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

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RobertDeveloper

Q: Wi-Fi not working on iOS 8.4

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  • Helpful answers

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  • by crackrk,

    crackrk crackrk Jul 28, 2015 6:08 PM in response to davemegan
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 28, 2015 6:08 PM in response to davemegan

    Megan I would love to know how your new phone is working. I'm struggling with this issue myself...

     

    My wife has an iphone 5s and my work phone is a iphone 5. Both running 8.4 with no wifi or bluetooth issues. My personal phone is an iphone 6 running 8.4. Until this update everything worked great. After the update it cannot hold a wireless connection unless I'm <15ft from the router. My bluetooth pops and hesitates while playing music in my car. This is music that is downloaded to my phone, so it's not trying to stream off 4g or wireless. Not sure if this matters but my iphone was one of the first. I preordered the first day and got the 2nd wave of shipments.

     

    So far I've reset my network settings with no luck. I then performed a full system reset then restored from backup... twice. Still no luck. Now I'm considering doing a full system reset and reloading all apps hopefully over a fully functioning wireless. I know it's not my router as 2 other iphones running 8.4 and multiple other devices are all running fine. The bluetooth shows me it's software, not hardware. I'll continue to update as I try more things.

     

    Best of luck everyone who has this issue.

  • by Philly_Phan,

    Philly_Phan Philly_Phan Jul 28, 2015 6:14 PM in response to crackrk
    Level 6 (13,576 points)
    iPhone
    Jul 28, 2015 6:14 PM in response to crackrk

    My wife an I both have iPhone-6 units.  Both are at IOS 8.4 and both are functioning flawlessly.  You should take your phone to an Apple Store and speak with the resident "genius."  It's probably best to make an appointment before you go.

  • by davemegan,

    davemegan davemegan Jul 29, 2015 1:29 AM in response to crackrk
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 29, 2015 1:29 AM in response to crackrk

    Hi,  My replacement iPhone is working well and on 8.4.  Given you have both WiFi and Bluetooth issues I would start a "chat" session with Apple.  They will go over probably everything you have done but at the end of it you will either have something that works or get a replacement.  My bluetooth was actually the first to go and that was before the upgrade. After the upgrade I couldn't even see WiFi networks and when my husband hot spotted his phone I couldn't see that either. That's when apple replaced the phone.  My iPhone was about 7 mths old so not one of the first.  Hope this helps

  • by JQ3,

    JQ3 JQ3 Jul 29, 2015 2:57 AM in response to RobertDeveloper
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 29, 2015 2:57 AM in response to RobertDeveloper

    Well, Straight Talk fixed the cellular problem, but my wifi issues persist.  I spoke with Apple over the phone and was referred to the Apple Store which is 2 hours away. I have an appointment this evening, but I'm still trying to decide what to do.  Since my phone is out of warranty I may just take it to a store locally that specializes in Apple products. 

     

    It's sad though that my wifi issues were brought on by the 8.4 upgrade.  If my phone can't be fixed I'll just have to deal with it because I don't have the cash for another iPhone.  Not to mention "they" broke it!

  • by chocotonio,

    chocotonio chocotonio Jul 30, 2015 6:32 AM in response to RobertDeveloper
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 30, 2015 6:32 AM in response to RobertDeveloper

    Guys, we are in the same bout.

    I'm facing the same issue, I already called to AppleCare and it seems that they wanted shoot down old devices to force us to get a newst one. They've lost many custumers, and I'm one of them.

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Jul 30, 2015 6:39 AM in response to chocotonio
    Level 9 (51,412 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 30, 2015 6:39 AM in response to chocotonio

    Thanks for letting us know.

  • by Philly_Phan,

    Philly_Phan Philly_Phan Jul 30, 2015 6:55 AM in response to chocotonio
    Level 6 (13,576 points)
    iPhone
    Jul 30, 2015 6:55 AM in response to chocotonio

    chocotonio wrote:

     

    Guys, we are in the same bout.

    I'm facing the same issue, I already called to AppleCare and it seems that they wanted shoot down old devices to force us to get a newst one. They've lost many custumers, and I'm one of them.

    Goodbye.  It's been a pleasure knowing you.

  • by akunojiro,

    akunojiro akunojiro Jul 30, 2015 11:03 AM in response to RobertDeveloper
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 30, 2015 11:03 AM in response to RobertDeveloper

    I have tried all "potential issues", it doesn't solve the problem completely. I have to say, it works in 1-2 hours, then my iPhone (4S)'s wifi disconnects and it isn't able to connect to wifi again. And, my iP goes freeze when i try to reconnect wifi or turn wifi on/off.

    So, I try to disable "Find my iPhone" in iCloud (with 3g). This makes my iP can connect to wifi again. Although it still auto disconnect wifi and reconnect, it doens't freeze or cannot connect to wifi anymore.

    Hope this helps. I wish Apple would fix these problems .

  • by mwiley478,

    mwiley478 mwiley478 Jul 30, 2015 11:44 AM in response to RobertDeveloper
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 30, 2015 11:44 AM in response to RobertDeveloper

    I downloaded the 8.4 update and soon after I did my wi-fi cuts in and out. I have to go to cellular in settings and click it on and off a couple of times to get my 4G, LTE, 3G back. It is a nuissance and ****** me off that I spent 800+ dollars for a phone that had an update that disables my calling ability.

  • by JQ3,

    JQ3 JQ3 Jul 30, 2015 3:41 PM in response to RobertDeveloper
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 30, 2015 3:41 PM in response to RobertDeveloper

    Is there any recourse for situations where the system upgrade causes certain hardware functions to malfunction or cease entirely?  I went to a local store that specializes in Apple products and was told that I was S.O.L.!  If you have an iPhone 6 under warranty Apple would replace those units, but everyone else more than likely would have to upgrade to the I6. 

     

    Now I see one of the ways Apple has been able to amass $200,000,000,000+ in cash.  "I was blind, but now I see."

  • by Kishore1443,

    Kishore1443 Kishore1443 Aug 6, 2015 8:40 AM in response to RobertDeveloper
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 6, 2015 8:40 AM in response to RobertDeveloper

    Hi Robert and Everyone,

     

    There are so many post till now related to wifi issue on iPhone 4s. So are you guys seriously going to fix the issue or we need to stop using apple devices.

    I don't see any acknowledgement from apple regarding this issue, they say simply it could be hardware issue take to service centre but my device is out of warranty. Its really frustrating for us to digest if our devices go like this and there is no proper solution. Know once thing its one 70% of user might updated to latest one and 10 % may facing this issue.. if all iPhone 4s users starts updating then its a huge count.

     

    We pay so much bugs to buy apple iPhone, since we trust the apple hardware is so good we go for it. if this is the way you support then definitely we need to think on the other option.

     

    I had been using my device for more than 2yrs, till now i didn't face any issue and i had hope i can continue with my device for another year or two. But this update ruined my interest of buying any iPhone.

     

    I just wanted the root cause, and what is the solution for this. I'm not expecting any new iPhone.. I just wanted an solution.

     

    Thank you.

  • by RobertDeveloper,

    RobertDeveloper RobertDeveloper Aug 6, 2015 10:32 AM in response to Kishore1443
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Aug 6, 2015 10:32 AM in response to Kishore1443

    Hi Kishore1443,

     

    It is not just iPhone 4s, it is also iPhone5, iPhone5s, iPhone6. Some people reported that Apple replaced their iPhone 6 under warranty and this fixed the issue, but it is possible that they will hit the issue again. I guess Apple wants to look nice when it comes to new devices, so they replace them even because of software problem rather than facing unhappy users who just bought a new device. Statistically it is highly unlikely that this is a hardware issue on all these different models of iPhone or that so many users would have broken wi-fi on an old device at the same time. There were some security "fixes" implemented in wi-fi on iOS 8.3 or 8.4 (now I don't remember which of the two versions) and these fixes may prevent connection to older routers, but the problem is that even scanning for wi-fi networks usually does not do anything or freezes the device, so the security fixes may not be the only reason for broken connection. In one post I wrote step by step description how to fix it and wi-fi actually worked for about a week (although I wasn't using it much) but then the device disconnected again and creating a connection seems impossible again or takes much effort. I gave up on that. It seems that the connection breaks when multiple services attempt to use network. That's the situation where device uses high CPU and then network connection is lost and it cannot connect. The problem is that we cannot quite disable all these services - App update, assisted GPS, iCloud, Weather info. There are so many services, which access network at unpredictable time and when the device wakes up, there are so many attempts to connect to the internet that it has to fail. There has to be an issue in wi-fi driver or networking subroutines.

     

    There were also rumors that Apple did this on purpose to force us to buy new devices, but I don't believe that. If this is the case, it would be nice to have at least possibility to block updates, so users could stay on the latest working version of iOS for their device.

     

    So far no response from Apple. Perhaps they hope iOS 9 will solve the problem. The beta2 version is already out and some people in this thread mentioned they're gonna try it. I guess we have to wait for iOS 9 and hope for the best.

     

    Robert

  • by Philly_Phan,

    Philly_Phan Philly_Phan Aug 6, 2015 10:35 AM in response to RobertDeveloper
    Level 6 (13,576 points)
    iPhone
    Aug 6, 2015 10:35 AM in response to RobertDeveloper

    RobertDeveloper wrote:

     

    So far no response from Apple. Perhaps they hope iOS 9 will solve the problem.

    Perhaps the IOS has nothing to do with the problem.

  • by bajdechi,

    bajdechi bajdechi Aug 6, 2015 1:40 PM in response to RobertDeveloper
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 6, 2015 1:40 PM in response to RobertDeveloper

    after update to 8.4 it worked fine untill now when it started to lose wifi after 3-5 sec, i changed the the router channel fron Auto to 9 and now it ok

  • by PowerUp99,

    PowerUp99 PowerUp99 Aug 6, 2015 11:19 PM in response to Philly_Phan
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 6, 2015 11:19 PM in response to Philly_Phan

    @Philly_Phan: Have you posted a political or marketing statement?

     

    I can only explain my situation since the update to 8.4:

    Starting the iPhone with a 8.4 recovery, in the first configuration steps, it lists all tested wifi routers with full strength, but the iPhone will not connect and tells me incorrect password for protected wi-fi and connection error for unprotected ones.

     

    Finishing configuration without wi-fi ends with an installation, where my device does not list wi-fi routers any more.

     

    So now you can evaluate what causes the probem, hardware, wi-fi driver or iOS 8.4

     

    I could have tested more if the iOS 8.3 had been provided longer then a few days after the iOS 8.4 rollout. But some posted that even this could make no sense if the wi-fi driver can't be downgraded, although part of an iOS  

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