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Apple investigating new MacBook Air Wi-Fi issues, customers receiving replacements

macbookair wifi

Over the past few days, a notable amount of users have complained about WiFi issues plaguing the new 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Air models released during the week of WWDC. Besides less-battery-intensive chipsets, the marquee feature of the new MacBook Air revolves around faster WiFi connectivity thanks to new 802.11ac cards. As with any new product, bugs are plausible. Earlier today, we noted that new reports claim that the MacBook Air WiFi issues are due to networking issues in Apple’s OS X software. Fortunately, we have now learned that Apple is not in the dark about this issue:

In the United States, Apple Geniuses and Advisors should capture MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2013) and MacBook Air (11-inch, Mid 2013) computers with any Wi-Fi issues.

According to a source at Apple, the company is working to independently identify what exactly is causing the new WiFi-related problems. According to this person, AppleCare and Apple Store Genius Bar employees have been instructed to “capture” affected MacBook Air units. These units will then be sent back to Apple for further testing so a solution could hopefully be achieved. While Apple is asking AppleCare and Genius Bar staff to “capture” units facing problems, that does not mean Apple is confirming the new MacBook Air is flawed. This points to Apple pushing to determine why at least some units are seeing WiFi problems.

Separately, we have heard from at least a couple of customers facing MacBook Air WiFi issues who have successfully swapped out their notebooks for new ones. One of these people has said that AppleCare provided them with a complementary USB-to-Ethernet adapter so the new MacBook Air could connect to the internet without WiFi. Apple also informed these people that their original laptops have been “captured” (in the process described above).

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