The Problem
I have a MacBook Pro 2015 13" Early, running Monterey. After a fresh install, my WiFi started randomly disconnecting, but the WiFi icon in the menu bar wouldn't even show it. The internet would just go off for about 5 seconds, come back for a minute, then drop again. Over and over.
The catch? It only happened when I connected a Bluetooth device, in my case a Bluetooth speaker. The moment Bluetooth was active alongside WiFi, things went haywire.
This is a well-known issue. Both WiFi (2.4 GHz) and Bluetooth operate on the 2.4 GHz frequency band, which causes interference. You might think switching to a 5 GHz WiFi network solves it, and it does help, but not everyone has that option, and even on 5 GHz the coexistence management can still cause drops.
The "Popular" Solution That Didn't Work
If you Google this problem, the most common advice you'll find is to reset the Bluetooth module by deleting the Bluetooth preference files:
sudo rm -rf /Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth.plist
sudo pkill bluetoothd
Then restart your Mac. This is suggested everywhere, Reddit, Apple forums, Stack Exchange, and it did not fix the issue for me. It might temporarily help, but the drops come right back once Bluetooth is active again.
The Actual Fix
After hours of searching through Reddit threads, I finally found a comment from u/sam1902 buried deep in a thread. The issue is the Bluetooth coexistence management driver. It's supposed to coordinate WiFi and Bluetooth to avoid interference, but it does a terrible job.
The fix is to switch it to Hybrid mode:
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.airport.bt.plist bluetoothCoexMgmt Hybrid
That's it. No restart needed. WiFi stabilizes immediately.
What does this do?
macOS has a built-in Bluetooth Coexistence Management system that decides how WiFi and Bluetooth share the 2.4 GHz band. The default mode is overly aggressive, it keeps yielding WiFi to Bluetooth, causing the drops. Setting it to Hybrid makes them share the band more intelligently without one killing the other.
Compatibility
This fix has been confirmed to work on:
- MacBook Pro 2015 (13" & 15") - Monterey
- MacBook Pro 2017 - Monterey / Ventura
- MacBook Air M1 - Monterey
- Various other Macs experiencing the same 2.4 GHz interference
If you're on a newer Mac with an M-series chip and still experiencing this, the same command works. The problem persists even on Apple Silicon according to multiple reports.
TL;DR
WiFi dropping when Bluetooth is connected? Run this:
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.airport.bt.plist bluetoothCoexMgmt Hybrid
Worked instantly for me after hours of searching for a fix. Credit to u/sam1902 on Reddit for the solution.