iPhone 5 wifi issues

Got my new iPhone 5, and its WIFI works poorly where its predicesor iPhone 4 worked great. Called Apple-Care, and after an hour of putzing around debugging the problem.... they replaced the phone. The new phone is no better. Glad to hear its the IOS-6 software.... at least I know it will get fixed. Can't use my iPhone 4 though... it got stolen... so I'm stuck with the 5. Nice toy.... lousy... unusable wifi. Can't believe this big of a bug slipped out.

I noticed the wifi on my original black 64 GB iPhone 5 was slow, especially when compared to my iPad 2 (which was/is updated to iOS 6). The wifi would connect, but be sporadic and particularly slow on the iPhone 5. We've got 50 Mbps wifi here (Verizon Fios, Actiontec modem connected to a Linksys e4200 router) and my MacbookPro can often pull down 55+ Mbps. The tops I would get on my first iPhone 5 was ~30 and that was rare. Most of the time if would pull down ~15 or less, sometimes in the single digits or below 1 Mbps. I got the unit swapped out at my local Apple store for a new iPhone 5, and it performed even worse. Set up as a new phone, it pulled down less than 1 Mpbs consistently. Restoring it now sees it performing like the original iPhone 5 I had, which is to say better than <1 Mbps, but not by much. I took it back into the Apple store and they said that they don't normally replace a phone again for the same issue and said that I should wait for a software update. So hopefully a software update will be coming soon and will fix the issue. Quite annoying though, I would have thought a company like Apple (i.e. a major mobile/computer hardware company) would have Wifi pretty much pegged by now. If it's just a software issue as well, it's odd that this wasn't caught and fixed during testing.

Iphone 5 finds it difficult to connect to my home wi fi network or drops connection intermittently if it ever does connect. My iphone 4s, ipod touch and ipad 2 does not have the same issue with the same home wi fi network. Went to apple store today to report the problem but i am told that it could be a firmware issue not ios 6. The genius bar staff at apple refused to replace my phone stating that it is not a hardware issue. I suggest to just turn off cellular data when using wi fi (if the phone ever establish and sustain connection) to avoid accidental usage of cellular data until apple fix this supposed bug.

Yes, jkelly21's suggestion to reset network settings seems to have worked for me (I didn't have to reset or re-enter any passwords or other info. The phone simply restarted). I didn't lose the ability to connect to wifi, I just wasn't getting more than a fraction of the signal. This wasn't the case out of the box--the connection has deteriorated slowly over a few days. We'll see...

Just wanted to add my 2 pence worth of thoughts on this too. Got the iPad2 , updated it with iOS6 and now I am having the WiFi problems. Were it not for the fact that I also have an iPad1 (which was not allowed to get the iOS) and beside the better map app, its WiFi signal is great! Oh and a windows7 phone and android phone BOTH have a working connections which brings the website in no time (oh and it is a desktop version of the webpage!)

So come on Apple, do the good thing and just admit there is an issue with it and get it fixed. I don't pay this premium for some half baked attempt to improve things. Don't expect this from Apple.....

Oh and on the reset.... yes that works to.... briefly!

I googled for half a day for the solution.

i've tried switching off LTE, rebooting network, hard reset, restore, using DNS 8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4, switching off iCloud, switching off cellular, changing proxy to Auto, etc etc etc but nothing worked.

but i just saw this fix : http://tabletcrunch.com/2012/09/27/fix-ios-6-wifi-problems/

and tried it. Worked perfectly.

my wifi has been so far stable for the past 1 hour and everything is blazingly fast.

to summarise:

#1: Click “Settings” on the home page of your iPhone or iPad

#2: Scroll down and tap on “Safari”

#3: You’ll now be looking at the settings of your Safari browser > go down to the “Clear History” and “Clear Cookies and Data” section and tap on both of those settings to clear everything out (one at a time please!).

Now turn your iPhone or iPad off completely to reboot

(credit tabletcrunch)

Hope this works for you too.

Italy Here, is the iPhone 5 day one.

Two iPhones 5, black, wifi completely unusable. Impossible to connect.

On the same time capsule wifi network my old iPhoine 4 works like a charm.

I called an Apple Advisor, they are not aware about the problem. 729 euros for a phone that is not working properly, and Apple told me I have to send it back and stay without phone for 5 days or more.

This is crazy.

New iPhone 5 from AppleCare and I have the same issue. Painfully slow wifi at home, will not load QuickTime files from my own website. iPad 2 and iPhone 4S work great over my home wifi. Why is my second iPhone 5 so troubled with my home wifi? It's so frustrating, I turn wifi off In my house. Which seems ridiculous. Help Apple!

So this morning I checked out this link:

http://osxdaily.com/2012/09/27/iphone-5-wifi-problem-fix/

Which basically talks about manual DNS setting on your iPhone. I downloaded the NameBench software they link to and scanned for the best DNS servers in my area, and then manually entered that number into the wifi settings for my network on my iPhone.

Literally a minute before doing this, I was pulling down <7 Mbps at my desk, right after changing the DNS settings, I'm not pulling >22 Mbps in the same exact spot. Give this a try, it could help and was an easy fix! Now hopefully these better results will stay consistent...

i have replaced iphone 5 16gb to new 32gb but the same problem slow wifi speed like edge i have tried every solution given on this forum but useless this is really a serious bug of software but apple is acting like blind no statmement about bug or any thing on new software update i think apple is missing steve jobs coz they even cant read such a big post

For those of you who got a replacement phone and confirmed that this new replacement has no WifI issues with WPA2 encrypted network. Could you please let me know the production week of your new phone?

My current phone (which connects to WPA2 networks but there is no traffic activity) was manufactured on Week 37-2012 in

Factory: F1 (China, Zhengzhou - Foxconn) according to this website: http://www.chipmunk.nl/klantenservice/applemodel.html

Thanks in advance for helping us out!

P.S: When using the website above, you need to enter your phone Serial Number (Settings->General->About)

I will be interested to try the DNS changes tonight when I get home. I really don't have much hope for this change though. The whole disabling LTE and cellular data is such a hassle. Battery life has been terrible in my opinion so far. I'll dive into the guts of the router tonight to see what's been programmed, but my wife's 4S has had no WIFI issues at all. I'm telling her to not upgrade it iOS6 until they come out with a fix for this. Very disappointed and hope they come up with something quick or I'll be heading back for a Galaxy S3.

Receiving a new phone and then not having wifi issues does not confirm its a hardware issue though. It only could mean the the process of restoring your settings to this new phone did not activate a software bug. The fact that 4 and 4s phones have also been impacted leads me to believe its clearly in software.

Same exact info as you for my 64gb black unit. No wifi issues here, either at home, in the office, at Dunkin Donuts, and several other hotspots where I've used it.

C4RLOCO wrote:

For those of you who got a replacement phone and confirmed that this new replacement has no WifI issues with WPA2 encrypted network. Could you please let me know the production week of your new phone?

My current phone (which connects to WPA2 networks but there is no traffic activity) was manufactured on Week 37-2012 in

Factory: F1 (China, Zhengzhou - Foxconn) according to this website: http://www.chipmunk.nl/klantenservice/applemodel.html

Thanks in advance for helping us out!

P.S: When using the website above, you need to enter your phone Serial Number (Settings->General->About)