iOS 8 Wi-Fi problems

The problem with Ookla is that it is designed to measure throughput, and specifically designed to work with high latency connections, so it will show pretty good results even if your connection to your wifi access point is terrible ... Until too many packets are getting dropped.

Grab any tool that will do a ping, and look at the times to your access point/router. Remember that the transit time between antennas is speed of light. No network propagation times involved. Next, take any other device connected to that same AP and try from there. Typically, you will see sub-millisecond ping times for most devices. With an IOS device suffering from this problem, you will see times 30x or more worse. That time is all delay inside the wifi driver. The longer you run without a re-start of the wifi sub-system, the worse the times will get. They can be pretty bad, and Ookla will still be reporting food numbers because it is designed to work with high latency connections.

You might try updating the firmware (if there are updates available) for your router, and then reset the router to factory settings. We did this on Sunday and then dowloaded ios 8.1 on Monday. With iOS 8.1, we were able to go back to 5 GHz and back up to normal speeds with no issues. HTH

My wife had the exact same issues with flaky WI-FI. It was terrible I watched her iPad from from LTE to WI-FI and back again. I noticed the problem because we have Direct TV and use a Genie Go which needs a stable connection on the iPad. She did not even notice the problem because her connection was never gone but just switching from LTE to WI-FI. I also noticed a significant increase on our data from AT&T because she was using LTE and did not even realize it. Here is how I fixed it:

I had an Apple Airport Express. I plugged it in and extended my network with it. As soon as I hooked it up and started having the express extend my ASUS routers network the problem went away. I do have to note that all my Windows based devices, iOS7 devices and Android devices worked fine with just the ASUS router and the speed was great on them. For some reason the Airport stabalized the connection of the iPad and iPhone devices running iOS8 and 8.1. It is just too weird and I tested my theory by pulling the Airport Express and the problem started again. Plug it in and it all works.

I discovered the same thing a couple hours ago on both the Iphone 6 and Ipad air 2...

I discovered another way to re-activate my Wifi speeds -- I found that when I'm doing other activity on my Ipad such as by playing Angry Birds Rio HD for five minutes or so then I go back to Safari to perform a speed test then I create the wifi slowdown from 25Mbps to about 1-2mbps or so -- I tried everything to bring it back and the only thing that worked was a hard reset -- now that I had somewhat a consistent way of creating the problem I played angry birds Rio HD again but this time I removed all apps that were playing the background including angry birds, safari etc -- this time when I went back to my speed tests the speeds were normal again --- I created the problem and brought the speeds back to normal following removing all active apps in the background 3 times --- Hmmm I wonder if there's a memory leak between wifi and the apps ---

Wondering if others could bring back their speeds after removing all active apps in the background?

I was having the same wifi issue with my iPad Air after updating to iOS 8.1. Here's what I did to fix the issue:

1. Backed up to both iCloud and iTunes.

2. Erased All Content and Settings.

3. Setup as a NEW iPad. Did NOT setup iCloud.

4. Tested to see if wifi was working. It was. Downloaded Hearthstone. Played Hearthstone off and on for the rest of the night, never had any wifi issues. (Note: Downloading and playing Hearthstone is probably not necessary, but highly recommended.)

5. Next day, Erased All Content and Settings.

6. Setup by restoring from iCloud backup.

7. Resumed playing Hearthstone, have not had any wifi issues since.

Hope this helps!

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!!

Just tested with the 8.1.1 update, and I can say that it does seem to fix the Control Center slide up/down issue, and WiFi seems quite a bit more stable. Can't say that it's perfect (still has a WiFi issue that has been plaguing iPhones since IOS 5), but it is significantly improved.

The existing problems are all internal to the existing IOS implementation, but Apple is indeed working on them. This means that none of the 'fixes' listed on this board are going to do a whole lot for you. Apple's not perfect, of course, but they actually do fix their problems. As a developer for both IOS and Android, I can absolutely state that Apple is far better at addressing bugs than 'the other guys'. We have filed bugs with Android back in 2010 that are still not fixed today (specifically, audio latency problems and severe WiFi issues).

So, having previously commented on the terrible problems I had been experiemcing on both my iPhone 5 and iPad Air immediately after installing iOS 8 I am pleased to say that following the installation of iOS 8.1.1 last night they were instantly corrected.

TOday my iPhone has only lost 17% of its charge after being taken off the charger 12 hours ago compared to 80% for the last couple of months. My iPad immediately connected to my home router last night and despite accessing all the apps that, hitherto, have killed my wifi access, all is still working fine.

Today is ay is the first day since updating to iOS 8 that both my iPad and iPhone have worked properly. I feel equal measures of relief and annoyance and, suitably chastised, I will be far more careful in future when installing future iOS releases.

Don_wan, the replies in this thread don't miss the point. If we stood silent, Apple and others would think there was nothing wrong & no tweaking would be required. The iOS 8.1.1 update did work for me, but so did switching to an "AC" router as well. I've concluded that iOS 8.1 did not play nice with "N" routers (801.11n, as iOS devices running 8.1 had no problems with 801.11a/b/g or 801.11ac routers. The new update addressed it on my end, and others.

Yes, iOS 7 was perfect but as you know, Apple likes to update their software but it seems they are rushing them out nowadays. Perhaps they will learn there lesson after the iOS 8+ fiasco.

Hope you do get your issues sorted out.

chuckd73026 wrote:

Thank you Stanky, that was badly needed......

As a developer for both previously mentioned platforms, I can guarantee you that there are an equal number of glaring problems on the other side of the fence.

As a side note, although the 8.1.1 update 'says' it's primarily for iPhone 4S and iPad, I can also guarantee you that it fixes a significant amount of WiFi issues on ALL IOS 8 devices, including the 6 and 6 Plus. I personally worked with Apple on two specific issues, and continue to do so.

One thing everybody should keep in mind: none of these mobile platforms will EVER be bug-free! The systems are far too complex, and it is literally impossible to test them 100% (not enough monkeys in the universe to get that done). Granted, these bugs were a bit more obvious and should have been caught, but every OS out there has issues like this from time to time. One thing's for sure, these bugs ARE being addressed.

As an example, just check out 'audio latency problems' on the 'other' platform. Bug initially filed in 2009..... not fixed yet......

There are so many trolls creeping this board, it's ridiculous! Anyway, since I upgraded to 8.1.1 on my iPhone 6 2 days ago, Wi-Fi has continued to work flawlessly. As you mentioned, the release note did indicate that the update targeted the 4s and iPad, but I think it might be Apples way of addressing this problem without admitting to the issue.

THis sums it up precisely, stevehc52. That was what I experienced and how I would sum it up. I couldn't wait for a fix....I took a gamble and bought a new router, cofigured it as a WAP and the problem has almost completely disappeared. It IS a wireless N router (Asus RT-N53 for 50 bucks). I'm getting very fast speed test numbers too.

My problem access point was a Linksys WAP54G. If Apple wants it to debug, you're welcome to it. Should I have had to buy new network equipment to use any Apple products on ios8? Absolutely not. But I had to, or end up smashing my iPad air, iphone 6 and iPhone 5s in frustration.

WWhy did apple have to mess with it, all these 'under the hood' changes have just caused carnage. They should of left what worked well alone but they just have to tinker. All I can see of ios 8 is no real change apart from useless health apps and apple pay (which I can't use in UK or 5s anyway). All that for a truck load of bugs. Ios 7 was a great and reliable ios - it wasn't perfect but it was a million times better. I only got ios 8 because at the time I wanted the apple watch which I guess will be ios 8 only. But now I won't bother after the experience of ios 8. The wifi code should be regressed pure and simple but they are too arrogant for that. Whilst I don't cop much in the way of drop outs (although it does happen sometimes) my throughput is erratic and I am convinced it's linked to control centre and AirPlay implementation in the iPhone. On iPad its okay but not on my 5s. Throughput drops by two thirds quite a bit and apps using wifi stall or go slow UNLESS I swipe control centre up and select AirPlay icon to view devices and then swipe control centre back down. Then immediate recovery to full speed! Although it only lasts a while and speed drops can come back at anytime whereupon same trick works again. That's a bad bug and although I highlight this to apple care they play dumb and don't respond. I think AirPlay implementation is at the root of the cause, sometimes I join my home wifi and they are slow to even pickup and announce themselves in control centre. It's intermittent really, sometimes instant or a long delay. and these aren't even third party AirPlay devices, they are Apple TV and airport express to give me AirPlay to the hifi. Very very frustrating. Clearly QA testing was lacking. I bet they barely did it and even then it was on limited devices in perfect scenarios. I guess it would not dawn on them to try creating a network environment using different routers and with AirPlay devices all running. Their simulations prob only focused on their router and prob just the latest iPhones or iPads. I pine for ios 7, it was actually really good but this ios has bodged so much up

because some people don't click on links we post, I'm back with the post made at another related topic Re: Re: iPad Air WiFi (5GHz) issues after iOS 8 upgrade

in response to gazole

Found my solution and want to share with you.

my solution was found after reading gazole reply about ios8 NEW iOS ibeacon feature.

I live at Brazil and have a lot of Apple devices (iPad 1/3/Mini, iPhone 3G/4/4S, MacbookPro 13"/17", Time Capsule) and like all of you this issue makes me very annoyed.

I updated my iPad 3 (Wi-Fi) to ios8.1.1

Made all ios fix suggestions (disable wi-fi networking and others) but still couldn't use wi-fi at 5Ghz N band ( I can log in but can't navigate). It can connect to 2.4GHz as usual.

then I read gazole's about local ibeacons related issues post (but didn't made beacon interval setting change as he wrote) and changed my router (TP-LINK N750) 5GHz wireless setting:

ONLY MADE ONE OF GAZOLE'S SUGGESTIONS ON MY ROUTER (NONE OF OTHERS AT GAZOLE'S POST)

Region setting

BEFORE: Mexico

AFTER: Brazil (you need to change to your actual country)

and rebooted the router.

now I can connect to 5GHz and navigate normally.

I didn't test if was the reboot or the region change (or the both) that made effect (because I don't like to give chance to bad luck =P ) but it resolves my problem.

If your region is still set to USA and you live at USA, you can try to use other country and reboot and still back to USA again and reboot.

Hope and pray for you to find the same solution.

Thanks for gazole and all of members of this thread.

See ya

just add another information: my Beacon interval was set to 100 as default, I never changed it.

people that use 2.4GHz wi-fi band willl not experience this issue but I encourage them to fix REGION settings too from now to avoid future iOS features.

I'm in the US, and on my router the "Region" setting is set to "North America". This setting is also grayed out and it won't let me change it. With previous versions of iOS 8x, I had the same Wi-Fi slowness/disconnect issues that others are experiencing, but since I upgraded to 8.1.1, I no longer have Wi-Fi issues.

I guess what I'm saying is that I don't think your solution is going to resolve the issue for everyone, or anyone for that matter. For some (and maybe for the majority, since the complaints in this thread have dramatically slowed down), 8.1.1 resloved the issue. For others, they may need to wait for the next update. In either case, this was (and probably still is for some) an issue with iOS 8.x, and trying to say that modifying your region setting is the magic pill is somewhat ridiculous.

I'm happy you think it worked for you, but it was probably 8.1.1 that fixed your problem, and changing your country/region forced you to reboot your router, which may have also helped.

For those of you still having problems, I would suggest that upgrading to 8.1.1 and rebooting your routermay resolve your issues... it did for me. If it doesn't, hopefully the next update will reslove the issue for everyone.

Than frit-sos wrote:

After trying everything else, which did not solve the slow wifi problem for my iPad air 2 running 8.1.1, I disabled the "auto" channel selection in my wifi router and manually selected channel 11

This appears to have solved the problem and my wifi connection is now as fast as in my windows PC.

It could be any other channel I guess, but as long as it works with channel 11, I didn't experiment any further.

The wifi is stable now and works well for the last couple of days, so I think it is worth trying if nothing else has worked for you.

I also have my 2.4Ghz network set to 11 and my 5.0Ghz is set to 161. Before 8.1.1, I had the typical problems listed throughout this thread and had to set both networks to lower channels and they were still somewhat flakey, but now the higher channels seem to work fine and they have better range.