Still experiencing frequent Wi-Fi drops on iPhone 17 Pro Max after updating to iOS 26.0.1

I finally fixed my iPhone 17 Pro Max yesterday (was having the same issue as OP even after the update). Turns out running a VPN or having this setting toggled on is affecting the connectivity/ signal with wifi and mobile.

Delete any VPN configuration. Settings > General > VPN & device management

Hope this works for you as well…

Britcom wrote:

I hope you’re correct but to receive three phones all with the same issue is a remarkable coincidence. I’ve tried all the fixes including trying different networks to no avail. I suspect we will start to hear more about this issue as people realize there is no software fix after months of waiting.

The logical conclusion is that the problem has nothing to do with iPhone hardware or software, and almost certainly has to do with either your router or something you have installed on your iPhones.

Here’s one way to test: Back up the phone, then restore the phone to factory settings:Restore your iOS device to factory settings - Apple Support. Then, before you install anything, see if the problem still exists. If it doesn’t then the problem is caused by some 3rd party technology you have installed, such as an app that purports to “clean” your iPhone, or more likely a poorly designed VPN.

Next, try several networks in addition to your home network (Starbuck’s, local café, your public library, a mall, etc). If the problem is only on your Home network its caused by your router, not your iPhone.

Zaqualieff wrote:

I had this issue and was banging my head on the wall trying to figure it out and then it dawned on me.

My issue was that when I set the phone up, I told it to copy everything from my old iPhone. My old iPhone had a VPN running and it was still on when it was copied so the new phone showed as not having a VPN however it was using the VPN settings from the old phone which blocked the internet thus causing the drop off.

To fix this issue, I installed the VPN I was using on the old phone, turned it on and off a couple of times and it reset the settings and worked as normal.

Note: The new phone said there was no VPN running, so it appeared as though there wasn’t one.

hope this helps some people :)

That’s what the top ranking reply says at the top of this page.

Have you tried restarting the router? Each connection between a router and a device is unique. Devices that are more or less permanently connected such as a computer have it easy; they keep the same connection and same IP address for months; devices that travel and return regularly are essentially new devices to the router each time they reconnect; they need a new IP address and must sign in again. Routers that have not been restarted in a long time can run out of resources or fail to assign an IP address.

I had this issue and was banging my head on the wall trying to figure it out and then it dawned on me.

My issue was that when I set the phone up, I told it to copy everything from my old iPhone. My old iPhone had a VPN running and it was still on when it was copied so the new phone showed as not having a VPN however it was using the VPN settings from the old phone which blocked the internet thus causing the drop off.

To fix this issue, I installed the VPN I was using on the old phone, turned it on and off a couple of times and it reset the settings and worked as normal.

Note: The new phone said there was no VPN running, so it appeared as though there wasn’t one.

hope this helps some people :)

Richard Harris2 wrote:

That isn’t helpful: different network topologies and vendors have different configurations, whilst remaining compliant to 802.11 - so a product that doesn’t work in a standard environment when every other device does, has a problem.

And, to blithely tell people to delete their VPNs (not just one provider whose own implementation may be causal) is equally unhelpful, as people have real use cases for VPNs. It’s isn’t acceptable for a vendor (Apple in this case) to simply ignore the need for a feature that is explicitly supported in the OS.

Apple needs to properly acknowledge and address this.

An important and frequently overlooked fact is that when you install VPN it configures itself to the specific hardware, OS version and network that the device uses. If any of those change it can break the VPN. So any time you change any of these you may need to delete the VPN app and profile, restart your device, then add them back (if you still want to use VPN) so it can configure itself to the new environment.

Here’s more detail: VPN: What you need to know - Apple Community

drummerboy04 wrote:

Hey coffee.

I did not end up getting a new phone. I did book a Genius Bar appt and the tech performed a full restore of the phone. So essentially it removed the OS and stalled a fresh, new OS. It has probably fixed the issue about 95%. I have only had one drop from CarPlay and I’d say the amount of drops from my WiFi is similar, if not better, than my 16 pro max.

If you’re 300 miles away from an Apple Store I’d connect it to your Mac (or windows machine through iTunes) and perform a full restore. It will wipe everything from your phone. Have to setup as a new phone too. That basically did it for me 🤷‍♂️

Did you have VPN originally? Did you reinstall?

D3ad-d0g-T1r3d wrote:

the reason you may be experiencing this is because the version you have has millions of errors. It’s like how iOS 18 started, there were so many errors on it until they kept on changing iOS 18, now it’s perfect. You should get iOS 26.2 for a better experience

Maybe they should get iOS 26.3 as it is the most current iOS version and it fixed a number of bugs and issues.

Sq8045 wrote:

It’s the latest iPhones, not the network. Members of my family all have iPhones ranging from 13 to my 17proMax, all on the latest IOS. Mine is the only one to keep dropping its Wi-Fi.

And yet most people with newer phones don't have this problem. So, while it may not be the network, it may be your phone specifically.

First question. Are you using a VPN? If so, remove it and try again.

Mohammad-Hammoud wrote:

I hope somebody finds this helpful, but the only workaround for me was through a hotspot. At home, I open a hotspot from my laptop connected to the wifi my phone struggles with, and when my phone connects to the hotspot, I get no wifi drops at all! Hope this helps

That means that is almost certain that the problem is with your router.

I hope somebody finds this helpful, but the only workaround for me was through a hotspot. At home, I open a hotspot from my laptop connected to the wifi my phone struggles with, and when my phone connects to the hotspot, I get no wifi drops at all! Hope this helps

Apple can however fix its devices failures that are not common mode to every other mobile device in use - IoW, anything that doesn't use an N1 chip. In terms of network configuration, I'd suggest turning off anything that's an 'unofficial' extension to the standard, such as fast roaming and band steering, and seeing if that helps. (They didn't in my case).

The next thing I'd try is resetting your network settings. Settings>General>Transfer or Reset Phone>Reset>Reset Network Settings.

After that, I'd restore the phone to factory state and test it. If it works then, it would suggest you have some corruption somewhere. Sadly, that's tedious to troubleshoot.