MacBook Won’t Connect to WiFi But Other Devices Will with the Correct Password

All of a sudden, my MacBook Pro running Monterey 12.6.3 won’t connect to WiFi. And it keeps saying “The Wi-Fi network requires a WPA2 password”. I copied the WiFi password from my notepad and double check the password is correct. Wait a few seconds, and it says “Connection Failed”. The issue continues after restarting the Mac and router. This drive me crazy!

The funning thing is that only this Mac won’t connect to WiFi and the other devices will (two Windows laptops and one MacBook Air) in my office. All of them are connected to the same WiFi!

This is really a weird issue that I never came across during the time when I am with this Mac (7 years). According to Apple troubleshoot guide, there are various reasons for WiFi connection error. Here is my case:

• WiFi network is discovered by My Mac.
• WiFi is turned on.
• WiFi password is correct.
• Reboot Mac twice.
• Reboot Router once.
• This Mac won’t connect to wifi but other devices will
• This Mac was connected to the WiFi and worked fine in the past.

How to Fix Mac Won’t Connect to WiFi even with the Correct Password

At first, I thought it was the issue caused the proxy service as I am using VPN occasionally and sometimes proxy is enabled by default. When I went to the network settings, no proxy service is enabled. No problem with proxy!

Next, I login into the router admin page, usually 192.168.2.1, and see the router is working normally. I had no problem to access the internet from a Windows laptop and MacBook Air. In addition, the WiFi password authentication protocol is set to WPA2-PSK. So no problem with the router!

What the problem would be? This is really a rare issue in my digital life and had no clue with it based on my tech knowledge. I had no choice but to search for answer in Google.

After two hours or researching, I have seen at least 10 workarounds and some of them are really risky and time consuming, such as reset the Mac, boot into recovery and reset PRAM and SMC. For me, these are dangerous activities and will only try if I had no choice left. Mac without Internet is useless in these days!

I am almost desperate until I stumped upon a simple answer in StackExchange, answered by IsraelM17. Here is the original answer:

I had the same issue like you and I found a solution. In my case I have connected a USB 3.0 hub to my 2018 Mac mini, so macOS adds this hub like other network settings.

I thought this was a joke at the first time when I read the answer. There were many times when I plugged in a USB device on my Mac and had no WiFi connection issue. I was a little bit convinced after trying out the other suggestions without any luck. In fact, StackExchange is trustful source and there are people who already found this reply useful.

I never thought this could be working as it looks silly! However, I was totally wrong. At that time, there is a USB flash drive connected to my Mac. When I ejected the drive, my Mac was connected to the WiFi network automatically and no pop-up window asks for me to input the password.

So, the simple fix is to removing USB drive from your Mac.

Hope this help!