Wifi dropping out after iOS 10

Hi,

I have iphone 6, ios 10.2.

Right after new year I came home and my iphone suddenly could not connect to Wifi. I've tried restarting and hard-rebooting more than once. I also did system reset and change the DNS to 8.8.8.8.

I toggle wifi setting, location service, rebooting the modem.

Occasionally, I could connect but the signal is very low and disappears right away.

I could connect with other wifi (at the office or when travelling-no problem!)

At first glance it looks like the issue is in the internet connection/modem/router at home but the thing is my other gadgets (iphones 5 and 7, 2 ipads and windows laptop) work just fine!

It seems that out of sudden my iphone became very sensitive.

Can someone pls help? As you probably can already guess, I'm not really tech-savvy so your help is highly appreciated!

thanks.

I have the same problem and took me a day to figure it out. Yes, it is related to the signal strength but the workaroud may be complicated for some of the users. Basically, the problem seems to be iOS get lost when switching between two frequency bands. Most of the latest WIFi routers support 2.4Ghz and 5GHz bands. The 2.4GHz has lower data transfer rate but the signal can passes through obstacles (e.g. walls) more easily. The device and the router communicate each other to determine which band should be used from time to time based on the traffic and quality of the signal so call Band Stereing. For some reasons, the iOS 10.2 has problem doing so and lose the connection randomly. To avoid that, you need to disable the WiFI router band stereing feature and assign different SSIDs for those two bands. Then, have your Apple device set to use the 2.4GHz SSID. However, in this case, all your devices including Windows or Android devices lose the band stereing feature. Hopefully, the iOS 10.3 can fix the issue since it is really WiFi 101 which should be tested before the software is released.

None of the solutions have worked for me completely. Slow speeds were an annoyance but when my iPhone started dropping WiFi at the lock screen and, checking diagnostics, noticing the connection time for the iPhone was considerably less than all my other devices, I decided to troubleshoot.

Mixed results with the fixes; iPad Pro signal dropping was relieved by resetting network connections, did not solve the fluctuation of speed and the overall lower speeds. The iPhone, I was a little more adventurous performing resets including factory resets as "New" and backing up from iCloud ... probably about 4-5 resets in total. One seemed to have done it (intially tested at 145 Mbps), but then when downloading the backup, WiFi was at a trickle -- monitored through the router, it was only pulling about 1.3 Mbps down.

I did a factroy reset on my router (ASUS RT-N66R) and that seems to have put a Band-Aid on the iPhone connectivity when connected to 2.4 band only. Now I'm averaging 20 Mbps on it and the iPad, though the Android it replaced is still downloading at 130 Mbps consistently, 100 Mbps on the MacBook Pro, and 120 Mbps on my Mac Pro.

TLDR version: I cannot get anything over 20 Mbps on the the iPhone 7 or iPad Pro devices running 10.2 unless I'm next to the router; my wife's iPhone 6s (running 10.2) and all my other devices are pulling normal speeds, not dropping connection. I'm not sure it's a 10.2 issue ... maybe hardware issue or my router -- only 2 years old, but I'm noticing our Echo Dot and Chromecast dropping off it it now, too. Connected to my work's WiFi, I haven't tested speed but have noticed connection loss.

Thanks Dougtex64! Putting the iPhone in airplane mode was the only thing that worked. All the other advices did not change a thing. I just hope that Apple does not turn into another Microsoft, offering its users only generic answers instead of individual solutions.

I was having the same problem as everyone else here.

We have 2 iPhones, 2 iPads and a MacBook Pro that work flawlessly, but my iPhone 7 kept dropping the WiFi every few seconds.

Went to an Apple Store but the guy there told me that it's a router issue, which it is most definitely NOT.

I'm getting the same problem after updating my iPad to 10.2 and Have done the all sorts of things mentioned in your answers, but none helped. I've also a iPhone which have not updated yet and thankfully doesn't show such problem.

I had an iPhone 6 wifi worked great even in ios 10.2... replaced it with an iPhone 7 and now the performance of WIFI is horrible... fails to updates apps, connecting to the appstore takes an eternity, opening web pages takes too long, and running programs like speedtest sometimes gives me 0,5 mbs download and 0,2 upload..and sometimes it works OK.. i wiped my iphone, reseted the network settings, resetting location settings.... tested in various routers with same results... i dont know if its something related with some routers, iOS 10 or the iPhone.

Are you running all the latest iOS updates on your devices?

What version of the Mac OS is running on your MacBook Air?

If MacBook Air is having WiFi issues, that's another operating system on your Mac.

Maybe it's a MODEM/router issue and NOT iOS or Mac OS issue.

I have the same problem on iPhone iOS 10.3.1.. my router is up to date..i bought another one thinking that is was possible a problem with my old router.. but with the new one i have the same problems... mine doesnt disconnect but have performance issues... like it takes a while to "connect at full speed"..tested with speedtest.. sometimes some apps try to update and fail and other problems related.

seba86 wrote:

i have an iPhone!..turn off bluetooth...but..what if i have an apple watch??.. goddammit Apple!! 😕

Sorry,

Missed that, besides, these are forums for iPads.

Anyhoo. Yeah, can't turn off Bluetooth if you use both an iPhone and AppleWatch.

You'll just have to wait another point update to see if Apple fixes this.

And just to clarify, you aren't addressing anyone from Apple here. We are ALL users here, just like you!

Also, my previous comment was addressed to another iDevice user having issues, too!

Good Luck to You!

same to all my ios 10.3.2 devices...

Tried all solutions..no solution..it's not a hardware issue of your phone, or modem or anything else..my macbook or any other android devices in the house don't drop

they need to develop an update fix (patch) or an option in the menu to keep it on/off...

I'm with you. Everything in my house, including my iMac, work fine. The iPad won't hold wifi for more than 10 minutes, even in a room when other devices show a full, strong connection and have no issues. This is extremely frustrating at best.

Have you ever tried check your MODEM/Router software via a computer web browser?

Sometimes changing the default WiFi transmission channel can help.

Have you tried simply unplugging your MODEM/Router for 20-30 seconds then plug back in to reset the MODEM/Router?

Very odd.

iPad Air 2s were having issues with Wifi, but not heard of any issues with Wifi on old iPad 2 models.

I have an iPad 2, also, and have no issues with Wifi.

What iOS is your iPad 2 running?

What storage size model is it and how much free data storage space is left?

How many Wifi bars do you get on WiFi? One? Two? Full 3 bars?

Very strange and inconsistent indeed.

Have you tried just using your iPad 2 closer to the MODEM/router to test WiFi connection?

Is it possible to relocate the MODEM router to a better location for better WiFi signal dispersal?

See if your iPad 2 maintains Wifi reception when it is closer to the MODEM/router.

Have you tried changing the WiFi reception channel on the MODEM/router?

The default channel in MODEM/routers is, usually, channel 6.

Have you tested Wifi reception by switching to a different transmission channel in the MODEM/router?