iPhone XS Max Weak 5GHz WIFI Reception

The XS Max that I tested was not switching to 2.4Ghz at all. That was not the problem. I use separate SSID names.

In certain areas of a house, the XS Max simply couldn't connect to 5Ghz while other iPhones in this household did.

Full iPhone resets did not help.

Rebooting router did nothing, of course (that only helps if the router is faulty).

"What can be said definitively is the iPhone XS and XS Max exhibit lab tested RF performance for antenna gain and radiated power output (EIRP) that almost invariably measures lower than the same metrics on 2017 iPhone variants and other recent, comparable handsets."

https://www.wiwavelength.com/2018/09/antennagate-2018-youre-getting-my.html

William Kucharski wrote:

Out of curiosity, how are you quantifying "WiFi issues?"

For example, on my XS Max, I don't see signal strength issues per se, but I do see speed issues, and that's because there definitely does seem to be an issue where if an AP offers both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz service (in my case an 802.11ac Time Capsule) the device will prefer the 2.4 GHz connection even if the AP it's five feet away from offers nice clean 80 MHz wide 5 GHz channels it could connect to, thus limiting overall speed.

I haven't run into any LTE/cellular issues; I see similar signal strength to my X, and anywhere I have issues with signal I had the same issues with my X.

I'm the same, I don't see "signal strength" issues but my Xs Max prefers to use the 2.4ghz band instead of the 5ghz, even when its only a meter or so away from the AP, I'm using a Unifi UAC-AP-Pro. All my other Apple devices, including the X before it, prefer the 5ghz band. The lower wifi speeds will likely be attributed to the fact the phone is on the 2.4ghz band as opposed to 5ghz

You can reset your network settings, and it'll temporarily start connecting at 5ghz again but after awhile the phone drops back to 2.4ghz. If you reset network settings, don't forget to uncheck iCloud Keychain first otherwise you'll lose all your saved wifi passwords.

Like you, I don't have any 4G/cellular problems.

If Apple Support want to reach out to me I'd be happy to install logging profiles to assist.

Coasterman25 wrote:

I am actually getting better AT&T service with my max. It’s the WiFi performance and staying on 5ghz that is beyond irritating

If this is an issue of your phone defaulting to 2.4ghz on your home router, why not simplify things by having your phone forget the 2.4ghz side altogether. I did that with my iPhone X, which too had a tendency to default to 2.4 when I only wanted to be on 5ghz. My XS Max won't connect to the 2.4 because it can't. It's been forgotten.

I was experimenting with my 5ghz vs 2.4ghz. And as i saw some comments about how i am holding with my hand or my body is between me and my router. So i am about as far as i can get in house. I get 1-2 bars of 5ghz WiFi. I noticed that if i block the new band at lower left of the phone strength dropped to one bar. If i move so my hand doesn’t block that lower bar then it immediately goes to 2 bars of WiFi

First image hand not blocking the new antenna band on lower left

Second below holding with hand in my usual way but clearly blocking the antenna band

About to return my third XS iPhone. The WiFi on 5K reception problem was on all three of them. In our most used location in the house which is good for solid 5K reception and speeds of around 200 Mb/s on my last 2 MacBook Pro’s, a MacBook Air, two iPad Air‘s, an iPad Pro, four iPhone 7’s and 6’s, the new iPhone XS’s and an iPhone XS Max get less than 15 Mb/s or don’t connect at all. Pages load extremely slowly or not at all.

The same phones when moved into the room with the router are solid and very fast. But as you move away from that room the speed suddenly drops rapidly until the phone drops the signal completely. This is happens about 20 feet away. Also, if I take the phone to a spot where the drop off is starting, I find holding the phone in my hand can drop signal strength shown by one or two bars compared to just holding it with fingertips along the edges without my palm between the phone and the router.

I can only conclude this is a result of poorer antenna reception on this phone compared with the older phones. there must be something different between these production phones and the ones that Apple tested while in design stage. Certainly they couldn’t have been this way during testing and been sent to production, could they?

People who sit in a strong signal location near their router will find excellent reception and think nothing is wrong. Then, when experiencing slow or no WiFi elsewhere, think it is the hotel or airport, or restaurants WiFi fault. I’m normally an enthusiastic Apple supporter but this is certainly challenging that trust. I will keep buying and trying the XS over the coming weeks until I get an updated model that works as it should.

For those who haven’t seen the antenna testing results that Apple filed with American FCC authorities, these links are interesting:

https://www.wiwavelength.com/2018/09/iphone-xs-and-xs-max-mostly-fail-to.html

https://www.wiwavelength.com/2018/09/antennagate-reduxs-if-so-what-can-apple.htm l

Also having LTE issues Network Reset didn't fix the problem. Only getting 1 bar the majority of the time.

Wifi seems to be working since I turned WMM Quality of Service off in my router settings, even though this article recommends leaving it on. Was constantly getting disconnected from my Wifi. The iOS 12.0.1 update was having it reconnect faster, yet was still getting disconnected til I turned WMM Support off.

Recommended settings for Wi-Fi routers and access points - Apple Support

"WMM (Wi-Fi Multimedia) prioritizes network traffic according to four access categories: voice, video, best effort, and background.

Set to: Enabled

All 802.11n and 802.11ac access points should have WMM enabled in their default configuration. Disabling WMM can cause issues for the entire network, not just Apple products on the network."

WMM Support OFF

No-Acknowledgement OFF

Power Save Support OFF

Got a new unit today, went from 256 max gold to 64 max silver. 5Ghz is working now strange...

Also I was messing with the settings under Privacy -> Location services -> System services -> wifi networking and bluetooth. When I have that setting off my speed test crawls. When turned on I get over 100+ mbps d/l.

Coasterman25 wrote:

Also let me add this, I split my 2.4 and 5ghz networks to have separate names just a few minutes ago And the 2 s Max’s connect to them and seem to stay connected with great signals so far. so I a going to keep it this way for a while. If that all I have to do to make these devices act right Then it’s a small thing that I don’t mind. a few days will truly tell if this helps or not.

For me the 12.1 update fixed the LTE issues and now I am getting better LTE in weak areas -- which included my house actually better now with 12.1).

For the 2.4 vs 5 ghz issues that many have and write in this thread it does not seem new to me. I have always split my 2.4 and 5 ghz on my AirPort Extreme. And all my iPhones since I did that had same behavior others complain about with the Xs series. Behavior was always 5 ghz weaker and as I get farther from it phone will eventually drop to the 2.4 band. If I leave the house and come back my phones never automatically grabbed the 5 ghz band but only the 2.4 ghz. To get the 5 ghz I had to manually reselect.

So I am not sure why all the complaints here since this has been normal behavior with my two bands and many previous iPhone models. I always just lived with this behavior on the phones and knew to get better speed I sometimes had to reselect the 5 ghz band so I am seeing no new behavior here but am puzzled why now this is a big issue for others when I don't see as a new issue?

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202068

Have you at least tried forgetting the network, then turn Wifi off, reboot the router then turn Wifi back on on your phone and sign back in?

There is a release today for IOS 12.0.1 to fix this issue. Hopefully this will fix everyone's problems. Good Luck!!

iOS 12.0.1 now available, aims to fix iPhone XS charging and Wi-Fi issues - CNET

Yes - 5 GHz and speed issues that were fixed in 12.0.1, at least for me.

Speeds are still fast in 12.1.2.

I got a iPhone XS Max today for my wife. I noticed that the 5ghz signal was fast the first time I tried a speedtest. It dropped the next time and subsequently. I reset the network settings and got the speed I should have (over 200mbps). This degraded on the next try. Reset network settings again. Same thing; great speed first try, poor on subsequent attempts. This tells me it's a bug because the handset is capable of receiving the same as all the other devices, which all get 200+. Anyway, I hope they roll out a fix. Couldn't get the sim to activate. Apple wasn't much help, so I put the old one in and it worked immediately. Not what I was expecting from a brand spanking new phone.

Fixed! I had the same issue since I bought my XS Max. I reset my network settings (Settings->General->Reset->Reset Network Settings) and it fixed the problem. Speed improved by 20x! Screenshot of speed difference below:

If you’re having problems with WiFi/cellular reception and are still within the 14 day return window, your best bet is to buy a couple more phones, test them all out (side-by-side fast.com throughput tests and field test mode for cellular), and return the ones that aren’t performing well.

By doing this, you get a better performing device, and you tell the production folks at apple that it’s not okay to widen test limits to get these things to pass and boost yield.

I bought a total of 5 unlocked phones, tested them all, and returned 3. The best and worst WiFi throughout differed by 2x at the end of my house with spotty coverage, and the best and worst cellular differed by 12dB