Spectrum Wi-Fi automatically connects to my iPhone 13. Help!!

As an update to my previous reply:

Even after the recent iOS update to 16.5.1 (c) and a first round of escalated technical support from Spectrum Mobile, it is still not working correctly!! (my iPhone still auto joins the Spectrum Mobile Wi-Fi networks any chance it can, even sometimes before it connects to my local home network). However, something seems to have changed slightly in that it will now more reliably attach to my home Wi-Fi before attaching to the Spectrum Mobile network, but it will sometimes connect to Spectrum Mobile at home & aside from turning my Wi-Fi OFF, I cannot prevent the iPhone from attaching to any available Spectrum Mobile Wi-Fi network if it is available.

TLDR:

I did (finally) receive a call from the Spectrum escalated technical support & they walked me through a few more settings to attempt (changing settings in the Managed Network settings) ... but in the end these changes did not fix the problem either:

Managed Settings are found under the iOS Settings -> Wi-Fi -> Edit (accessed in the upper right corner of the screen), I guess I had missed these before ...

You will see numerous Spectrum & Spectrum Mobile (and one Spectrum Free Trial) networks ... going into each one individually and turning the Auto-Join setting off. I also turned the Auto-Login setting off for Spectrum Free Trial network.

Turning all networks listed to OFF did not fix the problem (I even ensured Auto-Join was OFF for the other networks listed too (optimum and XFINITY) ... I'm not sure if these were also inserted by Spectrum to provide other connections through other network agreements.

What would basically happen is that this seemed to pause the auto-joining to any of the Spectrum Mobile Wi-Fi networks for about a minute or two. However, as soon as I left my home to walk around the block, it would automatically start searching for Wi-Fi networks and would inevitably find another Spectrum or Spectrum Mobile network access point somewhere and eventually connect (after a little spinning wheel icon shows up for awhile, like it is doing some network negotiation). And then after auto-connecting to a Spectrum Wi-Fi network ... when I go back into the Managed Network settings, at least 1 or 2 of the Spectrum networks will suddenly have the Auto-Join feature turned back ON (even though I just turned this off!!). Very frustrating!

So, I'm now waiting on another call back from Spectrum's escalation department (again) to see if they have some other fix.

By the way - if anybody from Apple Support is monitoring this thread: PLEASE help us users actually take back control of our phones that WE own!! Thank you.

Reset Network Settings: Only network settings are removed.

• When you reset network settings, previously used networks and VPN settings that weren’t installed by a configuration profile or mobile device management (MDM) are removed. Wi-Fi is turned off and then back on, disconnecting you from any network you’re on. The Wi-Fi and Ask to Join Networks settings remain turned on.
• To remove VPN settings installed by a configuration profile, go to Settings > General > Profiles & Device Management, select the configuration profile, then tap Remove Profile. This also removes other settings and accounts provided by the profile. See Install or remove configuration profiles on iPhone in this guide.
• To remove network settings installed by MDM, go to Settings > General > Profiles & Device Management, select the management, then tap Remove Management. This also removes other settings and certificates provided by MDM. See “Mobile device management (MDM)” in the iOS Deployment Reference.
• Reset your Network Settings. Tap Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings. This also resets Wi-Fi networks and passwords, cellular settings, and VPN and APN settings that you've used before.

If the above fails....

Go to Settings > General > Reset > Reset All Settings

• What this effectively does is to reset some of your Settings to factory default. It’s not a complete removal of settings. It removes all of your preferences for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Do No Disturb, Notifications, General, Sounds, Brightness & Wallpaper and Privacy.
• Resetting all settings also reverts all your personalized and customized features like wallpapers and accessibility settings back to factory defaults.
• Performing this action does not impact any of your personal device data, including photos, videos, notes, messages, reminders, emails, calendars, texts, documents, and other files

I switched providers and I still have Spectrum Mobile under managed networks, and 4 of them. AND I still have Spectrum because I had had TV and internet with them as well. Don't have them for mobile, tv, or internet anymore, and everything is STILL there under managed networks, and cannot be removed. And Spectrum Mobile support was not helpful at all. They played dumb. Never even told me about this feature. Only found out when my hotspot was eaten up in a week. They virtually have none on any of their plans. Very invasive, forced to use my hot spot provided by my current carrier. Very bad. Worst move I ever made to switch to Spectrum mobile. Was with them for a relatively short period of time.

I have the exact same issue. Have tried just about everything, and it won;'t go away. Switched to another provider altogether, and it still won't go away. No other mobile provider ever did this. Captive network is right. So wrong! This should be addressed and fixed. Because I find it highly unethical what Spectrum is doing.

I'm having the same annoying problem!!

My configuration: iPhone 12 Pro, iOS v 16.5.1

btw: It seems that the "Managed Networks" option does not show up in iPhone settings anymore (new update of iOS?), but when I search for this it brings me to "General -> VPN & Device Management", which doesn't have any settings, connections, Profiles or Managed Networks listed on my device.

Basically, my iPhone will auto join any "Spectrum Mobile" WiFi network at sees at either Public hotspots, including (I suspect) ones that are turned ON in Spectrum Internet customers' WiFi routers. This network shows up under "My Networks" even though I've never done anything to explicitly connect to this. I have "Auto-Join" turned off for this network, but it continuously (and aggressively) auto-joins to this WiFi anytime it is visible, even at a higher priority than my own home WiFi network. Frustratingly, there is also no option in the "Spectrum Mobile" network details/Info page to Forget This Network (which is usually shown in blue at the top for other networks, like my home network or any other network you manually add).

I have followed all guidance from Spectrum Technical Support and what I could find online including:

• Reset Network Settings (my network connection was also reset on the back-end by Spectrum Mobile tech support), multiple times now.
• Made sure "Auto-Join" was off for "Spectrum Mobile" and even toggled it On/Off several times (at the suggestion of Spectrum Tech Support), with the network active and also with the network inactive ... nothing seems to change the behavior.
• Settings -> WiFi -> Auto-Join Hotspot is set to Never
• Reset and Power Off/On my iPhone many times & Toggled Airplane Mode and Wi-Fi On/Off many times, both in my home and away ... no luck (every time it sees a "Spectrum Mobile" hotspot it will always reconnect to this first, even in my home when it also sees my home WiFi network, almost like it is racing).
• Went to Apple Store & a Genius inspected my phone, diagnosed and checked settings and searched online articles and couldn't find anything wrong with the phone itself & pointed me to articles like this or on other internet sites.
• At Apple Genius' suggested: In the MySpectrum App, under "Services -> Advanced WiFi Settings", I turned OFF the "Spectrum Mobile Access Point" (I think this makes my Wi-Fi router available to other Spectrum Mobile users for a data connection & I think this is what my phone is connecting to in my apartment complex on other peoples' Wi-Fi networks ... now that I've turned this off on my own device).
• Note: I never turned on Speed Boost in the MySpectrum App or gave it the permissions to do this in the iPhone Permission settings.
• At the suggestion of the Spectrum Mobile tech support, I have now deleted the MySpectrum App (I was told that the app itself had extra profile information along with it that could force connections to these hotspots). This did not fix my problem (even after again Resetting the iPhone Network settings, reconnecting to my Wi-Fi, resetting my own home WiFi access Point, power cycling the iPhone again, toggling Wi-Fi On/Off, Airplane Mode On/Off, etc.).

Another thing I've noticed is that occasionally the Auto-Join option for the "Spectrum Mobile" network will turn itself on again out of the blue (perhaps during the process of other troubleshooting steps I've taken like resetting the Network settings ?). I always turn this back off again but it doesn't seem to respect this setting anyway. However, it would be nice if it just stayed Off when I set it to Off!

I've been having the same problem for several weeks now too, forcing me to manually connect to my home WiFi network in my own home (in order to connect to other smart devices in my home), which has gotten pretty annoying! Frustrating that I don't have control of what WiFi my own phone connects to! I'm very concerned about the security of this & don't like my phone connecting to unknown networks behind my back!

Spectrum Mobile Tech Support has now been escalated this issue to a higher level support to try and help resolve. However, I'm one step away from just switching providers as I've already wasted way too much time dealing with this issue.

My hunch is that Spectrum has done this intentionally to limit how much data they have to purchase through cell towers (especially for people on the Unlimited data plans) ... I guess they have to do something to control costs. Or this could be that there hidden network settings are just not compatible with a recent Apple iOS update?

Apple and/or Spectrum - Please Fix This! Or if someone has another suggestion (that I have not already tried), please forward. Thanks.

My iPhone 14 plus has 9 managed networks that I can’t get rid of. One of them is Xfinity. I would like to know why. I did a reset on my phone but when I logged back on to my Wi-Fi they are came back. Spectrum has no answers for me.

Hi, I resolved this issue recently with the help of an Apple tech support person when I called the apple.com number. What you have to do is not do a network reset, but "Erase All Content and Settings". Just make sure that you do a backup of your iPhone first. Then when you restore your iPhone, you make this restoration your "new iPhone". All "captive" managed networks that were previously on your phone that you could not get rid of will be erased because it resets your default settings to the factory settings. It is very easy to do, and restoring your iPhone from the back up (make sure you have updated your iPhone to the latest update first and include it in your backup as well) is very easy as well. Hope this helps!

There is nothing smooth or convenient in doing that. And unfortunately I find it absolutely appalling that is my “only” option to get rid of this issue. Things like this are reasons I would leave both Apple and my carrier and never look back.

I had the iPhone 12 and it did that exact same thing you described. I recently upgraded to the iPhone14 pro max and it does the same thing. It drives me insane because I have no idea how long it’s been set to Spectrum mobile! I have no data when I go out because it’s being eaten up while I’m sitting at home supposedly connected to my HOME WiFi. I don’t even notice it until, like you said, I start getting a lot of buffering and lo and behold, I go check my WiFi and it’s connected to, you’ll never guess…SPECTRUM MOBILE! I have to switch it back all the time!

I have turned OFF the auto join but it keeps turning itself back on. Once I was given the option to “forget this network” and I did but the next time I have buffering problems, I go check and there it is again, connected to spectrum mobile. I mean, it REALLY ****** me off that it keeps doing this. It’s not fair to us as consumers to have our data used up in such a manner by the company we trusted to give us the best prices around. So this is how you do it ??? I would love to have some answers but no one at spectrum knows anything about it. Like, REALLY?

Spectrum automatically attaches a mobile hotspot to your mobile phone account. You cannot remove it thru Spectrum either but you have two options to manage it. BEFORE-you begin - go to the setting for your device on your *Spectrum mobile app acct *and ensure Roaming for international is off - then make certain Roaming is off on your phone. Call spectrum and have them send you a new sim card. Do not put it in until you check the following steps on your iphone! Caution: if it connects you to that there are two reasons: 1). your router wifi signal is less strong than the mobile hotspot. 2). you must go into advanced settings Location Services:System Services --- turn off cell network search. You can ask an Apple expert which other services to turn off that fit your situation. Hint: generally Merchant can be turned off because your device will use any network to find Apple Pay locations. Then call spectrum, turn off your iphone, ask Spectrum to help restore the cell connection and put the new sim in with the Spectrum rep on the line.....so it updates without connecting you back to those pesky settings.. Hope this helps, as i learned this by being in your shoes a year ago

Thank you @interglobalmedia !

This appears to have fixed the issue for me too!

I will keep an eye on it longer term, but after backing up (Back up iPhone to Mac), "Erase All Content and Settings", and then restoring (Restore from Mac), and then following the additional steps as part of the restore process (setting up Wallet, FaceID, etc.) & then again turning off Auto-Join for all Managed Networks in the Settings -> Wi-Fi -> Edit -> Managed Networks ... I notice that the Spectrum Mobile network will still show up under Wi-Fi -> "My Networks", but does not auto connect anymore (at least not yet).

Anyway, thanks again for help resolving this very annoying issue.

Same here. Would love to get rid of them as I need to be on LAN for many functions on my iPhone.

I have the same problem!!! It’s under “Managed Networks”, I have FOUR called “Spectrum Mobile”. Overrides my home network even though all my settings are set to Ask to Join. A few weeks ago when my phone wouldn’t load anything & realized my wifi was connected to Spectrum mobile, then kept on connecting to it I turned ask to join on. But it started doing it again & so I just now went to Edit & saw there are three more identical “Spectrum Mobile” networks added all with Auto-Join turned on. Now I have all 4 auto-join turned off on them. Insane I never added them & can’t remove them. It’s super unsafe I realized it’s been connecting to random public Wi-Fi’s the whole time I never realized it was doing that.

I suggest going to networks Then Edit & see if there’s more than one “spectrum mobile” networks & make sure each one has auto-join off. They definitely snuck more on my phone cause I know there was only one a few weeks ago.

Also having this issue on my iphone 13 pro max, and im getting quite ****** off considering i just had two premature babies and my baby monitors are an eco system on my wifi network that i dont even connect to when im at home. called spectrum, they couldnt help, called apple, apple said to reset my entire device. that's laughable.

Hi @WitchxKing,

I fully understand your frustration & after trying to work around this headache of a problem and going through all of the other troubleshooting steps multiple times ... I was skeptical that the phone reset process would work. However, this did work for me (I did a full phone backup to my Macbook first and restored from that) & I've now been using the phone and accessing all smart devices on my own WiFi network again seamlessly again for a full month.

It takes a little bit of time (I couldn't use my phone for a couple of hours while the backup and the restore processes were happening), but I believe it would probably fix your problems.

FWIW: I was happy that all data and nearly every setting and app option was fully restored as part of this process & after the restore, there were very few other things that required tweaking again. Much smoother experience than I've had with other devices in the past (I'm looking at you, Android Oreo!), so Kudos to Apple for that!

Good luck.