RobertDeveloper
Level 1 (5 points)

Q: Wi-Fi not working on iOS 8.4

Hi,

 

I had problems on iOS 8.3 where Wi-Fi worked at the beginning, but then stopped. Sometimes iPhone 4S attempted to connect, I saw wifi icon and then it disappeared. I tried Reset Network Settings, I managed to setup Wi-Fi connection again, but it worked for a few minutes and then again the same issue.

I was hoping that the issue will be fixed on 8.4, but now it's worse. After resetting network settings I cannot even join wifi network. After entering password, it says "Unable to Join the network. I have correct password, because I'm using it for other devices.

I tried to restore iphone through iTunes, but I cannot do that, because I'm getting error message "Find My iPhone" must be turned off. The problem is that I cannot turn Find My iPhone off in iCloud settings on the device, because Wi-Fi is not working. Now I cannot restore iPhone and I cannot setup Wi-Fi.

 

Another issue is the fact that device may not have 8.4 installed. Although it reports version 8.4, the device didn't show locked screen after update, like it did on iPad. It seems that device only shows version ioS 8.4, but hasn't really been updated, otherwise I would see locked screen after restart.

Is there a way to force iOS 8.4 update again on the device?

 

How can I fix wi-fi problem? Wi-Fi scanning seems to be a little slow. On that page the device often freezes for 20 seconds or so. The quality of iOS and Mac OS X has gone down dramatically.

 

I have $800 iPhone 4S, which has the antenna problem and I don't think I want another Apple device, if I can get Android device with better spec than iPhone 6 for $200. Over 3 years I made around 50 calls with this device and I'm not using much. I'm just using password manager app and need wifi for sync and backup.

 

You know what, forget this, because no one is going to fix/revert wifi code back to what it was on 8.0 or older.

MacBook Air (13-inch Late 2010), Mac OS X (10.7.2)

Posted on Jul 1, 2015 4:00 AM

by RobertDeveloper,Solvedanswer
RobertDeveloper RobertDeveloper
Level 1 (5 points)
A:

Potential solution to Wi-Fi problem (at least until Apple fixed the real issue)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------

Wi-Fi on iOS is really horrible. So far my iPhone and Wi-Fi is working after disabling "Find my iPhone", so I didn't even need to restore the device through iTunes. But it was painful process to get it working. Originally I wanted to restore iPhone, but iTunes prevented that, because restore needs "Find my iPhone" to be disabled. However you cannot disable "Find my iPhone", if you don't have network connection.

From all this it's clear that some didn't think it through. It is true that "Find my iPhone" is there to prevent unauthorized user to disable this feature, so that owner could potentially find the device. I guess that's also the reason why restore of the device is prevented when "Find my iPhone" is enabled. But there has to be  a better way to handle this, for example owner of iPhone could mark stolen device as "Stolen" on Apple's website and when some restores the phone and goes online to get updates through iTunes, it should be possbile to block the device based on it's serial number. This way "Find my iPhone" does not have to block "Restore" process.

 

After a little rant here is how to fix your phone, until Apple fixes real Wi-Fi problems:

 

Goal: The goal is to disable "Find my iPhone", which is impossible if your Wifi (or 3G/4G nework, as some users reported) does not work.

Reason: It is very likely that Find my iPhone and perhaps other services break Wi-Fi connection or networking in general. Perhaps wifi daemon cannot handle correctly parallel access to network resources.

How: You have to connect to Wi-Fi at least for a minute so you can disable "Find my iPhone".

Hint: You may need to reboot the device several times. I had to do it around 7 times, just to get wifi scanning to work.

 

1. Shut down your device completely by holding power button and then sliding Off switch. If that does not work, hold power button and home button until the devices shuts down. Start up your iPhone again.

2. Navigate to Wi-Fi page and try to connect to your router. If the device cannot connect or cannot find networks go to step 3. If you are connected go to step xxx.

3. On Wi-Fi settings page  disable wifi  by moving the switch to OFF position. This may not be as easy as it sounds. The device may continue scanning for available networks and any screen update may be very very slow. If you navigate back too soon before the information about position of the switch is saved, then the device does not actually switch Wi-Fi off and when navigating back it starts scanning again. Of course this is undesirable, because at this point networking is in bad state and it never connects. The device sometimes freezes. When I left fully charged  device overnight, the battery was dead in the morning (after about 8 hours in sleep mode). Another indication of bad device state is inability to navigate back from settings while Wi-FI switch is in OFF position. Even pressing home button doesn't work and you cannot leave Settings. In this case you may need to switch Wi-Fi On again and then try to switch it OFF again. Every time you change the switch, you may need to wait (for a minute or more) so that new setting is actually applied. If nothing works and you cannot positively change the settings, you may need to go to step 1. reboot the device and repeat the steps until Wi-FI is OFF. If you finally have Wi-Fi turned OFF, navigate back and leave Settings.

4. Now that Wi-Fi is OFF shutdown the device and reboot again.

5. Navigate to Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services and turn off following services: Location based iAds, Share my location, Spotlight suggestions, Wifi networking and Frequent locations. It is surprising, but you actually don't need wifi networking enabled here in order to connect to wifi (if I remember it is used to provide shared access to wifi to the other services/background tasks). Disabling these services help to keep eliminate parallel requests for networking. At this point you cannot disable "Find my iPhone", because you are offline.

6. Navigate to Settings > Wi-Fi and switch Wifi ON. See if scanning works and device can find your router. If you see your router select it. If you had problems before, you may need to actually tap on icon and  on DHCP tab enter into DNS field 8.8.8.8 (Google's DNS if I remember correctly). If your router is not found and you cannot see any other networks, that means the device or rather networking is in bad state, scanning is broken and you need to go to step 4 and  reboot the device. If you see networks in the area including your router, select it and enter password. If the password is not accepted or you get message like "Unable to connect", you may need to repeat everything from step 4. It can also help you to configure your router to channel, which is not used by any other router that your device can see. Routers usually use default channel 11 or similar (although manufacturers now started to assign different default channel on each router). Newer routers use Automatic channel assignment. Do not use this feature, if your iOS device cannot connect even after 10 reboots. You may need to set channel manually on your router, it looks like iPhone wifi scanning has problems when more than one router uses the same channel. Hopefully by now you are connected to Wi-Fi. Proceed to step 7.

7. Before your Wi-FI connection goes down again !!! quickly !!! navigate to Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services and disable "Find my iPhone". The device will actually connect over the internet and disables the service online, then it disables the service on your device. If that is successful. Your Wi-Fi should be working again.

8. Optional steps: Go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services and enable Wi-Fi Networking, Frequent Locations and if you want Spotlight and iAds (although I left these off).

 

Good luck !!! You are going to need it.

Posted on Jul 18, 2015 8:43 AM

Close
RobertDeveloper

Q: Wi-Fi not working on iOS 8.4

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

first Previous Page 8 of 15 last Next

  • by Philly_Phan,

    Philly_Phan Philly_Phan Jul 16, 2015 4:31 PM in response to TerryInOhio
    Level 6 (13,576 points)
    iPhone
    Jul 16, 2015 4:31 PM in response to TerryInOhio

    iPhone with IOS-1?

     

    Amazing!

  • by sroseh,

    sroseh sroseh Jul 16, 2015 6:29 PM in response to RobertDeveloper
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iPhone
    Jul 16, 2015 6:29 PM in response to RobertDeveloper

    I'm having the same problems mentioned here, including bad 3G connection and a useless GPS. I was beyond frustrated, so I downgraded back to 8.3 and sadly am still without resolve. First time I've been genuinely frustrated with Apple; I hope this is something they address sooner than later. It's cruddy paying a product that only halfway works.

     

    I also hope everyone hear that complains about Apple and their iOS saying Galaxy or Sony is better does make the switch - they'll find out quickly they are not without their own set of problems. I work at Verizon, and Android's latest software update screwed up A TON of peoples phones. Many lost a lot of their personal data and weren't able to recover it.

  • by JQ3,

    JQ3 JQ3 Jul 16, 2015 9:09 PM in response to Philly_Phan
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 16, 2015 9:09 PM in response to Philly_Phan

    I'd love to say that it's not the update, but when I read this thread I saw many who were having the same symptoms I was having.  Also my troubles seemed to coincide wth the same timeframe as the people here...it's the update.  Anyway, it's working now since I've turned off "Find iPhone" app. 

  • by erikbock,

    erikbock erikbock Jul 17, 2015 5:34 AM in response to JQ3
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 17, 2015 5:34 AM in response to JQ3

    JQ3,

     

    I not convinced that is correct.

     

    I have run every version of iOS 8 and had no problem with "WiFi Performance" until the 8.4 update.  It is a known fact that Apple changed the WiFi daemon in both iOS and OS/X with 8 and 10.10 respectfully.  In the 8.4 and 10.10.4 updates of each they went back to the older (But surely updated) daemon.

     

    I will say that from an inability to even connect, that may not be the update, but the performance thing like I was having I am still going to blame the update as I never had a performance problem until 8.4.  What did make it more bearable for me was reseting the network settings and reconnecting.  Got me back into the 70's Mb/S but not the 90+ that I was getting at home before so there is still some work to be done.

  • by rictulio,

    rictulio rictulio Jul 17, 2015 5:52 AM in response to RobertDeveloper
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 17, 2015 5:52 AM in response to RobertDeveloper

    My problem with wifi and IOs 8.4 was related to my Ipad but the my solution will work on Ipad and Iphone.

     

    I guess the problem is in the network security type.

     

    I changed the security settings on my router from "WPA2 Personal" to  "WPA Personal" and the connection became stable. And I didn´t had to disable the "locate ipad iphone".

     

    I hope this will help you.

  • by sroseh,

    sroseh sroseh Jul 17, 2015 6:42 PM in response to JQ3
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iPhone
    Jul 17, 2015 6:42 PM in response to JQ3

    I think this solved my problems.... hopefully there's not weird wifi problems. thanks!

  • by PowerUp99,

    PowerUp99 PowerUp99 Jul 18, 2015 12:58 AM in response to JQ3
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 18, 2015 12:58 AM in response to JQ3

    I also suppose the update 8.4 was the reason that my wi-fi connection on my iPhone 4S is not working anymore.

     

    The day after the update I tested the Beats 1 stream and suddenly while the phone was lying on the table next to the wi-fi router, it first had an unstable wi-fi connection, then after 2 minutes, I asserted every connection request was replied with an incorrect password error. All other devices were still connected at the same time.

     

    I also tried every fix that was supposed here, except for going to an apple store. At the moment none of my 4 tested wi-fi routers is found by the iPhone wi-fi.

     

    The only thing I could achieve was seeing the test wi-fi's when doing a full restore of the iPhone 8.4. But after the welcome screen I also get only errors like incorrect password or connection not possible.

     

    Still waiting for 8.4.1

  • by davemegan,

    davemegan davemegan Jul 18, 2015 3:37 AM in response to RobertDeveloper
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 18, 2015 3:37 AM in response to RobertDeveloper

    Thanks RobertDeveloper

     

    Have tried your suggestions without success.  Have been speaking with Apple for the last day - appears my issue is a mystery so I have engineers ringing me on Monday.  Everything they suggested (which is on here) has not worked.  My internet provider has run out of options for the router too.  Will be interesting to see what happens on Monday.  If it's resolved I will come back and add the result - if I get to know what it is.  Thanks for your help though.  Have a nice day.

     

    Cheers Megan.

  • by JQ3,

    JQ3 JQ3 Jul 18, 2015 7:04 AM in response to RobertDeveloper
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 18, 2015 7:04 AM in response to RobertDeveloper

    Well my iPhone 5 WAS connecting to my home wifi after I turned off the Find iPhone app, but now it doesn't.  Still does not recognize the password???  My iPad Air works fine... I WILL NOT perform the upgrade on it...that's for sure!

     

    HEY APPLE SOFTWARE ENGINEERS!  HERE'S ANOTHER PROJECT FOR YA!!!  Yes I intended to type that in all caps!

  • by RobertDeveloper,Solvedanswer

    RobertDeveloper RobertDeveloper Jul 18, 2015 8:43 AM in response to davemegan
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jul 18, 2015 8:43 AM in response to davemegan

    Potential solution to Wi-Fi problem (at least until Apple fixed the real issue)

    -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------

    Wi-Fi on iOS is really horrible. So far my iPhone and Wi-Fi is working after disabling "Find my iPhone", so I didn't even need to restore the device through iTunes. But it was painful process to get it working. Originally I wanted to restore iPhone, but iTunes prevented that, because restore needs "Find my iPhone" to be disabled. However you cannot disable "Find my iPhone", if you don't have network connection.

    From all this it's clear that somebody didn't think it through. It is true that "Find my iPhone" is there to prevent unauthorized user to disable this feature, so that owner could potentially find the device. I guess that's also the reason why restore of the device is prevented when "Find my iPhone" is enabled. But there has to be  a better way to handle this, for example owner of iPhone could mark stolen device as "Stolen" on Apple's website and when somebody restores the phone and goes online to get updates through iTunes, it should be possbile to block the device based on it's serial number. This way "Find my iPhone" does not have to block "Restore" process.

     

    After a little rant here is how to fix your phone, until Apple fixes real Wi-Fi problems:

     

    Goal: The goal is to disable "Find my iPhone", which is impossible if your Wifi (or 3G/4G nework, as some users reported) does not work.

    Reason: It is very likely that Find my iPhone and perhaps other services break Wi-Fi connection or networking in general. Perhaps wifi daemon cannot handle correctly parallel access to network resources.

    How: You have to connect to Wi-Fi at least for a minute so you can disable "Find my iPhone".

    Hint: You may need to reboot the device several times. I had to do it around 7 times, just to get wifi scanning to work.

     

    1. Shut down your device completely by holding power button and then sliding Off switch. If that does not work, hold power button and home button until the devices shuts down. Start up your iPhone again.

    2. Navigate to Wi-Fi page and try to connect to your router. If the device cannot connect or cannot find networks go to step 3. If you are connected go to step xxx.

    3. On Wi-Fi settings page  disable wifi  by moving the switch to OFF position. This may not be as easy as it sounds. The device may continue scanning for available networks and any screen update may be very very slow. If you navigate back too soon before the information about position of the switch is saved, then the device does not actually switch Wi-Fi off and when navigating back it starts scanning again. Of course this is undesirable, because at this point networking is in bad state and it never connects. The device sometimes freezes. When I left fully charged  device overnight, the battery was dead in the morning (after about 8 hours in sleep mode). Another indication of bad device state is inability to navigate back from settings while Wi-FI switch is in OFF position. Even pressing home button doesn't work and you cannot leave Settings. In this case you may need to switch Wi-Fi On again and then try to switch it OFF again. Every time you change the switch, you may need to wait (for a minute or more) so that new setting is actually applied. If nothing works and you cannot positively change the settings, you may need to go to step 1. reboot the device and repeat the steps until Wi-FI is OFF. If you finally have Wi-Fi turned OFF, navigate back and leave Settings.

    4. Now that Wi-Fi is OFF shutdown the device and reboot again.

    5. Navigate to Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services and turn off following services: Location based iAds, Share my location, Spotlight suggestions, Wifi networking and Frequent locations. It is surprising, but you actually don't need wifi networking enabled here in order to connect to wifi (if I remember it is used to provide shared access to wifi to the other services/background tasks). Disabling these services help to keep eliminate parallel requests for networking. At this point you cannot disable "Find my iPhone", because you are offline.

    6. Navigate to Settings > Wi-Fi and switch Wifi ON. See if scanning works and device can find your router. If you see your router select it. If you had problems before, you may need to actually tap on icon and  on DHCP tab enter into DNS field 8.8.8.8 (Google's DNS if I remember correctly). If your router is not found and you cannot see any other networks, that means the device or rather networking is in bad state, scanning is broken and you need to go to step 4 and  reboot the device. If you see networks in the area including your router, select it and enter password. If the password is not accepted or you get message like "Unable to connect", you may need to repeat everything from step 4. It can also help you to configure your router to channel, which is not used by any other router that your device can see. Routers usually use default channel 11 or similar (although manufacturers now started to assign different default channel on each router). Newer routers use Automatic channel assignment. Do not use this feature, if your iOS device cannot connect even after 10 reboots. You may need to set channel manually on your router, it looks like iPhone wifi scanning has problems when more than one router uses the same channel. Hopefully by now you are connected to Wi-Fi. Proceed to step 7.

    7. Before your Wi-FI connection goes down again !!! quickly !!! navigate to Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services and disable "Find my iPhone". The device will actually connect over the internet and disables the service online, then it disables the service on your device. If that is successful. Your Wi-Fi should be working again.

    8. Optional steps: Go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services and enable Wi-Fi Networking, Frequent Locations and if you want Spotlight and iAds (although I left these off).

     

    Good luck !!! You are going to need it.

  • by Eligruber,

    Eligruber Eligruber Jul 21, 2015 7:25 PM in response to RobertDeveloper
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 21, 2015 7:25 PM in response to RobertDeveloper

    Try this. It worked for me.  So far.

    Go to wifi on your device and forget your network.  When it searches for wifi do not tap on your network name. Instead, tap Other Networks and type in your network name. Tap Security and tap WEP...even if your network uses something stronger. Then enter your network password and connect.

  • by LC81,

    LC81 LC81 Jul 22, 2015 3:04 AM in response to RobertDeveloper
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 22, 2015 3:04 AM in response to RobertDeveloper

    I really do not understand why so many people waste time trying to fix an issue for which they are not responsible. If I had the same problem, in my opinion the solution would be straightforward: Since Apple has damaged my expensive phone with an official update I would go to an Apple store and I would not leave until my device gets either replaced or downgraded.

  • by Joker1974,

    Joker1974 Joker1974 Jul 23, 2015 11:29 AM in response to LC81
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 23, 2015 11:29 AM in response to LC81

    Updated couple of days ago to 8.4. WiFi is crap now. Thanks Apple! Been struggling to get it on, but it seems to loose connection quickly. Only stays connected when I am litterly sitting on my router.

     

    Better fix this soon Apple nitwitz. My Phone contract is due for renewal, so Samsung here I come.

  • by erikbock,

    erikbock erikbock Jul 23, 2015 12:19 PM in response to Joker1974
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 23, 2015 12:19 PM in response to Joker1974

    Joker you won't be happy with Android 5.  No one seems to be.

     

    Go into Settings, General, Rest and reset you network settings.  Re add a network and see if that helps.

     

    I did this and went from iffy connection getting 5-20 Mb/s to a stable connection getting 75+ Mb/s   My backhaul at home is 100Mb

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