iPhone iOS 11 WiFi disconnecting after going to sleep

Question

Level 1

14 points

iPhone iOS 11 WiFi disconnecting after going to sleep

I am using an iPhone 8 64GB operating on iOS 11.2. I have started noticing that my iPhone will disconnect from WiFi when I lock my iPhone for greater than 10 seconds. I will wake my iPhone and will see the WiFi signal cut out and go into cellular (LTE) mode and after anywhere from 5 seconds to 8 seconds, with the screen on and unlocked, my iPhone will reconnect back to WiFi. My iPhone will stay connected to the WiFi network as long as it has not gone into sleep for greater than 10 seconds. Anything less than that and the WiFi signal will not disconnect.

What I have tried to resolve this with no solution:

Toggled Airplane mode
Reset Network Settings
Renewed WiFi Lease
Powered off iPhone and turned it back on
Toggled WiFi on and off
Turned off WiFi assist
Forget WiFi Network and rejoined network
Never enabled VPN
Disabled WiFi networking services
Restarted my WiFi network

I have also tested this issue on another WiFi network and I have the same issue.

I have called apple support and they have put in a case to their engineers and am expecting a call back on another solution on 12/6/17. I will update this thread after the call.

Has anyone else experienced this issue and had any luck with a solution? It is frustrating to have to see this happen every time I wake my phone from a "deep sleep."

I would like to say that I am holding off on having to completely erase and reset my phone. I am hoping there is some solution that does not require me to go that route.

I appreciate your help on resolving this for me and the others that are facing this issue.

Posted on Dec 5, 2017 6:24 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Lnghrns Author

Level 1

14 points

Dec 6, 2017 3:52 PM in response to Lnghrns

Apple support called and informed me that the Apple Engineers are aware that this a bug. The hope is that in the next release this will get fixed. He offered me two options:

1. Wait for the release of the update to fix the WiFi issue

2. Erase and reset my phone for a fresh start

I personally don't like to erase and reset my phone and did not receive a timeline for the update. If anyone has better solutions please let me know. I believe there are more folks out there that have this problem than just me. I am also not sure if I reaching all those with the same question in the "iphone hardware" community. Feel free to link this post to other ones you see that are similar.

Reply

Answer 2

Lnghrns Author

Level 1

14 points

Dec 5, 2017 6:48 PM in response to deggie

Deggie,

The unusual thing is that I am noticing this happening even when I am connected to power. This feature is highly unusual to see especially if icloud back up services requires you to stay connected to WiFi as well as other backup apps such as google photos.

Reply

Answer 3

Dec 5, 2017 7:05 PM in response to Lnghrns

afaik this has been normal behavior on all my iphones. for me, cellular data provides the more persistent timely connection for receiving notifications like for texts when compared to wifi when my iphone is asleep. but for icloud backups, that should indeed be actually done via wifi while your iphone is asleep if you have your settings to not allow backups to be done via cellular data (meaning force wifi to be used to do your icloud backup) when your iphone has wifi available and is plugged in.

Reply

Answer 4

Lnghrns Author

Level 1

14 points

Dec 5, 2017 7:14 PM in response to iwantgizmos

I have configured all my backup settings to only proceed when using WiFi. I'm not quite sure why this would be considered normal behavior? I could understand under the WiFi assist this happening in case the WiFi network became poor. However, I am in an area where I have a strong WiFi network with a WiFi Extender being used to boost the signal even further. For me I would believe that WiFi would be the stronger network and should stay connected. All the other devices that use my WiFi network are not experiencing any issues with signal strength or router issues.

Reply

Answer 5

deggie

Level 10

167,327 points

Dec 5, 2017 7:21 PM in response to Lnghrns

That is set by WiFi standards. If your device held onto the WiFi signal while asleep you could end up with a dead battery within a short time, especially before morning. And it has always been that way. Apple changed it to allow for using it while connected to power and this was later adopted as a standard. Any device that does stay connected to a device on battery power is not performing correctly. Are these other devices battery operated and not connected to power?

Reply

Answer 6

Lnghrns Author

Level 1

14 points

Dec 5, 2017 8:02 PM in response to deggie

The other devices are battery operated and either connected to power or not, just depending on the need. These devices include laptops, tablets, other phones, smart appliances. I've seen other phones stay connected to WiFi on battery power and not disconnect when turning the phone on from sleep and then reconnecting in the next 10 seconds.

If I am understanding this correctly, you are telling me that this is a feature you are observing on your iPhone with iOS 11.2? There are other iPhones in my home (iPhone 6S) that I have not tested this feature out on and will see if this is replicated over there.

I am also scratching my head about why the iPhone customer support decided to take this case to the Apple engineering team to see if there could be another solution to this?

What I am observing is that when my iPhone is plugged into power and I wake the phone after sleeping for more than 10 seconds it exhibits the behavior you describe when it is running on battery power. Once the WiFi signal is connected it will stay connected as expected. I have tested this with two different wall adapters (stock apple chargers and cables) and with two different WiFi routers.

Reply

Answer 7

Dec 5, 2017 8:20 PM in response to Lnghrns

just make sure your iphone is plugged in when you set it aside at night when you are not using it for the automatic icloud backup to occur. it just works that way. for the icloud backup to work automatically, wifi must be available and your iphone must be plugged in.

if you came from using android previously, this "normal" behavior of wifi not on when iphone is asleep is a lot different from how you can force android to use wifi instead data however and whenever you want.

my experience is that my iphones have been pretty good in handling data when asleep. but, related to all this, you may want to configure some or a lot of your apps to not use data at all (meaning only use wifi) except for apps that you want timely notifications for, as well as you may want to turn off background refresh for a lot or all of your apps, if you are worried about using too much data like if you have a limited plan. just lock that all down.

look, me understand where you are coming from, but my experience is if iphone sleeps then wifi for most part goes asleep too (but may intermittently wake up at times particularly if you completely turn off cellular data). a big reminder of this for me is when checking my mom's iphone before she goes out to make sure the cellular data is working in order for find-my-friends to work when she is out (had to rescue her twice because of car problems). wake up her iphone and no wifi icon when not opening the lockscreen. so only data. check find-my-friends on my iphone to see my mom's iphone. all good for that specific situation. for data/wifi behavior in sleep mode, me would tell you that it just works that way on iphone based on my experience with numerous iphones.

Reply

Answer 8

deggie

Level 10

167,327 points

Dec 5, 2017 6:27 PM in response to Lnghrns

Unless you are connected to power that is normal and expected behavior.

Reply

Answer 9

deggie

Level 10

167,327 points

Dec 5, 2017 6:50 PM in response to Lnghrns

If it is dropping a live WiFi connection while you are connected to power there is either something wrong with your iPhone, your charger or your WiFi router.

Reply