iOS 14.0.1 wifi issues

Every iPhone ever made drops Wi-Fi 30 seconds after the phone goes to sleep to preserve the battery, unless it is connected to power. It isn’t random; it will happen every time, after 30 seconds. By design.

Lawrence, I updated to 14.2 when it became available. The problem started when we updated our iPhones to iOS 14. It persisted through 14.1, 14.1.1 and now on 14.2. I even reset the iPhone to factory settings and installed 14.2 at Apple's request.

I don't connect to any other Wi-Fi networks except my home network.

I have spent several hours with Apple support over multiple support calls. They ran remote diagnostics on the iPhone hardware and said it was fine. They claimed their software was fine and that I had a crowded Wi-F Channel. They said I should contact my router manufacturer and ISP.

I spent almost two hours on the phone with Cisco/Linksys. They assigned a senior engineer. He logged into my router, he checked software version and settings. He ran hardware diagnostics. He tested Wi-Fi network connectivity and performance from the iMac, iPhone, Windows PC and iPad. He tested through my ISP. I am getting 488 Mbps throughput on the 600Mbps service from Xfinity. He said I do not have an issue with the router hardware or software. My cable modem and ISP service are working great. He said I do NOT have a crowded Wi-Fi Channel. He said the issue appears to be with the iPhone's and iOS 14. He said the iPhone doesn't remember my network, it keeps forgetting my network. Every time the phone comes out of sleep mode, it starts searching for and doesn't connect with my network.

I am absolutely convinced that there is nothing wrong with my Wi-Fi router or network. I have 15 devices - including iMac, two MacBook Pros, 3 iPhones, 2 iPads, an LG TV, one Windows PC, and a couple other devices. Every other device works flawlessly except the three iPhones running iOS 14. We have plenty of bandwidth and typically never use more than 3-4 devices at at one time.

There seems to be an awful lot of iPhone users in the forum with the exact same problem. Several different router manufacturers and several different versions of iPhone. The common denominator seems to be iOS 14.

@steve.mccormick2

Did you see my previous post? What type of security does your wifi router use and/or is currently using (WPA/WPA2, etc)? This is more curiosity than anything but I am wondering if you have run into issues other have faced when using WP2, which iOS 14.x no longer supports (per Apple - see my post from a few days ago on page 16).

WPA/WPA2 is NOT a secure choice. You want WPA2(AES), WPA2-PSK(AES), WPA2 Personal, or WPA2-AES/WPA3.

Make sure you have the latest firmware in your router.

And you are correct, that model does not have WPA3.

Yes. As I said earlier, I have been the phone with Apple Support multiple times. I have tried everything in the book. Resetting Network settings. Forgetting Network and reestablishing connection. Thanks. Renewing the lease. I have even reset my iPhone Xs to factory settings and restored from backup. I have removed and reinserted the SIM Card. Turned Private Address off.

@steve.mccormick2

Thanks for sending the screenshot. As a method of elimination, I would try using one of the bottom two options WPA2/WPA Personal or Enterprise. Curious if your WiFi will remain stable after switching to that.

That has not worked for me or many of the other folks on this thread.

I've been on the phone with Apple Support multiple times. We tried EVERYTHING. Including a Reset to Factory Settings and restore from backup. It did not solve the problem. They ran diagnostics on the H/W - nothing wrong. They ran remote system diagnostics - nothing wrong. Problem still exists, especially after coming out of sleep mode or moving to certain parts of the house.

I have an Iphone XR and unluckily upgraded to ios 14, now is ios 14.2. My wifi issues in home network started afterwards this upgrade., my home router does not support advanced encryption methods, only wpa, wpa-tkip and wpa aes are supported, I am aware that apple has a bug in ios 14 and upper versions to support these encryption methods.

I tried everything, deleted all vpn apps, disabled private addresses etc. none of them helped me.

i saw in an entry that setting manual dns could help and did this. I defined google dns for my home network and it did work. Now I can use my iphone at home without any wifi interruptions.

RS.

Ray-TheBGTR wrote:

I am aware that apple has a bug in ios 14 and upper versions to support these encryption methods.

There is no such bug. Apple and iOS are happy to let you use insecure encryption methods. All that iOS is telling you is that your router is hackable and always has been. But you can continue to use your hackable router as long as you want to; it won’t interfere with your phone using Wi-Fi. It’s just a warning that bad people can monitor the traffic through your router.

If you have a problem with Wi-Fi it has nothing to do with that warning, and you need to troubleshoot it as you would any Wi-Fi issue.

R.S.

I've been fighting this issue for a couple months now, ever since we updated to iOS 14. I've been on multiple calls with Apple. Apple refuse to acknowledge that there may be an issue with iOS 14.

I would like to try your recommendation. Did the manual DNS change adversely affect other devices on your network? We have an iMac, two iPads, two MacBook Pros, PS4, and one Windows PC.

Do you have a link or details on how to you defined "google dns"? I will do some research, but I'm curious how you made the change.

Best regards,

Dear Steve,

I defined manuel DNS on my Iphone, thus, it didn’t have any affects to other devices in my home network.

in Wifi definition on iphone, select your network, push on (i) next to your network name, scroll down, in DNS section change it to manuel and enter first dns as 8.8.8.8 and secondary as 8.8.4.4.

this workaround solution worked for me, I hope works for you too!

bests,

RS.

In my point of view it is a bug. because it gives only "weak security" warning, seems connected to my home network, however does not work healthy. I needed to renew my wifi connection frequently. If Apple would announce that they don't support anymore these type of encryption that is OK, not a bug. I haven't seen any announcement regarding this issue, have you?

Lawrence, I'm still troubleshooting this with Apple Support. More time on the phone and repeating the same old steps (reset to factory and restore for the 4th time), which wasted a lot of time and solved nothing.

In the Developers Forum, there are discussions about Apple implementing DoH in iOS14 and the problems it caused with wifi. Symptoms sound very familiar. Any comment?

Not only me too but all my family too. Wife daughter grandchildren. Smart TV and Windows laptop work fine but iOS devices have to use mobile data and wifi only iPads have to hit spot into mobile data. Considering everything is online these days and considering mobile devices don’t have LAN ports and everything is expected to be wireless whether you want it or not this should be a top priority for fix at Apple. Considering it seems to have been introduced with v14 and wasn’t fixed in 14.0.1 and we are now at 14.3. Where is the prioritisation of this fix at?

Just upgraded my mom from the iPhone 6 to the iPhone 12 and my dad from the iPhone SE to the iPhone 11and they instantly started complaining that there is no internet. They continuously have to disable then enable WiFi for it to work. They keep complaining and want to go back to their old phones. Whatever Apple did to “improve” WiFi like the weak security message or the private address screwed it up.