Is Your Wi-Fi Adapter Missing on Windows 11? If so, you’re not alone. According to some users, the wireless adapter goes missing every time there’s an update on Windows 11. Some report that the Wi-Fi adapter cannot be found after a system upgrade. We understand that this can ruin your day at work if you can’t find a workaround. But don’t worry. Follow this troubleshooting guide and you will sort it out.

  1. Scan for hardware changes
  2. Run the network troubleshooter
  3. Update your network drivers
  4. Run network commands
  5. Check for Windows Updates

Before we start troubleshooting, it’s strongly recommended to restart your computer. Sometimes a random bug in Windows 11 may cause your wireless adapter to miss, and doing a system restart would help. If the wireless adapter is still missing, then proceed to narrow down the source of the problem.

1. Scan for hardware changes

If you notice that your Wi-Fi adapter is missing in Device Manager, please first make sure the adapter is not hidden by Device Manager. To check, please do the following:

  1. In Device Manager, click View from the menu on the top, and then select Show hidden devices.
  2. Right-click the category Network adapters, and select Scan for hardware changes.
  3. Double-click to expand the category and see if your wireless adapter shows up.

If you still can’t see your wireless adapter, continue with the next fix.

2. Run the network troubleshooter

Most of the time, we don’t know what happened to the wireless adapter or what is causing the wireless adapter to be invisible. Hence, the Windows network troubleshooter would be the first tool to try. It performs an overall scan of your network and fixes common connection problems like wireless adapter missing.

To do this:

  1. On your keyboard, press the Windows logo key and select Settings.
  2. In the System tab, scroll down the page and click Troubleshoot.
  3. Then, select Other troubleshooters > Network Adapter > Run.
  4. Follow the steps in the troubleshooter and see if that fixes the problem.

If the network troubleshooter doesn’t find any issues or cannot resolve the issue, try the next tip.

3. Update your network drivers

If your wireless adapter still cannot be found, then you can check if your network driver is outdated or corrupted. Since the adapter is missing, you’ll be unable to fix it in Device Manager. In this case, we recommend you download the latest wireless driver from the manufacturer’s website and then install it. For example, if you’re using the Intel Wireless driver, then go to Intel’s official website and download the correct driver for your wireless adapter.

Either way, you can use Driver Techie to scan and repair outdated, corrupt, or missing drivers. It works in most cases where you have a driver-related issue. You can download Driver Techie by Clicking Here or following the guide below.

To use Driver Techie to find you the latest wireless driver:

  1. Download and install Driver Techie, then launch it.
  2. Click Scan Now.
  3. After the scan, select all the drivers you need to update and click Update All (for Pro subscribers), and all your drivers will be updated automatically. (Please note that you can only update the driver one at a time if you use a free version. To see how to manually update the drivers one by one, please check this post.)

Driver Techie involves the direct human review of the driver database by our engineers, which ensures you always have the safest and latest device drivers. You can rest assured that all your device drivers are in good hands.

Furthermore, if you’ve subscribed to Driver Techie Pro, and need our technical support to help with the missing wireless adapter, please feel free to contact <support@drivertechie.com>.

4. Run network commands

If your network driver is already up-to-date, then the wireless adapter is missing for some other reason. You can try running the network commands given below to manually reset the TCP/IP stack, release and renew the IP address, and flush and reset the DNS cache to see if it works.

To do so:

  1. On your keyboard, press the Windows logo key and R together to invoke the Run prompt. Type cmd and press Shift, Ctrl, and Enter at the same time to open the Command prompt as an administrator.
  2. In the Command prompt, type (or paste) each one of the following commands and hit Enter:
    netsh winsock reset 
    netsh int ip reset
    ipconfig /release
    ipconfig /renew
    ipconfig /flushdns

Once done, close the Command prompt and check if the issue persists. If your wireless adapter still doesn’t show up in Device Manager, move on to the next solution.

5. Check for Windows Updates

Sometimes, you may experience this missing wireless adapter issue after upgrading your OS to Windows 11. In this case, the wireless adapter driver you have might not be compatible with the newly installed Windows system. It is recommended that you temporarily uninstall the recent Windows Update to resolve this issue:

  1. On your keyboard, press the Windows logo key and select Settings.
  2. From the left panel, select Windows Update, then click Update history > Uninstall updates.
  3. Choose the most recent update, and then select Uninstall.

Hopefully, your wireless adapter will be back to normal. Also, if you feel that Windows 11 doesn’t work well with your computer (you may see issues occur more frequently than before), we recommend downgrading it to Windows 10 instead. If you have any follow-up questions, please feel free to comment below.