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iPhone 6 dropping WiFi constantly

Got my iPhone 6 today and it keeps dropping my WiFi signal in my house and I cannot reconnect. When toggling WiFi off and back on it doesn't even pick any network in range, and there are usually 4-6 available. I have to power off the phone and power back on for it to pick up the WiFi signal again.


Very annoying. I hope this is a bug with iOS 8 that can be fixed ASAP and that it's not a hardware issue.


Anyone else having this problem?

iPhone 6, iOS 8

Posted on Sep 19, 2014 10:02 PM

Reply
103 replies

Sep 27, 2014 11:07 AM in response to cycler15

It really seems to be an iPhone 6 software problem based on all these reports. It is true that various fixes (resetting network settings, etc.) work, but only temporarily--in my case, for up to 12 hours. But then the same problems occur all over again. As with everyone else, all the other Apple devices in my household work just fine using iOS8 (iPads and iPhones), and our network is up to date and running WPA. (Besides, this issue also happens when I am on other wifi networks, such as the one at my office.) As mentioned, I've also done everything Apple suggested, including wiping the phone multiple times, deleting and reinstalling the software, and exchanging the phone. I also tried various ways of building the phone back slowly: leaving it at factory settings except for signing onto a wifi network, signing into the Cloud but not restoring any backup, Cloud-only restore, and iTunes's restore. I noticed that there is no issue if I keep the phone on my wifi network with factory-only settings and do NOT sign into my iCloud account. However, once I sign into the Cloud, even if I do not restore my settings, the phone starts dropping wifi and reports to me that it is "unable to scan for networks" when I try to add my network manually. After some time, which is usually about 5-20 minutes, it spontaneously recovers the wifi signal.


Maybe it would help if we could figure out some common denominator among people who have this issue. For example, I have thousands of contacts saved and thousands of calendar events, each of which automatically loads onto my phone once I sign into my iCloud account (whether or not I restore from a backup).

Sep 27, 2014 11:46 AM in response to ahp2123

Yes. This is my experience too.

The phone is sensitive to WEP so you need to use WPA.

In clean factory state I had no wifi issues,

I doubt there is anyone experiencing problems if they use WPA on a clean, non backup restored phone.

The corruption resulted when I did a complete restore from iTunes onto my i6 of my IOS 7 iphone5 backup. Similar to when I changed from iphone 4 to 5.

To get round it I did:

1) a minimal icloud sync of contacts etc from my iphone 5 in order to get SMS messages copied.

2) I then synced this to the factory fresh iphone 6, deleted all the restored wifi networks and mail/calendars and set them up from scratch,

3) I then synced music/films and apps from the iTunes backup and all is working fine now.

Sep 27, 2014 11:55 AM in response to johnfromengland

i agree. factory fresh phone prior to activation on verizon did not seem to have any problems. once i activated it, the problem started.


the only thing i synced from my cloud was my contacts. nothing else, i did not bring over any texts either. now in your step three can you detail how you did this? i want to make sure i am doing it right.


also note that i am on WPA and am having this problem. I checked last night when someone else had suggested.


I am hoping that there will be an update to fix this as it is driving me insane. I couldn't even post this message using wifi (i turned off cellular data to more easily track how often it goes in and out). it cut out 4 times while i was typing the FIRST SENTENCE of this post on my phone and i had to go to the computer to type it up.


meanwhile my iphone 4 and ipad are sitting with full wireless signal. i am also typing this on a laptop with wireless.


please everyone call apple and let them know if you are having this problem so they can look into it and fix it.

Sep 27, 2014 12:36 PM in response to chootie2014

Sorry but I can't comment on post activation problems, all the iphones sold direct from apple in the UK are unlocked.

If the problem occurs when you activate then that's an issue for your carrier/apple and not something I have experience of.

To clarify what I did, as I didn't quite use the correct terminology in the previous post as I was going from memory:

On my i5 I hadn't previously had icloud switched on, i always synced via iTunes. As I was suspicious of the full iTunes restore from i5/ios7 corrupting the i6/ios8 phone:

1) I switched icloud on on my i5.

2) I deselected all of the mail/calendars/contacts etc as I use gmail anyway and so didn't need any of that.

3) I then did an icloud backup and restored from that backup onto my factory fresh i6.

4) I then synced only my music, apps and films from itunes onto my i6.


The icloud screenshots are attached

User uploaded fileUser uploaded file

Sep 27, 2014 3:56 PM in response to johnfromengland

I contend this is NOT a s/w issue/bug, as we have 2 identical iPhone 6's side by side in the house.

One can connect to either 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz AP radios with no problems throughout the house - full bars running WPA/AES.

The other cannot connect to 2.4Ghz radio unless in the same room and will drop when taken out of the room - with only 1 bar in the room.


It acts like the 2.4Ghz antennae is not plugged in....

Sep 28, 2014 10:54 AM in response to Ismaelmar

I only have 2.4, and the only thing that solved my problem was converting from WEP to WPA. I converted from an i4s to and i6 via an iTunes restore from my MAC. I had previously tried just about everything else that had been recommended, and many things would improve my WiFi performance temporarily, but once I changed my router to WPA and reconnected my i6 to WPA, the problem has been gone for several days now.


Since many that are already on WPA and still have the problem, I'm wondering if the conversion to WPA is what is solving the problem and not necessarily WPA itself.


Sam

Oct 7, 2014 9:45 PM in response to cycler15

I just got my iPhone 6 this week, and I noticed the same problem! 😕 I got tired of network resetting my phone, and rebooting it, so I called my carrier (which happens to be AT&T) The tech whom I spoke with said that Apple nor ATT has deemed it a major issue, however she told me to try this:


Now this is at your own risk, although I don't see it harming the phone!


She said:

  • Go to Privacy
  • Then Click on Location Services
  • Scroll down a little ways until you find System Services *click it*
  • From there scroll down until you find WiFi Networking and turn it off!


I do not know if it is going to work, I have no left a wifi area, and it doesn't always not connect or unable to find wifi. Mine does it occassionally so we shall see! I will update further on when I see if this works and FOR SURE let you guys know if this is a solution! 🙂

WISH ME LUCK!!! 😝

Oct 7, 2014 10:01 PM in response to calibabe

I am pretty sure none of the proposed solutions will work as I have tried them all. It seems Apple is taking this issue seriously and has acknowledged to me that many people are experiencing the same problem, and that Apple does not yet know what causes it. I spent a long time last week with Apple Engineering (not the usual tech support). They first (with my consent) mirrored by laptop screen and examined all my router and wifi settings. Nothing was out of line. Then they placed (with my consent) diagnostic software on my phone and, after 24 hours, all the diagnostic information was downloaded and sent back to Apple. There were dozens of losses of wifi (with the inability to scan for networks) during that 24-hour period. Apparently Apple is still analyzing the informatio, and presumably Apple is gathering similar information from others. All our other Apple devices, other than the iPhone 6, continue to operate perfectly, including those running iOS8.


For now, the only thing that works--temporarily--is resetting network settings, restarting the phone or just waiting. Ton it's own, the phone usually recovers the ability to find wifi and reconnects after some sort of interval, which tends to be between 10 minutes and 30 minutes, but is sometimes more and sometimes less time.

iPhone 6 dropping WiFi constantly

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