Iphone 6 won't connect to wifi .. Says incorrect password which is not true. Ideas???

I'm also having this problem.

I have 2 iPhone 6ses and an iPhone 5s. The 6ses are AT&T and unlocked. The 5s is sim-free and unlocked.

Beginning Nov 29, all would not connect to my Apple Extreme Wifi network.

An iPhone 5 and iPad 2 and two Macintosh computers connect no problem.

If WPA Personal is configured, I get Incorrect Password message

If I take off the WPA and the network is Open, I get a Can't Connect message

The 6ses, 5s and 5 are all on iOS 9.1. The Macs are on Mac OS 10.9.5

(Note, all problematic devices have touch ID.)

The iPhone 6ses and 5s will connect to a Verizon MiFi.

I tried both 2.4gHz to 5gHz bands

I restarted the phones.

I reset network settings.

I turned off WiFi Networking

I turned off WIFI Assist

I restarted the cable router and the Airport Extreme.

I tried both public and private SSID broadcasting

I did a clean restore to iOS 9.1 factory defaults on an iPhone 6s tried connecting as a new device.

I disconnected all access points and connecting just to the Airport Extreme,

To all of this, no effect.

Check the MAC Filtering settings in the router. If it is enabled, disable it.

MAC Filtering! Yay! Thanks Lawrence!

It is so weird, though. Nothing was configured in the "No Access" window. And all three devices had been connecting fine. The 5S is years old, and the two 6ses have been here about a month.

Until about 18 months ago I used to use MAC Filtering with an open network rather then WEP or WPA (for what I realized later was a not very good reason). I thought I had it disabled. Maybe I did it by simply deleting all of the listings in the "No Access Window" and I kept the Time Access checkbox checked? It was checked on my Extreme router and my Extreme and Express that act only as access points. I unchecked the box on all three and Bingo!

I know that I've had folks show up with computers and phones, and they've connected by password only way after I quit relying on MAC addresses. I'm wondering if something turned it back on, maybe through a power blip or something?

More Research

So I found this in an old AppleInsider article "Beginning with iOS 8, Apple's handheld devices will generate and use random Media Acccess Control, or MAC, addresses — rather than their real MAC address — when scanning for Wi-Fi access points."

Digging deeper, http://blog.airtightnetworks.com/ios8-mac-randomization-analyzed/

"I found MAC randomization in iPhone 5s (details below), but not in iPhone 5 and iPad Mini. I suspect that this has to do with the OS architectural difference between old and new generations of iPhones."

Which may explain why the 5 was still working but the 5s wasn't. Also, MAC address randomization evidently was enhanced for IOS9 (same link):

"iOS 9 has changed MAC address randomization to include Location Updates. It would be great if you can run the same analysis to what the real world impacts are."

According to https://nabla-c0d3.github.io/blog/2015/06/16/ios9-security-privacy/

IOS9 added MAC radomization to Location Services and Auto Join Scans.

"Mac address randomization was introduced in iOS 8 in order to prevent the tracking of users through their device’s WiFi MAC address. This feature was initially criticized for being enabled only if location services were turned off on the device. To further prevent user tracking, Apple has extended MAC address randomization to additional services, and seems to now include location services scans"

That is GREAT information! Thanks for sharing.

I just found I think go into settings and check to see if under wi-fi you show allow wi-fi calling on and if so turn it off then go back and try again and it should allow- I've done all these other things and this worked for me. Best of luck!!

So when I thought the problem was resolved with an update from 8.1, the issue has come back after the latest update on 9.2. By now, I thought Apple has figured out what the issue was and never to leave the same bug in the post 8.1 releases... I think I expected too much..

Tried almost everything again, a full reset is only thing remains to see if that works, otherwise, like last time, wait for the next update.

Thanks Apple..

SkyiPhone17 wrote:

So when I thought the problem was resolved with an update from 8.1, the issue has come back after the latest update on 9.2. By now, I thought Apple has figured out what the issue was and never to leave the same bug in the post 8.1 releases... I think I expected too much..

Tried almost everything again, a full reset is only thing remains to see if that works, otherwise, like last time, wait for the next update.

Thanks Apple..

It probably won't be resolved in any update, because the problem is most likely with your router.

Thanks for the suggestion. But it still doesn't explain why it fails to connect straight after the 9.2 update (and it could connect just fine after I think it was 8.2 update) saying either that the "password is incorrect" or simply "unable to connect". Also that I have tried all other wi-fi capable devises to connect to the same routers without any issues. Not only that, I have tried connecting my iPhone 6 to about Seven different routers and several other hot spots that needs password to connect without any joy...

The only wi-fi it can connect is where no password is required.

This is exactly the same issue I had when I was on 8.1.

There are several possibilities. For example, if your router has MAC filtering enabled, see the post from Steve Cutchen above. Try disabling MAC filtering. Also try rebooting the router to reset its DHCP daemon, as it may have stopped assigning new IP addresses. On the phone, Settings/General/Reset - Reset Network Settings.

All checked prior to posting. MAC Filtering is always disabled. Routers rebooted. Done reset on Phone network setting about 5 times now..

Well now I am having these issues again but it's sparatic- it will connect but sometimes loses connection and says wrong password or unable to connect! Why do we pay so much money for these things if they aren't going to work properly

Why do you pay so much for a router if it isn't going to work properly?

The phone works with other routers and networks. That should tell you something.

Regardless of whatever some individuals say about the Routers being an issue, it's incorrect info. If this is the case, I would have been able to connect to the other half a dozen routers that I have tried and the hot spots using other mobile phones. Sadly this is not the case.

More importantly, the phone connected to the same routers without any issues when on iOS versions 8.2 to 9.1.

The only network I could connect when on 8.1 and now on 9.2 are the networks without the need of Passwords which got me thinking if there is something to do with the WAP2 protocol (or like) that the phone software has issues with.

Hey guys,

Same problem here. Bitterly disappointing to spend upward of £500 on my Daughters Xmas present to find these networking issues. I seem to have found a temporary workaround for now:-

Configure a static IP Address

Settings > Wifi > [Your SSID] > Static

Put in your relevant network details there.

Choose an IP that is unlikely to conflict with other devices connecting with DCHP

To get your Subnet Mask and DNS settings you can run > CMD > ipconfig/all on a windows PC

OR ifconfig on mac

No more disconnects for now here 🙂