Q: iPhone 5 wifi issues

It seems a common problem without acknowledgment by Apple. I really tried everything, only disabling security on my WIFI network all together will give me WIFI for my iPhone 5. Hardly a solution (router is Apple Time Capsule). All other Apple devices work fine (iPhone 4, Apple TV, MacBook, iPad). Now starting to loose faith in Apple's quality and transparancy. Not a 'special' company after all... Will go to the store of my provider tomorrow to see what they say.

Ditto, i am set up to have replaced tomorrow morning. I wish i could have figured this out by myself. I am wondering if this is also a issue of backing up data from a iphone 4. Just to try, i wiped my phone and created as new phone. So far i have wifi again and will be monitoring from no until tomorrow. I now hope it will drop the wifi and this is not the answer.

i just got my white 64GB iphone 5 in the mail three days ago.  I had all the same problems within my home wifi enviroment (apple router & apple airport express) but the problem was only with the iphone 5. I have 2 ipads (2nd and 3rd gen), 2 iphone4 along with apple tv.

after studying many of the posts for the last two days and experimenting, i finally came up with a solution for my iphone 5 that has work sofar for the last day.

Problem:(observation)

ive tried this 3 times and the results are the same. If you are setting up your phone from a previous backup phone (in my case from a iphone 4), thats when the problem starts.

My temperary solution:

Erase your phone and all data.

Set it up as a New phone.

Do not restore as backup from other phone.

Goto apple store and download your app you paid for from "not on this phone"

Do the same with itunes for you music.

Turn-on photo sharing on old phone to get pics

Turn-on icloud for note, and contacts etc from old phone.

My wifi now is very fast and works with the verison LTE nework on.

So lets see if it holds up the next couple of days.

I have now canceled two previously arranged meeting with the Genius Bar at the Apple Store.  I decided my Wi-Fi Issues almost all had work-arounds that made me want to keep the iPhone 5 I have rather than subjecting myself to some of the issues others are having.  My Wi-Fi at home has always worked.  My issue was with some of the Public Non-Secure Wi-Fi Networks, like at a Target Store, or a local Hospital, even at a McDonald's.  I did Reset iPhone 5 to Factory Settings, went out and tried it a few places, and then reloaded from Backup.  I still have trouble in terms of how long it takes me to connect to some of these Public Networks, but if I can wait 10-15 minutes, with Cell > Data set to "Off" it usually finally connects and stays connected. 

Well I have received my third iPhone 5 device. Each device has had the Apple wireless chip and each device performed horribly with Wifi... less than 1mbps... I don't know what to do anymore...

Mr. Stringer! -

I was reading your post when my phone rang.  It was the Apple Engineer assigned to my case.  I am also on replacement iPhone 5 #3, so they elevated me to the engineers a couple weeks ago.  I FINALLY was told that they DO RECOGNIZE this issue, and that it is NOT isolated.  They currently do NOT have a fix for it, but are working on one.  Yep, you heard it first, they ARE working on a hotfix!!!  I feel alot better now.  It ***** that I don't have wi-fi, but at least I know they are planning on fixing it.  Now with that said, I sincerely hope it's not another month before we see it.

So here we go folks!  Time to wait and see how Apple handles this.  It's one thing telling me (an individual) that they are working on a fix, but entirely different to admit it to the consumer population.

I retried today at the McDonalds wifi spot and the I Phone 5 again refused to join.  Speedtest would try and work but the ping was not registering anything.  Only after I  soft restartrd the phone did everything start to work.  I see a very common pattern of issues here.  Has anyone heard from Apple at all? Any feedback?  I doubt that changing phones out is going to do much until a 6.01 fix is made available.  The refurb folks at Apple are going to be very busy!  I do have my I Phone 5 working normally on the home FIOS network using a D link 655 N router as the wireless, Firmware version 1.33NA. Encryption is WPA/WPA2 Personal.

Enjoy your weekend!

Read my post just before yours.  It's not much but maybe it's a start?

Hope they fix this pretty soon. Full wifi bars on my MBA , nada on my iphone 5. Thanks for the information StephPDX.

I was having problems on networks with WPA2/TKIP encryption, even a freaking Airport Exterme.

It would work for a few seconds, then show full strength but no connection..

Got it replaced today. So far so good... Assuming it is a hardware problem, and not a software problem.

You're welcome TooNU!

Not sure if this is relevant to anyone's wifi issue, but I found that if I am standing right next to my router, I get 20Mbps down and 6Mbps up on my iPhone 5. If I walk 10 ft away from my router, I get only 1.5Mbps down, but still 6Mbps up. For some strange reason, the download speed is grossly affected by small changes in distance from the router. Performing the same experiment with the New iPad, the results go from 15Mbps down / 6Mbps up right next to the router to 10Mbps down / 6Mbps up 10 ft away. Perhaps the iPhone 5's recepton ability is weak?

Edit: Tried changing from a 2.4GHz connection to a 5GHz connection and the results were vastly different. I see almost no decrease in download speed when moving 10 ft away from the router when using a 5GHz connection. Perhaps, my issue has to do with 2.4GHz band inteference.

Message was edited by: Healz4u

Hey everyone!

just got my iPhone 5 32GB (Canada - Fido) and I have been exepriencing wifi problems like all of you. Except it is somewhat usable. The connexion would freeze for a some seconds every minute or so... Tried to measure packet loss and I get an average of 12% (on a 5 GHz N network WPA2 AES protected, Cisco E4200). My iPhone 4 (which is still on iOS 5) NEVER exceeds 0% packet loss over several tests. Speedtest however shows better results on iPhone 5 than on iPhone 4... can't seem to know why...

Just checked my MAC address and it is an Apple manufactured ship (D8:D1:CB...).

I have been following this thread closely prior to receiving my phone and it did scare me to say the least. But at least we know they are working on something (thank you StephPDX)...

Hey again! (sorry for double post, no edit...)

so, I just did a full restore of iOS (but did not set up the phone as new afterwards, ie : restore from back up) and so far, a 15 minutes test showed 0% packet loss and the network connexion seems to work flawlessly at this time (no more freezes).

I will try to test it with my school's Network (RADIUS with multiple protocols, encryptions and bands) and see what it does...

Hope it stays that way...

I faced the same problem on wifi. Cannot detect the router when 5 meters away!

I wore a thin metallic case that moment. However when I suit off , wifi performance boost !!!

Thanks to the Metal case then.

Where is the antenna actually ? which side ? Anyone know?

Hope this help.