Wireless Connection Does Not Connect Automatically After Sleep or Restart

Description:

After booting Mac OS X and/or after resuming from Sleep mode your wireless network connection does not connect automatically to your base station.

Your network is listed as a preferred network and is set to connect automatically.

Symptoms:

• Wireless network remains disconnected even though all required configuration is correct
• Automatic connection to preferred wireless network does not occur after resuming from sleep mode
• Automatic connection to preferred wireless network does not occur after restarting or clean booting your Mac
• Clicking the Wireless icon in the Finder Menu and selecting your wireless network manually will allow you to connect successfully

Explanation:

This problem can occur when the System Preferences application is moved out of the Applications folder. Console/Event Viewer:

• airportd[17]Error: _ACKeychainCopyPassword() expected password for “networkname” not found: -25300 (The specified item could not be found in the keychain.)
• airportd[17]Expected password for “networkname” not found; skipping..

Solution – Fix the Keychain

Step 1 – Delete the offending wireless network from network preferences

• Click the wireless network icon in your menu and select your network
• When prompted, enter the password for the network and place a check mark in ‘Remember this network’.
• Click OK
• Restart your computer to verify that this solution worked

Step 2 – Delete any references to the offending network connection from keychain

• Applications > Utilities > Keychain Access
• Select ‘login’ from the list of Keychains on the left
• On the right panel, sort the list by name and locate the name of the offending wireless network.
• Highlight all items relating to the offending wireless network, right click (CTRL+CLICK) and select ‘Delete X items’
• Click ‘Delete’ in the confirmation dialog prompt and close Keychain Access.

Step 3 – Move ‘System Preferences.app’ to ‘/Applications’

• Locate System Preferences on your system. You can do this by browsing to it through Finder or using Spotlight.
• When you locate it, simply drag it to the Applications folder in the sidebar of your Finder

Step 4 – Re-join the offending network

• Applications > System Preferences > Network > Unlock
• Select your network from the list on the left (Airport if your using an Apple Airport Extreme card)
• Click ‘Advanced…’
• Select the offending wireless network from the list of ‘Preferred Networks’ and click the minus (-) button
• Click OK, enter your password if requested and then click Apply