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Jacob Alford Author

Level 1

11 points

iOS 9 wifi connectivity problems

I have two typically frequented wireless networks. The network at my house, and the network at my university. My personal network is encrypted using WPA2-Personal over both 2.4GHz, and 5GHz via 802.11ac. My university uses WPA2-Enterprise over a similar protocol. After updating to iOS 9, neither my iPhone 6 plus, nor iPad Air 2 can consistently connect to the university's wireless network. I noticed that resetting the network settings temporarily solved the problem on my iPhone, and it was able to connect for a few hours; but has never solved the problem on my iPad. When I left for about an hour, and came back to the university, my iPhone again could not connect to the internet; and my iPad following suit. Two outcomes are occurring: either after the encryption key is submitted, the iPhone doesn't acknowledge anything besides asking for the encryption key again; or it says incorrect passcode. It would appear as though the encryption key handoff is either timing out, or incompatible with the network. Most likely, iOS 9 has inadvertently lost support for specific types of 802.11x networks, or it's simply a bug.

Note:

I have confirmed the encryption key by disconnecting, and reconnecting on my MacBook Pro: to rule out the possibility the passphrase has changed.
Re-Booted both devices
Cycled Wifi (turned off, and back on)
Reset the network settings on both devices.
Soft-Reset (Holding down the power and home buttons) on both devices.

Because both devices had trouble simultaneously it is hardly likely that it is a device-specific issue - which rules out a factory reset.

I have read similar problems with other people on the support forums. Hopefully Apple can patch this issue with a quick iOS 9.0.1 before the release of iOS 9.1. I'd like to use my wifi at my school 😢

Thanks for taking the time to read this, and if you are having similar problems... Best of luck!

-Jacob

iPad Air 2-OTHER, iOS 9, 128GB, Gold

Posted on Sep 17, 2015 7:00 PM

96 replies

Jacob Alford Author

Level 1

11 points

Sep 24, 2015 12:06 PM in response to Jacob Alford

I would also like to add that Wifi Assist may be at fault. As part of my troubleshooting, I turned off Wifi assist. Though the feature can prove useful in a wide variety of scenarios, the LTE around my neighborhood and university is very lacking; and I'm often left with 1x, and 3G if I'm lucky - which is why I turned it off originally. Those of you with this problem might try and disabling "wifi assist." You can find it in: "Settings > Cellular > 'Wifi Assist'" It's at the very bottom, past all of your apps. Unfortunately, this has not solved my problem 😢

7rdr7

Level 1

5 points

Sep 23, 2015 12:28 AM in response to Jacob Alford

I''m new to this. I have an IPad Air that once was working great, also have a first generation IPad that pretty much became obsolete, thus moved to the IPad Air.

OKay, my problem...I installed IOS9 and now when I try to go to the App Store, it says "cannot connect to the App Store." I am able to still access the ITunes Store (This part is good, Glory Be!). Not having the App Store any longer is not good.

The second problem I have: Before when I surfed using Safari, loading pages were pretty fast. I was a happy camper surfer. But now after installing IOS9, it takes approximately 15 seconds to load a website page, sometimes longer, usually I give up. I have taken up swearing and grinding my teeth. It's unbecoming. To try to alleviate this problem, I have hard booted my IPad numerous times, many times a day with hope, but this does nothing. I read somewhere some beta tester had the same problem months ago but fixed it by going to their Settings, App Store and ITunes, logging out of their Apple ID and then relogging back in. I tried that also, but it did nothing.

This is very frustrating. I don't know how to fix this and I resent being put in the position of attempting to troubleshoot blindly at this because I haven't the slightest clue what is so different from my former Ipad Air setup that would cause these problems. The old IOS worked just fine. Please create a revision to this IOS 9 you sent us to fix these issues.

Thank you.

Sep 23, 2015 5:07 AM in response to Jacob Alford

I was having very similar problems. I have an iPhone 6 and a mini iPad Model MD503B/A. I upgraded both to IOS9 on the same day using the same internet connection (WiFi). I use a VPN app on both devices (Same software - multi device license). After installation the iPhone 6 worked perfectly, no issues. IOS9 great....!

However, my mini iPad would not connect to the internet. It has a WiFi connection, but tells me no internet connection is available. However I know this is not so as my iPhone is picking up the same WiFi signal (either at work or at home) and the phone has an internet connection. So, IOS9 not good for the mini iPad...!

Reading through these posts I took the advice to uninstall my VPN app. on the mini iPad. I uninstalled because just switching the App off was not making any difference.

This worked for me. The device immediately went online and I had fifty plus APPs that wanted to update. I am not technically knowledgeable to understand why the mini iPad was having trouble connecting to the internet over WiFi with a VPN installed yet the iPhone 6 had no problems at all. However, my iPad is working fine now.

So the problems being experienced on their devices after installing IOS9 could be associated with a VPN app if you have one installed. Hope this helps.

The_Imbu

Level 1

0 points

Sep 23, 2015 7:57 AM in response to Micko of Wicklow

This was very helpful and solved my problem. Thanks.

I had in fact a VPN (tunnelbear) running. After logging out of tunnelbear, the wifi connectivity returned immediately and completely without changing any settings.

Prior to that, my iPad connected to the router but I got no connectivity. All the various resets of network connections, rebooting of the iPad, etc, did not help. It is quite strange that this problem appeared suddenly. My iPad was running fine during the first week after the update to iOS 9 with the VPN switched on.

Sep 23, 2015 10:53 AM in response to hmswalker

is a VPN app installed automatically? I don't see that and do not remember ever downloading one...

7rdr7

Level 1

5 points

Sep 24, 2015 9:45 AM in response to 7rdr7

The new version you released today IOS9.0.1 seems to have corrected this. I now have access to the App Store and Safari is loading faster. Thank you for your prompt correction of these issues.

Jacob Alford Author

Level 1

11 points

Sep 24, 2015 9:48 AM in response to 7rdr7

After the update to iOS 9.0.1, I reset the network settings again, just to ensure nothing from iOS 9.0 might affect the new update. Unfortunately, iOS 9.0.1 HAS NOT fixed the problem connecting to WPA2-Enterprise (802.11x) networks. I will post a video soon demonstrating the issue. Thanks again for all your replies 🙂

Sep 24, 2015 12:54 PM in response to Jacob Alford

My wife is in the same boat...upgrade her iPad Air to iOS 9.0.1, cannot connect to our WPA2 home network no matter how she tries even though it shows in the list of networks.

What the flip Apple?!?!!?! Not going to even update my iPhone or iPad mini until this is fixed.

Sep 24, 2015 11:04 PM in response to Jacob Alford

I'm having similar problem, updated to iOS 9 yesterday and now I can connect to wifi but to no use. Nothing that requires net will open.

Sep 25, 2015 5:10 PM in response to Jacob Alford

Delete VPN worked for me. Thanks

iFaqeer

Level 1

0 points

Sep 25, 2015 10:08 PM in response to luke hammy

I'm seeing the same problem with my iPhone 6 and iOS 9.0/9.0.1. Note that I'm not using any VPN Apps/Profile. I have a Linksys WRT1900AC router with WPA2 Personal configured and my iPhone will not connect to the Wi-Fi. The scenario is as follows:

If SSID = Hidden (not broadcasted), MAC Address Filter turned ON --> Wi-Fi on iPhone 6 will not connect
If SSID = Visible, MAC Address Filter turned ON --> Wi-Fi on iPhone 6 will connect OK
If SSID = Hidden (not broadcasted), MAC Address Filter turned OFF --> Wi-Fi on iPhone 6 will connect OK

Strangely, my all other devices in the house connect just fine, even with an old iPhone 4 running iOS 7.x. For now I've downgraded my iPhone 6 to 8.4.1, since this issue does not occur in the previous versions. Definitely an iOS bug that Apple need to fix.

Ville_R

Level 1

25 points

Sep 26, 2015 12:16 AM in response to iFaqeer

ipad air 2 wifi+cell model

2.4ghz band (dont have 5ghz), tried differend channels (less crowded), ssid hidden, no mac address filtering, wpa2

ios 901

I dont use a sim card, only wifi connections and i still have to toggle wifi sometimes to get it work again. The sign is just spinning/blinking and nothing happens until i toggle the wifi setting on/off. It started on some point during ios8.x update and it is still there in ios 9.0.1. Im not sure, but it seems to be allitle better thought, and i dont need to toggle the setting all the the time as i was forced to do it in ios 8.4... Maybe couple times a day nowadays, but the bug is still there.

When air2 came on last year and i bought it for xmas, i didnt have any problem with wifi. People were complaining about it, and apple fixed something, but unfortunately they also broke something because since then i have had problems with wifi. (Spinning, blinking)

yee yu

Level 1

0 points

Sep 26, 2015 7:00 AM in response to Jacob Alford

thank you Jacob for raising this issue, I have the exact same problem and needed a solution quickly. this is the first time I seriously regret upgrading my iOS.

stude66

Level 1

4 points

Sep 26, 2015 7:44 AM in response to Jacob Alford

I noticed that since upgrading to iOS 9 that my internet connectivity on my iPad went from great to horrible. Safari would begin to load a page and then stall. Stopping the load and refreshing the load would sometimes help, but not always. Turning the iPad off and on would help for a few minutes, but help, again, for a couple minutes. The problem got worse after the download on 9/25/2015. So I cleared the cache; no improvement. Getting closer to router, no improvement unless I was right on top of it, and our router is a powerful one. Then a neighbor told me to make sure the Bluetooth was off. Evidently the update turns on the Bluetooth, and that causes a conflict issue. Sure enough, turned it off and Safari worked fine. Turned on the Bluetooth, and then turned on my iPhone with the Bluetooth on and left it in the other room, and the problem started up again, even though I was within five feet of my router. That also explains why my phone battery is almost always dead.

Sep 26, 2015 8:47 PM in response to Ville_R

For me, my TunnelBear VPN was at fault. Tunnel Bear posted this fix, which fixed the problem for me:

Some iPhone users having issue after upgrading to iOS9, fix by opening TunnelBear App > Tap 3 lines in top left > “Reinstall Profile” rawwr!

iOS 9 wifi connectivity problems