iPhone 5 wifi issues

I agree, I'm a simple user and spent lots of time trying. I get wifi but it just doesn't work. It shows I'm connected but just spins and spins and spins till it says could not find server. It's an iPhone 5 issue cause all the other devices work fine. My bill keeps goin up cAuse of my data being over. Honestly I said before I feel abandoned from apple and angry. Now with there mega millions the get from us I feel like I just was scammed . I used to praise apple but I'm so angry that even after 4 iPhone 5 exchanged it's still a problem. Unfortantly I'm stuck with it for another year but after that it won't be iPhone. And not only me but I know a few including my family that are gonna switch too.

Dear Megachiller,

I understand you have exchanged your iphone 5 already to no avail so far. First things first, I would try starting with a hard reset, i.e. hold down the on/off button AND home button at the same time until unit restarts, as soon as it starts re-starting then let the fingers go by sliding the hold to the body of the phone.

Test the phone to check whether the wi-fi got any better. Second, visit the app store and download and install wi-fi Finder, it is a free app. Then turn it on and go, start testing again.

In my particular case, the same evening that I received my iphone 5s gold, I activated the phone and attempted to use its wi-fi feature to a very disappointing weak reception. I got online over to the apple website, started reading forums and guess what? A lot of people whom had started using their iphone 5 phones were experiencing the same issues.

Many people were experimenting with changing routers, ip addresses, using single G band 2.45 GHz, etc, etc. There was one guy whom just did a hard reset of the iphone, and that did it. So, I did just that, a hard reset. Magic, my wirless wi-fi connection was fixed. Then, I started reading some forums online and saw that the app store has this wi-fi finder app for free, no matter where you are, if you have low wi-fi reception, then then turn wi-fi finder on and voila you are going to find close by hot spots which you can use to improve your wi-fi connectivity, it happened to me tonight (Friday 22nd in San Antonio, TX) after work, I was at a grocery store wanting to call Florida to check on a bank, low reception, thus searched for wi-fi finder, turned it on and found four free hot spots nearby, and was able to make the calls NO PROBLEM.

I certainly hope these ideas can be of some assistance. You have a great weekend!

intuitionist

Dear Knife01,

I understand you have exchanged your iphone 5 already to no avail so far. First things first, I would try starting with a hard reset, i.e. hold down the on/off button AND home button at the same time until unit restarts, as soon as it starts re-starting then let the fingers go by sliding the hold to the body of the phone.

Test the phone to check whether the wi-fi got any better. Second, visit the app store and download and install wi-fi Finder, it is a free app. Then turn it on and go, start testing again.

In my particular case, the same evening that I received my iphone 5s gold, I activated the phone and attempted to use its wi-fi feature to a very disappointing weak reception. I got online over to the apple website, started reading forums and guess what? A lot of people whom had started using their iphone 5 phones were experiencing the same issues.

Many people were experimenting with changing routers, ip addresses, using single G band 2.45 GHz, etc, etc. There was one guy whom just did a hard reset of the iphone, and that did it. So, I did just that, a hard reset. Magic, my wirless wi-fi connection was fixed. Then, I started reading some forums online and saw that the app store has this wi-fi finder app for free, no matter where you are, if you have low wi-fi reception, then then turn wi-fi finder on and voila you are going to find close by hot spots which you can use to improve your wi-fi connectivity, it happened to me tonight (Friday 22nd in San Antonio, TX) after work, I was at a grocery store wanting to call Florida to check on a bank, low reception, thus searched for wi-fi finder, turned it on and found four free hot spots nearby, and was able to make the calls NO PROBLEM.

I certainly hope these ideas can be of some assistance. You have a great weekend!

intuitionist

Done it all man, I just concluded it's just crappy hardware. Trust me I've talked with apple and the hoped I would just let it go. 3 I phone 5s in the house there the only ones that have issues the iPad and iPhone 3GS are fine so it's the 5 . Changed routers and home works ok half the time ,but anyware else ha it says connected but it just don't work

Dear Megachiller,

I am truly sorry the iphone 5 is just not working in your environment.

intuitionist

I'm also having issues connecting to WIFI with my iPhone 5. When I try to connect to 802.1n with 5ghz i associate to the access point but cannot connect to anything. If I disable the 5ghz radio and connect to the same AP SSID but over 2.4ghz my iPhone works just fine. I've tried this with several access points of different manufacturers I have the exact same problem. Since I purchased the iPhone 5 I always had this issue. For the longest time I wondered why my iPhone 5 would not work with my AP while my iPhone 3GS, 4, and iPad did. The reason is that they all connected to the AP on the 2.4ghz band and the iPhone 5 connected on the 5ghz band.

By the way anyone who says just use this protocol or that protocol (I have the same problem with TKIP and AES) doesn't recognize the problem. When I connect to an AP at work and my iPhone doesn't work am I supposed to tell the network engineers (by the way it's me) to change the network because the iPhone 5 has issues? I think not. This problem needs to be fixed.

P.S. I always wondered why Apple removed the good WIFI apps, now I know why.

Dear CarlVonHassel,

I can certainly feel your frustration with a malfunctioning iphone 5. You have tested several wi-fi peripherals at 2.4 GHz and at 5 GHz with different results, it seems to point to the phone itself. Let me share what worked for me and other iphone 5 users (I include one testimony which even seeming unrelated fixed this user's iphone 5 bad wi-fi connectivity.)

Dear CarlVonHassel,

If your iphone 5 is not getting decent wi-fi at home I would advise you to first perform a "hard reset", i.e. hold down the on/off button (upper right hand corner) AND the Home Button (fingerprint scanner) at the same time until the phone restarts. Let it restart completely, and check for wi-fi connectivity. Second, make sure your router is isolated (about three to five feet AWAY from anything electrical (we are testing, if it works you can then place it a little closer to other devices.) If need be you can try performing another hard reset, remember your iphone 5 works somewhere else, hence it has got to be your location at home.

You can even try to isolate the devices to a room where there are NO electrical equipment and then test your iphone. Let's remember wi-fi is completely dependant on distance, wall materials, in other words if you live in a house that has any masonry exterior, or sheet metal on inside the roof, or anything of that sort, that is what would be killing the signal coming from outside the house to your router and then weakly broadcasting to your phone.

I do hope these tips will give you a somewhat workable technique to allow you to enjoy your iphone 5 the way you expect it to. In my case the same afternoon that I received my iphone 5, I activated it and started noticing very poor wi-fi connectivity (I have got a killer Motorola Surfboard AC modem/router, an Intellinet N access point they do sit close by though), and poor wi-fi nonetheless. I got online, went to apple's website, read some forums, and found that this poor wi-fi connectivity on iphone 5's is common to many users. People were doing all kind of things with ip addresses, changing routers, etc, etc. Until I found a comment explaining what worked for him. Guess what? Perform a "hard reset" and viola! It worked for me as soon as I did the "hard reset" the very first time. I do hope it works for you too.

Your iphone 5s gold enthusiat,

intuitionist aka Juan L. Blanco

Intuitionist,

Thanks for your detailed reply. I'm all set. I went to the Apple store yesterday to talk with a "Genius" about my problem. Even though they didn't have a 5ghz AP to test with they replaced my iPhone 5 with another unit gratis. My iPhone 5 was out of warranty by several months but in pristine condition. Apple did the right thing here since I have multiple iPhones and I'm going to be purchasing another iPhone and two iPads for Christmas (I did happen to mention this 😉). Obviously I'm tied to the Apple eco-system and it's in their best interest to keep me a satisfied customer.

They could have told me it costs $269 to replace my iPhone and were under no obligation to give me a phone for free. Before this transaction I was on the fence about getting my girls an iPad mini each or a Nexus 7. Now I will definitely purchase the iPad minis. So all together it's a win win. I get my iPhone replaced and they make a few sales and keep me locked in as a customer. In my opinion Apple's customer service is second to none!

Oh by the way the replacement phone works fine on 802.1n 5ghz.

Carl

After searching and trying all sorts of options I found throughout this thread and others, and short of going to Apple store and trying to get a new phone -- I removed the cover and right away the phone found my work wifi.

I have a new iPhone 5. Wifi seemed to be fine for about a month - or at least I didn't notice whether it was or wasn't working. I noticed it at my last two NFL games, when I couldn't connect to wifi in the stadium, then noticed it couldn't even find my home or work wifi (iPad 4 never has problems). I'm new to iPhone, ditched EVO 4 G and made the switch to iPhone 5).

I took the cover off about 20 minutes ago. Instantly found and connected to work wifi and it's still connected.

Could it be that some iPhone covers are just blocking the wifi antenna? If so, obviously a design flaw in the iPhone 5. It seems too easy that removing the cover fixed my issue, so jury is still out until I see if it connects every where else I go. I do have unlimited data plan with Sprint, but wifi connection is better when available.

My iphone5 stopped connecting to wifi ever since I hooked it up to iTunes on my laptop. Then after that never was ever connected to my wifi. Never buy apple product anymore. Or if I do ima pay them in nickels and dime.

Hello guys, after several months of having the same issue , with iPhones 5 wifi. I found

That if you change the DNS of your connection in the iPhone to 8.8.8.8 this problem is fixed... Bye bye

I was having the same issue and found this post and followed the instructions. Problem fixed and my phone now connects to my home Wifi instead of using my carriers data package. This only took a few minutes to do, so I recomend giving it a try.

BioTonic

Re: iPhone 5 wifi issues

Aug 20, 2013 8:57 AM ( in response to tobifs)

For those of you who have this problem, follow these steps.

1. Change your router settings from WPA2 - AES to WPA - TKIP. This will be the optimal setting for this issue.

For those of you who dont know how to do this, google it. If you are using a linksys or cisco router, you can type 192.168.1.1 in your web browser to acess the settings. The user name and password should be admin and admin. Navigate to wireless settings and change security type to WPA - TKIP.

2. On your iPhone go into Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network > Confirm.

3. For additional measures Update to Latest Firmware on Router and iPhone.

4. Enjoy.

General Information on the Issue:

The issue is caused by the iPhone 5 not playing well with the wireless security incription WPA2 - AES

No WiFi Security - No Loss

WEP - No Loss

WPA-TKIP - No Loss

WPA2-AES - 70% Loss.

this thing is disgusting! I just turn to Comcast from Verizon, and get the same problem immediately!

Dear evoluo,

I felt the same frustration you are experiencing right now. There is a solution though. I fixed my gold iphone 5s by performing a "hard reset" the same night I received it. I have gathered other iphone 5s solutios, let me include them in this email, hoping that you might try one at the time until you get wifi connectivity restored. I wooul start by "hard resetting" the iphone 5s first, and then you might try any of the other solutions as you see fit.

If your iphone 5 is not getting decent wi-fi at home I would advise you to first perform a "hard reset", i.e. hold down the on/off button (upper right hand corner) AND the Home Button (fingerprint scanner) at the same time until the phone restarts. Let it restart completely, and check for wi-fi connectivity. Second, make sure your router is isolated (about three to five feet AWAY from anything electrical (we are testing, if it works you can then place it a little closer to other devices.) If need be you can try performing another hard reset, remember your iphone 5 works somewhere else, hence it has got to be your location at home.

You can even try to isolate the devices to a room where there are NO electrical equipment and then test your iphone. Let's remember wi-fi is completely dependant on distance, wall materials, in other words if you live in a house that has any masonry exterior, or sheet metal on inside the roof, or anything of that sort, that is what would be killing the signal coming from outside the house to your router and then weakly broadcasting to your phone.

I do hope these tips will give you a somewhat workable technique to allow you to enjoy your iphone 5 the way you expect it to. In my case the same afternoon that I received my iphone 5, I activated it and started noticing very poor wi-fi connectivity (I have got a killer Motorola Surfboard AC modem/router, an Intellinet N access point they do sit close by though), and poor wi-fi nonetheless. I got online, went to apple's website, read some forums, and found that this poor wi-fi connectivity on iphone 5's is common to many users. People were doing all kind of things with ip addresses, changing routers, etc, etc. Until I found a comment explaining what worked for him. Guess what? Perform a "hard reset" and viola! It worked for me as soon as I did the "hard reset" the very first time. I do hope it works for you too.

Your iphone 5s gold enthusiat,

intuitionist aka Juan L. Blanco

I've been on this thread almost from the beginning, and have gotten my 5 replaced twice. The second time, I only had 2 days left on my warranty. If a hard reset works for you, you are very lucky. Nothing anyone says here is going to work for everyone, because there are a few phones with hardware issues. If you think yours is one of them, you must take a few steps before going to the genius bar and asking for a replacement:

1 - Try your phone on multiple wifi networks, using different routers, and different security protocols. Keep a list of every one you try, and what the results are

2 - Install Speedtest on your phone. Turn off cellular, and run Speedtest. Snap a screen shot of your results.

3 - If you have tried everything (including updating to the latest iOS) and your phone's wifi is still unreliable, refuses to connect, drops the connection, or runs like mud, DO A RESTORE AS NEW. This is a big pain in the neck, and depending on how much you have on your phone, can take up to 3 hours to get back to normal. Copy all your pix off the phone, save all docs elsewhere, backup and sync. Then do the restore as new. DO NOT RESTORE FROM A BACKUP. If that does not fix your issues - Make a video of your phone running speedtest next to a few other iPhones, iPads doing the same. That was what got me my second replacement (credit goes to someone here who did that).

4 - Apple will be very reluctant to replace a phone that has not been restored as new because the software environment (your iOS, installed apps, etc) can cause the wifi problems. Don't lie about it, they can tell if you have done this or not.