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

Similar questions

42 replies

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 23, 2020 5:49 PM in response to ep2002

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.

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?

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 24, 2020 12:48 PM in response to jcavalie

14.0.1 update fixes the crash. Confirmed.

Sep 24, 2020 2:05 PM in response to NikHalligan

Update your phone to 14.0.1.

ep2002

Level 1

4 points

Sep 24, 2020 7:39 PM in response to jcavalie

I believe that iOS14.0.1 update fixed the crash as well.

If anything changes, I'll keep ya'll posted.

Sep 25, 2020 12:57 AM in response to ep2002

Here the same. iOS 14.0.1 fixes the crashes.

Sep 27, 2020 7:53 AM in response to jcavalie

Same here. Updating fixed the issue.

Sep 27, 2020 4:03 PM in response to LanceAJ

If you have read the other posts in this thread, you will see that updating the iOS devices to 14.0.1. It has solved the issue for most users.

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

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