Re-enable networking after macOS Sequoia upgrade

I just finished updating my Intel MacMini to Sequoia and got this nice prize upon the first reboot.

Umm... ok. Not the nice and neat upgrade I expected, especially after reading multiple accounts that this was a pretty straightforward upgrade - even for an Intel based Mac.

I did the normal double check of items and turned the network services off and back on again (several times) I rebooted the Mac (twice). But nothing seemed to work. I even tried hot spotting to my phone and still couldn't get an internet connection to work. After some digging, I found a couple clues that helped with a solution that worked.

Steps to get networking back

You need to use a Terminal window and feel bold enough to move some .plist files around.

  1. Open the System Settings and turn off all of your network connections.

  1. Once all the network connections have been inactivated, open a Finder window and either type ⇧⌘G use the menu to Go > Go To Folder... to the following folder:

    /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/

  2. When you open the folder you will see a set of .plist similar to this:

http://mygeekdaddy.net/content/Screenshot_2024-09-17_at_9.49.png

  1. Copy any .plist that has the term NetworkInterfaces or com.apple.wifi in the file name to your Desktop.

Note: You might have some files like NetworkInterfaces-pre-upgrade-source.plist. You can move those files out as well to keep the folder cleaned up once you're done.

  1. After you've copied the files to the Desktop, delete the files in the /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/ folder.
  2. After the files have been deleted, go back in the System Settings panel and reactivate your Ethernet connection.
  3. Once the Ethernet connection is restarted, macOS will create a clean version of the files and your internet connection should return.

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