iPad Air WiFi (5GHz) issues after iOS 8 upgrade

A considerable improvement over 8.0.3, but alas, 8.1 doesn't appear to be a full fix. I've tried continuos HD streaming using 802.11a/n 5GHz; after some time, the network connection still hangs. Reverting to 802.11b/gn on 2.4 GHz resolves the network connection.

One full reset later, I'm still monitoring.

ipad air with iOS 8.1 onboard, airport extreme 2013 with 802.11 ac support. Connecting through 5hz dedicated networ wi fi connection hangs after time. I've reseted network settings twice with no luck.

I have same issue 😟 - iPad Air, iOS 8.0.2 will connect to 5.0GHz ac WiFi, but no network traffic. Using 2.4GHz works better.

The update to 8.1 didn't fix the issue at all... Still connects and no network traffic....

Would full reset help in this situation?

Weird. I did try first "forgot" network and re-added it again and it did not work 😕

Now did Renew Lease and looks like it is working (at least for now anyway...) Hope the fix is permanent.... 🙂

Thank you, yosh8585.

After over a month of these issues being reported, is there no real fix for the intermittent wifi connectivity on 5 ghz networks? I see the work around to change the signal, but would rather it work across all bandwidths. There are many times that you cannot change router broadcast settings.

Thanks for your help.

It works for me on my BT Homehu b5

I set it back to the default of letting it choose which band a device attaches to, then switched it right off and back on again. It has been working fine for me with my iPad Air since then.

Phil, I have the same setup as you using a BT Hub 5 and iPad Air, mine wasn't working after the software update to 8.0 but read that if you changed the name of the 5Ghz channel on Hub 5 I could connect through the 2.4Ghz which it did. I've now since last night updated to 8.1 and my iPad is working on the 5Ghz channel at last. So maybe try change the name after logging into your Hub5?

I had already split the SSIDs when I first got the Homehub 5. I'm still not sure whether I should blame this on iOS 8 or the Homehub, as it's by far the worst router I've ever had the misfortune to use.

Phil, when I first updated to 8.1, 5GHz was still not working for me. "forget" network and adding it again didn't work either. Then I tried "Release" /"Renew" on the iPad (I don't remember exactly how it was called - the iPad is not with me right now). That fixed it. No issues on 5GHz since yesterday.

Sadly renewing the lease made no difference. Since the 8.1 update I've managed to get it to hold onto the wifi for longer, but this happens randomly. Most of the time it will still stop receiving data after around 10 seconds.

This is such a serious bug I'm stunned Apple hasn't fixed it.

Go to Settings Reset Network Settings After Reset you need to enter your wireless key Also turn your Router off for 30 seconds Also an option is to go to web site for your make of router to check for a Firmware update. Bsydd uk

My experience with iOS8.1 is that it cured my Wifi connection problem. It would probably be worth while asking peoiple to list what router they are using that either works or does not work so that we can establish if the problem is with just some routers or deeper than that.

I have a BT Homehub 5 router and my issues with the 5GHZ Wifi connection went away with iOS 8.1 after I reset it back to its default seting where it auto chooses the band width and restarted the router.

Just wanted to add that I'm having the same issue reported above with an iPad Mini 2. I'm also using a BT Home Hub 5 with separate SSIDs for 2.4GHz and 5GHz. The iPad connects to 5GHz, but will typically stop working after < 30 seconds. When I connect to the 2.4GHz network, I have no issues.

My iPhone 5S and MacBook Pro are both able to connect to the 5GHz network without issues.

I actually first started encountering this issue back in late August, long before upgrading to iOS 8. So, I'm not convinced that this is an iOS 8 problem. Originally, I had assumed that it was a hardware fault. I was planning to take it into the Apple Store, but I first decided to test the 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks separately to see if the issue only occurred on one frequency so that I would be able to replicate the problem in store. Turns out that the issue was indeed confined to the 5GHz network, so I decided to wait for iOS 8 to see if that would fix the problem.

Like others, my solution is to keep the iPad on the 2.4GHz network. However, this can be a bit tricky because the iPad is able to obtain the password for the 5GHz network from my other devices via iCloud Keychain. So even though I've forced my iPad to "forget" the 5GHz network, it still occasionally connects to it and I have to manually change back. Annoyingly, when I forget the 5GHz network, the password is removed from my keychain, so I have to re-enter it on other devices.

I haven't read every post above but it does seem that this issue is highly correlated with the BT Home Hub 5. Of course, the fact that other devices still work properly with this router suggests that it's not solely a router problem. It seems likely to me that this issue is caused by some weird combination of parameters between the iPad and this particular router (at the hardware, firmware, or software levels). Has anyone been able to replicate this exact issue on a different router?

I got rid of my Linksys EA4500 and got the ASUS RT-AC68U - AC1900. I was due an upgrade to get on the AC standard anyway so wasn't overly annoyed!

Since testing it over the weekend it seems that my Wi-Fi issues have been resolved. I haven’t had a single drop or had to toggle the Wi-Fi switch on/off to get it the connection live again. Speeds have been consistent and this is across all my devices including :

iPhone 6 Plus

iPad Air 2

iPhone 5S

Macbook Pro Retina – 2012 non AC version

I hope this lasts but so far so good although I appreciate this is a deep routed iOS 8 problem that only occurs with certain router brands / chipsets.

Either way apple need to resolve this in the next update for the vast majority of us and this certainly shouldn’t force us to upgrade our existing equipment!

Good luck to all and I’ll post back if things start to get sour again!!

It looks like 8.1 has fixed my issues, my iPad mini retina, 2 iPad mini's, and my iPhone 6 are all working perfectly with my 5Ghz network. Again I am using a Netgear R7000 router, and I do use different SSIDs for my 2.4Ghz vs 5Ghz networks. This was my setup when I started having the issues with iOS 8, it wasn't a change I made trying to fix it.

I wonder if this has more to do with the routers. Best of luck to everyone.