iPhone 5 wifi issues

Sk8Dreams - I did nothing else besides install the AirPort (got rid of the Linksys) I did not restore, nor reset network settings (although I had done this previously before the failed Apple Store visit)... Interesting that you feel it's a software issue - I feel that because the phones work for a period of time - then go "bad" that it is a failed hardware issue the is systemic in the iPhone 5's... either way, I know the AirPort fixed the issue for me - good luck!

I still think it's ridiculous that bc of their unwillingness to address the issue (either software or hardware) the WE have to figure out ways to make their product work!

cstrayer - You are likely to have the problem on other wifi systems. The phone should work with any router. I tried 3 different routers with mine (I have a few anyway), and it did not work with any of them, nor did it do a decent job on friends' routers. I am not at all sure that it's software, but simply admit the possibility. It can also be a question of software/hardware interaction, and from the posts here, my guess is that we are seeing more than one problem with more than one cause. If you don't have 70 apps, like I do, you should try restoring the phone as new and going back to your old router, or at least trying a friend's non-Apple router. There is a ton of garbage on this thread from people who have not bothered to read much posted before they came here, and people who don't have a clue technically. I'm a Windows person, and mainframe before that, so I would never call myself an expert, but I do have a grasp or basic computer concepts and programming tech. Try another wifi system before you go away and get stuck with no wifi at a hotel or a friend's house.

My iPhone 5 is just out of the one-year warranty when I noticed the wifi issue. Had three visits with the geniuses -

First Visit: They asked to do Network reset and Renew Lease at home (didn't work)

Second Visit: They restored as new (didn't work)

Third Visit: The manager (Chris, Lawrencevillle location, NJ) asked me to pay $269 to replace the phone since it was just out of warranty (by 2 months).

My response: I politely told him that this is a known widespread wifi issue with iPhone 5, so Apple should voluntarily recall all defective units.

His response: it would be unfair to people who buys the extended warranty and that I should have bought it.

My response: the extended warranty is for accidents or for unique problems with the unit. Not for units where thousands of people are complaining about the same issue (just this post has millions of views). I'm willing to take a risk and pay the price, for instance, I paid full price for the previous out-of-warranty Iphone 4 which was damaged because of my fault (jumped into the pool with it.LOL.). I didn't ask Apple to replace it, but went straight to AT&T to get a new contract and phone. Since this phone is in pristine condition with no accidents, it looks like the defective antenna must have given in. So, it would be great if Apple takes responsibility and replaces it free of charge. I paid full price for it just 14 months ago and I expected it to last for at least two years!

His response: Nope, can't do that. My IPhone 5 is working fine. There is no wifi issue with IPhone 5!

My response: Since you refuse to acknowledge the problem and not willing to help, I might have to look for alternatives to Apple when this contract expires. I just won't be able to invest on unreliable Apple IPhone.

His response: Sorry, I can't help.

Conclusion - Of course, I was very disappointed. My gut felling is that Apple is not happy with the billions they make, they want to make tens of billions by forcing customers to pay $200+ more on extended warranties for their unreliable products. No doubt, the ride was good so far, but will seriously look for Android phones now. Just like the mighty Roman Empire, I see Apple going down due to their arrogance and greed!

I have restored my iphone 5 because of my iphone has not connected to wifi...........................I restored again it is not connecting to my wifi 😟 😟 Apple lovers pls give me some suggestions 🙂 🙂

ssiao wrote:

My gut felling is that Apple is not happy with the billions they make, they want to make tens of billions by forcing customers to pay $200+ more on extended warranties for their unreliable products.

AppleCare costs $69 for two years of coverage. And it also covers two years of technical phone support.

AppleCare Plus is $99, and includes damage replacement for up to two incidents.

The deductible for damage replacement under AppleCare Plus is $79.

Say you have an iPhone 5S 64GB. Retail price: $849. You purchase AppleCare Plus.

During the two year period, you end up needing to replace your iPhone 5S twice. You spend $158 in deductibles.

You've now spent $257 on the AppleCare Plus and the two deductibles. And you've received $1698 in replacement products. So far, you're up $1441. Minus the original $849, that's still up $592.

Now, add in the two years of over-the-phone troubleshooting assistance. While you get 90 days of free assistance with the purchase of a new iPhone, after that, it costs $19 per call/issue for non-hardware related issues that are successfully resolved. That can add up quickly. Plus, Apple has to pay the Apple Support Advisors. You could call in every month, get free assistance, and that would normally cost $399 for 21 out-of-pocket support sessions.

So, how exactly is Apple making you spend $200+ on an extended warranty? And how exactly is this warranty making them so much money, when you can end up getting $1698 worth of replacement products for $257?

My apologies for getting the extended warranty cost wrong. I assumed it would be around the figure which I was asked to replace the phone. I should have checked. Personally, I nevery buy extended warranty on electronics, especially for a phone that we tend to replace every two years with the wireless contract. I also agree with the manager of the Apple store that it's unfair to folks who buy the extended warrantly, but my disagreement here is that this is not an isolated problem with the phone. If it had some unique problem, I would not have asked to replace for free to begin with.

ssiao wrote:

My apologies for getting the extended warranty cost wrong. I assumed it would be around the figure which I was asked to replace the phone. I should have checked. Personally, I nevery buy extended warranty on electronics, especially for a phone that we tend to replace every two years with the wireless contract. I also agree with the manager of the Apple store that it's unfair to folks who buy the extended warrantly, but my disagreement here is that this is not an isolated problem with the phone. If it had some unique problem, I would not have asked to replace for free to begin with.

The vast majority of iPhones do not have this issue. While it's a known issue, it's not prevelant enough to warrant a broad stroke of changing the warranty policies.

In this case, the Apple Care Protection Plan is not simply an 'extended warranty'. It provides eight times as much technical support by phone as the standard coverage (24 months instead of 3 months), and the plus version has damage protection. While most 'extended warranties' aren't a good value, in my opinion, the AppleCare is a wise investment. It works out to 95 cents per week, or 13.5 cents per day. To me, for a device I rely upon so much, that's fair.

Your mileage may vary.

Adarsh Krish - Did you restore AS NEW, or from a backup? If you restored from a backup, and the problem is software related, you simply reinstated the problem.

Dear Adarsh Krish,

I feel deeply about frustation, however, there have been several solutions found (some work while others do not due to either a hardware issue vs a software malfunction.) I have been collecting relevant solutions since November 7th last year when I received my iphone 5 gold 8 GB and realized I had no wifi. In my case just performing a "hard reset" (i.e. hold down on/off and home buttons at the same and then wait until iphone 5 fully restarts) fixed my wifi connectivityh problems, however, it does not work every time. I am going to copy/paste the file, it contains seven pages. If you dont see all of them just write a message for intuitionist at msn dot com

Good luck!

intuitionist

Dear mvish86,

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 enthusiast,

intuitionist aka Juan L. Blanco

Megachiller

Re: iPhone 5 wifi issues

Dec 31, 2013 2:47 PM (in response to aworo)

I know, it's painful and it's making me angry. Every hotspot I've tryed works for 15 min then stops working. I'm now over in my data plan cause of this. Even at home now it says connected but won't do anything after few mins. I did hard reset just to have same thing. I have no idea about routers and stuff I just am like most and want to just connect. It's iPhone plain and simple but if u have an old one like my 3GS it has no issues. But we have 3 iPhone 5 phones and 2 don't like connecting the third one seems to work. This btw is my 4th cause I kept returning them cause of this issue. This latest one came right from china to me. I'm just so frustrated I got this to do the same thing as my old one but it's 10 times worse. Every hotspot everyday and apple stopped talking with me and won't honour there gift they gave me which now I can't get. So to all the iPhone lovers I used to be, but my contract upgrade is in less than a year and iPhone will be not one I choose next time. Cause a full year of this not working right makes me sad and angry

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Megachiller

Re: iPhone 5 wifi issues

Dec 31, 2013 2:55 PM (in response to Megachiller)

Oh the problem with apple is they dont know wats wrong, I spent to much of my time with this too

I had experience the some WiFi connection problems.

First, my iphone 5 cannot found any WiFi spots especially Unifi ( house, hostel, restaurant/cafe, university, neighnour, friends' house). Thus i cannot check the WiFi details as it is not even shown at the first place.

Second, in extrembly lucky situation, it FINALLY able to connect to WiFi but will disconnected after 10 seconds.

Any suggestions on solving this issue? >.<

As other devices ( iphone 4s, iphone 5, blackberry phone, iPad, Samsung, Macbook, even my own normal laptop) are working fine under the same WiFi spots, I strongly suspect that it is my iphone 5 problem.

But, the weird part is it can be connected to the WiFi at the Machines Repairing Center.

I had contracted my WiFi network contractor & follow their instructions in fixing the networks. However, the results remain unchanged. My iphone 5 is the only device which cannot connect WiFi.

I had also tried hard reset, reset network setting, on & off devices but the problem still unsolved after consulting my friend whp used to work at Machines.

The problem happened after i update my phone to iOS 7.

Is it related ? But why my mum's iphone 5 still working fine after the software update?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------

Information:

Location: Malaysia

Phone Model: iPhone 5 (64 GB)

Software: iOS 7.0.4

Dear Covelina,

Many iphone 5 users have experienced lack of wifi connectivity, intermitent, or no connection at all. When I received my iphone 5 Gold 16 GB last November, I registered it and NO wifi (even though I own a Motorola AC Gigabit wireless router.

I logged in apple.com, read some forums and realzed this was a wide spread issue. I replicated one solution which you have already done, i.e. "hard reset" the iphone 5. It worked for me, however, it does not work everytime. I have collected several solutions by different users which I will attach by pasting it into this reply. If it cuts off in the middle, just post the last line, and I will repost the remainder.

Good Luck, intuitionst

Dear mvish86,

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 enthusiast,

intuitionist aka Juan L. Blanco

Megachiller

Re: iPhone 5 wifi issues

Dec 31, 2013 2:47 PM (in response to aworo)

I know, it's painful and it's making me angry. Every hotspot I've tryed works for 15 min then stops working. I'm now over in my data plan cause of this. Even at home now it says connected but won't do anything after few mins. I did hard reset just to have same thing. I have no idea about routers and stuff I just am like most and want to just connect. It's iPhone plain and simple but if u have an old one like my 3GS it has no issues. But we have 3 iPhone 5 phones and 2 don't like connecting the third one seems to work. This btw is my 4th cause I kept returning them cause of this issue. This latest one came right from china to me. I'm just so frustrated I got this to do the same thing as my old one but it's 10 times worse. Every hotspot everyday and apple stopped talking with me and won't honour there gift they gave me which now I can't get. So to all the iPhone lovers I used to be, but my contract upgrade is in less than a year and iPhone will be not one I choose next time. Cause a full year of this not working right makes me sad and angry

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Megachiller

Re: iPhone 5 wifi issues

Dec 31, 2013 2:55 PM (in response to Megachiller)

Oh the problem with apple is they dont know wats wrong, I spent to much of my time with this too

I have this issue too picks up wi fi signals but will not join networks. Tried all the stuff mentioned still not working.

What I did try was holding phone next to wifi router and bingo it connected great then I went to sit down no wifi connection. Any solutions it is driving me mad. Iphone 5

Dear redboxerkerry,

I would take it back to the apple store and get a genius opinion as well as request to exchange it for another iphone 5.

intuitionist

I would but it is 4 months out of the 1 year warranty😠

Dear redboxerkerry,

The only solution I can think of is to try an apple Airport router at the apple store and see if it makes any difference; you may ask to speak to the Genius manager to explain your case, and get ready to answer the question, How come the malfunction appeared over a year after you bought the iphone 5?

Best regards,

intuitionist