IOS 7.1 iphone 4S wifi not available .. help..

Please read my post from yesterday and try it !!! I feel pretty confident most of you will get your wifi back but you won't know unless some of you try it and then post your results.

Have been following this thread for a while, and I thought I would chime in with my experience. The thermal shock method appears to work for some, but I refuse to subject my phone to the torture of a hair dryer! Instead, when my wifi was finally unable to connect at all, I grabbed a can of "Dust-off" and sprayed the area around the wifi chip for a couple of mins (here by cooling it down)... To my surprise this revived the phone's wifi !!! But alas the fix was only temporary and the iPhone 4s soon reverted to a wifi-less slab of isolation.

The phone having its functionality effected by these type of thermal shocks, points to either a bad chip or poor solder joints (intermittent connection).

Searching on-line revealed there is a bad batch of Murata SW SS1830010 Wi-Fi chips that got into the supply chain ... I think in early 2013.

The only permanent fix is to either reflow or replace the chip, but the procedure is not for a noobie:

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/How+to+Fix+iPhone+4S+Wi-Fi+Grayed+Out/22167

This would be a Plan C for me.

I decided first to phone Apple support and see what they could do.

Some background on my iPhone 4s:

-Bought the original (unlocked) phone in Nov 2011 with Apple Care (AC)... $649+$79

-Replaced the phone under AC in Nov 2013 (battery was tired) ... Gratis

-Experienced first wifi issues in May 2014

-Totally bricked wifi in July 2014 (greyed out)

Called AC on July 10th and said I could get it repaired for $35. They send me a new one, charging my cc until they receive the defective one. On July 15th, I had the new one up and running with wifi going strong. Looking back, in my case at least, getting AC was worth it.

If this phone lasts until Nov 2014 my TCO (with a PAYGO provider) will be (($649+$79+$35) + (3y*12m*$10))/(3y*365.25d)=$1123/1096d or ~$1 per day.

Not too bad considering how much utility I get out of the thing most days !

I will be replacing my iPhone 4s in Dec with either a 5s or the Phat 6 ... and yes, I will be getting AC again.

If I can get another 3 years of this kind of utility (the closest thing we have to the HHGTTG), for a dollar a day, I will be a happy camper.

Summertime and the Livin's Easy ... Enjoy Everyone !!

100 % this is the solution. I was so worried. Same thing had happened to me.

Settings -> General -> Reset -> Reset All Settings

helped for me (reset network settings did NOT) You'll loose only settings (wallpaper, ringer tones etc. will be back to default), your data will stay intact.

I got this phone as a $199 replacement one week ago as a replacement for a 4s that broke after a fall. I delayed getting iOS 7 for the longest time because of all the horrible stories I'd heard about the way it bricked 4Ses, and now despite all of these stupid suggested fixes the wi-fi has been bricked. The worst part of this entire debacle is the painful silence from Apple about an issue that's obviously affecting large amounts of end users with no fix, no suggested fix and no communication.

The "reset all settings" trick doesn't work. Power cycling the phone doesn't work. "Cold shocking" the phone doesn't work. It's a hardware burnout issue and it's ridiculous I have to waste another two hours of my life getting to the Apple Store to replace a product they destroyed.

I had this problem for about a week and a half. I couldn't understand how it worked one day, and the next day it wouldn't. So i Google'd this problem and saw a few YouTube videos of people purposely overheating their phones, to get the temperature error, turning it off, placing it in the freezer for 10 minutes and powering it back on again. Of course I was skeptical at first, but I got tired of a slow phone and rising data. So I tried it... and guess what? It worked! I did it on Saturday (7/19/14) and it is still working. No issues what so ever.

I have gone through 4 blow driers and two freezers in an attempt to keep my 4S connected to wiFi... just joking. Mine has all the same problems in this thread and the heatup "fix" only works for a few days. Good luck to all.

I'm having a similar issue. My phone has been working fine since the upgrade, wifi is enabled. But on Tuesday I did a long drive with the phone mounted on the dash using as a Sat Nav, then on the Wednesday did the return journey. When I got home, the phone wouldn't connect to my router. Restarted my router, checked the wifes phone and my iPad and they connect fine, I've done all the resets, but nothing. It may suddenly see the networks, but won't connect. I just get the spinning circle while it is looking for a network. So not the same issue, but similar. I'll give the hairdryer/freezer trick a go and see what happens. I was thinking that maybe it was hardware and where it has sat on the dash for 2 x 6 hour journeys, it has got very hot and something has broken. Lets see what happens.....
My phone is almost 2 years old now, personally, I wouldn't have said it was that old, but it does get used a lot.

Interesting that going through this thread, no one from Apple seems to have commented!!!!!

Well, this afternoon, the situation changed and the wifi button became greyed out after my phone locked up. Did a hard reset, then the wifi was gone................

So, got home, blasted it with a hair dryer, then stuck it in the freezer, and I had to laugh, because it only went and worked!!!!!

Thank you all for your help....

@Apple.......Do one!

Antenna inside the phone has most likely broke or came loose.

****, only lasted a few days. Looks like I'll have to bite the bullet, but not a new one, time to look on eBay.....

My Wi-fi went flaky after the update to 7.1.2. so I took to the local Apple store today and mentioned this thread. On their diagnostics the wifi checked out as 'Normal'. All the time Bluetooth has been fine.

So.. according to the Genius bar person the issue is that each software upgrade updates the firmware and the device rechecks the components, at which time a PRE-EXISTING aerial/ wifi problem can become manifest. They've told me the solution is £159 to replace the handset or a new 5C/5S - as it's an integral part of the casing. I'm struggling to believe it's a hardware issue when so many 4S users have reported the same after a iOS 7.x update. And also if this were the case the quick heat and cool that so many have described would not work, would it? Makes some sense to me that's it's overheating due to software changes throwing out the calibrations as some have suggested. Also a well looked after £700 phone should not fail within 5 years let alone 2. My concern over the £159 spend is that a replacement 4S would suffer the same fate a few months down the line.

Having been an Apple customer for 5 years I'm extremely disappointed. It's great you can swap out for a brand new replacement phone for £159 in the event of a disaster, but not if the manufacturer or O/S provider is at fault - in which case they should make good for free.

So while I decide whether to shop elsewhere in the event my 64 Gb 4S wif-fi does totally fail, I'm also doing the following in the hope it helps. And maybe just maybe iOS 8 will fix the issue?

• Regular restart
• Airplane mode overnight
• Wi-fi off unless using the wi-fi at that time
• Charge via computer rather than the mains as this is slower and logically should heat the phone less
• Closing down apps when not in use
• Background app refresh to off (great tip for making the battery last much longer)
• Bluetooth off
• Using Battery Doctor or similar to prevent overcharging (and overheating)

Good luck folks...

Get yourself a new and cheaper router. I've had no wifi issues for the past three weeks after buying an ASUS router. When I said no issues, I mean it. None for the 4S, 5, nor iPad. All three had wifi issues (flaky or no connections) after iOS update. Now I'm happy happy joy joy. I don't have to worry about over usage of my cellular data.

It's not a router problem, it's a phone problem. Worked fine for about a year on a Netgear router, since the software update, the phone is overheating. My iPad and another phone still work fine.

Apple, as usual, are just putting their heads in the sand and hoping the issue goes away. Great support!!!!!

Hi I'm facing the same problem were Wifi is greyed out and displays Wifi not available .Please suggest me if there are any actions that can be done to fix the issue.Apple Inc please fix the issue.

Hi all,

I had this issue long before the ios 7 updates! I have been without wifi for probably about 2 years. I was stuck. I had data i needed to back up and no way to do it. I am busy and work like a normal person and really did not have time for this sh@#! I have been a die hard apple fan for many moons and this is unbelievable to me and unacceptable.

I had to wait for my at&t upgrade to come thru to even think about getting a new phone. I mean seriously why do you really need wifi?? lol just kidding there<<< Well how do you like these apples>>(pun intended) so i have grandfathered at&t unlimited data(i have been a faithful customer of theirs longer than faithful to apple!!) So imagine how ticked I was when at&t sent me a letter stating that because of my HIGH DATA USE they had to SLOW my at&t data down!!!!!@!@!!!!!!!! Thank you APPLE!!! This is unacceptable. Meanwhile every now and then I would search the web for solutions, waiting for apple to do the right thing.

Even this week, I decided... screw it... I am going to just get a new flippin phone! Uh but wait... i still needed to back up my data so i did not lose it. I thought, "oh i cloud will save me! " it is full so I bought a larger amount of data. To no avail... icloud will not back up without wifi. nice. that was a waste of money. i have tried all solutions except heating and/or cooling to no avail. (I did not want to give APPLE a reason to put fault on me)

Finally I did some research on back up software for iphone without using frickin itunes, who says it needs to delete all of my data on my phone before it will sync. I did not trust that at all. My husband did this and lost all his music he worked so hard to put into itunes from thousands of owned cds.

I am so happy to report i spent 25.00 on "DiskAid"!! OMG!! what a life saver. I was able to get all data off my phone, ie: voice memos, and notes! can even get all phone info and voicemails. of course all other data as well which I amazingly did have covered already=) whew.

ok so now i did a complete reset. nope no wifi. also by bluetooth connect has just been spinning for ever too. We have an awesome little ford cmax car that connects so nice to our blutooth automatically for hands free driving. but NO THANKS to APPLE, I have not been able to do that for ever either!!

ok Thank you so much forum 'ers for letting me get this rant out of my system before I head to apple store to troubleshoot the problem there. Maybe I wont be quite so mad and mean to the poor associate who gets to serve me... I know not their fault. I went b4 but no one would help until i was able to back up my data!

APPLE!! It does not seem that you are hearing us! APPLE should be taking responsibility for this issue.

oh and by the way>> I am so not impressed with the ios7 stuff. some cool points but oh my god for slooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow!!!!!!! I might as well seriously look at an android.