WiFi disconnect problem in 16.5

I have a problem that seems to have started in 16.4 but has continued in 16 5. My iPhone 14 pro max disconnects from WiFi once or twice a day and I have to reboot it to get the WiFi back. I have a max ok air and iPad Pro that are on the same WiFi network and they haven’t had this problem


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my iPhone

Posted on May 28, 2023 5:28 PM

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Posted on Nov 9, 2023 8:59 AM

apple has no idea, talked to their support team and have no answers.. just ridiculous, your company is worth a trillion dollars and u cant get ur flagship product to stay connected to wifi, but sure add 6 more security steps so it takes me 30 minutes to login to this forum. tech is so overcomplicated at this point the people who make it dont even know whats going on or dont care enough to address issues.

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Nov 9, 2023 8:59 AM in response to needleman_mark

apple has no idea, talked to their support team and have no answers.. just ridiculous, your company is worth a trillion dollars and u cant get ur flagship product to stay connected to wifi, but sure add 6 more security steps so it takes me 30 minutes to login to this forum. tech is so overcomplicated at this point the people who make it dont even know whats going on or dont care enough to address issues.

May 28, 2023 5:54 PM in response to needleman_mark

For your edification: Wi-Fi normally connects to a router, which assigns an IP address using a protocol called DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol). But it’s possible to also use Wi-Fi to connect a group of devices to each other rather than to the Internet in what is called an ad-hoc network. Ad-hoc networks use IP addresses in the range that starts with 169.254.0.0. Each device in the ad-hoc network creates its own IP address in this range. When you connect a device to a network it will "ask" the router for an IP address using DHCP. If it doesn’t get an IP address assigned within 30 seconds it assumes that it is an ad-hoc network and assigns itself a random address in the range 169.254.x.y.


There is a common failure mode in many routers where the DHCP “daemon” process in the router fails, and it stops assigning IP addresses, so a new device connecting to the network will self-assign. But any device connected to the router that already has an IP address will continue to work. This makes it look like the problem is the phone, because everything else connected still works, but it’s actually the fact that the router is no longer assigning IP addresses. While it can happen to any device using the router the problem is more common with phones that disconnect when they go out of range, and reconnect when you get “home” and thus get a new IP address assigned. Rebooting the router restarts the DHCP daemon and resolves the problem.


The reason it happens with many different routers is that most routers have the same underlying open source operating system. It’s primarily a problem with routers more that a few years old; newer ones from top tier manufacturers rarely have this problem.

Sep 4, 2023 6:23 AM in response to needleman_mark

I think there’s something up with the last iOS update. Everyone who has entered my house with an iPhone has issues connecting to Wi-Fi but the android phones work fine. We’ve tried everything and we still lose Wi-Fi connection randomly. It’s not just when we set the phones down. We’ll be searching something and then the Wi-Fi will drop out. We’ve even tried to mess with settings on the router but it doesn’t change.

Nov 24, 2023 4:30 PM in response to pczar3

I found the solution to my problem. The Motorola modem offers WPS as one of the security modes. It states that Apple stopped supporting this in March of 21. I left it enabled in case one of my other devices was using it. Today I disabled the use of WPS and the iPhone now behaves as it should. After months of chasing this, all I had to do was turn off WPS. I hope this helps someone else out there.

May 28, 2023 5:42 PM in response to needleman_mark

needleman_mark Said:

"WiFi disconnect problem in 16.5: I have a problem that seems to have started in 16.4 but has continued in 16 5. My iPhone 14 pro max disconnects from WiFi once or twice a day and I have to reboot it to get the WiFi back. I have a max ok air and iPad Pro that are on the same WiFi network and they haven’t had this problem "

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Report back if anything here helps...

Troubleshooting iPhone WiFi:

A few thoughts to try:


I. Start Here: If your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch won't Connect to a Wi-Fi Network - Apple Support


II. Clear the Temporary Internet Files:


III. Restart your Router:

  1. Power: off the router
  2. Wait: 30 seconds
  3. Power: It back on


IV. Reconnect to your Network:

  1. Go to: Settings
  2. Tap: Wi-Fi
  3. Disable: Wi-Fi
  4. Wait: 30 seconds
  5. Enable: Wi-Fi


V. Add Back the Network:

  1. Go to: Settings
  2. Tap: Wi-Fi
  3. Remove: the network
  4. Wait: 30 seconds
  5. Add: the network back

May 28, 2023 5:57 PM in response to needleman_mark

needleman_mark Said:

"WiFi disconnect problem in 16.5": I’ve already tried most of those things: i don’t see how resetting the WiFi router will help (although I’ve tried that) since other devices connected to that router aren’t having any problems"

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Why to Reset the Router:

Two pure examples...

A. New IP Address:

If you are using DHCP for your internet protocol configuration on your router, then you'll get a new IP Address.


B. Power Spike or Power Spur:

Sometimes there may be utility wrk down the street, and the WiFi goes out for a moment or so.

May 28, 2023 5:56 PM in response to needleman_mark

needleman_mark wrote:

I have a problem that seems to have started in 16.4 but has continued in 16 5. My iPhone 14 pro max disconnects from WiFi once or twice a day and I have to reboot it to get the WiFi back. I have a max ok air and iPad Pro that are on the same WiFi network and they haven’t had this problem


If you turn off Wi-Fi (rather than the phone), then turn it back on does it reconnect?

Sep 4, 2023 8:00 AM in response to richelle241

Perhaps its a VPN issue? Are you using VPN on the iPhones? Have you tried forgetting the network, then reconnecting? This really seems to be a local problem, because with 2 billion iPhones in use if it was a widespread problem you would see millions of posts about it. If you consider that only about 500 million of those 2 billion have the latest iOS version of 16.6 that would still result in millions of posts.

Nov 11, 2023 4:46 PM in response to pczar3

I have a Motorola Model MT8733. In the router setup, they make a comment about Apple not supporting some mode. I wonder if that is what is going on. What routers are others using? My phone will disconnect randomly. I have even turned the power saver mode off on the modem so It is always broadcasting with full power.

WiFi disconnect problem in 16.5

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