Why does iphone 6 connects to a slower LTE or 3G when a strong Wifi signal and faster internet connection is present?

Question

Level 1

0 points

Why does iphone 6 connects to a slower LTE or 3G when a strong Wifi signal and faster internet connection is present?

I noticed that my iphone is always using LTE or 3G instead of my wifi. When downloading bulky internet content like pictures, videos, netflix or facebook, I have to put my phone in airplane mode and then start browsing. If I don't do that, my iphone is dumb and using the cellular network which is much slower.... Since my cellular signal is week at home, even pictures are slow to download. This is a very annoying problem which I'm not alone to experience from the many forum I've browsed to try to find an explanation and hopefully a solution to that problem experienced by many users. There is no problem with my wifi connection which is super fast and turning my iphone into airplane mode always solve the speed of download. The problem is purely a matter of a software bug. You can surely understand how annoying it is to have to put the iphone in airplane mode and then be unable to receive sms or phone calls, or to leave the phone on cellular network to receive phone call and SMS but then be unable to enjoying my fast wifi connection because my phone will use cellular data instead.

This is a bugging software/hardware issue that apple team should work on. It's been two updates and none has had impact on that problem! PLEASE FIND A SOLUTION!!!!!! This is highly annoying!!

Posted on Apr 19, 2015 12:35 PM

Reply

Answer 1

jason269

Community Specialist

Apr 22, 2015 11:29 AM in response to BriceQc

Hello, BriceQc.

Thank you for visiting Apple Support Communities.

I understand that your iPhone 6 will not default to your Wi-Fi network unless in Airplane Mode. I would need a little more information regarding your router type, password protocol used and iOS software installed to provided a better answer. However, try updating your router firmware and go through the troubleshooting steps in the article below.

If your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch won’t connect to a Wi-Fi network

Recommended settings for Wi-Fi routers and access points

-Jason H.

Reply

Answer 2

BriceQc Author

Level 1

0 points

Apr 23, 2015 5:59 PM in response to jason269

Hi Jason, thanks for the answer which is unfortunately unhelpful. My SSID is unique, my network not hidden. As I mentioned in my question, this issue doesn't seem to be specific to me and many comments on many forum raise the same problem (probably the tip of the iceberg). My iphone has no problem connecting to the network on airmode with wi-fi activated (immediate connection).

To help you in your analysis of the problem, here are the answers to your questions:

My device is an Iphone 6 with iOS 8.3 installed. My router is directly connected to my high speed modem. The router is an Apple time capsule which is uptodate (v 7.6.4). Security is WPA2.

I really don't know what is the problem. Thanks for trying! 🙂

Reply

Answer 3

Apr 24, 2015 6:02 PM in response to BriceQc

The iPhone SHOULD use WiFi over cellular data regardless of the relative speeds (mine does - in fact, I sometimes have to turn off WiFi if it is slow to force it to use LTE). However, the phone must be awake or connected to power; if the phone goes to sleep WiFi is turned off to save battery life unless it has external power. Could this be your issue? If it is not there is clearly something wrong with your phone, most likely some sort of memory corruption in iOS. We can explore options for troubleshooting if you confirm that it is not an issue of the phone going to sleep.

Reply

Answer 4

BriceQc Author

Level 1

0 points

Apr 25, 2015 8:53 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

Nope, not my problem. Even with my iphone connected to power it choses to connect to the slow 3g instead of the fast wifi!

Reply

Answer 5

Apr 25, 2015 10:24 AM in response to BriceQc

Have you tried restoring iOS and setting up the phone as New? See if the problem is still there. If it is I'd be stumped. Unless its a really strange hardware problem.

Reply