wifi doesn't work with IOS 7

Hi Bin,

Have you looked at macrumors.com? I find it to be easier to find problems because it has FAQs and a different set of posting rules (if you know what I mean).

Over there, I searched for "4S wifi", "wifi", "ios 7 wifi" and got more or less the same number of thread hits: 400+.

Now, people are divided into 2 camps: either we have some kind of wifi problem, or we don't, so whoever speaks out on this issue would be one of the 2 camps.

I currently don't have wifi problems (one learns that even something like working wifi has to be appreciated, this is ridiculous!) but if I were to face this problem, here's what I would do:

A. Is the iphone still under warranty? If yes --> get replacement.

B. If not, would Apple still replace it? Yes for some individuals. Maybe it depended on store, their available stock, and maybe even on presentation of problem.

Out of warranty and Apple store won't replace it for free? Now I would think this way:

1. Weigh the cost of monetary loss due to data overages with the replacement of US$199.

2. Am I satisfied with my current carrier? Would I switch to another?

3. Am I satisfied with the iOS ecosystem (iTunes, movies, iTunes University, Podcasts, etc)

There's also the difficulty of proving, other than on my own account, of the time of wifi breakage. Is this fair? Well, I think Apple took the approach of going 50-50 with out of warranty replacements (they pay half, we pay half).

If we search on eBay for the going price of refurbished iPhone4S, it's around $400 from the more reputable sellers and more often sold as-is. Compare this with $199 plus 90 days warranty from Apple for a replacement, this is not a bad deal.

What can we gather from these findings? I won't say it here, and leave it to each reader's interpretation.

I'm ok with my current service provider, and I'm already invested into the iOS ecosystem, so I would rather spend the same $199 to get this year's model. Why? I'm paying the same monthly rate regardless of whether the phone has its contract fulfilled or not. One of these days we'll be the beneficiary of Apple's warranty, ie the phone broke due to other reasons but they still issue a replacement.

(PS: I have compared prepaid and other carriers, but my current carrier gives me a better deal on contract due to corporate discount.)

Best wishes.

If you manage to get a wifi connection, but it keeps dropping out with iOS7 try this fix router-side until Apple sort out the issue... worked for my two iPads and our 4S's

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5515982?tstart=0

Absolutely agree!! nobody cares.....my wifi and Bluetooth doesn’t work after downloading ios7 .... I just can not believe there are so many people affected and still nothing happened ......and apple still keeps saying it is not the fault of ios7 and it would break soon anyway even without downloading it as suggested by apple.... maybe it is conspiracy theory.... and apple is hoping that all those affected will go and replace for their new machine......

An update. I had been able to get WiFi to work sometimes by doing the home+lock button reset, but it has worked less and less. I had tried the wipe and restore as of 7.0.2, but not since 0.3. Just to cover all bases, I just tried that, but no luck, WiFi remains grayed out. I actually have two weeks of warranty left so ASAP will go in and see what my carrier and/or Apple will do for me, and will report back.

No you are not. There are currently 52+ pages on this topic so, unless you've read the entire thing, you might have missed the 3 or 4 other times I've mentioned that my iPhone 5 WAS affected by the upgrade. Most who are posting act as if it was limited to the 4S. But I've seen posts about the 5 and the regular and mini iPads as well.
I was super fortunate in that my local Apple store listened to reason and replaced my phone not long after the update but I am not upgrading again to the new OS until I read here that it's been fixed. I'm not holding my breath. I'm thinking that the only users who are safe to use the iOS7 are those who purchase their device with the OS pre-installed.

Hi friends, just an FYI. I had to get 3 new iPhones from apple store (no charge to me) and when I got the third one they asked if I would like to update to ios 7, to which I said NO, bc by that time I had figured the issues, and read through some of y'alls posts. When I got first new phone, I had no idea it was ios 7, after 2nd people at apple store swore up and down it wasn't ios 7, I believed them, but third I knew. They claimed it wasn't ios7 and just simply my "bad luck", I unintentionally laughed, but he was serious. *Sigh. Anyway, after some attempted pressuring by the "genius" I left the apple store with the new phone, running ios 6.1.3. That was over a month ago, and I've had NO issues with my wifi. I, of course, have been slightly tempted to try the newest update, just out morbid curiosity but haven't yet. I have to say that I have always enjoyed my iPhones in the past but this whole experience had made me strongly consider getting something new next year with my upgrade. Wishing y'all some luck!

YAWN... I've got a job for you. Let me go get my dead horse.

TJBUSMC1973 wrote:It's not the update. If it WAS the update ALL iPhones would be affected.

It's a hardware defect that is revealed because of excessive heat. The update process generates heat. Any source of excessive heat would have revealed the defect.

Unless you replacement is also defective, the update wont cause problems. But it's your choice. iOS 6 is a great system, so keep using it if you like.

@Bin Kroon

Yeah - that's been there for a while now. The reset network settings did not work to un-grey my wifi toggle. Restoring from iTunes did bring back the ability for me to toggle wi-fi however wi-fi did not function.

Changed my Router Authentication to read > WPA2-PSK

Unfortunately the Ipad still showed "Wi-Fi Not Connected" - BUT IT WAS !!!

The router code solved the problem but the Ipad after many re-boots insisted it was not connected, and the internet worked fine

Dont be misled ** this erroneous message which is very misleading

Just got back from my trip to Mexico without my wifi on my 4s. Got wifi on after "upgrading" to 7.04. But I took it to the Apple store (90 minutes away by car) because I no longer have any faith in it continuing to work. Well guess what - while I was talking to the Genius scheduler it went out again. Then it was switched on but would not connect with the store's (very strong) wifi signal. The Genius rep (I use the term reluctantly) said that it was a latent hardware problem and not the fault of the software. BUT - he said that "any OS upgrade "will be very stressful with any device and that the upgrade stressed out an existing hardware problem with my iPhone". Because I was out of warranty (within a week of installing 7.01) they would do nothing more than offering a new phone for $198. He refused to admit that the problem was with the OS upgrade. He said it was only coincidental that it happened after my install of 7.01. I told him that was a stupid thing to say given all the hundreds and hundreds of others who have the same "coincidence". Then he said (despite what he had just said) that this problem is only for 1 to 2% of the 4s phones out there. I asked him how many were out there and he said about 50,000,000. That means "only" 500,000 to 1,000,000 owners have the problem. But, Apple will only fix it for the phones under the 1 year warranty. He took m phone in the back to check it out and came out and said that the wifi antenna was the problem and that the software was OK, therefore it is not an iOS problem at all. This is just insane and stupid. I told him that I didn't buy his story and that you all don't either. He repeated the Apple party line and that was that. I went away completely angry. I will never, ever, buy another Apple product and I will do everything within my power to get the word out to the world how crappy Apple's products are and how much they disrespect their customers. I will be angry for a long, long time. They sold me a phone with a relatively common hardware problem and then they killed it with a dangerous OS upgrade and then they refuse to own up to it. And, they think we are all stupid.

here is a good question...did you update the ios by wifi or through the computer using itunes? Mine is fine and I did it through itunes. My wife's which no longer has wifi, upgraded using wifi. Just a thought.

To : WA Schaly,

That makes sense. But did you also see the DHCP Discovery message from the iPhone?

If the dhcp discovery message didn't come from the iPhone, then there may not be a dhcp offer from the dhcp server, and therefore no dhcp request.

From http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_Host_Configuration_Protocol

A DHCP client can also request its last-known IP address (in the example below, 192.168.1.100). If the client remains connected to a network for which this IP is valid, the server may grant the request. Otherwise, it depends whether the server is set up as authoritative or not. An authoritative server will deny the request, making the client ask for a new IP address immediately. A non-authoritative server simply ignores the request, leading to an implementation-dependent timeout for the client to give up on the request and ask for a new IP address.

Could it be that both the client and server are in a state where they are waiting for each other, ie, the server is waiting for the iPhone to make another ip request but the iPhone isn't aware of this, and keeps on waiting.

And after a wifi router is not successfully logged into after many tries, I wonder if there is power saving routines in iOS 6 and 7 to mask out that wifi router's SSID?

I say so because recently, I noticed that all of my neighbor's wifi router SSIDs no longer show up on my iPhone's wifi selection list. They used to show up, but recently I noticed that they're not appearing anymore. And when my own wifi is turned off, I see no wifi at all. Doesn't this appear to be similar to what some of the people are seeing? We have people complaining that even though they can enable wifi, but no SSIDs can be seen.

My guess is that ios7 may have some kind of optimization code that will hide those wifi routers that we never log into, or, mask those wifi routers that are below a threshold of reception strength.

Now, if our own router and iPhone has a dhcp handshaking problem for extended period, what if there is code in ios7 that thinks this is a wifi router that we don't log into? And decides to mask its appearance in the wifi selection list.

This is just my hunch. We'll need someone who knows Ios7's wifi log in code to know the true and full story.

vaportrails2002 wrote:

Posted on Oct 13th and have been waiting to see how this all plays out:

"My wife's phone is doing the exact same thing. iPhone 4s 64G and soon as ios7 was installed the battery life has gone down the drain (yes I did all the suggested fixes to cut down on the battery drain), but the battery just drains for no reason. It was at 100% this afternoon and now it is at 23% and the phone has been sitting on the dresser not doing anything. Also the Wifi is grayed out. The phone is mint and has always been in an otter box. I am not going to try to freeze or heat my phone, it is clearly something with the update to ios 7. My wife was so mad about the battery thinking it wa apples way of making people upgrade to a new phone, she went out and bought a Galaxy S4. I am also due for an upgrade and was looking at the 5S, but if Apple is not going to do anything about this, I may also look to another manufacturer as well after having an 3S, 4 and 2 4S's, 2 ipods, itouch, etc (10 apple devices over the last 4-5 years). This thread is also making the news http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/10/10/ios-7-update-brings-more-wi-fi-issues- for-some-iphone-4s-owners"

My update from Sunday:

Went to my local Apple Store here in CT at Westfarms Mall in West Hartford. Got the run around like everyone else. My local NBC station even did a story on it (search online for "nbc connecticut iphone issues"). The genius I saw sent me off to a tech and the tech pretty much gave me the "this is what they tell me to say" and blamed it on the wifi antenna, yet he never actually looked at my phone. He had it in his hand but never checked the wifi on it. I upgraded to 7.0.4 this morning then wiped the phone after that. he went strictly on what I told him about the battery and grayed out wifi problems. He did offer to sell me a new phone though. Then he got the lead genius and gave me the same speech, "buying a new phone was the best option" but let the cat out of the bag by saying if they sold me a new phone, not to restore it from a backup because it may bring the same thing back on because it's more software. So wait, first it's a hardware issue and now it's a software issue? Which is it? When I told him that I won't update my phone with ios 7.0.3 or 7.0.4 in fear of it messing up my wifi, he just says "fair enough". it's my chioce to do that. Yet an iPhone which he likes to state that is 300 days over the warranty (bought 1/1/12), which worked fine before the upgraded ios, as soon as it it upgraded, it's my problem now? I don't think so. When I asked so anyone with an iPhone 4S that upgraded the ios and now has the grayed out wifi is just out of luck and he shook his head yes. Oh wait, you can't see him shake his head yes. Oh, yes you can. http://youtu.be/XR6AVn5EPIM . I video recorded the whole conversation and I am wondering if I should put the whole thing up or not, and what else to add to the video as far as video of it not working,etc. Im not letting this one go. Even this video shows that it is a software issue. http://youtu.be/4mVkiU2jNSE Warranty or not, the iphone is like new and everything was fine before she upgraded it to ios7. It shouldn't be my responsibility to have it fixed or have to buy a new phone...We did nothing wrong!

well here is the whole visit

Apple Store visit with iPhone 4S that has the wifi grayed out and battery issues after ios7 upgrade

http://youtu.be/0DwY452C_sw

In this discussion, no one has even mentiond the 43,000+ 6.1.3 users and 17,000+ iOS7 users with this problem going to the you tube videos and or ifixit to find a solution.

I admit that I have just been lazy about getting it fixed due to not wanting to be without a phone in rural Alaska and because it costs me nearly a $700 round trip flight to get to an Apple Store or to my carrier's store.

However, when I read the comment about all the overages due to not having Wi Fi and relying on the Cellular service, I decided to comment and get it fixed ASAP. My bills have been outrageous!

I haven't upgraded to iOS 7 because I do not like the funky look of iOS7, but according to all these posts that wouldn't help my Wi Fi greyed out issue anyway, which is the same as everyone else's here in this section.

My husband and I bought the same 4S phone model only several months apart. Mine has this issue, his does not.

I have been an Apple fan since I started using computersover 20 years ago and now make district purchasing decisions, all I can say is MAKE this RIGHT with people APPLE!

Very disappointing customer service when there are so many people with the same issue. It is a factory defect!

Agreed. It is very unlikely there is going to be a software solution since Apple has already hard sold this issue as hardware failures and forced people to buy replacements. At best, they may come up with a patch to keep more phones from dieing,