Wifi network option is not showing up

Troubleshooting is a process of elimination and often requires quite a bit of patience. Let's proceed as follows.

Have you followed Allan's advice?

I'm assuming you've already booted into Safe Mode and used Apple Hardware Test (as suggested by Allan in his comment on May 11)?

• If you haven't, then please follow the steps below for booting into Safe Mode and Running Apple Hardware Test.
• If you have, can you please edit your question to provide the results of performing both actions. Then skip the steps below for performing these actions and try the Terminal commands I suggest.

Run Apple Hardware Test

1. Shut down your Mac
2. Restart your Mac
3. Press and hold the D key before the gray startup screen appears.
4. After a while, Apple Hardware Test (AHT) will start.
5. When prompted, select your language and click the right arrow.
6. When the AHT console appears, you can choose to run Basic tests by clicking the Test button. However, I suggest you select the "Perform extended testing" checkbox before you click the Test button.
7. Your test results will appear in the window in the bottom-right of the console.

Take a note of the result and report back.

Note 1: The extended test will take some time. Take a note of the results and report back.

Note 2: If pressing and holding the D key at Step 3 doesn't work, start again at Step 1 and, at Step 3 press and hold both the OptionD keys instead. This will try and run diagnostics from the internet instead, so you will need to allow more time for it to complete.

Boot into Safe Mode

Follow these steps to boot your Mac into Safe Mode:

1. Fully shut down your Mac
2. Restart your Mac
3. Immediately press the Shift key and keep it down
4. Let go of the Shift key when you see the login window (NOTE: If you have FileVault enabled you may need to log in twice).
5. Take a note of what happens (i.e. do you see the Wi-Fi option in System Preferences > Network?)
6. Exit Safe Mode by restarting your Mac as normal
7. Check System Preferences > Network again

Once you've booted into Safe Mode, let us know how you went.

Now, assuming you still have the problem after already booting into Safe Mode and running Apple Hardware Test, let's proceed with the following course of action.

Run these Terminal commands

Let's confirm what macOS believes the status of your Wi-Fi service is. To do this:

1. Launch Terminal

2. Enter the following command:

   sudo networksetup -listallnetworkservices

3. Press Enter

4. Enter your password (note you will not see the cursor move, nor the characters appear on the screen)

Now, in the list that appears I assume you will see an asterisk (*) next to the Wi-Fi service. This denotes that it is currently disabled. Assuming this is what happens, let's try enabling it as follows:

1. Make sure you're still in Terminal

2. Enter the following command:

   networksetup -setnetworkserviceenabled Wi-Fi on

3. A popup will prompt you for your password - enter it and click on the Modify Configuration button

4. Now enter this command:

   networksetup -setairportpower en0 on

5. Restart your Mac

6. Now check System Preferences > Network again

Let me know how you go.

Can you specify which Mac model & year you're using?

I suspect that this is a hardware issue that needs repaired. These steps will tell if you that's the case.

First try an SMC Reset. You'll find the instructions for this here and an NVRAM reset, instructions here.

Then boot into Recovery Mode by holding CMD + R during startup. This is going to take a bit longer than it normally would to boot - let it run it's course even if takes around 15 minutes.

If the wifi doesn't work there either even after an NVRAM/SMC reset you can be confident that it's a hardware issue. Recovery Mode is overlooked a lot of times as a test bed but it's essentially another installation of OS X that's never been touched or modified, so if it persists you can be sure it's not caused by a faulty kext/program you might've installed.

If the issue is resolved in Recovery it was either by the SMC/NVRAM reset (in which case it will be resolved altogether) or there's an application in your user account causing it, where Safe Mode or creating a new test account in System Preferences > Users & Groups are good next troubleshooting steps.

Had the same issues here with no WiFi hardware found, or could not switch WiFi on. WiFi card MAC address showed up in System. Very frustrating

It turned out to be a bad WiFi card. Changed that out and everything came back to normal.

Sometimes the most obvious answer is the correct one