iPhone 5 / iPad Retina will not find hidden SSIDs after IOS7 Upgrade

I have my wifi SSID hidden too. On both 2.4 and 5.0, both have different hidden "names". 2.4 is Pioneer and 5.0 is Elite-5G.

I never had a problem with any of my devices. Before I had a NetGear set up with a NetGear wifi repeater. But now I have two AirPort Extremes.

1) Make sure your SSID's are different from each other.

2) Enable the SSID and tell each device to forget the networks.

3) Power cycle.

4) Disable the SSID and try to find the network again on both devices.

Note, you shouldn't add the network to the device while the SSID is visible. Other wize once hidden, it will think it's gone. So it won't look for it.

KOT

I also have two WiFi SSIDs, also both hidden, onw with WPA and the other with WPA2 security. I am having the issue mentioned above with my iPhone 4s, my iPad, and my iPhone 5. I tried the same steps for all devices:

1. Turn the SSIDs to broadcast. All three devices immediately connected automatically to the WPA2 SSID. I tried disconnecting each device from the WPA2 SSID and manually connected to the WPA SSID. All worked perfectly. Then I turned the SSIDs back to not broadcast. All three devices were unable to connect with the same error message "Unable to locate network XXXXX".
2. I turned the SSIDs back to broadcast. After each device had connected, I had them all forget the networks, verified that they could not automatically connect, and then re-entered the security info. All three were again able to automatically connect to both SSIDS. Then I turned the SSIDs back to not broadcast. See the last sentence of point 1 because the result was the same.
3. Lastly, I followed your 4 steps above exactly. I turned the SSIDs back to broadcast. After each device had connected, I had them all forget the networks and then verified that they could not automatically connect. I powered off all 3 devices. Then I Then I turned the SSIDs back to not broadcast and powered the access point off. I powered the access point on and verified access with my MacBook. Then I powered on the three mobile devices. Since the networks did not exist on the devices and the two SSID were not broadcasting, I had to enter the network information manually using the "connect to other..." path in settings. I tried both SSIDs on all three devices multiple times. None of them were able to find the network. See the last sentence of point 1 because the result was the same.

So while I am glad that you are not having any issues, I am unable to connect anything Apple on iOS7 to any hidden network. And I see that others are also having the same issue. In addition to the troubleshooting I just mentioned, I also did the backup/reset/restore from iTunes that is mentioned in other posts, also to no avail.

So I echo the statement by cacorg6326 - why is Apple Support completely ignoring this issue? In my family there are 4 iPhones on a family share plan. Two of them are up for an upgrade in November. If this issue is not fixed, they will most certainly be replaced by the latest Samsung phones. At least their networking functions correctly...

Settings>General>Resets>Reset network settings.

It's working just fine on my iPhone 5 and my iPad Mini runnin 7.0.2 and we've had no reported problems in the office from any of the devices on 7.anything. We have 13 iPads on 7.0.2 all connecting to hidden networks without issues.

KiltedTim, clearly youu don't even read other people's issues or the steps they have already taken to try to resolve this. It appears the original person who posted this issue tried your fix before even posting this issue. I have tried the following remedies, in this order:

1. reset the network settings as you stated above. This did nothing.
2. backup the iPhone to iTunes, reset the phone, restore the phone from iTunes. This did nothing.
3. turn on broadcasting, allow the phone to connect, then tell it to forget the network. reboot the phone. reboot the access point and then manually re-enter the network settings. This did nothing.
4. turn on broadcasting, allow the phone to connect, tell it to forget the network, then reset the network settings and reboot the phone. turn off broadcasting and manually re-enter the network setttings. This did nothing.

As I said before, I understand that not everyone is having this issue. But some people are having this issue. There is no official work-around from Apple. There are no replies to this error from Apple. And people replying to this with "mine works fine, I am not having an issue" is not at all helpful.

.

And clearly, you have a reading comprehension problem. I was responding you your post not the OP. Nowhere did you state that you had already reset the network settings.

You want to cop an attitude, fine. Figure it out yourself.

KT,

I apologiize for lashing out. I had not realized you were only looking at my reply. And it is not your fault that my devices to not work.

There are only 8 messages in the complete chain of this issue. If you know of a potential method to fix this issue that is not listed in this chain as already having been tried, then I will try it.

Has anyone fixed this problem? I have tried all the already mention things and still cannot connect. Other devices have found the network and connected straight away by entering the details in other so could it be a hardware fault?

I solved it by changing Wifi security mode from WPA2 to WPA. FYR.

Are the problems listed here only for initially finding a hidden SSID? With the past 2 updates, 7.03 and 7.04, my device detects the hidden network, (maybe because it has already located the hidden SSID in previous versions), and I can manually join it, but it fails to rejoin it everytime I return after going out of range. The broadcast networks rejoin dependably. This is with the new AC capable Airport Extreme. Is that a known problem?

It may be that the ability to recognize the hidden SSID is router related, since my iOS devices all detect the hidden SSID on current model Airport Extreme, 802.11ac. But I can reliably reproduce the condition where, after manually selecting the hidden SSID, (which is necessary eventhough it has been selected in the past), all of my iOS 7.0.4 devices, including the 5s and Mini Retina, must have the hidden network manually selected again each time it exits and returns within its range, or just power cycles. I have enough iOS devices to demonstrate that the problem doesn't exist on iOS 7.0.2 and earlier, but occurs on every device with iOS 7.0.4, (and 7.0.3). When I have a chance, I'll see if it is cleared up on the 7.1 beta.

I don't understand why so many of you are having problems.

I've had a hidden network since having DSL/router. Then a cable modem plus Netgear router at 2.4 and 5.0 GHz. Then added a Netgear repeater. Now I have two 5th gen AirPort Extreme routers. The main and the "repeater".

From the DSL/router to the Netgear 2.4 and 5.0. I had to add a name to keep the 2.4 and 5.0 SSID separate. And the password was changed to the default of the Netgear. (Didn't care to keep the old password.)

With my current setup, two airport extremes, I have the same SSID and passwords as the Netgear setup was.

Pioneer for the 2.4 and Elite-5G for the 5.0. I do know this with all 3 set ups. I've had to input the SSID as I have it. Meaning for Pioneer , I couldn't just type pioneer. Same goes with Elite-5G, what is capitalized had to be capitalized when I did the initial joining.

This set up has worked for me with iPod touch 3rd gen running its latest of iOS 5.1.3 (I think). iPhone 5 running 7.0.4 and my girl friends iPad 4 running 7.0.3, as she hasn't been here since 7.0.4 been out. With that said, I don't ever remember her iPad being here with my set up. Except for when I received in the mail and I was checking out before giving it to her. I signed it in to my wifi when I had the Netgear. But I could swear that erased all data when I gave to her. Nevertheless as soon as she arrived with the iPad, 10 months after me receiving it in the mail. And an iOS update from 6.x.x to iOS 7.0.3. It had connected automatically to the current network of the AirPort Extremes.

I must also note that I have the main AirPort Extreme set up to broadcast on channel 1 at the 2.4 and 157 on the 5.0. The repeater can't be changed, but it's broadcasting on ch 6 on the 2.4 and 157 on the 5.0.

KOT

KingOfTypos,

Wow. Your years of leading edge experiences clearly distinguish you as the king of the wireless world.

Of course, I would expect that these years of experience would have shown you that not all software or hardware issues present themselves to all users under all conditions. If that were true, it would be quite simple to release completely bug-free devices and software. And on top of that, everything would be 100% compatible across all versions.

With this issue, from what I have seen of the various threads, the problem presents itself only a small percentage of the time. Furthermore, because several people have posted different fixes as being successful, it would appear not to be easy to identify the root cause of the issue. Never the less, I do wish apple would acknowledge this issue and at least indicate they are working to understand and correct it.

But back to your post. Aside from outright fluff about how much you know about wireless networking and how much experience you have across various softare and hardware platforms, I cannot seem to find one single items in your post that would be of any help to anyone.

Therefore I agree with your self assessment. You are certainly a wireless GURU - Great Understanding, Relatively Useless.