wifi doesn't work with IOS 7

I went to the genius bar today. they really still think this is a harware issue. My phone was under warranty so they gave me a new one. I asked the guy why it happened when i upgraded to 7 if it was a hardware issue. He said he's seen wifi issues with 4S's before and thought I would have had the same problem soon anyway even if I hadn't have downloaded 7. Somehow downloading 7 just brought out the problem sooner.

It was lunacy in my oppinion, but i didn't have much motivation to argue while he set up my new phone. I asked what my options would have been if my phone not been under warranty. I would have had three options:

1. buy a new 4s for $200
2. keep my phone and live without wifi
3. upgrade with my carrier if i was elegible.

I'm really pretty angry with apple on this. He did forget a fourth option:

4. Buy an android phone. Which would definitely have been on the table if they would have turned me away. I buy apple products for outstanding performance. Without that, I have no reason to buy them. Hopefully someone at apple reads this stuff.

I took my 4S to the Apple store on Michigan Ave. in Chicago. It failed a diagnostic test so they wiped it and reinstalled iOS7 from their server as a new phone. When I got home I restored from iCloud and it's been great ever since. I think the upgrade download was corrupt and everytime I reinstalled at home I kept loading the bad version.

To add to this long chain of phones with problems with wifi, my iphone 4S runing 7.0 had the wifi greyed out this morning suddenly. It had been working fine. After following the apple suggestions of restoring system I found this list of complaints. I followed the steps of going into airplane mode and turning off the phone for five minutes. When I started back up, wifi was working again.

seems like m success was shortived as this morning wifi was not working again.

i decided to pug into itunes and do restore. iphone 4g. ios 7.02. did not restore from icloudnbackup and chose to setup as a new phone complete wipe.

wifi started workng agan straight away and so far so good. bit drastic to lose everything but my contacts sync back through icloud after a few mins.

Hi pierrehk,

It is not a hardware defect - it may be an issue with the software, but it is not the physical device. I had the same problem when I first installed iOS 7 on my iPhone 4. For some unknown reason the only Wifi signal it was picking up was the one from my printer, which was totally crazy.

I had to turn off my printer Wifi, Reset All Network Settings on my phone, reset the modem, and then turn on Wifi on my phone while standing right next to the modem. It finally found the Wifi signal, and has been fine ever since.

A lot of people are having issues with getting connected to Wifi, and hopefully it will be fixed soon. But see if you can get connected by doing what I listed above (with the exception of the printer part, of course).

Hopefully it will work for you!

Good luck,

GB

I think I have resolved the issue on my phone.

I don't know if it will work for the others but for what ever worth it is, I thought I ll share it.

This is how I solved it -

I reset my phone and started the phone as a new phone and thought of installing apps one at a time in it as I knew some app was creating the issue with wifi. I knew it was **** of a job as I have 375 apps. But it did not take much of a time as I realised that the culprit was imatch itself. I switched off imatch and started using wifi for a while and yes, wifi worked smoothly. And then I restored my backup with imatch continuing to be off. I have been able to use wifi now since last night without any issues. I hope this remains working in future also.

But I am still not sure how I should be using imatch though I think I ll try to switch on imatch after couple of days to see if it is still creating the issue or not.

This is only a temporary fix until Apple does something about it.

Just wanted to throw my hat in the "no wifi/Bluetooth" ring.

I spent four hours on Apple chat the day before yesterday regarding this issue--wifi greyed out and no Bluetooth. I restored my phone (both as new and backup) three times with no improvement. I have tried the other "solutions", too--no blow dryer or freezer, though. Thankfully, I had SIX DAYS left on AppleCare and went to the local Apple store last night to get a free replacement. Many more will not be so fortunate, and Apple should address this. If they are attempting to resolve this issue in an 7.0.x update, they should communicate this. It appears it isn't random or a fluke failure, given the number of iPhones, 4s in particular, affected. The hush-hush nonsense at Apple is out of control--and I'm a fan--I have Apple everything. It erodes confidence.

I am currently in the market for a new phone and a new tablet. I am waiting for October 22nd with anticipation. I will soon be in the market for a new laptop to replace my MacBook Pro. Reading the way Apple has handled many iPhone customers with this wifi/Bluetooth issue has shaken my ardent Apple devotion. In all likelihood, I will stick with Apple for now, but I am open to hearing about other options now in a way I wasn't before. I converted to Apple about five years ago, so I'm still a fairly recent convert. I imagine I serve an example of Apple's domination desires--buy one thing, good experience, buy another thing, good experience, buy into everything whole hog. I bought into the ecosystem, but the real thing that differeniates Apple for me personally is service. It's the same reason my first stop for general shopping is the store with the smile on the box. If something goes wrong, they take me at my word, and they fix it.

Just as an aside, when I went to the store, the Genius took a quick look at my phone and then reported over his mic, "Yeah, I got a wifi greyed out--need a replacement 4S." He said it very matter-of-fact, so I asked him if this issue was becoming increasingly prevelant. He said he didn't know if he would call it more prevelant, and quickly added that wifi can become greyed out for a variety of reasons. So, no acknowledgment of this specific issue with the 4S/iOS 7, not that I expected one. Anyway, my experience was quick and painless--thanks to AppleCare. Having had minor issues with my iPad and MacBook Pro, I always purchase AppleCare. With that said, I cannot begin to tell you how upset I would be if this happened a week later and they insisted I purchase a replacement phone for $199. I would be equally upset if I didn't have AppleCare and truly believed an iOS7 upgrade caused my wifi/Bluetooth to croak. This "upgrade at your own risk" deal is nonsense. Now, if they had said "this upgrade may fry your wifi because it overtaxes the chip in your 4S", I might feel a bit different. After reading all of these comments and concerns with identical/near identical "failures" (software or hardware, I don't know which with any certainty), I am convinced there is no coincidence here. I am still drinking the Kool-Aid enough to believe that Apple will make this right and refund people who were told they had to pay to replace their phone. That is the Apple I believe I know. Here' s hoping I'm right.

kal309,

Would you be able to repeat that freezer technique again, but this time after wifi is enabled, shut off everything that might use cellular data:

* 3G data off

* Siri off

* iTunes match off

* location updates all off

* background app refresh all all

* no apps running

* all notifications turned off

* find my iphone off

etc,

the strategy here is to see if the wifi can stay up when cellular data is off, so that it doesn't have to switch between cellular data and wifi, and have only wifi connected.

Let's see if this configuration can stay up.

Please take the case off for this test too, and if the wifi goes gray again, feel the back of the case where the wifi circuitry is. Does the back of the 4S feel hot?

Several people have reported getting new 4S replacements and still getting the greyed out wifi button, so we will have to use the process of elimination, starting out from the barest possible state, then slowing turning features back on, in a attempt to find the true culprit.

A third update to my issue with the wifi on my 4S. I used the support "chat" function with Apple and they suggested that I again restore my phone as new. Lo and behold as soon as the phone was restored it immediately found a wifi connection. So my phone is working again. And has been working now for three days. So I recommend trying a restore as new.

Just trying to get to the start of this long thread, read farther and you'll see way too much bickering...

I have 2 iphone 5's and they won't connect or show available wifi. I did not have the grayed out button problem.

I did all of the suggestions noted in all of the threads, nothing worked. While I was restoring my phone, I took my wifes and in settings/wifi/choose a network, I typed in my router name and password. The phone did not recognize or find the router. 2 minutes later it showed the router as available! I typed in the PW and it immediately connected.

-I'm not happy that it doesn't roam for wifi without typing in the router name, but at least I can use my home wifi now.

There's hope. My WFI/Bluetooth on my iPad 2 had been dead for two weeks, even after the IOS 7.0.4 update. I had tried every suggested fix with no luck. Then I came across a post by "James" and, to my wonderment and delight, it worked. I now have my WIFI and Bluetooth back. I can only hope that it will stick.

Here it is:

Airplane Mode - OFF

Cellular Data - OFF

General > Reset > Reset Network Settings

Hi, just want to share my experience in obtaining a replacement 4S that was 6 months out of warranty.

I contacted AppleCare under the exception option for IOS7 after submitting iphone diagnostics online and explained to the operative the issue of greyed out wifi and all the stuff I tried to correct it. He confirmed that according to the diagnostics the wifi should be fine, but my battery was draining too quick, I then told him I would like to submit a claim under consumer law for a replacement or repair as the device was clearly faulty from day one.

I was then transfered to a lady that deals with "consumer law" claims, she was confident the 4S would be replaced but that I would have to go to an Apple store so they can check that there was no water damage. She made detailed notes and scheduled an appointment at the genuise bar. Arrived next day at the genuise bar and gave them a copy of the email she sent with the case reference number and 10 min later I walked out with a replacement 4S. I decided to sell the handset and upgraded to a 5S, did not want to take a chance the same thing would happen after updating to IOS 7.

The above should work for most in the EU, I'm based in the UK http://www.apple.com/uk/legal/statutory-warranty/

I can not fault Apple in sorting out my issue, everyone was very polite and helpful, just be polite yourself, clear and determined in what you want.

I had the same problem on my 4s. Out of warranty since few months so nothing to expect from Apple.

I took it to an electronic repair shop specialized in phones and they replaced the wifi chip.

1 hour work, costs around 50USD, and I get 1 month warranty on the repair.

It helps that I'm in Hong Kong where that kind of shop and skill is easy to find.

ps. I barely had to explain the problem, just walked in and said, "The wifi is no working on my 4s", they already know that problem by heart, so don't believe Apple saying its not common !

This article posted (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4199) by mariusignorello had the key to what worked for me. I was connecting to an older Wi-Fi router that was using WEP authentication (which worked fine all along with an iPhone 4 with iOS 6.) As soon as I switched my Wi-Fi router to WPA2/Personal authentication (in my case using both TKIP+AES algorithms) and gave it a new WPA shared key, my phone connected fine and all Wi-Fi apps are working. I didn't need to reset the phone or restore anything using iTunes on the phone. It appears iOS 7 was not allowing WEP and requires WPA on the Wi-Fi router being connected to.

...but of course, nothing in the phone or iTunes or anywhere tells you that.

Try going to Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings