ios 6.1.3 WIFI problem

what was i thinking? That because this is all over discussions boards with people having this problem with their phones right after the OS upgrade that this would in any way be associated with the upgrade. What is wrong with me and all you people with the same phone problem anyway. Just because something is obvious does not make it true.

And to anyone who had the problem when they upgraded to iOS 5, or iOS 4, or iOS 3, or who had the identical problem unrelated to any upgrade, what would you say to them? It's your imagination, because this only happens when you upgrade to 6.1.3? And what would you say to me, who upgraded to 6.1.3 and had no problem at all?

Sorry; this is a hardware problem. Coincidentally it happened to some phones when they were upgraded. With 900 million iOS devices such things can happen. Or the hardware problem was already present, but was triggered by the update. Either way, it is still a hardware problem and no amount of software will ever fix it.

The fact that some people have fixed it by fixing the hardware (without changing any software) is proof. As is the fact that people have fixed it by heating or chilling their phone. Have you ever heard of heat sensitive software? What about the people who have hacked their phone to downgrade their software version, and found that it did not fix the problem (you won't find them posting here, because Apple does not permit discussion of hacking, but you can find their posts in other forums). Not to mention that if you take it to Apple they will treat it as a hardware problem and replace the phone.

I dont know how it is known that a software upgrade cant cause a chip to work harder and therfore run hotter and therfeore cause a problem with hardware, and if this is true do we know if these phones were manufactured or intended to operate without problems at the heat level caused by this? Apple is an excelent product and inspected to certain standards and maybe some phones just met these minimum standards while others maybe just happened to exceed those standards and those therfore did not have problems with this upgrade. As far as the hacking old OS systems, could it be that for for some phones some permanent damage was caused to hardware by this overheating, which explains why hacking an old system doesnt fix this. I dont know if what I said above, which is my own speculation since i am not a tech person, has any merit, but debating the technical aspects of this really isnt going to get anywhere, with me at least. There is no escaping the fact that there are many apple customers on many forums having this same problem, and I'n not buying it that this OS upgrade is not the root cause. Anyway that all folk's. Just wanted to vent - now I'll go pay to fix the phone.

MarcioV wrote:

TJBUSMC1973 wrote: "It's called ''the straw that broke the camel's back'. Ever heard of it? (...) Coincidence. Nothing more."

Right. A very unusual and extremely unlikely "coincidence" that is shared by lots of other people online and even led a Time tech editor to write an article on it...

Apple, you disappoint me. Google Android phone, here I go (as soon as the AT&T contract allows me anyway)...

Dang. So close. I though you had it!

Well all I know is that my iphone 4 was fine, now my facetime, which runs on wifi, does not work. Battery does drain much faster. I thought it was my phone getting older, but really noticing it in the last couple weeks. Wifi works with everything else, so it cant be a faulty chip. Admit it, it is the software!!

Right. Well I know I'm beating a pretty dead horse (probably dismembered from the beatings its taken thus far) but I'll lob my hand up and state that my 4S' wi-fi has been unreliable [read: a complete nightmare!] and only since updating (pretty late) to 6.1.3.

I must admit, I updated blindly in about May/June (normally recommended updates improve things and such) without consulting forums and consumer experience like I normally do. Wi-fi started to grey out around July, and restoring the phone would fix the issue for between 2-6 weeks ('fixed' it 3 times since its onset). This morning, however, on the day of iOS 7 (which I've been extremely eager to see since I saw its beta first hand on a friend's handset back in June [he's a dev, not a hacker]) it seems to have conked out for good. 2 restores did nothing, and I am left feeling a little miffed, given that the phone was bought in Feb 2012 and I am well and truly out of any warranty (I never extend warranties given that I'm pretty careful and generally pride myself on knowing how to fix pretty simple things that I do end up messing around with - didn't know the product itself would mercilessly conk out on me a few months after expiry).

Given that restoring the phone fixed the thing, I assumed software problems (never bothered messing around with temperature - RRoD experience has left me wary of temperature fixes) had caused the wi-fi problem, but now that the restore doesn't fix it...I haven't the faintest idea. The only thing I can say, based on my experience and that of considerable others, is that I am certain that upgrading 6.1.3 increases the liability of this problem, whatever the problem may be. To claim this to be untrue because it 'hasn't happened to all devices' is folly. Susceptibility does not equate to certainty, and the dismissal of the claim on poor grounds such as that leads me to believe anything that may follow up from that is equally untrustworthy...

Not every susceptible genotype will display a phenotype. Not every susceptible engine will explode. Not ever susceptible device will bust.

Now, I have no real and actual help to give, unfortunately, but I can offer a sole piece of advice:

Trying to fix it by restoring it might work. It doesn't hurt to try, and it gave me an extra few months of usage.

Now I'm left with some options:

Suck it up and run on 3G (unfortunately, my contract is limited to 1GB per month. I just have to be frugal till February I suppose). I'm a student and there's no way I'm shelling out for a new phone.

Third party repair job. No idea whether it'll work or not, but it's a relatively inexpensive gamble, and the problem is probably related to the 'antenna soldering foibles' that seem to be all the rage recently (but then why would restoring have worked previously?).

Apple OOW repair job. This doesn't appeal to me given that regardless of fixing my issues, I don't feel that Apple deserve my money for a problem that I genuinely don't believe I caused. I'll happily use my laptop over my phone to watch YouTube videos rather than shell out £200 to the people that screwed me when the problem is likely to manifest itself again. Call it stubborn, I really don't care. I call it principle.

...obviously I'm going to wait *and pray* that iOS 7 is my lord and saviour and that it was indeed a software issue. 2 more hours of hope. Who am I kidding? I'm not hopeful at all.

/story

Wifi on my iPhone 4S works again for the first time in months after updating from iOS 6.1.3 to iOS 7.0. Your mileage may vary, but hope it sticks... and works again for others too.

UPDATE: Shoot, the update must have heated up my phone just enough. Worked for about an hour, now back to 4G. :-(

Greetings -

Updated my 4s months ago to 6.1.3 and it absolutely killed my WiFi and Blutooth. Carrier gave me a replacement and I have not updated this phone yet in fear of having it fail too. But I have not been 'offered' the 7.0 upgrade yet under "Software updates". Even though my mini has. I hope you can jump over 6.1.3? Otherwise I guess I'll have to link to a computer and do it through iTunes in Airplane mode. What a pain. I am definately unimpressed with the 4s, and don't see the point of adding just another "row" of icons with a 5x and better camera. Oh well, Apple can't do everything right I guess....

Greetings -

I turned on Airplane mode, plugged into laptop and let itunes 'update' to iOS7 (skipping over 6.1.3) Worked fine and did NOT kill my Wifi and bluetooth. WooHoo!

Correct, YOU do not have a faulty chip. Your wi-fi works. Therefore, it's not the iOS software either.

Facetime has known issues.

So, neither 6.1.3 nor 7.0 'broke' your Wi-Fi on your replacement phone?

So, your first device was defective, the second was not?

So, Marcio, how do you like iOS 7? It must have fixed your issue, right? 😉

First off, wifi was not defective on the first phone, it worked fine UNTIL upgrading to 6.1.3. That says to me that software caused a hardware fault. The second phone, technically I have no idea,because It came with 6.1.2 and I did not try 6.1.3 fearing the dreaded outcome of the first phone. So there is no way to know for sure if this phone is somehow not affected by the issue, as many other 4s phones weren't. Or if 7.0 simply doesn't "break"your wifi and Bluetooth. And frankly I don't care, I just expect to have an iPhone that doesn't "break" simply by upgrading iOS. That's a seriously low bar to jump for Apple, or even samsung.... When an automobile manufacturer finds a serious design flaw in a part made by a sub contractor, the automobile manufacturer does the recall work. They don't say, sorry, the company who supplied the airbag is at fault, you need to talk to them. No, they suck it up and make their deal with the supplier. Apple should have issued a "recall" on iPhones which had the wifi and Bluetooth killed by upgrading to 6.1.3. If may be the wifi / Bluetooth suppliers fault. I don't know, and I don't care. All I know is that I did absolutely nothing wrong but upgrade, and suddenly a major component of the device failed. It would be like filling your vehicle tank with fuel and suddenly you brakes fail. And after the automobile manufacturer gets hundreds if not thousands of people complaining that their brakes failed after filling their gas tank with fuel, guess what? A recall is issued and the vehicle is repaired By the manufacturer. Apple didn't do that. They said too bad, so sad, pay up to buy a new phone.....

Bottom line is, the burden of proof should not fall on the owner. In the absence of extraordinary circumstances or abuse, It is the manufacturer who bears the burden of responsibility for issues affecting their product.

If iOS 6.1.3 was already released when you got your replacement, then 6.1.3 was on the phone, almost guaranteed.

Yes, your Wi-Fi chip WAS defective. If it was the SOFTWARE that caused the fault, then why didn't iOS 6.1.3 cause THE SAME PROBLEM in your replacement phone?

Think whatever you want. You're basing your ASSUMPTIONS on TWO devices, one of which you didn't even 'test'. I'm basing my opinion on thousands of cases, where iPhone 4Ss were not affected adversely by iOS 6.1.3.

If iOS 6.1.3 was the CAUSE, then EVERY iPhone 4S in the world running iOS 6.1.3 would have the SAME problem.

This is called 'basic logic'. ALL iOS 6.1.3 programs are identical, down to the last line of code. It is NOT possible (without jailbreaking) to have two different versions of iOS 6.1.3.

The only difference between your iPhone 4S with 6.1.3 and MY iPhone 4S with 6.1.3 is the actual DEVICE.

Yours was defective. Mine was not.

Did your device operate properly during warranty period? If so, no problem. If not, you got a FREE replacement. Why do you want a 'recall' too? That's unreasonable and unrealistic.

Did you REALLY just compare a minor inconvenience to a life-threatening safety issue?

😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁

Pullease, I can tell you my replacement iPhone had 6.1.2, and I lived with the settings showing me one upgrade to 6.1.3 for months. Life-threatening safety issue, seriously, it's called an analogy. Get a dictionary and look it up....

I never claimed my device wasn't faulty, clearly it was as most other 4s iPhones didn't have a problem. If a vehicle manufacturer finds a design flaw AFTER the warranty period responsible companies still step up and take care of the issue. But this isn't a car, and I didn't cry about it, my device was a month out of manufacturer warranty, but my carrier stepped up and replaced it because I have a lot of device with them and they value me as a customer. I also currently or have owned at least one of nearly every Apple product they have made in the last five years. So I just didn't expect this level of "fumble" by Apple. But my device was out of warranty when it failed and that's the way it goes. But for a company to not even acknowledge an issue, where clearly there is one, reflects badly on said company. And that's my only point.