Wifi greyed out on iphone 4s with ios 7

hi Boardhedz,

as I said, the safe and secure thing to do is to go to apple or your phone store, and give the phone in assistance. the bad thing is that if the phone is out of warranty, you have to pay even if the cause was the system update (and i think this is not fair too).

said that, if u wanna take the risk to repair the phone by yourself, u have to consider that any procedure can be hurtful for the phone, and for you.

before any "hairdry or freezing" procedure, you have to understand if your case can be applied.

1) in the phone settings, you still see the wifi mac address? because if not, this is not the case (this means the wifi chip is totally burned out)

2) do you download the iphone configuration utility?

3)do you see the phone logs?

4) in the log the wifi function is menthioned? and in that case what is the error log? (it's similar to previous post log?)

5) anyway THINK before any "hardware" intervent you wanna do!

anyway, some people report in the topic that apple said the ios7 upgrade can go wrong if the wifi chip is not in good condition before the update, and this is the matter why they don't change it in assistance.

Please keep your comments on topic

Hi dragondx,

I looked at my phone several days ago and I'm sure I could see the wifi address; but when I just looked now it just says "n/a"

what does this mean? is my wifi chip totally fryed?

I haven't managed to get the logs yet!

Just some friendly advice, If you get a replacement iphone, DO NOT UPGRADE to IOS 7. I am now on my 3rd Iphone 4S.

The first one lasted a very short time and Apple replaced it, this had nothing to do with IOS7.

The replacement phone worked fine until the night I updated to IOS7. WIFI went out and I went into the store for a fix. They got my wifi working again but it was a temporary fix for about 2 days.

I went back to the Apple store and they replaced my replacement. They even offered to update my new replacement phone to IOS7. What an idiot I am, I said sure. A few days with my replacement-replacement phone and now wifi is out again. Nothing I do can fix it.

I now have to go back to the store to have my replacement-replacement replaced. This will be my 4th iphone, I guess I am unlucky. The people in the store were very nice but it was very hard to not get snippy with them when they repeated the same line to me for the 10th time, "a software update will not cause hardware problems." At what point does a company acknowledge their problem?

DO NOT GET THE IOS7 UPDATE IF YOU GET A REPLACEMENT IPHONE 4S.

TJBUSMC1973 wrote:

The iPhone had no NOTICEABLE defect before iOS7.

That's pure speculation not a fact.

ftarr wrote:

TJBUSMC1973 wrote:

The iPhone had no NOTICEABLE defect before iOS7.

That's pure speculation not a fact.

Not speculation at all. It's based upon the observed facts.

Wi-Fi was working prior to iOS 7.

iOS 7 does not cause hardware defects. If it did, then ALL iPhone 4S devices with iOS 7 running would have wi-fi greyed out.

This is a documented issue, for a long time, prior to iOS 7.

The defect is made apparent when excessive heat is applied to the wi-fi chip.

An iOS update process generates heat.

The defective wi-fi chip stopped working after being exposed to more heat than it could handle.

Good chip does not fail under normal upgrade heat generation.

Bad chip does fail under normal upgrade heat generation.

It's called deductive reasoning & logic.

If the steps in TS1559 do not resolve the issue, then the wi-fi chip is defective.

And by the way, if the chip was not defective, then the warranty would NEVER apply. The terms & conditions of the iOS upgrade make it very, very clear that the update is not mandatory, and Apple bears no responisbility for anything caused by the upgrade.

So, if you want to argue that the chip is NOT defective, and that it is NOT the hardware that has caused the issue, then you're undermining anyone's attempt to get the device serviced as a hardware problem. Apple will not service it for a software issue.

I have the same problem. 2 days ago i received a "new" iphone 4s. Payed for it because out of waranty.

I even asked the apple support, what will happen if i upgrade to ios 7.02? Then she told me: if it happens again that the wifi and bluetooth do not work, just call and we replace the phone again. So i will call them because i did the update and wifi and bluetooth are down again. The funny thing is that all off my co workers did the update to and nobody as a problem. Maybe only temporary.

can I ask Apple y have u delete my mess of this chat as it's a chat forum what give u the right when I was try two help people out if u fix the problem we woodent have two complain about u

hi I have the same problem - i have even replaced the wifi aerial and still no joy. This means the phone is now worthless since a condition of selling it is to turn off icloud and find my iphone! Apple store offered to mend it for £139!

Another of my iphone 4s crashes constantly for no reason been to the Apple store twice still no joy.

I have 4 x iphone 4s phones i will not be replacing them with iphones at the end of the contract sad to say. i used to think of Apple as the stylish underdog to Microsoft but no more they don't care about the customer any more.

totally agree with you; Ihave tried all the fixes (apart from repairs) and nothing works, I think my wifi is totally fried!

out of warranty and out in the cold!

Your replacement device comes with a 90 day warranty, so you can feel free to upgrade during that time period. If it happens again, you'll get another new device. Over and over until you get one that takes the update fine. It wouldn't deter me.

compaq19720 wrote:

can I ask Apple y have u delete my mess of this chat as it's a chat forum what give u the right when I was try two help people out if u fix the problem we woodent have two complain about u

It's a privately owned forum. They have the right to moderate & edit posts as they see fit. This is not an infringement upon your rights.

Just adding my name to the list of those who are experiencing this same issue... I did NOT have an issue with WiFi connectivity with any previous versions of iOS (prior to iOS 7), such as the original poster mentioned. After updating to iOS 7 (the latest version I was able to update to was iOS 7.0.3), I encountered this exact same issue where I was unable to toggle the WiFi from "OFF" to "ON," even though it appeared to be possible to turn the WiFi on in the Control Center (Turning WiFi "ON" in the Control Center, however, does not actually turn on the WiFi antenna or connect the phone to the WiFi network, as many have noted). This all came about for no apparent reason this last Saturday (10-26-2013), when I noticed that my iPhone 4s was not connected to my WiFi network at home. Like many who have posted here, I have looked around online, and found that many, MANY people are having this same issue. The tact that Apple has taken in denying that there's an issue is perhaps expected, since that has been Apple's MO for years. But what is really hard to stomach is that it seems like Apple is laying the blame for this issue at the feet of their customers for having a phone that is out of warranty. This issue is different in one very big way in that this WiFi issue has effectively rendered many peoples' phones useless. In many cases, the iPhones that are affected cannot be updated, or one cannot revert to a previous version of iOS because, for one reason, to do so requires a WiFi signal to turn off "Find My iPhone". I went to the Apple Store yesterday and talked to a "Genius," who essentially said that since my iPhone is out of warranty, the options I have are to either pay $200 to fix the phone, buy a refurbished phone, or upgrade to an iPhone 5s or 5c. How can any company sell a high-end product, such as the iPhone is purported to be, and not stand by it if it later is found to have defective components when a software release "exposes" an issue with said products? Apple (i.e. Apple Care) has the gall to say, "well, too bad your phone is old and out of warranty... because even if this is the fault of defective hardware and/or software, we're going to make you pay to fix it."

Apple may be legally in the right, but that doesn't mean that they're doing the right thing from a business standpoint. My experience in this whole matter has turned me away from being a loyal Apple patron, and I have been a loyal patron of the brand for years. I have owned Apple products long before there was even a niche for an iPhone. I am typically patient when it comes to issues such as this, but this issue is much different from a minor software glitch. Without access to WiFi the iPhone is more limited in its functionality and I am pretty much forced into spending money to fix a problem that is Apple's doing to bring myself back to where I was before this issue occurred. I am definitely going to put the word of mouth out about my personal experience in this case. As it currently stands, I am very disappointed with Apple. To see that there are so many others who have had or are having an experience similar to mine, that there are so many people who have been forced nilly-willy to shell out $$$ to fix a problem that they shouldn't rightly be held accountable for, says a lot about how the way things are likely to go for Apple and its customers in the years to come.

apple has always charged for phone support and there will always be glitches and software problems with any smartphone, but apple just broke records on sales when the 5s and 5c came out so i highly doubt ur dislike of apple and their policies are gonna mean jack.

Your iPhone has a defect. You reported this defect to the manufacturer AFTER the warranty expired.

If your vehicle has a defect, and you report it to the manufacturer AFTER the warranty expires, what are your expectations?

If your television has a defect, and you report it to the manufacturer AFTER the warranty expires, what are your expectations?

If your microwave has a defect, and you report it to the manufacturer AFTER the warranty expires, what are your expectations?