Wifi not working after upgrade to iOS 7

Within the last 2 months I have had both of these 2 issues (wifi greyed out and wifi not greyed out but no networks found; with the router 1 foot away). In both cases all the four steps you have outlined here which I tried per Apple's recommendations have failed. The only thing that worked was the pellet stove (bigger hair dryer) and freezer trick. Mind you I did not have wifi issues initially on this phone when I bought from a friend last Sept with IOS 7 already installed. So yeah it could be hardware. It could have been after I went to 7.0.4 I don't really recall or know. On 7.0.6 currently. My wife's 4S is on 7.0.3 and she has never had wifi problems but obviously that is a different piece of hardware (mine is Verizon, hers AT&T). We both take excellent care of the phones (both in mophie battery cases).

Dave

I tried all of those, and tried the doing the reset (both network and complete) on airplane mode, w/o airplane mode, wifi enabled/disabled, 3g enabled/disabled, etc..

Do you have anything new I should try and add to this list?

BTW, I went from 5.0.1 (for 2 years) -> 7.0.4 (a month and a half) -> 7.0.6 (2 days so far). Having this problem from around Saturday.

If you do a DFU restore (which keeps none of the old firmware) and set up the phone as new, and you have a WiFi problem before installing anything, it's a hardware problem. Note that DFU restore is not the same as Recovery Mode, which DOES use the existing firmware to install the update.

Doing it right now, I'll update in a few minutes.

No luck :/

Then as Lawrence said, it's a hardware problem. The device needs service.

HI all,
I had the same issue after updating.
I took it to be repaired (I was in Australia at the time and Apple wanted me to send it back to the UK to have it repaired, said they could not repair it in Australia ???) and it was an issue with some solder on something to do with the wifi...chip.
I didn't ask too much detail.
So, I had it repaired and it worked for a good couple of months.

I didn't use the phone very often after that as I was abroad and only using it for wifi and no calls.

A few weeks ago the issue reappeared.
Intermittent wifi, even though the wifi was not greyed out.

So now, again, no more wifi.

Apple themselves had been so unhelpful that I decided to buy a new phone from Fairphone.com.
So far it's been great, customer service is great and I love the phone, and it is an ethically-based company producing it.

That wasn't supposed to sound like a plug for them, but it was more to say that in the end I simply gave up on the iPhone, which was only 2 years old, and spent money on something else.

I gave up trying to find solutions to an issue that Apple don't really seem to care about.
Other forum users have been really helpful, which I was grateful for.
But I will never buy another iPhone, though I am a mac person.
I think spending hundreds of dollars on a phone and then to have so many problems after an update and for Apple to seemingly ignore it is simply dissmissing its clients/fan base.
I'd rather deal with a company with a 'soul'.

I hope you all get yours iPhones sorted out.

For anyone who suffered from this and had their phone serviced - can it be anything other than the wifi antenna?

Hardly a hardware problem as in a part that has gone bad. This is happening worldwide with the same exact symptoms.

The problem is very likely a hardware / firmware (software) compatibility issue. Just as if you have a video card and try to use the wrong drivers it will give you problems. It does not mean the video card is bad. If you overclock a video card with good drivers you can also overheat. Many have explained that this is a chipset issue.

I work in the semiconductor industry and understand the issues with revisions, die yields, lot numbers, etc..

Until Apple mans up and officially addresses the issue do not blatantly tell people that this is a failed hardware issue. There are a lot of unknowns. Unless this issue gets more visibility Apple will do nothing. This is a legacy product.

Unfortunately I gave up and purchased a 5s. My kids and my wife have the 4s and they are having the issues. Their contracts end soon.

eyalzek wrote:

For anyone who suffered from this and had their phone serviced - can it be anything other than the wifi antenna?

In some rare cases, yes, it's not the wi=fi chip itself causing the issue.

BillTPDX wrote:

Hardly a hardware problem as in a part that has gone bad. This is happening worldwide with the same exact symptoms.

The problem is very likely a hardware / firmware (software) compatibility issue. Just as if you have a video card and try to use the wrong drivers it will give you problems. It does not mean the video card is bad. If you overclock a video card with good drivers you can also overheat. Many have explained that this is a chipset issue.

I work in the semiconductor industry and understand the issues with revisions, die yields, lot numbers, etc..

Until Apple mans up and officially addresses the issue do not blatantly tell people that this is a failed hardware issue. There are a lot of unknowns. Unless this issue gets more visibility Apple will do nothing. This is a legacy product.

Unfortunately I gave up and purchased a 5s. My kids and my wife have the 4s and they are having the issues. Their contracts end soon.

So, a manufacturer can't have a 'bad run' of components? I beg to differ. When I was a tech in the Corps, I ended up with a bad batch of 200 IC chips from supply depot. I had to go through every single chip (gotta love bureaucracy), on two different testing systems, to submit my report, and they were all bad.

If it was software, then why isn't EVERY iPhone 4S running the software experiencing this issue? Code either works or it doesn't work. Physical components are far more likely to have variances.

There's no way to use the 'wrong drivers' on an iPhone, so your video card example is moot. You install the software and it runs. Period.

There are multiple examples of device replacement resolving the issue. Use your basic troubleshooting skills. If we replace one component, and replacing that component resolves the issue, what are the odds that that it was the component that was causing the problem? What are the odds that a non-replaced component 'fixed itself' coincidentally at the same time as the other component's replacement?

Open two identical phones. Place their motherboards side by side. The main cpu is likely from the same fab facility. The rest of the components are highly likely not. They could be smc, lsi, wafertech, microchip, maxim, etc... same design specs but different manufacturor. They are built by foundries.

You being a Marine does not make you an expert or remotely qualified to tell people that the issue IS a hardware problem. Jury is still out until Apple addresses the issue and makes an official anouncement

There isn't enough data to be absolutely sure what the problem is.

Explain why this issue ONLY appears AFTER upgrading to IOS7?

Show me data. Proof!

BillTPDX wrote:

Open two identical phones. Place their motherboards side by side. The main cpu is likely from the same fab facility. The rest of the components are highly likely not. They could be smc, lsi, wafertech, microchip, maxim, etc... same design specs but different manufacturor. They are built by foundries.

You being a Marine does not make you an expert or remotely qualified to tell people that the issue IS a hardware problem. Jury is still out until Apple addresses the issue and makes an official anouncement

There isn't enough data to be absolutely sure what the problem is.

Explain why this issue ONLY appears AFTER upgrading to IOS7?

Show me data. Proof!

This issue does not only appear after updating to iOS 7:

ios 6.1.3 WIFI problem

IPHONE 4S wifi become grey, after updated 6.0.1

Iphone 4S ios 6.1 wifi problems

iOS 6.1 - Still without wifi (grey out button) - grrrrr

Would you care to continue to argue that this issue only occurs after an update to iOS 7?

Your statement is incorrect. Explain why it ALSO happened after upgrading to iOS 6. And to iOS 5. And not associated with any upgrade.

To be fair, there are 2 major issues on this thread; the one is the greyed out wifi and the second is the phone not discovering any wifi networks. I suffer from the latter.

But to my knowledge and all the research I made this past week I can definitely say this does not only occur after upgrading to IOS 7. However it seems like the ios 7 update spurred the most problems...

It's very frustrating, I'm not the kind of guy who is used to just replace a piece of tech that stops working right away - and it doesn't look like there's a lot I can do in this situation.... If I can pay someone to fix my phone then I know I can do it myself. If my only option is to pay Apple to replace my phone then I'm f****d, and will absolutely not do that.