Q: wifi greyed out iphone 4s

I can't believe it but this worked.  I'm waiting to see how long it lasts but it at least is a glimmer of hope!  Who knew!?

Hubby and I have twin i-phones bought the same day, one ebony, one ivory.  His has the problem, mine doesn't.  Here's what I did:

• Rebooting (no)
• Resyncing (no)
• Airplane mode off (no)
• Wifi addy was showing, but I reset it anyway (no)
• Cellular off, then rebooting (no)
• Restoring phone to factory settings in I-Tunes
  • After it restored, the phone "found" both of my networks, joined ok, so I thought the problem was solved.
  • Next I restored it from his backup - ARGHHH! Now wifi is greyed out again!

This made me wonder if it is some kind of app or software conflict, or (God forbid) a virus.  We use the same apps, the only thing different is his email and music.  Just now I:

• Restored to factory settings again, wifi works and connects!  HOORAY!
• Treated it as a NEW phone.  I will sync music/apps etc one-by-one over the next few days to see if it stays working.

I realize it could still be a hardware issue, solder connection on the blink, but I will reserve the hairdryer/freezer for the next stage. We live in the country and can't afford not to use it with wifi, so I hope this works.

Pity your guy is in the UK, I am in Texas at the moment (from UK).  Hubby can solder, has tools, but not electronics savvy ... now if someone had instructions on how to do it ...

IT WORKS!!!! THANKS MAN!!!!!

Thanks Aikon,I'm out of warranty so Verizon told this problem means a new phone and that would be $700 plus

I followed your advice and it is now working perfectly.

Hi All,

I have had this greyed problem for months now, nothing seemed to work by fiddling with settings, resets, restores, etc. I never tried the freezer thing, I used to blow hot air from the hair drier for 3-4 minutes while the phone was switched off.

Did it 2 times, switched back on after letting it to cool down, button was not greyed, found wireless network but could not connect...

Today it was hot, decided while sitting outside to let the phone on a clear sunny spot to get fried and shutdown.

Indeed after 20 minutes the phone had shut down due to overheating (it was real hot could barely touch it), letting it cool down, checked button was still greyed. I then did a soft reset (power & round button pressed together), switched phone back on and wifi button was not greyed and I actually could connect and now using the wifi.

I don't know how long it will last,but if I have to do it once a day it will save me the 120euro the have offered me to replace the wifi chipset (they say it's the chipset problem). In any case I will also try again the blow dryer but with phone ON so that it shuts down by itself.

hope this helps

Alex

My phone recently had grayed out wifi too-just over 1 year old. I tried reset network connections and restore iphone, I tried turning it off in airplane mode. Nothing worked.  I heated it up for 2 minutes in the headphone jack, and once it cooled down, it works!  Very surprised.  Hopefully it lasts!

This is completely a software problem!  I have a 4S with the greyed out WiFi. Mine went grey after installing the latest IOS 6.1.3. I tried all the fixes from the support pages (heating, cooling, resetting, restoring) and nothing worked. At the Genius bar they said I had a hardware problem.  Bulls**t. This is completely a software problem.  Here's how I know: My iPhone is unlocked (legally by my mobile carrier Sprint and Apple). I was in the UK for two months and rather than paying outrageous roaming charges, I bought a pay-as-you-go service from the 3 mobile carrier. I took out my Sprint SIM chip and put in the 3 SIM chip and my WiFi immediately started working again.  I've just returned from the UK, took out the 3 SIM and put the Sprint SIM back in and now the WiFi is greyed out again.  This is not a hardware issue. C'mon Apple, get it together. Hopefully this will be fixed in the next IOS version.

I solved the problem...at least so i think, because it runs like before greyed out.

Because i was out of apple waranty i did the following:

1) Removed back cover

2) Disconected Battery

3) Heated up with hair drier that place where the wifi chip is for about 2 minutes...the metal was so hot that you couldn;t leave your hand there more than 1 sec.

4) waited 20 minutes to cool

5) Put back Battery and Back Cover

6) Turn on...

And worked for me.  I think it is both a hardwere and a softwere problem. Because my greyed out after i droped it...

Dude, they should give you a medal for this, or at least a Job at Apple.  How? I don't know, for how long? Neither, but the fact is that my Wifi is working again. Just great!!!!  Just for further FAQ mine wasn't an iOS update problem, I think I dropped the phone and the wifi stopped working.  C ya!!

I am having this same problem. I spent a hour in the apple store today and at first it was a "hardware" problem then went to it "might" be a software problem.  I came home, did a complete restore and I had wifi (happy dance). Once I started loading my apps I noticed wifi was off (but searching) again. I cancelled all the apps from loading and by the time I was done with that wifi was greyed out again.  Long and short of this story is I think it's software (or an app). Is your wifi still working or did it go kaput again?!?  Just want to know before I spend another 2 hours without a phone (since we don't have a landline) doing another restore.

For all being said here and various other areas, the most probable cause is a software update (IOS) that caused the hardware component (wifi chipset) to malfunction. What I woujld suggest is try the practical solutions suggested... If you don't want to use the hairdryer, try what I did... leave it on a sunny spot (I had it with back cover on sun) - and if it's hot enough (I did it with 32deg. C) and let it until u see the message that phone has switched off due to overheating... let it cool down and turn it back on ... soft reset and back on wifi was working perfectly and still is after 2 weeks it is working....

I was too very sceptical of these funny experimentations with blow drier heating, freeze, etc.  But they seem to work and if you have to do it every 2-3 weeks, 1 month then it's fine with me... Otherwise replace the wifi chipset (quoted around 120euro in Europe) and chase them after part warranty everytime it happens again... BTW no factory restores, networking resets, flight modes or whatever else you can do will give you a solution. Maybe for a few minutes

Hi just a quick update to your problem my wife's iPhone 4S wifi died so we took it to apple who told us to buy a new one so after a couple of weeks trying to sort this problem I have just resulted to heating it up with a hair dryer for about 2 mins when I turned it on it said it was to hot and needed to cool, when it cooled i turned it on and !!!!!!happy days!!!!  the wifi and bluetooth both work guess who's in her good books,

come on apple get your hairdryers out and sort this out

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about how I was convinced this was a software problem. My WiFi on my iPhone 4S didn't work when I had my US SIM card plugged in, but when I went to Europe and plugged in a SIM card from a UK mobile carrier, the WiFi started working again. Came back to the US, plugged in my SIM from Sprint and the WiFi stopped working. Logical conclusion: this is some kind of software problem.

But quite by accident, I tried the "heat up the hardware" method and I now have to report that it works. My phone overheated from sitting in the sun on the front seat of my car. After it cooled down for about 15 minutes, I turned it back on and bingo, the WiFi was working. Has worked ever since. Weird but true.

a lot of posts are talking about the wifi chip being replaced and heating up the phones, these are working

methods no doubt ,

but may I remind everyone that our phones were perfectly running until the IOS6 update

it is how this IOS version interacts with the hardware ( maybe heating it a lot and causing the welding to fail )

that is causing the problem

it is a shame that apple didnt even recognize  the problem like it already did with the iphone 4 antenna problem and others...

all what it is doing is promoting its iphone 5S wich I definitly dont wanna try anymore.

I dont want a replacement or any compensation but if this company cares about customer service at least let it

release some kind of official acknowledgment on this case.