iPhone 4 cannot connect to home Wi-Fi

Here I am, yet another iphone 4s user. I had wifi at work and at home just fine. Then it started to drop off. (probably after the latest software version) Now I can't connect at all at either place, I have reset the settings, i have forgotten the network, I have re-booted the booter and phone!. I have spoke to my service provider ...

What on earth can I do now?

It is so frustrating

I have had the same problem with my iphone 4S. I have read all of these posts and followed Redsohigh's post and changed my DND number to the one he had listed. The first one did not work but the second on did. Thanks Red!

Just to re-iterate an earlier point, flicking the switch on the router isn't enough........it needs to be off at least 30 seconds.

I spent 2 days trying to sort this issue out, it started when a second iPhone 4 was introduced to the household. Messed with all sorts of settings on both the phones, and the router. All it needed was a little 'quiet time' for the router and now everything's fine!

I too have just come to this problem. It was frustrating because I tried reseting the network. Turning off the phone. The router wouldn't accept my valid password. My iPhone saw the Extreme router loud and clear. The MacBook Pro and iPad were OK. But I finally got it to work by changing the router so that it didn't have a password. So I finally got my phone to connect, then I went back to the router and placed my password back. Why the #@%& it did this in the first place is unacceptable. Did you HEAR this Apple!

Having the same issue... My wife's iPhone 4 isn't connecting to the home WiFi

The interesting thing is the phone did connect fine for a number of weeks before running the update and now it doesn't connect at all to the home network however it has connected to another local wireless network within the area fine?

Tried all the above solutions with no joy and to top it all my own iPhone 4 connects with no problems at all.

iPhone 4 (unable to connect)

OS Version 5.1

Modem Firmware: 04.12.01

iPhone 4 (able to connect)

OS Version 4.2.1

Modem Firmware: 03.10.01

*two phones, same location, same router, same settings but only one can connect... difference... OS versions?

Lucky for me I never update to the latest OS 🙂 It's almost as if the latest update(s) have screwed with the default WiFi connection held within the phone preventing it from correcting or reloading the setting again. As most users seem to be able to connect to a wireless network just not their home networks (or the default network set within their phone prior to running the update).

For this many users expressing the same issues it's time the techno geeks at Apple look into it.

Well I have read most of these posts, here is my problem, and the temporary solution I have found to fix it.

I have a netgear router, never had any issues with it connecting laptops, phones etc. I've purchased my first iPhone4 yesterday, went to connect to wifi, and said it could not connect. I know I have the correct password along with everyone else on here, so I did some research. What seems to be working for me temporarily is. I just downloaded the newest version of ios as well, if that matters which im sure it does because there are a ton of kinks in all new versions.

1. Finding the reset button on the back of the router, not just unplugging it for 20-30 seconds

2. going into routerlogin.net and setting up a whole new connection

3. putting a password lock on it and anything else

4. Connects with the iPhone fine

Connection is fine, been using wifi throughout the day, come now at 2am it says it cannot connect to the wifi after trying to use an app with wifi. Seems like it has been cutting in and out. I have hard resetted my router twice and done this process twice, anyone have a permanent fix that trumps this one? 😕

Persian has the best solution I have yet to find.

Simply find your mac address on your iphone and have it in allowed devices on your router settings.

This took 2 minutes, typed in the password and I got right through! Perfect thank you persian!!

Well what I did was opened AirPort Utility and went through the options to change the settings. I changed the security settings so that I didn't need a password to access the router. I know this makes the signals available to everyone in the neighbourhood but I only did this for a few moments until the iPhone made a connection. Very soon after I changed the setting again and placed the security on the router again.

I'm not technical , I just tried to do whatever I could, Some of the other answers at this site are good too. We shouldn't have to do any of this NONSENSE. It's just frustrating. Apple please get to work!

I have been through lots of suggestions with my 4s and my BT Infinity set up and after several monthes I have found a solution. The prooblem was not the 4s but with the Wireless Router part of the BT Infinity set up. In fact I was not able to add any further Wi-Fi device. eg it was the 4s plus anything further.

All of this tiresome as one 4s in the house connected with no issue and we were starting to think it was down to the black and white cover colour difference!

BT helped me out with various suggestions - reseting the modem, on/off, turning off other devices, the shaking hand facility, turning the wirless router on/off etc.

However there is a pin hole reset on the wireless router as opposed to the modem reset. I need a paper clip unfolded and quite a long time to keep the reset pressed (30 seconds or so). But it worked and now we have connection with both 4s's.

It seems to me that the BT hub under settings/Home Network/devices/wireless connections was kind of 'full up' - there were loads of entries that were 'meaningless' but after the reset this has come back to the ones I recognise. So something perhaps an x-box etc which had had trouble initially had filled up loads of 'slots' and it had reached some kind of limit.

Anyways, hope that might help someone with the BT Infinity setup.

PS: Still no excuse for the iPhone not to give a better error message that enables investigation in my opinion.

I'm having exactly the same problem. Everything worked fine until yesterday. Iphone, ipad and iMac worked fine with Time Capsule. Then the iphone suddenyly would not work on the Time Capsule Wifi. It recognises it and connects but when I try to use any App which need Internet, nothing works. After reading all of these message and trying various things, the only thing that works for me is to make the iphone forget the network, then find it again and put in the password again. Then it works as long as I keep using it but as soon as I leave the phone down for a minute, then it stops working again and I have to Forget - Find -Put in password again.

Very annoying. It just works! Ha ha! It just works . then it doesn't work, then it works again---- The problem is obviously with the phone because my ipad and iMac work fine.

Have fun

As a good friend of mine says: "Macs are brilliant, unless you want to connect to the internet!"

I guess that's true of the iPhone 4S, too. I am kicking myself for having invested in what is effectively a brick, as it is IMPOSSIBLE (so it seems) to get it to connect to my wireless set up at home. Given that this consists of a Time Capsule by... er... Apple, one wonders if these different 'engineering' teams ever actually talk to each other! Having spent the last several hours attempting to find out how to fix this, I have discovered that Apple's love of minimalism goes for their support, too.

As was discovered by IBM in the 1970s, when testing the use of voice interfaces with computers: making the user believe that a technology is more intelligent than it actually is, only increases frustration when it (inevitably) fails to deliver. Apple's facile "It just works!" bollox, doesn't half make me want to ram my crappy iPhone down an Apple employee's throat.

Anyway. I'm giving up. Well done, Apple — you've converted me to Google! My iPhone 4S is going back to the AppleStore tomorrow (and from there to a landfill, I imagine) and I'm investing in an Android phone.

not sure if u found out how to fix it yet, but what i did was "forget network" then turn airplane mode on, then went to wifi searched my wifi router username, enetered my password on iphone and it joined, then turn off airplane mode. and it works.

I just like to say my iPhone 4S suddenly wouldn't connect to my Netgear DG4834GT router after my Vodafone Sure Signal attenuator misbehaved. Tried all day all of the above procedures, but no joy. Eventually, I entered the Netgear site and turned the encryption off. But still nothing. I then was going to update the firmware and got as far as downloading it when I discovered my router had already the same version firmware. Then I took a break during which, hey presto, I got my wi fi connection to my iPhone restored. In my case, I strongly suspect the router was not tuned to exactly the channel it always was, but just enough to emit transmission signals to all my other devices i.e. iPad, iMac, Macbook Pro that worked ok. And with all my fiddling around I must have somehow re-tuned the router properly.

It was all a bit hit and miss, but at least I got my signal back. Hope this helps someone

I was having the samie problem, iMac and Macbook pro would connect but not iphone4, went into router settings and changed channel from (auto) to (11), this restarted my router, which may have been the fix, but none the less phone now connects just fine. I would try restarting router, then change the channel.

Hope you all get connected soon.

Dear fellow I have faced the same nagging problem but luckily I hit upon a solution that worked. Just go to settings and click General tab. Go to Reset and there reset the Network to factory settings. It should work.