Wifi drops when phone is locked after 10.3.3 update

There are technical reasons that the phone can respond to an incoming connection request, but cannot initiate one. A "bug" is something that doesn't work the way it was designed. As it was designed to work this way, by definition it is not a bug. It may be a characteristic that you don't like, but that doesn't make it a bug either. There are thousands (perhaps millions) of things in the world that I don't like. They are not bugs either.

I assumed that when I used the word "bug" I would've been understood to have been saying "it's something undesirable" rather than making a literal, technical observation. My "I'm not technical enough to do the ping stuff" should've been the tell that I was using a layman's terms, not an engineer's or programmer's terms. After all, "that's not a feature, it's a bug" isn't a literal technical observation as much as an idiom usually used to describe an obvious boneheaded element of something.

If in fact iOS was deliberately designed such that when a device is asleep WiFi "will NOT reconnect if an app on the phone attempts to use data; the app will use cellular data...", then that most definitely qualifies as a "bug" in layman's terms, for the reason I explained in my original comment.

To say that WiFi going idle when the iPhone goes to "sleep" is an intentional, desirable outcome favored by Apple, given the fact that under certain circumstances doing so apparently forces apps to use data rather than WiFi even when WiFi is available, strains credibility on the issue.

dittoheadadt wrote:

If in fact iOS was deliberately designed such that when a device is asleep WiFi "will NOT reconnect if an app on the phone attempts to use data; the app will use cellular data...", then that most definitely qualifies as a "bug" in layman's terms, for the reason I explained in my original comment.

It is your privilege to allege that that "bug" has been designed into IOS products since the very first iPhone. In ten years, Apple has not addressed your "bug."

HannanT wrote:

It's not hardware issue for sure. After 11.0.3 update I'm facing exact same issue with iPhone7. Wifi disconnects every time phone is locked or idle.

It's working as designed. Every iPhone since year zero (2007) has disconnected Wi-Fi about 30 seconds after the phone goes idle. This is nothing new. The way I know is I have been answering this comment for 10 years.

Ok, so let's say that's all true (and I have no reason to believe it's not true). Then that gets back to, I think, the penultimate sentence of my earlier comment: "Maybe the icons are giving false readings."

If the phone is showing the cellular icon for 3-6 seconds when it's actually still connected to WiFi, isn't *that* a flaw in the operating system? Until the most recent few iOS updates that had never happened before, the false icon display, I mean. Now it does, as many people have noticed and observed.

dontcareforusernames wrote:

Apple Engineering - if you can hear me are listening -

Do you listen very loudly? I find it's generally better to do it without making noise.

Apple engineers are not reading here. Use the feedback page:

http://www.apple.com/feedback

So it is new with iOS 11? How do you explain these threads, then?

Wifi dropping out after iOS 10

New iPad drops wifi. iOS 10.3.2

Ios9 drops wifi on iphone6

We by is my wifi dropping off after iOS 9.3.5 update?

WiFi disconnected after lock screen (iOS 6)

Wi-Fi drops after iOS 4.2.1

There are a lot more, going back to 2007, and others between these. But it shows that this is not something that happens only with iOS 11.

It's been "fundamentally flawed" for over 10 years, but it hasn't hurt sales. The alternative would be to leave Wi-Fi connected all the time, which would run the battery down in a few hours. That would be a different "fundamental flaw" that users would (rightly) complain about.

I have seen thousands of posts over the years from people complaining that Wi-Fi drops shortly after the screen locks. There is a steady stream of them. And the "ping" test has always shown it to be true for everyone who tries it. Perhaps yours is the one phone out of a billion that doesn't behave this way?

To be frank, you sir, are not helping at all.

For the rest of you who is experiencing the same issues who wants to try an experiment that is meaningful and practical, do this:

Open an app that requires internet connection. In my case I open the YouTube app. Play a video, pause it, then lock your phone. Wait for your phone to idle, give it a good minute or two, if you want. Then unlock the phone, the WiFi icon should still show that is turned on. You should be able to seamlessly play your youtube video as you would normally expect when the internet connection is on. Which is to be expected, naturally, since the WiFi icon is ON.

Try doing this experiment without the suggested fix and you would find that thw WiFi icon would always be turned off the moment that you unlock your phone. You would have to wait anywhere from 10 to 45 seconds for the WiFi to establish the connection again. And if you try to play the video again, it would fail as there is no internet connection. Which is to be expected, naturally, since the WiFi icon is off.

Whether the WiFi is actually active during the locked phase itself is not something I'm personally invested in demonstrating. However, if we're to take the anecdotes of dittoheadadt at face, then it would suggest that it is the case indeed.

I don’t have that issue actually. It seems to be a problem of your network configuration on the accesspoint.

Somehow it is a thing when you connect to university networks or like captive logins I think.

Maybe update your network security settings to get a captive login. Then it should become visible.

I guess that my iPhone saw a captive login feature in the APs „no internet connection error page“ as it redirects you to that page when there was no lan cable plugged in. So the iPhone recognises that there is a captive and try’s to login in no right way which keeps it losing the connection when in stand by mode.

I now updated this network in the settings by removing it from the recognised ones. And as there was no captive like internet connection error it shows only the auto join.

Do you even got the same issue when there is only auto join?

Tried to ping when iPhone was idle:

Pinging 192.168.1.186 with 32 bytes of data:

Request timed out.

Request timed out.

Reply from 192.168.1.59: Destination host unreachable.

Reply from 192.168.1.59: Destination host unreachable.

Reply from 192.168.1.59: Destination host unreachable.

Reply from 192.168.1.59: Destination host unreachable.

Reply from 192.168.1.59: Destination host unreachable.

Reply from 192.168.1.59: Destination host unreachable.

Reply from 192.168.1.59: Destination host unreachable.

But if I start ping and lock the phone, wi-fi won't disconnect, tested about 1 hour.

I'm getting replies like this:

Reply from 192.168.1.186: bytes=32 time=712ms TTL=64 - if I get any notifications I guess.

And this

Request timed out - if its idle, I guess.

I'm using own network.

I have no the problem with Wi-Fi on other non-iOS devices (android tablet/phones, windows phones/laptops)

But I have 2 iOS 11.2.1 devices: iPhone 5s and SE.

Both iPhones don't have "auto-login" option. Auto-join only (I posted screenshot later). But anyway, if I toggle off auto-join, Wi-Fi dissapear when iPhone 5s/se are locked. It can takes about 1 minute or 5 minutes (nevermind) to lose Wi-Fi connection on the iPhone. Devices disappear from the router list. In this moment I don't get any notifications from social network, e-mail, telegram, youtube/twitch and etc, as described in this thread.

I tried to contact TS of ASUS (router manufacturer), but they said that it's not their problem, after that sent me to Apple. So sad.

Why don't you take it to an Apple Store for a diagnosis instead of drawing wild conclusions yourself?

They are thousand devices with this problem, believe me! With a simple search in google you can find it.