iOS 7 wifi "unable to join the network"

@Henri13: I think it would make sense for Apple to monitor these forums. And who knows, maybe they secretely do. But it has been discussed all over these forums - Apple does not officially monitor the forums. If you want help from Apple, you must contact them individually. These forums are for getting help from the community.

I am in the same boat - my iPad3 stopped working outside of warranty. The only saving grace is that my credit card warranty coverage may eventually cover the repair cost (check if you also have this free coverage). The reality is that mine failed outside of warranty... :-( and Apple aren't really expected to replace free. To date the support I personally have received from Apple, even for out of warranty products has been excellent... I dread the day my Samsung plasma TV fails and I need to deal with them. And don't get me started on HP support! I went into Apple today for an appointment to replace an iPad Air that had dust under the screen - I walked out after 10 minutes with a brand new unit, no problems.

Also note that Apple are apparently rolling out additional in-store repairs on certain iPhones so in the future you may be able to get it repaired for less than the standard "out-of-warranty replacement fee".

I tried most of these fixes but none worked until yours Beatrice. I switched off every device in my house, Android phone, all computers until all three lights on my modem showed stead with no Internet connections anywhere. I then rebooted the iPad and the router. Asked to join my household network and it connected immediately.

I have a dual band router and can only connect to the 5ghz network. My devices (two iphone 5, ipad2 and mini) see the 2.4ghz network, but get the Unable to Join message when you try to join. Like some others, I can connect to the 5ghz network if I'm next to the router, but it drops when I move away.

And, I know this is nuts - but with the exception of one of the phones that has had this issue for months, the other devices connected to either network just fine until this afternoon when we returned from a hotel where we had connected those devices to the public wifi there. Once back in the house, we got the Unable to Join message on the Ipad2, mini and the other phone for the 2.4ghz network. Unreal. The 2.4ghz band is supposed to have more range, correct? I can connect to the 5ghz network with no problems.

Is there something about the 2.4ghz vs. 5ghz that it causing this issue? And, I know it sounds dumb, but what would connecting to the hotel's public wifi have to do with the devices connecting in the house?

I hesitate to add to this incredibly long discussion. But, I have read through most of it and share in the frustration so...

I have been unable to join my home wifi with an ipad 3 forever, until today. I have an AT&T (2wire) router and have several macs, iphones, ipads etc. Oddly, and the most frustratingly (is that a word?) I can join with an ipad mini running the same version of iOS 7, and sitting on the desk next to it, cannot join with the ipad 3. Tried everything mentioned in this discussion, turned off and/or reset everything but the fridge. 1 ft away, no luck. I think I tried everything I read. I called AT&T and talked to someone who couldn't help, duh.

Then, out of sheer desperation, I turned off the MAC filtering on my AT&T "gateway" using the gui at 192.168.1.254, and then it WORKED! For the first time ever, my ipad is on the wifi for this router. Now, I need to add that I was not blocking the mac address for the ipad. I wasn't blocking any MAC addresses, I had used this feature previously to block my daughter from reading her Kindle all night long. But, nothing was being blocked.

So... I repeated the experiment.

MAC filtering enabled = no wifi

MAC filtering disabled = wifi access

I have no idea whether this is "the solution" for anyone else. Maybe it just add confusion to the discussion. But for me this solved the long standing problem that was driving me so crazy that I read this intolerably long thread. Someone smarter than me needs to decide what this means.

Worked for me as well on my iPhone 4S but it's very strange solution because we have another iPhone 4S, iPhone 5C, iPad 3rd gen and two MBs connected to Time Capsule with no problem. Even at work I don't have any problem to connect Time Capsule with my phone. Weird...

Sadly the MAC filtering thing doesn't work for me.

I get this problem on a number of networks I connect to (or used to connect to!)

I have a Sky router at home and at work. Now I know that the Sky routers are great ad they are not very configurable so I'm limited with my options. This problem also happens on other networks such as my mum's Virgin Media broadband.

I have yet to test the theory of the 2.4Ghz versus 5Ghz idea.

Also just had a thought on the MAC address filtering. I might set it up and then reset router and then disable it again afterwards....

I wanted to share my experience and the outcome of it;

suddenly 2 weeks ago my iPhone 5 started to refuse connection to my WiFi access points (Netgear and one Time Capsule) with this "unable to join the network xxx" message, whereas my iPad, Mac, PC had no trouble.

Then I noticed that the connection worked if I was very close to an Access Point, such as 5 feet; between 5 feet and 20 feet, my iPhone is connected but data is not going through (no email, no web).

I tweaked all parameters (security, channel, MAC filtering, etc...) on the access points with no result.

I also did all the usual stuff on the iPhone (reboot, reset network settings, forget network, complete firmware restore...) with no result.

I went to see a Genius at an Apple Store, and contacted Apple's hotline two times, and here is the conclusion:

the iPhone needs to be replaced. As it is a bit older than one year, I'll have to negociate an out of warranty service ($229); if I don't succeed I'll have to pay the full price ($849) to buy a new one, because I'm in the middle of my 2 years contract with Verizon.

Not happy, but I must state I'm a long time iPhone user and it's the first time I've got such a quality issue.

Just some follow up. I posted a while back and want to report on current situation. Had 2 out of 5 iPhone 5 refuse to connect despite working without any problems since I bought them. After no success with the usual solutions, I took the advice posted and set the 2 phones with static IPs outside the DHCP range of router. Immediate success and still no further issues with either phone. Been a couple of months. Used the phones on other networks as well.

Not sure how you can allocate "a static IP outside the DHCP range". I know how to reserve a static IP to a specific device in the menu of my [Netgear] router, but the router rejects any attempt to select an address ouside the DHCP range.

@jfr001: You should be eligible for an "out-of-warranty" replacement to get a another phone for a discounted price without any negotiation. There should be no reason to pay full price.

Done on the phone itself....settings, network, wifi. Choose an IP address that is outside the DHCP range of your route. Setting it outside the DHCP range, prevents the router from assigning the same IP to another device on your network. Like I said, only solution that wokred here and continues to work fine.

Cool Ade - I've had the exact same issue today. Came back after connecting to hotel wifi, and now finding that I can't connect my iPhone to my personal wifi. Rapidly going off Apple products, as I'm getting issues with my phone turning itself off at around 40% battery as well. Shame I still have another nine months left on the contract...

I am now 100% sure that this is NOT a router issue. I exchanged my iphone for a new one (thankfully still under warranty with Telus) and I do not have the problem of the phone "unable to connect" any more. But there still is an unanswered question: Is the problem a hardware (iphone) or software (iOS 7) one. My new phone I received yesterday (Feb 15, 2014) has iOS 6.1.4

It works fine, but I am afraid to upgrade to 7, as it seemed to be when the problems started with the last phone. Though V. 7 seems to be fine with the iPad.

Any thoughts? Upgrade or no?

Cheers.

I began getting the Unable to Join Network message a few weeks BEFORE updating to iOS 7. I recall thinking that the update would solve it, and it did not. It has to have something to do with the router AND the phone I would think because I can connect to one network (5ghz) but not the other (2.4ghz). But, too many folks are having this problem for Apple to continue to do nothing...

I've been meaning to respond with my findings but have been rather busy!

As with most others, I experienced the following on my iPhone 5 (with iOS 7.04) installed. Also, like many, I have other Apple devices which are fine (an iPad, both my daughters' iPod's etc).

Symptons:

1. The 'Unable to join..' message occurs when attempting to connect to most networks.
2. When the phone does manage to connect and 'appears' to show a wireless connection, it is not possible to do anything Internet related
3. When it does connect, the device does have an IP address and other details (again appearing to be all ok)
4. Some networks are OK. Apple store networks are fine and one or two other public networks

Further:

1. I noticed that when I am within a few feet (possibly as low as two feet) of the router, I can normally connect to the chosen network and use the Internet as normal
2. The networks/routers that this doesn't work on can be any home based network such as Sky, Virgin.

Thoughts:

So I'm thinking this is primarily a hardware issue as other iOS devices don't have the problem and also other devices connect without issue to the networks.

My twopence worth :-)