Channels Missing in UniFi Dashboard for 6E Band? Here's Why

When setting up Wi-Fi 6E in UniFi, many admins are surprised to find that only a handful of 6 GHz channels are available for manual selection in the controller. No matter what you do in the UI, channels like 9, 13, or 33 simply aren’t options.

We dug into this by querying the UniFi Controller’s internal API — specifically the stat/current-channel endpoint — and here’s what we found.

Table of Contents

• Discovery via API
• What Are PSC Channels?
  • PSC Channels (6 GHz):
• Why Does UniFi Only Let You Choose PSC Channels?
• Full Channel Table (from API)
• Can You Use Non-PSC Channels Anyway?
• Final Thoughts

Discovery via API

By hitting the following internal API endpoint on a test controller:

https://demo.unifi.unihosted.com/api/s/default/stat/current-channel

—we were able to extract the full list of available 6E channels and options, including which are allowed for different bandwidths, indoor/outdoor use, and more.

It turns out the controller has a complete view of all the possible channels, but only allows manual selection of a specific subset — the Preferred Scanning Channels (PSC).

What Are PSC Channels?

PSC (Preferred Scanning Channels) are a set of 6 GHz channels defined by the Wi-Fi Alliance and required by regulatory bodies. These channels are spaced every 80 MHz and are prioritized by client devices during active scanning.

PSC Channels (6 GHz):

5, 21, 37, 53, 69, 85

Clients are required to scan these channels first when looking for networks. If your AP broadcasts on non-PSC channels, many clients might never see the SSID — especially mobile or power-sensitive devices.

Why Does UniFi Only Let You Choose PSC Channels?

After digging through both the GUI and controller behavior, it’s clear this is an intentional design decision by Ubiquiti. Reasons include:

• Ensuring fast and reliable client discovery
• Maintaining regulatory compliance in all supported regions
• Reducing misconfiguration risk and ensuring stable roaming behavior

Even though other non-PSC channels exist, UniFi hides them in the UI to avoid these potential issues.

Full Channel Table (from API)

Here’s the full list of 6 GHz and other relevant channels we extracted from the stat/current-channel endpoint:

Freq	Channels	Explanation
6E	1, 5, 9, 13, 17, 21, 25, 29, 33, 37, 41, 45, 49, 53, 57, 61, 65, 69, 73, 77, 81, 85, 89, 93	Wi-Fi 6E general channels (6 GHz band)
6E 320MHz	1, 5, 9, 13, 17, 21, 25, 29, 33, 37, 41, 45, 49, 53, 57, 61, 65, 69, 73, 77, 81, 85, 89, 93	6 GHz with 320 MHz wide channels
6E 160MHz	1, 5, 9, 13, 17, 21, 25, 29, 33, 37, 41, 45, 49, 53, 57, 61, 65, 69, 73, 77, 81, 85, 89, 93	6 GHz with 160 MHz wide channels
6E 80MHz	1, 5, 9, 13, 17, 21, 25, 29, 33, 37, 41, 45, 49, 53, 57, 61, 65, 69, 73, 77, 81, 85, 89, 93	6 GHz with 80 MHz wide channels
6E 40MHz	1, 5, 9, 13, 17, 21, 25, 29, 33, 37, 41, 45, 49, 53, 57, 61, 65, 69, 73, 77, 81, 85, 89, 93	6 GHz with 40 MHz wide channels
6E Indoor	1, 5, 9, 13, 17, 21, 25, 29, 33, 37, 41, 45, 49, 53, 57, 61, 65, 69, 73, 77, 81, 85, 89, 93	Indoor-only 6 GHz usage
6E Outdoor	—	No outdoor channels allowed (Netherlands)
6E PSC	5, 21, 37, 53, 69, 85	Preferred Scanning Channels

(Other bands like 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz also appear in the API, but we’ve omitted those here for clarity.)

Can You Use Non-PSC Channels Anyway?

Yes — but only under automatic channel selection. If you leave the channel selection to "Auto", the AP may choose a non-PSC channel depending on the regulatory domain and RF environment. However, this behavior is not exposed in the UI and can’t be manually forced at this time.

Some advanced users use SSH or JSON-based config injection to force channel values, but this is unsupported and fragile across firmware updates.

Final Thoughts

Even though it feels limiting at first, sticking to PSC channels for 6 GHz is actually beneficial for most environments. Your clients will discover your network faster, roaming will be smoother, and you're staying within legal bounds.

We’ll be keeping an eye on future UniFi updates — there’s a good chance more flexibility may be exposed in upcoming versions.If you would like me to personally walk you through UniHosted, you can schedule a call with me here.