Q: iPhone 5 wifi issues

What iOS version are you right Now? 6.1.4?

They gave me with 6.1.3 and I dont update

Old Macs wrote:

 

I've been in contact with a senior advisor who is talking with the engineering dept.  It sounds like Apple isn't going to do anything.  We are going to need cold, hard proof that it is a hardware or software problem and bring it to Apple's attention.  Until then, they are going to think we are just a bunch of liars trying to get free iPhone replacements.

That sounds a bit absurd -- why would people be trying to get replacements if there isn't something wrong with the one they have?  It's not like you gain anything by replacing a phone with the same kind of phone -- unless the one you're returning doesn't work.

However, if it is a defective batch of WiFi chips (as has been suggested), then I don't doubt engineering wouldn't be involved, because that's a manufacturing defect, not an engineering problem.  The fact that swapping out the hardware seems to fix it suggests that it may indeed be a manufacturing defect -- it's not like they changed the design of the phone in between swapping it out.

I've gone through 2 replacement iPhones all with the same problem.  It can't be my network, since whenever I am having problems with my iPhone 5, an iPhone 4 running on the same network is working fine (my iPhone has 6.1.4, iPhone 4 iOS 6.1.2).

Whats bad for me is that website everyone is using to find out their Wi-Fi chip manufactures, hwaddress.com, doesn't show my "Wi-Fi Address" (MAC Address) as being owned by anyone.  I even went through their list of companies, no one owns the block of MAC addresses my iPhone is assigned to.  The prefix (first 6 digits) of my MAC address is BC:92:6B.

With this info, could it mean my iPhone's wifi chip isn't even legally registered with the FCC?  If so, that scares me.

Here is some info on my 2nd (and current) replacement iPhone 5 (Note my iPhone is a CDMA model, which explains the iPhone 5,2):

Machine Model: iPhone5,2

Name: iPhone 5

ModelCode: iphone_5

Family name: A1429

Model Number: MD661

Group1: iPhone

Group2:

Generation: 7

CPU speed: 1.3GHz

Screen size: 4 inch

Screen resolution: 1136x640 pixels

Colour: White

Production year: 2013

Production week: 12 (March)

Model introduced: 2012

Capacity: 32GB

Factory: DQ (China - Foxconn)

Old Macs wrote:

 

Whats bad for me is that website everyone is using to find out their Wi-Fi chip manufactures, hwaddress.com, doesn't show my "Wi-Fi Address" (MAC Address) as being owned by anyone.  I even went through their list of companies, no one owns the block of MAC addresses my iPhone is assigned to.  The prefix (first 6 digits) of my MAC address is BC:92:6B.

 

With this info, could it mean my iPhone's wifi chip isn't even legally registered with the FCC?  If so, that scares me.

I doubt it.  More likely it just means the database that site is using isn't the most current.  I tried your MAC prefix on two other MAC lookup sites, and both said it's made by Apple.   (http://curreedy.com/stu/nic/ and http://aruljohn.com/mac.pl , if you're curious, found them in a quick search).

Today I went to the Apple Store and they restored my iPhone 5. The WiFi was working with the Store connection but as soon as I tried to connect to my home network the WiFi is not working again. I'm really disappointed about this issue and the most frustrating thing for me is that I've not seen any official comment from Apple.

Cool, thanks for the info.

Great, my iPhone has an Apple chip.

Probably because it was tested on their open network.  Have them test it on their hidden backroom wifi which I believe is WPA2, so the issue should appear.

Another day, another Genius Bar appointment.

This time, I'm taking it to a different store.  Hopefully they will find me an Intel chip iPhone.  This store I'm going to has been really helpful in the past, so hopefully they will be better then my local store.

My iphone 5 32gb has An Apple wifi and it works, but i'm still using iOS 6.0.2.

Does Anyone has the same scenario?

I have an iPhone 5, 'Apple' wifi and had the same issue with wifi i.e.  Connecting to WPA/personal would give "password incorrect" on previously working networks.

I did a factory restore (erase all content and settings) on the phone and restored from a backup a month old - now wifi works fine, even after updating to latest IOS update.

I suspect you are correct (somewhat) There was information that Apple shipped back like 8 million defective iphones to Foxconn for repair/replacement. However, the day iOS 6 came out iPads started having wifi issues as well. Since the iPhone 5 was shipped with iOS6 its hard to say what the deal is. I suspect a little of both.  Perhaps iOS6 is not playing well with certain hardware.

Wojka wrote:

 

Hi,

yesterday I've changed for new iphone and now I don't have problems with wifi. I thought it was software problem but now i think its hardware problem. If it would be software problem why it would only be on some, not all iphones.

FWIW, I have an iPhone 5 with an Apple Wi-Fi chip and absolutely zero issues…

i finally found where the problem is with " unable to join network " error message , after months of research and trying every single trick on the net not working , the problem is with channel overlapping from the router . i have downloaded " inSSider " network analyzer and found that my home network is overlapping with four other networks , though when i try to connect from another place where there is no channel overlapping it connects just fine . most routers use 2.5 Mhz frequency , so you get a lot of overlapping there , but if you try to connect from a 5 Mhz router , its fine . so you could download the inSSider app for pc and check for the channel where there is no channel overlapping and use this channel . This is a hardware issue anyway , if the wifi circuit and wifi antenna are ok in your phone then you should not have any problem connecting , but if either of them are faulty , you will get that error . so you either fix it or taking it to apple to replace it . and it is possible that when you go to apple store you would not see the problem , thats what happened to me , that is because they probably have a 5 Mhz router and that would rarely interfere with other networks .

i finally found where the problem is with " unable to join network " error message , after months of research and trying every single trick on the net not working , the problem is with channel overlapping from the router . i have downloaded " inSSider " network analyzer and found that my home network is overlapping with four other networks , though when i try to connect from another place where there is no channel overlapping it connects just fine . most routers use 2.5 Mhz frequency , so you get a lot of overlapping there , but if you try to connect from a 5 Mhz router , its fine . so you could download the inSSider app for pc and check for the channel where there is no channel overlapping and use this channel . This is a hardware issue anyway , if the wifi circuit and wifi antenna are ok in your phone then you should not have any problem connecting , but if either of them are faulty , you will get that error . so you either fix it or taking it to apple to replace it . and it is possible that when you go to apple store you would not see the problem , thats what happened to me , that is because they probably have a 5 Mhz router and that would rarely interfere with other networks .