My iPad Mini's WiFi Problem, Saga, and My Solution...FYI

I sold my white iPad 2 16 GB WiFi at the end of September.

I bought my white iPad Mini 32 GB WiFi on November 2, 2012, at my local Target. (That's an amazing story- I was debating if I should drive to the Apple store in Atlanta and potentially wait for HOURS, and I stumbled on the fact that stores like Target and Best Buy would be getting them too. I drove to a Target that is 15 minutes away, walked right up to the ghost town called the Electronics Dept., bought my Mini and was back in my car in 10 minutes.)

Back to the story....

Things were awesome. I loved the Mini's size- it was perfect for my purse and my hands, and my daughter could handle it easier, too. I bought a couple cheap interim cases and life was good.

At this point the story gets fuzzy. I don't know what I did or didn't do that changed things. I actually don't even remember when I downloaded the 6.0.1 update. I only know that I DID download it.

Sometime on Wednesday, November 28th, my WiFi connectivity was lost. The device could "see" networks that were available, but it could never join them. This was true on my home WiFi and my church Wifi, both of which I had connected before.

During Wednesday and Thursday (the 28th and 29th) I tried several things to fix the problem.

I turned the WiFi OFF and then back ON on my iPad.

I restarted my iPad.

I unplugged my wireless router.

I plugged my iPad into iTunes.

I made sure Airplane mode wasn't ON.

I turned Airplane mode ON and then back OFF.

I forced the iPad to "Forget" the networks.

None of those things made any difference. Finally I called Apple. I let the kind person who answered know all that I had tried. Almost immediately she transferred me to a Senior Advisor. The Senior Advisor was very nice and helpful, but only had two more ideas.

The first was to check the firmware version on my wireless router. I did look into this but didn't get far because our router is provided by our Internet provider, Charter, and they weren't able to let me know the firmware version. It was hard to imagine that this was the problem, since our iMac, printer, Apple TV, Roku, iPhone 4, iPhone 5, another iPhone 4, iPod Touch, and laptop all have no problems using this wireless router.

Her second idea was to perform a "Restore as New" on my iPad. The idea was to find out if perhaps a program was corrupted and had caused the problem or if there was a problem with the hardware.

After completely wiping my iPad, I started it back up and begin configuring it. One of the first questions is regarding WiFi. Well, guess what? The "clean" Mini was unable to join the network. 😠

I called the Senior Advisor back, but the number she gave me was only a messaging service- basically I was calling her voicemail. She called me back, I called her back, she called me back. I told her in a message that the Restore as New didn't work. I didn't hear anything on Friday from Apple. Besides a "How did your customer service call go?" e-mail survey.

On Sunday evening I went back to my local Target and returned my Mini Brick. I walked over to the electronics department and bought the last iPad Mini 32 GB they had, in black. I even had a $5 off $50+ coupon from Target, so I saved five bucks. Target didn't ask any questions about WHY I was returning it. They refunded my credit card directly.

So that's my story. Just wanted to put it out there in case it helps anyone. Oh, and the Senior Advisor called me again tonight at 8:53 PM EST. I missed her call by one ring. In her message she gave me her e-mail address and said to e-mail her to set up an appointment to "get everything done that we need to do for you." I emailed and let her know I returned the iPad for another one.