Cisco AnyConnect Constantly Reconnecting on Macbook Pro

[brandonleetran]

Hi Folks,

In the past month my VPN AnyConnect is constantly reconnecting. From every 3 minutes to every 15 minutes at times. This is a major blocker for attending meetings and workflow interruptions. 

I've tried various changes from IPv6 disabling to MTU adjustments but none of these tweaks are correcting the problem.

Macbook Pro 15-inch, 2018

macOS Mojave 10.14.5

Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client Version 4.7.01076

AT&T Gigabit 

Router Model	5268AC
Hardware Version	260-2173300
Software Version	11.1.0.531418-att

I did do a test and spent 1.5 hours at Starbucks connected to the VPN with no issues. What is it with AT&T and Cisco combination that is causing the constant reconnects?

Thanks for any help.  

11:23:53 AM Reconnecting to ******.com...
11:23:55 AM Establishing VPN - Examining system...
11:23:55 AM Establishing VPN - Activating VPN adapter...
11:23:55 AM Establishing VPN - Configuring system...
11:23:58 AM Establishing VPN...
11:23:58 AM Connected to ******.com...
11:25:53 AM Reconnecting to ******.com...
11:25:56 AM Establishing VPN - Examining system...
11:25:56 AM Establishing VPN - Activating VPN adapter...
11:25:56 AM Establishing VPN - Configuring system...
11:25:58 AM Establishing VPN...
11:25:58 AM Connected to ******.com...
11:27:01 AM Reconnecting to ******.com...
11:27:03 AM Establishing VPN - Examining system...
11:27:03 AM Establishing VPN - Activating VPN adapter...
11:27:03 AM Establishing VPN - Configuring system...
11:27:06 AM Establishing VPN...
11:27:06 AM Connected to ******.com...
11:30:37 AM Reconnecting to ******.com...
11:30:39 AM Establishing VPN - Examining system...
11:30:39 AM Establishing VPN - Activating VPN adapter...
11:30:39 AM Establishing VPN - Configuring system...
11:30:52 AM Establishing VPN...
11:30:52 AM Connected to ******.com...
11:32:37 AM Reconnecting to ******.com...
11:32:40 AM Establishing VPN - Examining system...
11:32:40 AM Establishing VPN - Activating VPN adapter...
11:32:40 AM Establishing VPN - Configuring system...
11:32:42 AM Establishing VPN...
11:32:42 AM Connected to ******.com...

[iamandywarren]

Strange it worked for me but I also found this happens if I am connected by
wire and have wireless enabled.
Not sure if that applies to you but if connected via wire try turning Wi-Fi
off.

[RachitGandhi39436]

Oh really ! I am always on wireless though.

[earl.lewis1]

I had this same problem and found that I was actually running NordVPN in the background on my machine, unbeknownst to me. When I used NordVPN in the past it always put an icon up in the header of the machine (Macbook Pro) but for some reason it wasn't right now. Seems like this happened after a recent update to Mac OS/Big Sur.

In any case, I noticed this when I went to the network services page of the system preferences and saw that the service was running. There is also a checkbox on that settings page to "Run on demand", which apparently means to restart the service if it's not running because with that checkbox checked I couldn't disconnect it. Unchecked the checkbox, clicked "Apply" then clicked "Disconnect" and then retried AnyConnect and all was well!

[sayadlap]

Issue is seen on Cisco AnyConnect - 4.10.00093

Disabled Bluetooth, and Airdrop -- holding it for an hour now.. will monitor and update again... But, thanks for the work around guys. 

>>> Kudos to this work around>>>

@stsargen Awesome thank you for that tip. I'm holding out hope that it will get better. I disabled air drop as per workaround instructions. And now I am running video conference on 2 computers and screen sharing and It does seem to be working without any reconnecting. Maybe it's a great workaround!

Workaround:
Temporarily turn off (disable) AirDrop:

1. Open a Finder window
2. Click on AirDrop from the left menu
3. At the bottom of the window, change 'Allow me to be discovered by' to No One

>>>>

[jschulze]

On a Mac M1, shutdown the awdl0 interface to prevent constant waves of "reconnecting" problems.  Bluetooth will continue to work, but YMMV with some of Apple's clever tricks like airdrop and airplay and auto-config.  'sudo ifconfig awdl0 down'.  You'll need to re-do this after every reboot.  I've been struggling with this issue for a few months, and it was made much worse and complicated after the addition of ZScaler ZIA.  It seems that awdl0 flaps and makes routing table changes and this causes AnyConnect to "reconfigure" the session, which requires a reconnect.  Cisco told me a fix in 4.10.05111 could possibly correct the issue, but it did not.