi. It's just about anything I test for external SSDs and I have about 10 of them for testing. So it's good to know this as people need to move the devices away from the mini.
@@craigneidel Hi, for your information, I move my Satechi away ( 6 inches ) from my Mac mini and I have the wifi speed is similar . With or without Satechi connected my wi fi speed is 750 mb/s. Good amelioration ! Thanks for the advice.
Thank you.
I have the Quizlab Aluminum Stand without the Hub. Received it yesterday. Your video got me thinking. I connect via ethernet. So I disconnected it and did some speed tests. On Wifi only I did 3 tests on the stand and 3 tests off. On the stand I got an average of 582/511. Off the stand I got an average of 587/528. No significant difference. Connected via Ethernet was a consistent 616/616, Now sitting within 3" of the Mini is a Samsung T7 SSD on the other side 6" away is a 50 watt powered PA speaker, likely not shielded for use with computer. The Mini sits under my monitor. It appears to me that SSD, Powered Speaker and Monitor makes very little difference in WIFI speed on or off the stand. My WIFI is connected via 5GHZ. Too much trouble resetting to 2.4 GHZ to test. I will say that Quizlab was very quick in shipping and delivery direct from China. Still working on creating videos that look as good as yours.
Thanks for watching and all the data. I will try the 5 Ghz soon to see if that can help it as it just may but not sure yet. Thanks again.
@@craigneidel Keep us posted. I did have my Superdrive underneath the Mini but did not do a speed test while it was underneath.
It does the same thing at 2.4 and 5 GHZ so no difference in my setup.
@@craigneidel Thanks for the follow up. Have. you tried the Hub underneath without an SSD Card inside?
I am surprised that you did not test the Mac Mini on the stand WITHOUT the SSD installed. That would isolate whether it is the stand or the SSD in the stand.
It's both. I tested the other SSD enclosures underneath it and when plugged in it lost a ton. When not it lost some but not as much. Plus I am still testing.
"Why does my Mac Mini M4 Pro hit 106°C on some cores during stress tests, and score only 19,400 in Cinebench R23 multicore?"
I would not really worry about a stress test as that is usually so far away from reality that you won't see results like that in the real world.
I’ve been experiencing a weird issue with my M4 Mac mini connected to an LG C3 as my main monitor. Sometimes the display disconnects and reconnects for a split second, and I’ve also noticed an orange tint on the screen occasionally. On top of that, my Mac mini wouldn’t connect to my 5GHz Wi-Fi network.
After some trial and error, I found out that unplugging the HDMI cable fixes the Wi-Fi issue. Turns out, the cable itself was somehow interfering with the 5GHz connection! What’s baffling is that this same cable has worked flawlessly on multiple other setups, running 4K 120Hz HDR with zero issues.
tried to cover the cable in alu foil that somewhat resolved the issue, but reddit is full of with post like this Wifi issues
Thanks for this info. Yes it appears the mini has various degrees of issue with shielding itself from accessories or cables. That is another piece of the puzzle and that for that data point. I'll try and test.
@@craigneidel Wonder this can be fixed via softer or something...I'm just tired keep trying out different cabels
Not sure but I hope so.
@ I just bought a cable with very good reviews, so far no issues...time will tell.
Given the thing is made of metal, it could be attenuating the antenna when placed on it. This also kind of reminds me of the earlier USB 3.0 ports that didn't have proper shielding and could mess with Bluetooth and other 2.4GHz signals. They were pretty noisy (in radio frequency terms) and would just overwhelm the spectrum. So a lot of USB Bluetooth dongles were recommended to be put into USB 2.0 ports for some time.
Yes, it might be something like that but just not sure yet.
Craig, I have a mini M4 Pro with 24G and 1T drive with a OWC hub. I put two western digital 2T drives in enclosures below and above and see no significant changes up or down speeds when placed above, below, or removed. Internet is TDS, and using Eero for wifi. Aprox 330 up and down. Could you have a weak wifi signal?
Not sure what is going on but many things could matter and that is why all the data really helps quite a bit. But I have heard from another person that the OWC is not causing the same issue but not sure if that is the same one.
If you watch the Tear down videos you will see that the WIFI antenna is in the base. Anything around the Mini will affect the signal. I tested my MM Pro with WIFI 6E on 1 BG Internet and I get 970Mb/s on my desk. However, I use an Ivanky Fusion Max 1 Dock and have it connected Via Ethernet cable instead and not on WIFI for my desk. Just keep things away from the MM to give the antenna the best line of sight to the router.
Yes, keeping a distance appears to be the best medicine for this but most people don't know that.
have you tried running the speed test with nothing pluged in then while its testing speed plug in say a drive to see if its an all the sudden drop if it does then its a power draw that is taking volts from the wifi and dropping it therefor its the M4 has a power supply problem on the board with ports to wifi etc. this means a ful recall of all M4 minis there is also some video problems happenbing as well with these to with some monitors now i have a video on my channel for a fix for montery users that might work for the new M4 but might not how ever the wifi is a serious problem ..
On mine I can move the devices closer to the Mac mini and I see the drop in real time. But some people are not seeing this so still trying to figure it out. But about 55% (estimate) are seeing this with their own tests.
I use ethernet and dropped wi-fi altogether. The other advantage of a hard wired connection is privacy unless you're using anti-spying software, also consistency in speed . I've also played around with powerline adapters but they can be a little flakey depending on what else is sharing the circuit, like a fridge.
Yes, but many just don't have access to Ethernet in the home or have it wired to their rooms.
The problem is the wifi antenna is on the bottom of the M4 mini....then you add in a hub that basically look and act like a tesla coil. I'm no electrical engineer, but I say something is up.
@@darthslackus499 yes the antenna is on the bottom but wanted to see how many accessories affect the speed. Thanks for the post.
What external monitor are you using and what do you recommend ?
Check out my channel for 4k BenQ and 5k Asus monitors.
@@craigneidel Ouch I was silly I actually watched a few of your monitor reviews. But what monitor are you using ? The BenQ 320? or PD3225
I use the Asus 5K, and also both BenQs. Plus my 5K iMac. Crazy but I have them all setup in the office and use them for various editing and testing. I know it doesn't answer your question but it's the truth as I can't really recommend one over the other. They are all good based on price vs performance. I mean the cheaper BenQ is like 90% of the PD version so I use the PD version for color correction for some side jobs etc. The 5K is great for text stuff.
@@craigneidel thank you
Welcome
My Mac mini Pro is capable of connecting to 2.4G WiFi, but it refuses to connect to 6G. It is currently situated on a transparent glass desk. I had a black metal mouse mat lying around. The moment I placed it on the mat, it successfully connected to 6G. 😊
Thanks for that data and for watching.
To show you how flaky wi-fi signals can be I found out my TV tray that was positioned between the computer (not the Mac) and the fiber optic base that was less than 15' away was cutting my speed considerably.
Funny, but true...
In the video about disassembling the Mac Mini M4, I noticed that the power supply occupies the entire upper area of the Mac Mini's case. I think this might negatively affect the quality of the Wi-Fi signal. In contrast, in the previous generation of Mac Mini, the power supply occupied only a small area on one side of the case.
Thanks for the post and I think you might be onto something there. I know the wifi antenna is on the bottom.
Curious if the same issue would surface if a Mac Studio was placed on the stand.
I don't have one to test but I should be doing other tests. But if others have one they can test and post here.
We have a new 2.5 GB Ethernet router and I need to add a 2.5 GB Ethernet switch and I far prefer wired Ethernet over WiFi just for stability. We can get WiFi interference from neighbors (switching frequencies can help when this happens). It can be a royal pain to do house wiring to run Ethernet but I like the consistency of it.
I've seen complaints about Bluetooth on the Apple Silicon minis and radios just seem to be an issue on the AS mini models.
yes for sure. Ethernet is best but some just don't have the ability to use it where they are. I just wanted to let people know this can be a pretty big issue depending on what is around the mini (or any Mac for that matter).
Nice wormhole to get into Craig... My first thought was regarding M4 vs M4 Pro...but it's likely similar. Slightly different guts but the same case. Second, not knowing what your normal (paid for) speed is your numbers are fuzzy to me. And then have you noticed any lag? I seem to remember noticing (I'm on the M4 Pro) more often than usual some delay loading websites. These chips pop normally (even my M1) but RF could certainly be a factor. I live only half a mile or so from several TV towers. Between those and the airplane landing route I often get interference of various sorts...mostly on my over-the-air TV antenna. Please have this sorted out by my return from vacation at the end of February. 🤓
Funny. Yeah, I can watch the speeds drop in real time when I move the devices closer so I know it's them creating the interference. I'll see what I can do on this for sure.
Very interesting video for those we are thinking to buy a Mac Mini M4. In my case, I never use wi fi. Call me "old man", but I've been thinking that this technology is still in development for some time, I always use the ethernet, but I understand there will be some people that can't be use that.
Greetings Craig!
Yes, some don't have Ethernet in the room or office so it can affect quite a few. Thanks for watching.
USB 3 and 4 can potentially interfere with Wi-Fi, particularly on the 2.4GHz band, due to the high-speed data transmission within USB 4 which can radiate electromagnetic signals that can disrupt nearby wireless signals like Wi-Fi; this is especially noticeable when using a USB 4 device close to your Wi-Fi antenna, causing potential slowdowns or connection drops.
Use Ethernet.
Yes, Ethernet is a solution but not the reason for the video. Many don't have access to that depending on how the home is setup.
Try putting the board on top of the hub where Mac mini would sit, then put the Mac mini on top of the board to see what happens
I'll see what I can test.
I have had an issue with the Mini's wifi since day one. To put it plainly, I have it in a room that is a fair distance from my AP. That being the case, I have used many other devices in that same room for a long time without issues. However, the Mini's wifi was so weak that I had to get an extender, and even then, it's still not as robust as my MBP is connecting to directly to the AP without using the stronger signal from the extender in the same room. Verdict: poor antenna combined with inadequate shielding.
Yes, I do think the shielding is weak for sure on this but just trying to gather data from others. Thank you.
My test. Ethernet with my external drive (Toshiba SSD not the fancy stand you have) near or far from the M4 Mac Mini results in 496Mbps downlink (home network baseline). WiFi with external drive under, next to, far from the M4 Mac Mini results in ~380Mbps (WiFi baseline). I then placed the M4 Mac Mini on an 8"x8" x1/8" aluminum plate and the WiFi speed is 490Mbps. It does not matter iwhere the drive is placed. My conclusion is that my external drive does not cause any issues. Further, the aluminum plate creates a good ground plane for the M4 Mac Mini's WiFi antenna and improves the signal quality. This was true for 5GHz WiFi (2.4GHz not tested).
Looking at the stand you have, I believe the piece that the Mac sits on is aluminum (the piece with the hole in it). However, it bends down and looks to be on the bottom of the part where the drive mounts. My guess is the enclosure is actually plastic. Try placing a metal plate on the housing between it and the Mac. This can be steel or aluminum (not foil). Try a cookie sheet. Does your WiFi speed improve? Are you using 2.4GHz or 5GHz WiFi? Additionally, try your stand but with the drive not plugged in. Per other posters, the stand allows the aluminum to be right up against the bottom of the Mac and may block the WiFi antenna. My test allowed a gap as it had no hole in which the Mac sat.
Ethernet won't change in first test so I don't expect to see a result there. But I'm thinking this could be more of an issue with the 2.4 GHZ as many have the issue and some don't. I'll need to check my router. Thanks for all the info on this. Yes, I guess the moral of the story is that some could be really affected while others not so much. But with my setup every single enclosure I tested (and I have like 12 since I test them) all affected it to some high degree.
I have the Qwiizlab hub. I saw another video that claimed he lost all wifi signal when using the hub. I had already ordered the hub, so I waited till I got it and checked myself. I get the same wifi signal and speed that I got before, no difference at all. My Qwiizlab hub is the one with the gold interior, and the hub and Mac mini is sitting on an oak desk. My SSD is a 1TB WD SN580.
Interesting that it works for you but I'm seeing that some do and others don't with this hub. I can watch wifi in real time drop if I put it the Mac on the hub while monitoring. I tested with many hard drives
@@craigneidel After hearing about this issue I was expecting a problem too. I use my Mini connected via ethernet, so I wasn't too concerned. But, I tested it using only wifi and was surprised that I didn't have the issue. I tried it sitting on the hub and lifting it off. I had no change in speed. I always get the maximum speed that I have always gotten. I just received my hub yesterday, so maybe Qwiizlab have made some recent improvements?
@GordonCato it's hit or miss now but we are trying to find the issue. Thanks for letting me know.
@@GordonCato-do you also have an SSD chip installed inside the hub? If so, which?
@@jeffellis6544 I am using the WD SN580 1TB SSD.
My test results are similar to those in the video. My Mac Mini M4 is connected to Wi-Fi without a Satechi drive (same as yours with a WD M2 inside) attached: 800 Mbit down/100 up. With the drive attached as far away as the cable permits: 600 Mbit down/100 up. The drive is close to the mini and working: 300 Mbit down/100 up. Additional problem: I experience wifi dropouts. After some inactivity, even while browsing, webpages get stuck and also Speedtest tells me there is no internet connection. I can rule out the router or my ISP as a problem.
What I have done now is use an older ASUS router as a media bridge to pick up the Wi-Fi signal and hook up the Mini with a Cat8 cable. The result is almost 930 Mbit down/100 up out of the possible 1000. But it is disappointing that the Mac Mini doesn't seem to work properly on Wi-Fi.
Thanks for that. Yes, some people are having the exact same issue as me and I see you are having that issue. It's crazy that people would need to use Ethernet if they want external SSDs or other electronic devices close by but more and more are saying it's affecting speeds.
Flip it upside down? I skimmed the video so maybe you did but, what happens then? If something being below it is bad, put it on the dock and flip the mini.
Yes the antenna is on bottom of mini so that might work but most would not keep it like that. I wanted to see what issues others are having too. Thanks for watching.
@ it would be good to test. If it works, I’d keep it that way for sure. I only care about performance; no one else is seeing my Mac :P
@NorthernWhisper yes but I would rather not flip it but can test it for sure.
Is this issue the same for Macbook's or just the Mac Mini's?
I have not tested that one yet.
Reminds me of the MP 2006 messup where apple put the bluetooth and wifi leads the wrong way round …
Not sure as it seems like 60% have an issue and 40% don't.
I’m losing speed when I had my Ivanky Fusion Max 1 Dual dock connected via lan cable. That hub is a beast with 2 thunderbolt 4 chips. Everything else on it is working just fine. I switch the lan cable back to my mini and the speeds were normal. Weird stuff
Thank you for the data. So you are losing speed on wifi. Yes, Ethernet fixes this for sure but this is for people that need to use wifi etc. Thanks again for info.
@@craigneidel I know, but I’m actually losing internet speeds on the dock via Ethernet cable connected to it. But, when I take the cable out and connect it to mini the speeds are fine. So, something about the mini isn’t interacting correct with docks in general I think.
@vagrantpistol ok thanks for that important piece of info. That helps
Could you run a speed test on the M.2 SSD in the Qwiizlab hub?
@@donaldraysmiley I had that in the video I think.
@@donaldraysmiley I think it was like 850 or something around there.
You can try 2.5 ssd enclosure, see what happens.
I'll try some other things soon. But others can post results.
You should do similar experiments with MacBook Pro. It also has aluminum chassis and comparable opportunities for interference and signal blockage.
Yes, I might try a few other things.
This is an interference issue, not really a "Mac mini" issue. This would happen if you put any magnetic field near any computer, such as speakers that have magnets. The last Mac mini has this issue too.
Yes, I get that but since everybody is using these accessories with the Mac and I'm a Mac channel I figured it was good to see just how much of an issue it can be.
Thanks for the video, was looking at getting the quizzlab dock, think ill hold off for a bit
I tried putting my mac mini on my studio display monitor stand and it didnt slow down my wifi, maybe its just with a hub with ssd connected.
I'll keep testing and see what they say.
Nice job.👍 Will go hardwire!
Thank you.
Were you plugging the enclosures into the Mac Mini? If so, into which port?
Thunderbolt port in rear.
@ did you try a different port?
Yes, all ports.
Seems like they are using crappy improperly shielded cable and or motherboard inside. USB signals affect wifi and bluetooth, bad 2.0 cable affect bluetooth and 2.4GHz wifi, and bad 3.0+ cable affect 5GHz wifi.
I tried a bunch of cables but still testing some things out. Thanks for info and for watching the channel.
It's how you are holding it. -LOL Issue looks to be the location of the WiFi antennas in the M4 Mac mini. If you add a shield you would get no signal.
Apple should think of a different top design on the Mac mini. Large plastic Apple Logo with the WiFi antennas under it.
If you have a USB WiFi around you might see if you can get that to work with your Apple M4 Mac mini.
Thing is PhD Robert Metcalfe "The Father of Ethernet" (inside joke) when talking about how to connect to the network "Hardwire is always the best". The M4 Apple Mac mini has a built in RJ-45 Ethernet port.
yes, I can walk up to the mini with the devices in real time and watch it drop speeds. Kind of crazy and others are having the same issue but some are not. That makes me think maybe it could be some minis have the issue and others do not but I'm still researching.
Does the distance from the screen make any difference (with and without external SSDs)?
I'll need to test. But I was able to add stand in real time and watch wifi drop as I moved into place so I know it's the stand and same with external SSDs.
I put my Mac mini on top of my sans disk (10Bit/.sec) and my WiFi. didn’t change. I think there is a reason that many things in the real world that can cause WiFi to drop out, which is why many prefer a wired connection.
Wired is better but many cannot setup the system that way. But so far I would say about 60% are seeing issues and 40% not.
Nice video .... we should contact Satechi company to let them know about the issue ..They are coming with accessories for the new Mac Mini M4 in a couple months.
It's a universal issue from my testing but I'm only one person like I stated. So others will need to test as well before all of that to gather data.
I have a almost identical dock from the Colorii model MC60. Your video made me investigate my Wi-Fi speed.
Have you tried holding the Option key while clicking the Wi-Fi icon in the menu to check the actual Wi-Fi speed?
I have an old Wi-Fi router that supports two Wi-Fi frequencies: 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. Initially, I configured both frequencies with the same Wi-Fi name, allowing my devices to switch between them easily. However, I noticed that my Mac mini was exclusively using the 2.4 GHz frequency. To fix this, I renamed the 5 GHz frequency and instructed the Mac mini to forget the old Wi-Fi name. Now, my Mac mini switches to the 5 GHz frequency, significantly improving my connection speed from 150 Mbps to 800 Mbps.
I was talking about this earlier with a few people. We were going to test 2.4 vs 5 ghz. So after your message I'll text that for sure.
Nice! Great tip!
Try putting the drive in a faraday bag.
Or slip a faraday bag in the open space on the hub.
Yeah but it's all my drives so I know it's the signal. Might have something to do with wifi 2.4 vs 5 but need more testing.
I tested my Mini M4 pro with an attached TB5 Trebleet enclosure using a Samsung 990 Pro NVME. I get the same speeds on right, left and top placement of enclosure which are the same as no TB5 enclosure attached. All this sits on a wooden desk.
Most are seeing results but a few are not. So not sure what is going on here just yet. I do think it might depend on cables or other factors too.