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Re: Apple Catalina Appears to Introduce Massive Jitter - SOLVED!


From: Mark Tinka <mark.tinka () seacom com>
Date: Sat, 31 Oct 2020 09:49:05 +0200



On 10/30/20 23:57, Doug Barton wrote:

I would hesitate to blame BT. I have a macbook pro from ~1 year ago, on Catalina, and I use BT extensively ... mouse, keyboard, and headset. I do have location services trimmed down to just find my mac.

I ran: ping -c 1000 -i 0.1 <router address>

1000 packets transmitted, 998 packets received, 0.2% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 1.255/2.378/9.095/0.634 ms

One thing that may contribute to blaming BT however is if you are using wifi on 2.4G only, and/or preferring it, as BT operates in the same frequency range neighborhood. My macbook is connected using 5G.

Happy to compare other settings if there is interest.

What I do know is that there has been more than one fix for most people that have had this issue. For some, it has been a dodgy app, and for others, it has just been disabling some Location Services.

In my case, what worked was disabling Bluetooth, in combination with as many Location Services as I could afford to not use.

I am able to reliably reproduce this issue, so in my case, I can certainly blame Bluetooth. Pity, since I do use some Handoff services with my other Apple devices, but I won't give up wi-fi stability for that.

And yes, this happens both on 2.4GHz and 5GHz. As you may know, macOS will default to 5GHz provided RSSI is at -68dB or better. My laptop only ever connects on 2.4GHz if I am outside my house (which is hardly). Inside the house, there is always a 5GHz transmitter within -38dB of me.

Mark.


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