WiFi Speeds (iPhone 12 Pro Max)

I am having the same similar problem. I tried many different phones with many different connections. The result is the same; wi-fi is very slow. Very annoying. this problem cannot be ignored and should be fixed as soon as possible. Because we didn't buy an ordinary phone for a normal price.

Today I am noticing this iPhone 12 Pro Max WiFi issue may be related to Bluetooth. With Bluetooth connections to Apple Watch and Bluetooth headphones turned off my WiFi speeds increased to normal. When bluetooth turned on with Apple Watch WiFi speed dropped about 30% and then when adding on bluetooth headphones (Jabra) my WiFi speed dropped to almost nothing.

Seems like an issue for some kind of firmware update. For now I will just turn off bluetooth when using WiFi and see how consistent that is keeping the 12 Pro Max WiFi speeds up to normal. ThankYou, iSi

Oh wow you are correct! I have never seen this kind of Bluetooth firmware bug that would impact wifi speeds. Bluetooth and wifi are isolated I believe so this shouldn’t be happening. I can confirm that speeds increased not very significantly but did improve with Bluetooth completely off. I have iPhone 12 mini.

They shouldn’t conflict (they don’t in any other models). The frequencies aren’t that different; 2.4 GHz for Wi-Fi, 2.6 GHz for BT. And the 5 GHz is twice the middle frequency of the low band and BT, and I’m sure the microwave designers took advantage of that (I would, if I was still designing microwave systems). I don’t think the problem is in the chip, but it could be related to power consumption of the chip.

But the fact that the Wi-Fi problem occurs whether there is a BT device connected or not would argue against that being the issue, because BT is not transmitting when there is no device connected.

Someone with dual band WiFi could experiment and see if the iPhone 12 Pro Max WiFi speeds are only impacted when on 2.4GHz band. The iPhone XS Max and iPhone 7S Plus that I tested on the 2.4GHz WiFi band didn't seen to have any issues with slower speeds with bluetooth on. As these devices get more complicated and employ more RF frequencies issues may arise that degrade performance of certain functions.

Actually after my post I checked what network I was connecting to and it was the 2.4 GHz side of my router, when I switched to the 5 GHz side and did a speed test I reached over 350 gbps, that’s 50 over my current subscribed service speed...

Tut, your phone seeks out WiFi signals when WiFi is on, when it’s off it reverts to cellular signals for everything.

when you are away from WiFi its best to turn WiFi off as the phone is constantly looking for it, that’s why when you turn WiFi off sometimes things stabilize.

if I’m home, I turn airplane mode on so my phone works only on WiFi, when I’m out I turn both airplane off and WiFi off.

if you want a true speed test on your new 12, place it on airplane mode and turn WiFi in and your phone will rely solely on your WiFi internet signal. Lastly a true test of your WiFi signal should be on your 5g signal side of your router.

I have a dual band modem so I named one to identify the 5 GHz as that’s the real fast one! 2.4 MHZ maxes out at below 100 Mbps...

avongugg wrote:

when you are away from WiFi its best to turn WiFi off as the phone is constantly looking for it, that’s why when you turn WiFi off sometimes things stabilize.

That is not correct. It is best to leave Wi-Fi on all the time. First, the phone is not constantly “looking” for it. It does listen for WiFi networks, both to connect if it recognizes a known one, but primarily to refine location services. But as it is just listening it uses little power. GPS only works outdoors with a clear view of the sky, so indoors or amidst tall buildings it uses known WiFi networks to determine where it is.

Then WiFi is off anyway most of the time when the phone is locked, so turning it off is redundant.

If you expect to be able to locate a lost or stolen phone using FindMe you need WiFi to be on for location services to work.

Sammax12 wrote:

I Had the issue,

The only thing that helped was Turning on Configure Proxy Automatic.

Wifi /press on Your wifi network / Configure Proxy / Auto..

As that is the default, I assumed that everyone with this problem had their proxy set to automatic. There is no reason to ever set it to anything else. If it is not automatic your speed will be limited by the speed of the proxy server you are connected to, or, if you are using VPN, to the speed of the VPN server. But VPN connections will ALWAYS be slower than direct connections, even with a competent VPN provider, because every packet must be encrypted and decrypted twice, once at each end of the tunnel, which adds considerable overhead.

ThankYou Sammax12,

Turning on Configure Proxy Automatic

(Wifi /press on Your wifi network / Configure Proxy / Auto.)

Worked to resolve slow WiFi speeds with BlueTooth turned on.

All my devices had that Proxy Configuration turned off as the default setting so I reset to Auto.

The majority of people do not use proxy VPN services. Your particular case makes sense but unlikely the common cause.

I do believe the actual common cause is people who run a speed test over a 2.4 GHZ connection expecting higher speeds. 2.4 GHZ is limited below 100 Gbps, with more people now having newer 5 GHz or dual band modems on service above 100 Gbps this becomes an issue.

my home has two bands, one is 2.4 GHz and it can only reach about 90 Mbps, my other band is 5 GHz and it provides me 350 Mbps. Each of my two bands are named differently so I know which is the 2.4 and which is the 5.0 GHz. I didn’t notice my phone was connecting to the 2.4 as before I upgraded my home from 100 mbps to 300 mbps it didn’t really matter, but with my new higher speeds, to benefit I have to connect to the 5 GHz...

Some people name both of their router bands with the same name and password.... if so, that’s not good practice.

I hope this clears things up, I do not believe there is any issue with my or anyone else’s iPhone 12 pro max, just operator issues.

No there is definitely something wrong with the modem firmware. Turning off Bluetooth will improve wifi speeds but when turning on Bluetooth will degrade my wifi speeds. I’ve changed routers, reset network settings, have 1gbps connection, and never use the 2.4ghz signal for my devices. I use only 5ghz with MIMO and 1024QAM.

Not the case for me at all. I’ve split my wifi between 2.4 ghz and 5 ghz connections. Even connecting to only my 5 ghz connection I still get a slower speed. So I’m still hopeful that a software fix for iOS will address the issue. It’s definitely a problem with the phone software. I have the iPhone 12 Pro Max.

It seems like a lot of people have devised multiple methods of getting to the same conclusion. The common denominator here are the devices (12 Pro Max in mine and a lot of other cases) and the fix has to be made at the device level.

I’m not going to download any iOS updates, those cause further issues or create problems and slowly make the iPhone slow till it needs replacing, built in obsolescence! My new iPhone works perfectly as is...