You Can Arrange Your Wi-Fi Networks in Order of Preference
When I walk with my laptop, usually in a coffee shop or coworking space, I notice some specific connectivity issues. My Mac often connects to an ISP rather than the hotspot on my phone or building Wi-Fi as if it preferred one over the other.
It sucks if you’re near ISP powered APs or have a dual band router and want to use a faster 5GHz connection instead of the slower 2.4GHz longer range. It’s especially frustrating when I’m uploading large files and wonder why it is taking so long, only to find out that it isn’t even using my router. I paid good money for this router.
Verdict? It turns out he has preferences, and that depends on which one is literally higher than the other. The order of priority of your network in macOS depends on the order of your preferred networks.
When searching for a Wi-Fi connection, your Mac essentially scrolls through the list of previously used hotspots and selects the top-most option. Of course, this does not mean that you always want to be online. But you can change the list of preferred networks yourself by simply dragging and dropping it.
On your Mac, open System Preferences and click the Network icon. From there, you will see the network connection options in the sidebar. Click the Wi-Fi option, then click More … in the lower right corner.
From there, you’ll see your list of networks you’ve connected to in the past, along with their security settings. If you see networks that you know you will never connect to, such as old hotspots you set up or hotspots for buses and airplanes, select them and click the minus sign below the list to delete.
Once you’re done spring cleaning, start dragging and dropping! I like to place my valuable Wi-Fi connections upstairs: hotspot at work, home 5GHz network, router at coffee shop. Smaller hotspots, for example from my ISP, are dragged all the way down – a last resort if I can’t connect to anything else.