iPhone 4 cannot connect to home Wi-Fi

Hello all,

here is my story:

- same public wi-fi network

- two iPhone 4's

- same version (4.3.3 8J2), same modem firmware (04.10.01), same GSM network (because of roaming, home providers differ - T Mobile Sk and Orange SK, but now logged in T Mobile HR on both - having holidays)

- one connected from very first moment without any problem, second never (sees network, shows full signal, but "Unable to join network")

The ONLY difference in between these two is:

- the one which works is model MC605B

- the one which never worked is model MC605CS

Enjoy!

Juraj.

After over a month of trying everything suggested here I changed the radio channel selection in my Airport to manual, chose a different channel to the default (Channel 6 instead of 1) and IT WORKED!!!

I have stayed connected with two iPhone 4's and an older 3GS without problems.

Yay!

Hi. I have a solution, it is not perfect but it worked for me. I am not a computer wizzard so don't ask me any questions as to why this worked or didn't I can' only tell you what I did.

About 1 year ago now my iphone would suddenly no longer connect to my home wifi network. All the other computers and printers were fine but my iphone just would not connect. Sometimes if I was lucky when I restarted the modem it would think about working for a minute or 2 and then again give me the message either "unable to connect" or "connection timed out".

I live in Florence Italy by the way. The Apple Store here was completely useless and no help at all.

When I was in NYC last november the genius team there were also baffled. I had tried all the reset solutions (no luck), all the forum suggesions painstakingly followed through (no luck).

I have followed lots of frustrated comments about exactly this problem over the last year. It seems we are not alone with this problem and it is triggered by an update and there is no known solution.

TODAY....my iphone works again. YIPEE!!

So what I did was buy a mac time machine. Yes, unfortunately Apple's mistakes have caused me to spend more money with them, but I have solved my problem and bought a very goog back up devise into the deal.

So then I followed the instructions and set up the TIME MACHINE, when you set it up to your normal modem ( the one that you can't at the moment connect to), you have the opportunity to set it up to create a wifi network. Name your wifi network whatever you like and give it a password (this has to be different from the wifi network that currently comes from your modem). Follow through all the set up steps.

Finally at the end you have your old wifi network (I think it still works I have not tested it yet I am so thrilled to have my iphone working again I don't want to mess it up by pressing the wrong button), and you have your NEW wifi network that goes through the TIME MACHINE (please excuse my technical language, I really don't know how to describe all this stuff in computer lingo). The new one from the TIME MACHINE works on the iphone.

It is a kind of bypass solution, not cheap and I am still annoyed the Apple did not sort this out for me, but hey....I'm over it already, what are you going to do.

Good luck.

Please don't bother telling me I am wrong or have misunderstood the problem, or could have easily done it another way....that will only be really annoying as I have been carefully and intelligently trying to solve this problem for over a year, and all I want now is to SHARE and hope it helps.

Ciao.

HI everyone, I've tried the solutions here and a bit freaked on what to do. Same home network, nothing changed or altered. Ipads and Macbook work fine. Suddenly Iphone won't connect to Wifi. It shows in Network Preferences that it has connected with the checkmark, but in the header there is the little circle that indicates cell data only. I've restarted the phone a couple of times as well - it connects to the network for a couple minutes then the Wifi drops out. I've forgotten the network a couple of times to no avail. Latest software updates etc.

any thoughts?

I've been having a similar issue -- sometimes my iPhone 4 (Ver 4.3.5) will not connect to WI-FI, and sometimes it won't connect to AT&T when trying to place a call.

In both of those two incidents, turning the iPhone off and back on "fixed" it.

I have 3 iOS devices, an iPhone 4, iPod touch 4th generation and an iPad 2. My wifi router is on the ground floor of my house and somewhere in the middle of the whole house. As a result I get good signal throughout my home.

All my iOS devices connect fine to the router when I am on the ground floor but as soon as I go up I cannot connect unless I am in the room directly above the router. My laptop connects fine and shows a strong signal in the entire upper floor. All iOS devices however give an unable to join message despite showing a strong signal themselves.

Here's what finally worked for me:

1. Go to your Router's configuration utility. Remove all wireless security (I had been running WPA2 AES).

2. Connect your iPhone to your home network, without the security. Should work. You might also check the settings for IPaddress, router, DNS and Subnet so that you can set up with a Static connection if all else fails.

3. Now "forget" the unsecured network on your iphone

4. Now go back to your router and reapply security as you desire it (recommend WPA2 + AES). Delete and retype the password in the router wireless setup if it is still filled in from before.

5. Go back to iPhone and try to connect again. This worked for me. Note that you may have to reconnect your other home devices, but that's simple.

Perhaps you can try to do this, go to your router's wireless settings and look for MAC filtering settings. Check if your IOS device's MAC address or name is in the disallow list or whatever it says. If it is then put the MAC address or name back into the allow list and save then try. Try and see what happens.

Sorry if this is a repost but i havent read thru 16 pages.... I've been having constant issues on my girlfriends WiFi network (so has she) but our phones and iPad work at my place - no problem. What worked for us.... Her router was set up using WEP encryption. Mine was WPA2. When I changed her encryption to WPA2... problem solved. Havent had any issues since. I cant remember where I picked up that tip but there's supposedly a bug when trying to connect to a WEP encrypted network.

First off, I had the exact same problem. My Iphone 4 would connect to WIFI everywhere except my home WIFI network. Here is what fixed my problem; and yes I know it seems improbable if not impossible but it is the router that is causing the issue. I called Apple and took notes whille I was onlilne with tech support. Hopefully it will help others that are still having this issue.

1. Unplug your home router

2. Go into your I-phone settings, WIFI, find your network, go all the way to the rioght find the blue circle with arrow in it and tap that.

3.Now hit "forget this network at the top of the page

4. Now go back to Iphone settings--general, all the way to the bottom of the page and hit reset

5. Next hit "RESET NETWORK SETTINGS"

6. Enter your pass code and this will cause your iphone to cycle off and then back on

7. Plug your rotuer back in

8. Once your Iphone has cycled back on goto settings WIFI and find your network

9. Once located tap it and enter your passcode

10. Your I phone WIFI should now be restored.

The way it was explained to me is that sometimes your router just sends invalid IP address out and your Iphone will not except them, thus causing the WIFI will not connect issue. I could not get my IPHONE to connect to my WIFI for almost a week, so that is why I broke down and called tech support. While this may not fix everyones problem, I hope it helps.

-Cj

I figured out a solution that worked for my iPhone4. I turned off the 3g and cellular data and the wifi kicked right in. Im assuming that the phone is having issue with all the connection options to used. Give it a try and let me know if if it works for anyone else. Go into settings-> General->Network-> Turn off enable 3G and Cellular Data.

For what its worth I had intermittent problems which seemed to start when I first go my Iphone4. About once per day the WiFi link to all devices would drop out and I had to reset the router to re-establish WiFi. I put up with this for quite a while untilI finally contacted the ISP. They finally changed the router to a later "better" version but shortly after they left my home the problem started again; this time much more frequent, every few minutes but it would recover by itself. I finally decided that that the chances of two faulty routers was remote so I reset my Iphone4. PROBLEM FIXED!, How one WiFi device could effect the other devices is beyond me but given the simplicity of the fix its worth a go. I have not gone back to the orginal router to check if it was also ok. Might do it one day out of curiousity.

I do not think the router is the problem. My wife and I both have iPhone 4's with 4.3.2 ios software. We too have a home network. My phone connects to the network without any issues. But my wifes does not connect to the same network that I connect to???.

Korthal writes:

Have you updated the Router Firmware, as I don't see that mentioned. If the router is older it's quite possible that the iOS version isn't compatible with the current Router Firmware.

I had an old d-link router that worked fine with my iPhone, until recently. Then I started having the wifi connection problem so I bought a brand new D-link with wpa/wpa2 running. I still can not connect to a home network.

back to the drawing board...

I had same problem with wife's iPhone 4 and iPad . . . had to fix both with steps 4-6 in the procedure MadmX posted . . . going to the "General" settings . . . General-->Reset-->Reset Network Settings . . . and then reconnecting to the WiFi network after they rebooted. Both reconnected to the home WiFi network just fine afterward. Did not need to disable the cellular network or cellular data connection on either, or reset the home WiFi routers (4 of them in a meshed WiFi network . . . why is another story for another time).