Poor wifi reception on new iPad

Welcome to our very large and growing Club. You are in very good company.

Despite almost 100 pages of wifi complaints, Apple has never acknowledged any problem and the Geniuses deny any knowledge as well.

Apple is going down for reasons like this.

They are at the end of taking their customers for granted.

I have bought ipad to reduce weight of my backpack. After i had problems with wifi i know that i have to take wifi router as well. This means weight of my backpack is back to what it was before. Location of wifi antena also ****** me off. I have to hold it on Apple approved way. When i want to lay down i have to hold it speaker up not to send wifi signal straight to my belly. I will have to drill a hole and solder external wifi antena maybe that will help.

add another. My ipad was working fine for a while then out of nowhere my wifi became useless. I have to reset network settings and input WPA security codes all over again once sometimes twice a day. Even tho Im ten feet from my router I have to stick my arm out and hold the ipad towards the router to get it to speed up SLIGHTLY. This is annoying. This isn't a "don't hold it that way" situation. It's a "It just doesn't work" situation. I am getting tired of this kind of stuff. It's bad enough they hold back upgrades so people buy the next model(Samsung hopefully fixed that problem), but now they are screwing over customers by shipping faulty products and ignoring it like Chinese do with their counterfiet products. Thanks apple. You're becoming too greedy. Use some of your money to do the right thing for the people who support your company. There is a reason your stock is in the shape its in.

The brightness trick did nothing for me, so I took my Ipad4 to the Apple Premium reseller. But then the problem seems to be it's not an Apple Store. That's a 2 hour drive away. They can send it to Apple to investigate but they charge me fot that. The guy in the store told me its probably something to do with the security code when connecting to Wifi. The Ipad has the newest technology while many routers are older and don't share this technique. But as long as Apple doesn't confirm there is a problem there's not much he can do. In the store reception was fine, of course..

I'm thinking maybe a Wifi repeater would be a solution. Doe anybody know if such a repeater could have the right technique for verifying the security code?

Did you follow all the steps of the goofy Brightness fix? Slide Brightness to Highest, turn off Auto-Brightness, wait a minute or two. If it didn't correct, then power off the iPad, then turn it back on. That worked for mine. It has worked for 2 others I have seen also. One corrected just by sliding up the Brightness and waiting, the other person I showed it to at a Starbucks had to power off then back on like I had to do, but it worked then for her too. Much better wifi signal noted. In spite of that there obviously is still a problem. The iPhone 4S I have always has better smoother wifi connection than my iPad4 in the exact same location, whether at home, Starbucks, and any other location. This fix definitely improved my reception though. I thought the new CEO was going to be open about problems and working on solutions. Maybe not. /:-(

Just got a new I Pad, will not stay locked in WIFI, my old one works just fine. Must say I'm disapointed that Apple would sell a defective product when it first knew it had issues. I heard they are exchanging them. Any truth?

I don't know about a repeater's technique to verify the security code but I had the same problem with my IPad. Due to the distance from the location of the router to the other end of the house, I bought a range extender and installed it as a _EXT ssid. It works perfectly -- no drops, fades or gaps in performance. I'm still not sure of the performance if I go to, say, a hotel and try to use their WiFi. Maybe experiment with the brightness trick?

Tried the reset fix, it works until I turn my pad off, then I have to do it (reset) again.

Will take my pad to the apple store (luckily have one just across the street.) and see what happens there.

FIXED!!!!(Returned) I was another victim of almost non-existent wifi on my Christmas present iPad4, black 32g. Here's what I did.

At first I worried about my home network. I have a Linksys router that's a few years old but has worked fine with my PC, laptops, iPod, and assorted Android phones. With the new iPad if I was not sitting at the desk, within 18 inches of the router, I could not get a good signal. If I backed away (still in a direct line of sight) eight to ten feet, I would lose signal all together. Other devices connect throughout the home, unattached shop and can see neighboring networks.

I work for the local municipality. Took the iPad to work and checked reception there. Dismal. Not my older network.

THANK YOU to everyone here for the ideas and tips. But I would suggest that once you've deterined that your other devices are connecting and functioning properly on the network(s) you use... return the iPad immediately. I was lucky and through Bestbuy(black Friday) I had 60 days to sort through a lot of the info in this thread first.

I had to wait a few days(out of stock), but the replacement works flawlessly!!! Get rid of your piece of your junk paperweight if you got stuck with a bad one. The replacement has no "hand hold" issues and at times better network searching capabilities than the former. It is night to sun-shiny day!

Both machines had/have serial numbers starting with "DM". And for what it's worth, the associate I dealth with at Bestbuy seemed to know better than to argue about the wifi issues. Good luck everyone!

I bought the new iPad a few weeks ago and there is definitely something wrong with the wifi. I use my laptop and iPhone with no difficulties but sometimes when I try to browse using my iPad I have horrible connection issues. I know it isn't my Internet because my BF is a tech support person and has tried many things. Oh well.

Did you try the goofy Brightness fix listed above? It's odd but it has worked for quite a few.

So I've had much of the same problems with my iPad 4th Gen after about a month in of using it. I tried reconfiguring routers to Apples recommendations, brightness trick, reseting it several times, etc, etc. I tried everything. So, still under warranty, I took it to an Apple Genius and guess what...... replaced the iPad and voila, problems are all gone. Suggest if you have problems to get a replacement as this is most likely due to hardware issues. At least that was the case for me.

Good luck!

I too have Wifi issues with my new Ipad mini.

I have a Macbook Pro, Iphone and replaced an Ipad 1 with the mini, I got a full signal throughout my house on all (except the mini) and the wifi connections and products have performed faultlessly for 3 years, I've only had to restart 3 or 4 times in total.

Two issues with the minis Wifi.

1. poor wifi performance in terms of signal strength even when right next to the router.

2. after 2/5 minutes the mini's WiFi connection is dropped, you can switch wifi connections on and off, mess with the router channel, change from WEP to WPA Personal/PSK, reboot but nothing works until the mini is restarted and reconnects to the router, farcical.

As any tablet is a dumb object without reliable Wifi performance I'm going to reject it as unfit for purpose under the Sale of Goods Act this week, plenty more fish in the sea.

Message was edited by: John2811

If you didn't fix your problem yet .. Then you should know that Apple store sell you a new fake used device. I had the same problem last year .. I took my device to there office and the told me your device has signal but it is week .. They ask my to up date it and delete some apps. Unfortunately the home button now is not working and the warrantee expired. I bought the button from eBay and when I open the device I realize that this device had been open before and missing some screws. How that could happen, I bought it as a new device from Apple store. Surprisingly, it was missing the WiFi antenna, which I'm going to order it today from eBay.

My small advice to you .. Go Samsung ..

e.alghamdi wrote:

If you didn't fix your problem yet .. Then you should know that Apple store sell you a new fake used device. I had the same problem last year .. I took my device to there office and the told me your device has signal but it is week .. They ask my to up date it and delete some apps. Unfortunately the home button now is not working and the warrantee expired. I bought the button from eBay and when I open the device I realize that this device had been open before and missing some screws. How that could happen, I bought it as a new device from Apple store. Surprisingly, it was missing the WiFi antenna, which I'm going to order it today from eBay.

My small advice to you .. Go Samsung ..

If you make such outrageous claims, would you please NAME the Apple Store you bought that particular "used" device from and the date? I am sure you still have the receipt somewhere.

I am sorry but I don't believe you a word, especially after the Go Samsung comment at the end of your post.