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jcavalie Author

Level 1

25 points

iOS14 Wi-Fi calling crashing Wi-Fi on 5th gen Airport Extremes

Hello - I’ve noticed over the last 2 days that iOS 14 is crashing Wi-Fi on my 5th generation Airport Extremes.

Here is my setup:

3x AirPort Extreme 802.11n (5th Generation) with version 7.8.1.
all are running in bridge mode (access point only) and are hardwired via gigE back to my main switch which connects to my dedicated router.
All have worked fine for many years
I have both an iPhone 11 and an iPhone 11Pro. Both upgraded to iOS14.
both have AT&T Wi-Fi calling enabled
if either makes a call or receives a call, it is only a matter of a few minutes before Wi-Fi becomes completely unavailable. The call drops and the Wi-Fi network does not appear in Settings->Wi-Fi and the phone reverts to cellular only (and we don’t get a cell signal here so there is a safety issue not having this working anymore).
only a power cycle of the 3 access points (unplugging them) brings the network back online.
If you only power cycle one of them, and then join the network, Airport Utility will show the green dot for the one to which you are connected and the yellow triangle for the others, until they are each power cycled.

Any suggestions? This is a critical issue introduced by iOS14.

thanks in advance!

iPhone 11 Pro

Posted on Sep 21, 2020 12:32 PM

Best reply

LaPastenague

Level 9

67,208 points

Posted on Sep 23, 2020 5:49 PM

The 4th Gen works like a champ

That is helpful info.

The Gen4 Extreme used a Marvel wifi chipset.

The Gen5 Extreme used a Broadcom wifi chipset.

Gen6 Extreme is also broadcom but AC version is totally different to N wireless version.

The equivalent Time Capsule are the same..

They have a driver issue in the broadcom wifi me thinks.

Has anyone tried using firmware going back to 7.6.8 say or even earlier.

It is easy to do.. hold the option key while you click the firmware number in summary shown in airport utility. Select the firmware you want and it will download and flash the firmware to the Extreme (screenshot is from Gen4 TC same as Gen5 AE)

I don't have any new devices with iOS 14 to test.. but I do run earlier firmware sometimes as I find stability better. You will get error but it can be ignored.. simply turn off checking firmware in airport utility preferences.

As a test it would also be interesting to turn off wireless security for a brief period and see if the problem is security.

Just go to the wireless tab.. select security and none.

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42 replies

jcavalie Author

Level 1

25 points

Sep 22, 2020 4:58 PM in response to jcavalie

Quick update. I was able to repeat the issue and call Apple. A senior tech captured diagnostics from my iPhone and asked a handful of additional questions about my setup and what I’ve tried. They are sending everything to engineering, and they scheduled an update call with me for tomorrow at 10am PT. The senior tech seemed pretty concerned about this issue.

Separately, I have a guest network on a separate vlan that uses 2 Airport Express devices as its APs. These have 7.8.1 on them. I tried to reproduce the issue, but so far it has not occurred on that network. I made 3 10-minute calls (2 outbound and 1 inbound) and the guest Wi-Fi stayed up. So...7.8.1 might not be the issue. It just happens to be the last version for gen 5 Extremes which are having the issue.

I’ll be curious to see what happens Sunday when I get back to my primary residence as the main Wi-Fi there has 3 6th gen Extremes and 3 Expresses (6 APs total). The guest network there is identical to here - 2 Expresses on their own vlan.

I have a lot of investment in this gear and wasn’t thrilled when Apple got out of the AP business. It’s also made it hard for me to decide what to replace it all with as it ages - especially with Wi-Fi 6 becoming mainstream soon.

DeeRun

Level 1

23 points

Sep 23, 2020 12:36 AM in response to jcavalie

For what it's worth, I have a 4th gen Airport Time Capsule (ATC) 7.8.1 in my study as my main router with multiple Airports across my house connected to it by ethernet (all of these in bridge mode, but I think that's irrelevant for this issue).

My iPhone is running iOS 14.

After receiving a WhatsApp call on my iPhone in my study (which is connected to wifi from this older ATC) after ~1 min, wifi would disappear. This ATC would show a green light but when I open Airport Utility it's not on the network. Restarting it (unplug/plug in) restores wifi and everything works again until the next call...

Turning off the Private Address feature in Wi-Fi setting on my iPhone did nothing to help.

One of my other Airports is an Extreme 802.11ac (7.9.1). With my iPhone connected to this Airport, I can receive WhatsApp calls without the router freezing up.

If I move to any part of my house where my iPhone is a client of an older Airport 7.8.1 then after ~1 min on WhatsApp that Airport will freeze up.

Before iOS 14 I never had this problem.

ToniOni

Level 1

4 points

Sep 23, 2020 1:21 AM in response to jcavalie

Hello everybody,

I am following this thread fr some time now while having the exactly same problem.

Maybe it’s interesting for you guys who have made contact with Apple Employees to know that WiFi calls or WhatsApp Calls or similar are not the only cause for this.

In my business I am powering the WiFi with several 5th Gen. Airport Extreme.

Since the first employee updated to iOS 14 we have the exactly same issues.

But I can confirm that nobody did WiFi calls (we don’t have that in Germany), nor WhatsApp oder Skype or any other calls except the “normal” ones…

After investigating on that I surely can confirm that iOS 14 devices are causing it.

Thank you all for helping / referring this to Apple.

jcavalie Author

Level 1

25 points

Sep 23, 2020 8:37 AM in response to ToniOni

Good to know. Thanks. My son’s iPhone 11 on iOS14 triggered this issue again last night during a FaceTime call. So at least for now these call apps are a way to cause the issue so Apple can collect diagnostics.

I am suspicious though, that more is going on. Last night, before going to sleep, I checked airport utility and all looked fine. This morning, one access point is offline. I did get a wrong number call that rang my phone (I didn’t answer), so maybe that was it.

Some others have reported this issue being triggered by the Apple Remote app. I haven’t tried that, though I do have AppleTVs. Maybe today?

I know Apple is following this discussion as they asked some questions in our last call, so hopefully they can repeat this in their labs.

However, my patience for the frequency of this issue locking my Wi-Fi is running thin. If Apple doesn’t have any good answers today and my new mesh APs arrive as expected, I may just have to swap and see if that resolves the issue. Annoying as these Extremes have been so good and I’m amazed iOS14 can crash a network. And I feel like I’m spending a lot of money to let them off the hook (assuming the issue is indeed resolved with new gear).

But we are in a mountainous area in California with no regular cell service that is undergoing regular red flag wildfire warnings. I need reliable Wi-Fi to receive calls and SMS alert messages from the warning systems. This is a safety issue for us. Never mind that we also need Wi-Fi reliable for my work and our son’s online classes.

Sep 23, 2020 9:07 AM in response to Costas123

So here’s an interesting turn of events. If i turn off Bluetooth on my XS Max, my AirPort Extreme doesn’t crash when making a call via WiFi Calling. If I turn it back on, the AE immediately crashed. Tried it 5 times to reproduce.

Interesting.

ep2002

Level 1

4 points

Sep 23, 2020 1:00 PM in response to jcavalie

I’m having the same issue as well. My main is a AirPort Extreme (4th Gen) and that is networked to two other AirPort Extremes (5th Gen). They are all on 7.8.1. It’s only the two 5th Gen AirPort Extremes that I have to power cycle to get them to work again. The 4th Gen works like a champ.

The issue started after updating our devices at home to iOS14.

I won’t go into detail about my set up because the original poster (jcavalie) nailed it perfectly.

Sep 23, 2020 4:07 PM in response to PharCyder

I tried PharCyder's suggestion and switched off Bluetooth on my iPhone 11 Pro (iOS 14), and asked a friend to call me on WhatsApp. My fifth-generation AirPort Extreme is running 7.8.1. After less than three minutes on the call, my AirPort crashed, all devices on our network lost WiFi connections even though the router light still showed green. Router needs to be power cycled before connections recover. Sadly, the bug remains regardless of whether or not Bluetooth is activated on the phone.

Sep 24, 2020 5:43 AM in response to LaPastenague

Same here. iPhone 11 on iOS 14 and a 2TB time capsule. What temporary fixes it is switching wifi calling off and in the wifi settings for that specific SSID switching "private address" off.

Time capsule always worked like a charm and is on latest firmware (latest update 2yrs ago?), did change the security from WPA/WPA2 personal to WPA2 personal but that didn't fix it.

My observation is that it occurs regardless if you really use wifi calling or whatsapp calling. Whenever a device is on iOS 14 with wifi calling and private adress on, the wifi always crashes after some time. After switching wifi calling and private address off it didn't happen again, wifi is stable for more than a day now.

With multiple iOS 14 devices connecting via wifi, it is hard to change the setup of the time capsule, sometimes it crashed just minutes after power cycle.

Really annoying! Loved my time capsule, but I think it is time to move on.

jcavalie Author

Level 1

25 points

Sep 24, 2020 12:21 PM in response to jcavalie

So, I had calls with a senior Apple Tech yesterday morning and this morning. Unfortunately, the suggestions passed along from the engineers weren't all that helpful: 1) have a tried to forget the network and rejoin?; 2) have I tried my iPhone on any friends' networks to see if the same problem occurs on different equipment. I explained that I'd done "1" many times. And I explained for "2" that I have a separate guest network on Airport Express devices, on a separate VLAN, and that I had not been able to reproduce the problem there. I also told them that since we didn't seem to be making much progress and that I needed reliable Wifi, that I had an Eero Pro setup overnighted to me and had installed that in place of my Airport Extremes and that so far (only 12 hours installed and a couple WiFI calls and FaceTimes) that setup has been completely stable. So...at this point, I've sadly moved on to updated gear from my 10 year old 5th gen Airport Extremes. I have the Eeros in same config as the Extremes were - 3 APs, hardwired back to main switch and router, in Bridge mode.

The senior tech I spoke with was genuinely apologetic that I made the switch. They will continue to troubleshoot, but she said they can't engage in the forums. They read them, but unless others call in and work with support, they can't directly engage and continue to capture further diagnostics, etc.

Good luck to everyone - I hope they resolve this. iOS14 shouldn't crash Wifi. All the best.

Sep 24, 2020 1:54 PM in response to ToniOni

FYI I live in Germany and use WiFi calling with Deutsche Telekom so it is absolutely possible here. But I experienced the issues described in this discussion and have currently turned off WiFi calling and private addressing. Since doing this WiFi has been stable for me. Maybe an employee does have WiFi calling on a private phone?

Nic P

Level 1

129 points

Sep 26, 2020 10:06 AM in response to jcavalie

I am experiencing the same thing. The only thing that has happened in the last few days is updating my iOS devices to 14.0.1

I have been testing iOS 14 Public beta and MacOS 11 Public, and no problems until we updated some devices at home to iOS 14.0.1

LanceAJ

Level 1

32 points

Sep 27, 2020 3:55 PM in response to jcavalie

I have this problem too. I have many iOS 14.0 devices and we use WiFi calling. We run a (normally) awesome A1408 Airport Extreme with up-to-date firmware. Now it seems to crash, and the "Green" LED seems to get stuck on Green. All the SSIDs seem to "disappear", and DHCP doesn't seem to respond when clients are attached via Ethernet. This started happening a few days ago (September 24th 2020). Restarting the router via a power cycle seems to temporarily address the issue. I swapped my A1408 with another "good" A1408 that I keep as a spare. It has the same issue.

Sep 21, 2020 2:11 PM in response to jcavalie

Links to the support forums for iPhone and iPad

iPhone.........Using iPhone

iPad........Using iPad

Sep 21, 2020 4:02 PM in response to jcavalie

Same Problem here. I have 2 AirPort Extreme. When someone calls me with VoWifi enabled, the wifi crashes.

7.8.1
7.9.1

Sep 21, 2020 8:01 PM in response to jcavalie

Looking forward to hearing the results of your next call with tech support.

iOS14 Wi-Fi calling crashing Wi-Fi on 5th gen Airport Extremes