iOS 8 Wi-Fi problems

I Think I "resolved" the issue on mine after reading other posts around the Internet and this discussion thread: Re: iPad Air WiFi (5GHz) issues after iOS 8 upgrade

I Had my wifi router running dual 2.4 ghz/ 5 ghz channels on one SSID. I separated them to two different SSIDs. my iPad works flawlessly on the 2.4 but continues to disconnect, buffer etc on the 5.0. And, no the problem is not my router because my iPhone still using iOS 7.1.2 works flawlessy on both frequencies as do rest of the devices in my house.

many developers are reporting that the beta firmware update in 8.1 has fixed it. We'll have to wait but for now I'd try running your devices on 2.4 ghz only.

http://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/2hj07z/pad_air_wifi_5ghz_issues_after_ios _8_upgrade_802/

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1778670

Just a quick snapshot of my chain of events. I’m currently on my fourth iPhone 6 Plus 64GB here in London, UK. Every time I have spoken to AppleCare and told them that I have gone through all the Wi-Fi troubleshooting methods possible they have asked me to get a brand new retail replacement as I’m within my 14 day return period. I’ve been experiencing the following issues:

1. Wi-Fi disconnects and switches to 4G (Restart required for temp fix)
2. Wi-Fi is still active but there is no traffic or activity– often when in sleep mode for long periods of time. (Toggle Wi-Fi on/off for temp fix)
3. Wi-Fi disconnects and cannot find any networks (restart required for temp fix)
4. This has been occurring on both iOS 8 and 8.0.2
5. The issues are the same on both my 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz networks
6. This is affecting my ip6+ and 5s (5s used to work perfect on ios7 on same networks) – My MBP-R and all other devices run perfectly on my network.

I spoke to AppleCare again yesterday and asked for their advice as its now my fourth iPhone in just under a month. This time they said that apple were fully aware of the Wi-Fi problem and that new repair tickets were not being raised for their engineers as they are already working hard to get this resolved. They also said they could see all the issues raised on the apple discussions boards which they usually don’t admit too! I asked what to do next and the advisor apologised and said this is clearly a software glitch and will be resolved in the next update. I asked for a timescale but unfortunately none was given.

As stated above I have tried all the troubleshooting methods discussed on forums and on tech websites but the only thing that gives me a stable connection without any disconnects (especially on my 6 plus) is turning cellular/mobile data off when I know I’m going to be on Wi-Fi for a sustained period of time (e.g. at home or work). I appreciate this is annoying but it’s the best temp fix until an update comes out.

Hope it helps everyone who is having issues with their devices that have cellular functionality.

Any comments welcome

Applecare contact me about 2 weeks ago and I installed their required Wifi monitoring sofware on all my 5 ios devices. Since that I've talked to them 5 times with their engineers and sent also all devices log files. Last contact was 4 days ago and they told to wait upcoming update (8.1)

Since 14 hours ago I updated all my devices to 8.1 and seems everything concerning Wifi is fixed. Just for anycase I reset network settings as well and rebooted routers.

As far as I see all devices are good and 8.1 is in generally much snappier than 8.0.2

I would recommend to upgrade to 8.1

I seem to have fixed my issue. I have Iphone 5s and had no wifi issue when i was using IOS7. Since upgraded to IOS8, I had intermittent dropouts. I know it was an issue with the Iphone 5s with IOS8 because I also have a ipad2 with IOS7 and the ipad have no wifi issue.

So i tried pinging both ipad and iphone from my laptop and saw that the iphone have LOTS of packet drops.

I have a ASUS RT-N66U router and i had to disable "ENABLE WMM APSD" This setting is under wireless -> professional. After the fore mention change, i have very little packet drops and did not experience the intermittent dropout.

I hope this helps someone! It was very frustrating for me....

*** SOLVED ***

Two iPhone 5S handsets experiencing erratic wifi connectivity following iOS 8 installation. Never any issues prior to iOS 8. No other devices experiencing trouble over wifi (Chromebook, MacBook Air 2012 Yosemite, Roku, printers, HP notebook, etc.). Tried every common tweak and reset of the iPhones and no dice.

PROBLEM: ASUS RT-AC66U (flashed with any of the most recent firmwares by Asuswrt-Merlin). The iPhones did not like this arrangement after iOS 8. Sampled a plethora of tweaks within the firmware (I'm veteran with networking), but to no avail.

I tried a TP-LINK TL-WDR4300 (Atheros-based) in place of the ASUS RT-AC66U and the iPhones appeared to work fine. The TP-LINK did not have satisfactory range to serve as a permanent solution, so I flashed the ASUS with the latest firmware from Tomato by Shibby (Shibby has been saving me headaches for YEARS on select Linksys deployments).

The ASUS RT-AC66U is now working perfectly with the iPhone 5S handsets and all other devices. Thanks again, Shibby!!

I used K26RT-AC > 123-EN > AC66U 'AIO':

http://tomato.groov.pl/download/K26RT-AC/123-EN/

iOS 8 "broke" the wifi connectivity with the 5S handsets, but I do not understand how. Is the problem within iOS 8? I suspect it absolutely is.

Could there be a problem with the many ASUS/Merlin firmwares I tried? Is there a problem in Broadcom's code? Hardware acceleration? A simple difference in some default setting between the firmwares I sampled? I couldn't pinpoint the root cause, but I found a very real solution.

I hope this helps someone. A different router or firmware may offer some immediate relief. There are a lot of people having similar problems, and there are a heck of a lot of ASUS and/or Broadcom-based consumer routers floating around out there; I wonder if there's some noteworthy correlation.

Just an update. I purchased a new AC router as it was time to upgrade anyway (used to have the Linksys EA4500 N900 router). I got the new Linksys E8350 AC2400 router and I continued to have the same Wifi issues we are all having with our iOS devices, in my case the iPad Air 2. I wrote to Linksys support and this was their reply:

To properly isolate the matter, we suggest that you assign different names to both bands (2GHz & 5GHz). Just access the setup page manually through 192.168.1.1 and go to the Wireless tab. Click on Manual and you will see the SSID field for both bands. While you're at it, please tweak on the channel settings under the 2.4Ghz. You may try channel 11, 9 3 or 1. Leave the 5Ghz band to auto and sign into the 5Ghz SSID.

Needless to say, this has worked 24+ hours for me. No disconnects or dropped speeds at all. I renamed my 5GHz band SSID to a different name and logged in to it. I think the problem is the iOS software is not completely compatible with the"N" protocol for some reason.

Any of you with AC routers try doing the same thing and report back here.

I have solved it...

problem has has to do with iOS 8 timing out on busy wifi channels.

you can't change the default WIFI channel on Apple devices...

SO go to your router and change the wifi channel from AUTO to channel 2 or 3 (just don't choose 1, 6, 10 - I think these are default broadcast channels...

your poor Apple device is competing with all your devices in your house and the neighbours, we have 16 devices alone connected in our house let alone a list of about 30 wifi routers in our vicinity....

just ust don't forget to restart your devices after saving the change in the router and rebooting it...

all my devices are now flying and have been for the past 2 weeks without one dropout!!

no need to replace any of them 🙂

Keep in mind that what fixed it for me, has been done by others and it hasn't helped.

- I have an Asus RT56U wireless router. This has two SSIDs - a 2.4 and a 5 ghz. Don't connect to these much as the device is in the basement next to the cable modem. Connecting to these SSIDs had the problems we all have, but not all the time.

- My xfinity cable modem also has two channels. These have no range and I wish I could shut them off.

- I had an Access Point on another floor - Linksys WAP54G. Connecting here exhibited the wifi problem constantly. This has one 2.4 ghz channel and was used the most. This is a slower access point even when it worked.

- So I have 5 SSIDs all with different names. Channels were all set to auto.

- I also can pickup several neighbors SSIDs off and on.

- I first updated the firmware in my Asus router. It didn't help. Actually it got worse and I couldn't successfully connect at all with ios8.

- I disabled the Linksys and connections to the Asus suddenly became much more reliable and fast with my iPhone 6

- I enabled the Linksys again but changed the channel number. The Asus continued to be reliable and fast. The Linksys was improved but still slow.

- I replaced the Linksys with a new Asus router configured as an AP only. It's very fast. I can connect my ios8 devices to either Asus device now and very very little wifi issues.

Stanky, I'll reproduce here the Gazole post if you didn't read before.

He is talking about BEACONS and LOCATION SENSORS FOR WI-FI.

Don't use the word "ridiculous" so openly as you used. I told I'm not engineer or programmer, just read Gazole's post and used his focus on LOCATION/REGION theme to solve my issue. I didn't change any of his suggestions, I just verified that my Country settings at 5GHz band was changed to Mexico and turn to Brazil as the 2.4GHz band setting. It solves my issue that started after upgraded to 8.1.1

gazoleOct 7, 2014 3:53 AM Re: iPad Air WiFi (5GHz) issues after iOS 8 upgrade
Re: iPad Air WiFi (5GHz) issues after iOS 8 upgradein response to NikCh

Folks, as far as I see disabling Location services for Wi-fi as advised by some people here helps someone as Apple seems to have issues with 802.11d protocol implementation in iOS 8 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11d-2001 and Location sensors for Wi-Fi.

Basically what 802.11d does is that it does not allow you to use certain channels on Wi-Fi in certain countries. As you can see from this table (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WLAN_channels#5.C2.A0GHz_.28802.11a.2Fh.2Fj .2Fn.2Fac.29.5B17.5D) you can not use any channel you like while you are in US, some channels are not allowed in EU etc...

What happens nowadays with lots of routers installed here and there is that some routers are sending 802.11d beacons and these beacons carry country code, but these country codes are not correct sometimes. So some router (most of those are made in China) broadcasts CN country code (which is China), iOS device sees this beacon and applies certain restrictions on channels it (iOS device) will operate. Thus some neighbour with such router might ruin your 5GHz 802.11n. If you have your router setup for US 802.11n channels (or set to Auto) and your iOS device see beacon from some other country earlier than same beacon from your router - you're stuck and your iOS device can't connect to your 5ghz 802.11n.

How to check if this is an issue:

if you're on Mac, start Terminal and run the command /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Resources/airport -s

you will see the following response (list of networks our Mac see)

SSID BSSID RSSI CH HT CC SECURITY (auth/unicast/group)
dlink178 1c:7e:e5:d0:df:хх -65 1,+1 Y RU WPA(PSK/TKIP,AES/TKIP)
hh245 cc:5d:4e:fb:8f:хх -67 1 Y TW WPA2(PSK/AES/AES)
Dread 00:22:90:90:07:хх -69 11 N -- WPA(PSK/TKIP/TKIP)
MajorWiFi 50:46:5d:cc:c2:хх -41 6 Y -- WPA2(PSK/AES/AES)
sohc f0:7d:68:9b:da:хх -75 6 N -- WPA(PSK/TKIP/TKIP)

you can see in CC column that some routers broadcast country code, some not. Thus is I am in Russia and want to use Russian 802.11n channels I might face an issue as my neighbour's wi-fi router is broadcasting Taiwan country code.

Why resetting network settings might help? Because when you do the reset, iOS device resets the country codes it seen before and if you're lucky enough - it will hear the correct 802.11d beacon from your network earlier than any other.

To fix this particular issue you need to shorten beacon interval on your router from 100 (default) to let's say 75 (on my dd-wrt it looks like this)

This will make your router to send beacon more often, so chances that your device sees your network earlier than others are higher.

Another point is to enable 802.11d in your router if it is not enabled yet (it is not enabled if you see "--" in CC column in terminal output higher above)

I spent lots of hours trying to figure out why my Macbook can't use my 5ghz 802.11n network until I found the great post about this (http://wifi-mac.blogspot.ru/2013/03/mac-os-x-5.html). All credits go this guy.

It seems that Apple made a mistake with the priorities device gives to data it receives from location sensor and Wi-fi. So if Location sensor tells device that you're in US and 802.11d says you're in China, obviously Location sensor should be the trusted source which seems to be not the case with iOS 8

I had the same issue with the same router (Netgear Nighthawk R7000). Before I got the iPhone, I had DISABLED the QoS on router because I read issues with AirPlay. Fast forward a few weeks and I got the iPhone 6. The WIFI would be extremely slow. I went to the Apple Store but they could not replicate the issue. I remembered that I had messed with the router (QoS) so I enabled the QoS. Voila! My iPhone 6 now connects to WIFI with blazing speed!

To Enable QoS:

Go to your router settings,

Advanced -> Setup -> QoS -> Enable WMM

Enable both the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz

I bought a 32gb iPad air for my partner on saturday and it too has displayed the same symptoms described here. I tried rebooting both the tablet and my BT hub 5. Neither of these helped at all. The iPad appeared to only keep the connection for a minute or so and it wasn't just internet access - I logged in to the hub web page and this too failed within a minute. I then tried hunting around the advanced settings of the hub and eventually decided to switch off the auto channel selection. We've not had any problems for two days now. It looks to me that the iPad can't cope with the hub switching WiFi channels.

Ever since I updated to ios8 I was having connection problems. No problems before that. It always happened at home for me. I would have to re-start (re-boot) the phone to reconnect to wi-fi and to my cellular data network. This was on both my wife's phone and my phone. Like I said all worked fine before ios8 on both my phone 5S and my wife's phone 5C. Well, I replaced my Router and that fixed it, no more problems. The old Router worked fine with ios7 and before, but it took a new Router to work properly with ios8. Do you think Apple will pay for my new Router in order for their ios8 to work? I doubt it. Anyway everything okay now after over three months of dropping out on average of about every 4 days or so.

While talking with AppleCare Level 2 several days back, I was advised to post comments at "apple.com/feedback". I was told that this site is actively monitored and that it is read carefully and not ignored. Let's hope this is the case. I am having Wi-Fi issues again (afternoon of 12/31, but all was ok during the morning). I have posted the message below at "feedback" but thought it might be of interest here also.

By now it is well known that iOS 8 introduced Wi-Fi bugs across iOS devices. I suggest reading the 97 pages of posts on:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6546549?answerId=27386312022#27386312022

Knowing that this is likely an AirDrop / Bonjour / AWDL issue I did the following:

1) With AirDrop set to Contacts Only and obviously Bluetooth to ON, ran 3 OOKLA speed tests:

Download speeds of 1.39, 1.80, 2.57

2) Immediately turned AirDrop and Bluetooth to OFF, ran 3 speed tests:

Download speeds of 15.23, 15.21, 15.21

3) Immediately turned AirDrop and Bluetooth back to Contacts Only and On, ran 3 tests:

2.32, 1.09, 1.69

4) Immediately turned AirDrop and Bluetooth back to OFF, ran 3 tests:

14.87, 15.17, 15.07

I have now turned AirDrop and Bluetooth back on and at some point today for whatever the reason I will get back full speeds for a while but only to degrade again at a later time.

Hope this helps in solving the problem. Many users are in need…

<Link Edited By Host>

americangirl_chelsea,

I wish you luck at the Apple Store but whatever you do, do not pay to get a new phone; if you do you will be wasting your money. If they give you a new phone I would take it; if nothing else it will come with a fresh battery - and if it comes with iOS 7 do not update it to iOS 8.

The Wi-Fi problem has been well summarized on this thread, by now 102 pages long. As someone else posted, a techie named Mario Ciabarra has discovered the cause. His "cause" can be found by doing a Google search with the term "WiFried: iOS 8 WiFi Issue". The first item that appears (Medium.com) will give you the details (if I post the link here the Apple host will delete it as he has before).

For whatever it is worth Apple seems to read these posts. I had an email late last night from an Apple liaison rep who wanted to know my time availability so Apple engineers can set up a conference call with AppleCare, Engineering, and myself on the line. Unfortunately (or fortunately actually) I will be out of town for 2 weeks starting on Saturday so they need to call me today or tomorrow and I so informed Apple. I was hoping that the rumored 8.1.3 update would solve the Wi-Fi issues but this may not be the case. MacRumors last week indicated that iOS 8.1.3 would likely come out this week (week of Jan 12) but it is late Thursday and nothing so far. The fact that Apple Engineering still wants to talk to me about it tells me that the issue is not yet solved. We'll see...

I actually have two significant issues going on with my iPhone (and also my iPad), Wi-Fi and also an issue with iOS updates trashing my Photos library. The photos issue has been going for a year and I found another thread on Apple (14 pages and 2 years old) summarizing the problem. Apple has yet to address this. The Apple liaison rep just wants to talk about Wi-Fi at the moment and for whatever it is worth below is my response to his email:

There are now 102 pages of "complaints" on Apple Support Communities regarding iOS 8 and Wi-Fi – and unfortunately my wife and I are some of those having problems - too long to describe here (you have likely read my posts by now). In brief, I noticed this problem after 8.1.2 but it was likely there before. After 8.1.2 my iPhone developed severe difficulties maintaining a Wi-Fi connection (cellular was always ok). Long story (you can read my Apple case file if you like) but iPhone #1 was replaced with iPhone #2 which failed in less than 24 hours (different issue, display went black and then booted up with horizontal lines all over). iPhone #2 was then replaced with iPhone #3 which I now have. My iPhone (#3) and my iPad (as well as my wife's iPhone 5 and iPad Air) connect ok to Wi-Fi but have severe speed issues part of the time. I have a 15 Mbps connection and at times my iPhone and/or iPad or both show speeds as low as 0.01 Mbps (most of the time they show 1-2 Mbps using the OOKLA App). I also installed SpeedSmart to make sure OOKLA was working ok. When this occurs IF I then connect to a different AP or sometimes if I change something (DNS, Channel, N to g, etc., or reset Network Settings, Forget Network...) speeds are temporarily restored but only to deteriorate again after a little time. Note that our 2 Dell PCs always, and I mean every single time, keep reporting 14-15 Mbps with OOKLA so the problem is restricted to Apple devices (the Mac running OS X Yosemite has had some problems also but nowhere as severe, only occasionally - again the Dells have never shown any problems and I often have tested the Dells right after testing iOS). My old iPhone (#1) was reset to factory (new iPhone with no Apps installed) but issue remained. iPhone #3 came with iOS 7 and I wish I would not have updated it to iOS 8. I repeatedly tested iPhone #3 with iOS 7 and speeds were always good. I then updated to 8.1.2 because I could not restore from the backup since the backup was from 8. My option would have been to reinstall all Apps from scratch, a time consuming process likely to take me several days as my apps have been customized and set to my preferences. Unfortunately after updating to 8.1.2 but before any Apps or restoring, the iPhone slowed down again (only App installed at that time was a new OOKLA download) so the problem is clearly with iOS 8.

There is a post on this thread referring to a website by Mario Ciabarra (the Apple moderator removed the link so I guess he did not want people to read it). Mr. Ciabarra states that the problem is caused by AirDrop / Bonjour / AWDL incompatibilities. For whatever it is worth, at the moment (and this could change at any time) IF I disable AirDrop in all of our iOS devices, they get ok speeds (14-15) but IF I then enable AirDrop the speeds go down to 1 or so. This was the case this morning and it was very repeatable then but yesterday my iPhone was ok regardless. The bug is not consistent and will change again.

I have been an Apple fan for years but my “love” for Apple is being tested. Many others in the same position… I am developing an opinion that Apple software is no longer reliable, these issues have being going on for a long time but to no avail. Instead of developing iOS 8.2 for a new product, Apple should concentrate on making iOS 8 work for those of us that are stuck with it. I also wish that Apple allowed us to revert to a previous iOS (I had no problems with 7). Windows lets me "Unistall" many (not all but most) of the updates it pushes. Call me so we can discuss as you requested.

I have mentioned this before but since it was way back perhaps it is worth mentioning again. I have gotten some improvement by turning Bluetooth and AirDrop OFF on both my iPhone 5 and my iPad Air. With them ON I get very low download speeds, with them OFF I get far better. The reason for this is likely connected to the AWDL conflict explained by the WiFried iOS 8 article I have mentioned before.

If anyone gets improvements by disabling AirDrop and Bluetooth please post here, thanks.