iPhone5 issues with WPA2/AES Wifi

Ah we have our own home now! I've been posting on the other forum.

Trust me, none of the "fixes" on the internet will work. I've spent a week trying them over & over. And router settings are a rabbit hole. TKIP and unsecured networks are not a solution.

Went to Apple Store & tech did a deep reset. They only have an open network in store, so of course it works there. Make them set up an Aiport with default WPA2/Personal if you can.

She told me to come back for a replacement if it didn't work, so I'm going back tomorrow. Hope I don't get another bad unit.

Some other folks more tech saavy have indicated this AES stuff is done in hardware, so don't count on a software fix that isn't some kind of kludge.

And yes, call AppleCare, go in store, or file a bug report. Nobody is compensated for reading discussion boards, only reported problems are real.

Take it back! And check your return date - if bought direct from Apple it's 30 days. From Carriers might be only 14. Once you're past the return date you lose your leverage, they can string you along forever with promises of updates.

@clickmeas THANK YOU!

Glad I've been reading updates to these 2 threads for the past few days and caught your response regarding firmware versions and your router. I have the same router and can report the same results:

Netgear WGT624v3 ,Firmware 2.0.26_1.01------- IPHONE 5 WIFI DOESN'T WORK

Netgear WGT624v3 ,Firmware 2.0.21_1.01--------IPHONE 5 WIFI DOES WORK. !!!

I know this is a workaround, but the fact that there is a router software solution to my problem would sure seem to indicate to me the possibility that a software fix (to iPhone5 WiFi internal) might solve it as well.

Hallelujah 😀 for the workaround for now.

kobyh15 wrote:

I have the dreaded 98:B8 chip set. Should I just get on the phone with AppleCare tomorrow and get the exchange process started?

I wouldn't get too hung up on the chipset. Most of the Apple chipsets are OK, and it would appear all of the Intel chipsets are OK. (but that's a big leap guesstimation, not a fact.) Can you reliably reproduce a lack of internet connection shortly after you connect to an AES encrypted wireless access point? If so, know you have a real, hardware issue and Apple needs to replace the unit.

Been reading this discussion from the beginning. Many, many thanks to C4RLOCO for his detective work and advice.

I had a good experience with a 2nd level tech on the phone. Over a week, he was in constant contact with me, and acted as a go-between to the engineers. Of course, no amount of router tweaking improved the weak wifi signal. When I finally gave in and asked for a replacement, he agreed to send it overnight (and waive the $29 fee). I should get the replacement Thursday; I already have the serial. They are sending a black 64GB from factory F2, produced in week 38. I can't get the MAC until I physically receive it, but fingers crossed that it has Intel chips onboard. If not, I'll run all my tests and if required ask for replacements until I get a fully functional unit.

FWIW, the defective unit I am send back was:

Black 64GB iPhone 5

Production week 36

Factory: DN (China, Chengdu - Foxconn)

My home router and the router at work are both current model AirPort Extremes. Both gave very poor wifi performance, pretty much 1/10 of speeds achieved with other iOS devices.

This last bit is anecdotal, so take it with a grain of salt: I felt the 3G range and performance was less than I used to get on my IPhone 4. In places that I used to get 3-4 bars, I have been only getting 1-2. Also, the battery life on the iPhone 5 didn't wow me like the blogs and podcasts claimed it would. I can't shake the feeling that the radio or chipset was working overtime or incorrectly, thereby burning the battery faster. Again, this last section is subjective and speculatory.

I hope to follow up with a post Thursday describing my success with the replacement phone.

I'm back from Apple store, this is my update:

At the begin Apple refused to replace my iphone, they said it is a software issue that will be fixed inthe next days, anyway they didn't know about the problem and after showing them How my IP5 worked they pick my iphone and tested it for about one hour.

When they came back they said there was no way to check the mac address of a new boxed iphone so probably I'd had the same problem.

At the end, after about one hour later and after having talked with 4 more people of the genius bar, they replaced the iphone with one with the same wifi apple module, but IT WORKS!!!!!!!

my working mac address start with: 54:26 manufactured by apple.

before I had 98.b4

Just wanted to say that I had a white iphone5 32 gb Verizon phone with the same issues, would connect to my wifi but no data would transfer. Took it to the apple store and they told me it worked fine. Kept reading the forums and found out that it was a wpa thing so I went back to the apple store and made them set up a secured network. When it didn't work he put in an order for a new phone. Took a few days but got my new phone and everything works perfectly now. Has to be an internal hardware problem in my opinion.

I also had the WPA2 issue on my black iPhone 5 16 GB AT&T version.

The first six digits of the mac address on my first iPhone 5 were 88:53:95, and it had the WPA2 issue, I would be able to connect but surfing the web was at a CRAWL! WEP and WPA would work fine, as did unsecured networks. Week 38, Factory F2

I went to my local apple store, described the issue and they got me setup with a replacement almost right away.

I am happy to report that I have NO LONGER HAVE ISSUES on WPA2 networks after getting the replacement. The first six digits of the mac address on my replacement iPhone 5 are 54:26:96. ALSO Week 38, Factory F2!!

I know its weird but both phones were made at the same factory (F2), during the same week (38). My first iPhone 5 had the WPA2 issue and the replacement iPhone 5 does not! Maybe it has more to do with the Mac Addresses than the production factories and production weeks??

I do not think that this is a software issue, it seems like a hardware issue. I didn't change anything as far as my network settings and my replacement iPhone 5 magically works perfectly, while my first iPhone 5 always had the WPA2 issue, from the start!

To me that sounds like a hardware problem.......

So I received a new phone after visiting the Genius Bar. Of course they had never heard of the issue before me. I offered up the case number that was offered by Eric Mailer on this forum. They said they could not look it up and they had no way of setting up a WPA2/AES network to see the issue. I setup my new phone there and checked the MAC address on the new one. It was different from what seems to be a pattern on here. The MAC addresses that begin with 88:53:95 all seem to have this issue. As soon as I got home, I joined my network and I was relieved. They also told me that they can only exchange the phone once and if the problem was not fixed I would have to wait for a software update. I replied with I paid for a working phone and I expect to get what I paid for. I kept it simple, and after a long day I just wanted to go home. That is my update, I feel very lucky to not be stuck with another iPhone that cannot operate on a WPA2/AES network. Apple should recognize this issue and more importantly, let there retail stores know about it.

So my iphone 5 was delivered on day 1. Performance was great and fast. I didnt have problems connecting to secured Wifi- my problem was that everything I was doing online was much slower than the ipod/ipad/idevice next to me. Something didnt seem right no matter what trick I tried:

Add "test" to the description of the wifi in the settings, and renew lease

Switch router to WEP (oh **** no)

Reset the phone

Reset network settings

Check if your router (mine is a 4th Gen Airport Extreme)

Pretty much every tip that was posted on forums using "iphone 5 slow wifi" in google search.

Anyway, two days later I said screw this. Made an appointment with the Genius Bar, next day the phone was replaced.

Same thing. It'd be all nice and fast browsing but it seemed to degrade after about ten minutes. ***. Same thing- search for new posts on the forums I was checking everyday. My big gauge wasnt only just the browsing, I gauged my connectivity by downloading large pdfs off my dropbox app. Still slow and of course my other devices using the same app was fast downloading. App store apps that were bigger than 50megs seriously took 30+ minutes to install/load even after troubleshooting and accepting hey its a new phone maybe a million people are downloading the same thing.

So i said f this again, made another appt with the Genius bar- so I explain to the guy what I was seeing (and hoping he read the forums and knew what I was talking about). I caught his attention and he whipped out his 4S and downloaded a large file onto his own phone. Wham. Fast. I show him my dropbox app and explained how I gauged my 5 with other idevices. He said, and it makes sense, well the dropbox app isnt IOS 6 ready and something about the APIs and yada yada. So there was no exchange. I figure ok well ill just wait til they update the app but it still didnt explain the slowass browsing on my WPA2/AES set Airport Extreme.

Today: went to the Apple Store, talked to a genius guy, replaced my phone for the 2nd time. And guess what.

Everything is FAST INCLUDING MY BROWSING, AND MY downloading bigass pdfs are fassssst like the rest of my other idevices. Surprised? Yeah and glad. And lucky I didnt get what I think was a bad phone from a bad batch of phones sent out. As i was driving home, I was thinking what if I got the 1st phone back as the replacement. Haha

Good luck guys. Exchange it and hope the replacemnts in that drawer they pull the replacements from is from fresh batch.

OneMoreAnimal,

Yes. Good ol' Speedtest. I've had that app on the phone since Day 2 after reading forums trying to figure what the heck was going on with it. I'd always get consistant speed test results usually averaging 25Mbps D, about 1Mbps at home, at work, pretty much wherever. The problem was downloading large files for me. I could be installing say Pages on the phone (i think its 350meg or something huge). That one would take almost 2 hours or more to download. Probably more because I just let it do its thing while I slept. I work for the fire dept here and created PDF maps for my area and most of them are 70 meg in size. Using Dropbox to get them to my GoodReader app to view on the phone it'd take an hour to download whereas seriously about a minute or two on my 4S, ipad, ipod touches (all on IOS 6 btw). And for whatever its worth, i'd speedtest while DL the pdf's or app installs, it'd still read a fairly good test. I hope that makes sense of the problem I was having which is completely GONE now with the new replacement(my 2nd replacement). Seems even faster than the previous phone browsing the internet, downloading PDF's is FAST thru dropbox, installs of apps are noticeably faster and don't hang like they did.

Aloha,

Funcher

No Security – No Issues

WEP Security – No Issues

WPA with TKIP encryption - No Issues

WPA2 with TKIP encryption - No Issues

WPA with AES encryption – Approx. 70+% packet loss

WPA2 with AES encryption - Approx. 70+% packet loss

Hope this helps some people…….

Thanks for the lengthy report. The diagnosis that AES was causing 70-80% packet loss and that switching to TKIP or no encryption was reported 2 weeks ago (the first weekend after release.) For this issue, hardware replacement does apear to fix it, which is why we believe there is a quality control problem. This also jives with the recent report of Apple increasing quality standards at Foxxcom, and the employee revolt that insued.

The real issue here is that Apple hasn't officially acknowledged the issue. Some apple reps are aware and immediately swap out the phone. Others claim they have never heard of it.

Apple Store Visit #3 - Replacement

Went in to pick up the replacement. The tech was quick, and after reading the notes on my problem, got the password and connected it to the (encrypted) Apple Breakroom WAP.

As we completed the paperwork I continued to click links. They were still loading well past the point my original phone would've lost internet connectivity so I left with it.

On my way home paired with car stereo bluetooth - check.

Signed onto my home encrypted network - working fine, fast.

Restored from backup from original phone - still working fine, fast.

Mac: 98:FE (Apple) Scanning back thru, I see a few people saying their 98:FE replacements are good. My original defective phone was a 68.

Bad batch of hardware out there, no question.

For what it is worth, I too was having Wi Fi problems with my new iPhone5. Only worked on open netowrks, experianced 2-3 minutes of proper usage on WPA/WPA2 secured networks and eventualy it would just stall.

I confirmed latest firmware on my routers, network equip, etc and it did not matter.

I brought it into the Apple store (Genius Bar) the they replaced it without much discussion. The new phone works great!

iPhone 5 that did not work:

Model introduced: 2012

Serial number: C39JFTRUDTTN (cleaned up from 'c39jftrudttn')

Production year: 2012

Production week: 38 (September)

Name: iPhone 5 (GSM model: AT&T and Canada)

ModelCode: iphone_5

Model Number: MD634

Group1: iPhone

Group2:

Generation: 7

Machine Model: iPhone5,1

CPU speed: 1.3GHz

Family name: Become a pro user to see this information. (sorry)

Screen size: 4 inch

Screen resolution: 1136x640 pixels

Colour: Black

Capacity: 16GB

Factory: C3 (China)

iPhone5 that works:

Model introduced: 2012

Serial number: DNQJC0EESDTTN (cleaned up from 'dnqjc0eesdttn')

Production year: 2012

Production week: 36 (September)

Name: iPhone 5 (GSM model: AT&T and Canada)

ModelCode: iphone_5

Model Number: MD634

Group1: iPhone

Group2:

Generation: 7

Machine Model: iPhone5,1

CPU speed: 1.3GHz

Family name: Become a pro user to see this information. (sorry)

Screen size: 4 inch

Screen resolution: 1136x640 pixels

Colour: Black

Capacity: 16GB

Factory: DN (China, Chengdu - Foxconn)

MR44 wrote:

Of course, there MAY be a way to fix this hardward problem with software. However, it is definitely a hardware problem. The sure thing is to have your phone replaced.

You are right. I wish folks wouldn't cloud people's minds on this particular AES issue. Collectively the posters on this forum have spent hundreds of hours troubleshooting this thing, and the only resolution has been by replacement. Regardless of cause, it's not wise to sit around with a broken phone waiting for a "sofware" fix when a (tested) replacement is a proven fix.

Even if it is somehow fixable by software, it could be a kludge to work around defective components, still leaving you with an inferior product. Even if the whole thing were totally software, we have no idea Apple's priority on this. Don't assume they'll address it in iOS 6.1. Are you willing to wait for iOS 6.2? 6.3? 6.4?

Get a replacement. And if you get it from an Apple Store, test it on their Breakroom encrypted network before you leave. It's the only thing that will definitely "fix" it at this point.

If you're worried about costing poor Apple money they can't afford by demanding a replacement: Don't. They'll sell your original to someone else as "refurbished".

Reset All Settings -- the experience and the result

I've also been experiencing severe wifi problems, and have posted here previously. I was getting quite close to returning my iphone 5 for an exchange. The apple store is quite a drive so I've been looking for suggestions and fixes on this and similar discussions. As a last possible measure, I tried "Reset All Settings" (Settings>General>Reset>Reset All Settings). Before doing so, I searched around for what exactly this would do to my phone. The information I found was unclear, hence my post here so others know what to expect. The reset kept music, pictures, data, apps and folder structure. That's good. On the other hand, the collection of settings affected is deep and affects widespread function. Sounds, bluetooth devices, notifications, do not disturb, all wifi connections, notification center apps, badges, email signature and configuration, lock/background screens, weather locations, clock locations, message configurations, security lock password, itunes match connection, key sounds, and more. For me, the biggest pain was reconfiguring the notifications -- specifically what's in the notification center and which apps report in the lock screen. (As an aside, apple needs a better way to set this up from scratch since configuring with 100+ apps is a total pain. I'd prefer a default that all app notifications default in the off state and then one selectively turns on those that are wanted.) It took me about an hour to get things close to where I wanted them, although I am sure some settings are in a different state than what I had previously.

Now for the guarded good news -- wifi is working much better. Before, I could not reliably stream radio shows or use Airplay to my stereo. Moreover, web pages would load half way and just hang. (My network is WPA2 and I have not turned off security to test whether other protocols work better.) Most of this now seems resolved. Pages load well and I streamed PBS for an hour with no problem. Speedtest apps still hang about half way through but I'm not sure if this is a server or phone issue.

In the spirit of a productive forum, I hope this helps, both in terms of what a settings reset will do and the hopeful outcome of a better working wifi.