A discussion thread on Apple Support Communities 200K views strong is actively slamming Apple for failing to address ongoing Wi-Fi connectivity issues on Macs running Yosemite.

A problem reported right after Yosemite had made its public debut, the Wi-Fi connectivity issue seems to have affected thousands (if not tens of thousands, considering that not everyone accessed the forum thread in question).

When it deployed OS X 10.10.1 yesterday, Apple claimed that this first maintenance update for Yosemite computers would improve Wi-Fi reliability. At least for the people complaining in this mile-long thread, the update has failed to do so.

What the customers are saying

A user identified as MortenJamesCarlsen on the Apple Support Communities forum says, “JJust [sic] Downloaded and installed with working network. After update nothing works. Can't connect to web at all. no tricks are working. For me, 10.10.01 is worse than 10.10. WRiting [sic] from iphone as Mac can't connect at all. I will have to go back to troubleshooting fantastic.”

The same person later returned with a fix, “Resetting the Airport Extreme or other router - to factory defaults. [...] That did it for me ! [...] See your documentation on how to accomplish that. NOT just a reset. Then Create a brand-new WLAN Network. Then from network settings create a new Location and apply that.” Not everyone has an AirPort extreme though.

“I've got Windows machine with Windows 8.1 and wireless A/C, that works fine, I've also got a Mavericks MacBook Pro, and that works fine, as does the Mavericks iMac - the only machine that's having problems is the identical hardware MacBook Pro, which has Yosemite. - all of these are connected to a Cisco 3702i in Autonomous mode (No need for a controller),” writes another person. And the list goes on.

According to one user who has contacted Apple Support, affected customers are advised to launch System Preferences, go to Network, Advanced, and remove their preferred networks, then reset the System Management Controller (SMC), and finally set up their network again. This, of course, is a tedious process (an unofficial one, by the way), and it still doesn’t pass for a viable fix.

OS X 10.10.2 or Wi-Fi update could be just around the corner

Apple had to deal with situations like these in the past. As we noted in a recent editorial piece, it’s particularly frustrating for the user who anxiously waits for these maintenance updates – sometimes for months – to address a single bug on their machine, and the update fails to address that particular bug.

If the Wi-Fi connectivity issue persists and the number of reports continues to grow, Apple will either have to deploy OS X 10.10.2 soon, or at least a Wi-Fi-specific update for these affected configurations. A support article detailing the steps one can undertake to troubleshoot the issue on their own would also be advisable.