iPhone XS Max Weak 5GHz WIFI Reception

Bingo.

I have been working with Apple since yesterday. I am now seeing (on the WiFi side), same issue with iPad Pro and iPad Air 2 running iOS 12. When connecting to SSID that auto selects frequency, download speeds are pretty awful (upload unaffected). Once we select dedicated 5GHz SSID, speeds reach ISP max.

Not seeing LTE issues anymore (I did a couple of days ago). Wondering if AT&T made a change.

Just performed a test and with WiFi off, I connect to AT&T via Speedtest with 133Mbps down / 11.3Mbps up, so no issues on that end.

I'll update the thread once I know more. They have all my logs.

Cheers,

Neurobit

Wow... you guys have fast WiFi routers! That's crazy fast. I'm seeing a marked improvement with my second iPhone Xs Max. The first one would drop signal and barely make it over 2 Mbps when away from the router. The new one still can't hold a signal like my iPhone 7 (my iPhone 7 can get twice the distance on 5 ghz), but it's much much better than the the first Xs Max (I'm now getting about 170 Mbps in the same area). This implies that there are some major quality control issues with the handsets.

Neurobit wrote:

Bingo.

I have been working with Apple since yesterday. I am now seeing (on the WiFi side), same issue with iPad Pro and iPad Air 2 running iOS 12. When connecting to SSID that auto selects frequency, download speeds are pretty awful (upload unaffected). Once we select dedicated 5GHz SSID, speeds reach ISP max.

Not seeing LTE issues anymore (I did a couple of days ago). Wondering if AT&T made a change.

Just performed a test and with WiFi off, I connect to AT&T via Speedtest with 133Mbps down / 11.3Mbps up, so no issues on that end.

I'll update the thread once I know more. They have all my logs.

Cheers,

Neurobit

Indoors at my house I agree I get similar speeds on my ipad with iOS 12 as I do with my iPhohne Xs. I get better cell speeds in strong to moderate areas of town (I am in weak cell area however so I used Wifi a lot with all my iphones and in house ok). Outside my house the story is different Wifi used to be weaker but still worked ok, I ran your test just now with my iPad Pro on 12.0 and Xs on 12.0 and here are results in image — major difference!

First one is iPad Pro, rest of images from Xs

Notice the Xs starts at half speed of iPad Pro (spot one) and drops quickly to half of that about 28-48 MBS and then drops all way to 0 and I loose connection with the 5ghz (never happened with X and earlier iphones)

And then I get this message on my Xs: showing total failure of connection at that band on my Xs. Now this is only issue for me with wifi outside. Inside it is as good as my iPad Pro on 12.0 Something on outside of house is blocking something in new antennas of Xs that receive the Wifi signals, but inside no problem with walls just usual distance differences. I wonder if a lot of issues have to be for where folks are with their Xs and Xs Max and what is between them and the Wifi. From initial investigation I am suspecting that my aluminum siding blocks the Wifi band in some way that my X and earlier iphones and IPad pro do not have problems with. It is minor for me because I can just move to other side of house near my office and outside it is ok on Xs

Either way, both stores give 14 day returns. Don’t hold on to it and wait for a update fix. I remember this similar issue when the x was released and took 6 months to fix. Nothing as bad as this but enough to hate. The 8 had world wide microphone issues...fixed. The x had erratic cellular signal behavior..... fixed.... now we struggle with xs. WiFi and poor cellular service. I know it will be patched and fixed. Either hold on to it and cross your fingers, but you will be out of the 14 day policy for a BRAND NEW swap, and if you wait for a fix, 2-3 months, you will only be able to swap for a refurbished one. Wayyyyy too much experience with this. Many many times I dealt with this.

I finally went to an apple store and have mine exchanged! It works ok now I have to test it more I just got it! The worst thing is that the sellers always say that they never heard of this problem but when you talk to some technicians, they know that the WiFi and network problem is real! I guess they try to hide it so it won’t become official! Also I told them that for $1,600, they could have put a better charger (12W instead of 6W) and the jack adapter in the box! Apple got me this time but this will probably be my very last iPhone! Sad to see that greed is more important than customer’s satisfaction...

If it won’t connect at all, it may be a router firmware issue. I have encountered this before at relatives houses where they had not updated their router firmware in years and newer devices using newer WiFi protocols couldn’t connect.

Try updating your home WiFi router firmware from a computer.

Understood - but if it won’t connnect at all then I would suggest you check the router firmware is up to date. All I am saying is that I saw this a few years back with new devices (iPhone 5) that wouldn’t connect at all to a relatives router and it was because the router firmware wasn’t running the latest firmware and this the latest WiFi specs.

Checking that the firmware is up to date on the router, especially if you have your own router (and not the cable or phone company’s WiFi router) is an easy and recommended thing to do, if nothing else than just for making sure it is patched for security purposes.

Please contact Apple and get a support ticket open. The more information they have about how many this is affecting the better the data they will have and the more incentive they will have to address. I have a support ticket open and they are still actively working the issue.

Again, ignore. I know this might not be the best solution everybody is waiting for, but I replaced the work XS (3rd work phone and 6th if counting personal phones too) and so far so good for wifi 5Ghz not getting disconnected as soon as I walk through a door but still slower than my 7 (at least now it is not taking minutes for videos or 15-20 seconds to even load this page ,if it loads at all) I tried it at the office for 2 hours and now at home for another 2-3 (did a restore not a clean install) and picked up 5GHz as soon as I got to my garage, which may be 40 ft away from where my router is located. However, I do have 12.1 beta 3 installed on the phone and did not try it with 12.0.1 to see if maybe it was the software. There is an issue for sure, and even though it is not the most appealing nor fair option, replacing them until you get a working one could be the answer (1 out of 6 chances in my case) I know some people here whom "don’t even have the issue but know the answer" hence the non coherent and useless comments could give their life saying it is not a hardware or a manufacturing issue, but how else would you explain this? Not relevant to the post, but LTE is way better on this one as well, no more “you are not connected to the internet”

If you have your 2 bands, 2.4 and 5, named differently just have the phone “forget” the 2.4 network. We have all our iOS devices set this way so they will only connect to the much faster 5 band. Unfortunately some devices such as printers and TVs or other smart devices may not be able to use the 5 band so we need both bands enabled. Some routers don’t allow you to have separately named bands but if yours does that’s the simplest way.

I changed the name of my router’s 2GHz BSSID and kept the 5GHz the same, and then reset network settings on my iPhone XS Max and I seem to be doing alright at the moment. I’m sitting in my living room, where I’ve been having these problems, and now I’m ok. Still not as strong of a signal, I can see the bars dropping and going back up again and again. I’m sure that’d be when it’d be failing over to the 2GHz band. So this is more of a bandaid than a fix. AppleCare Support wants me to head to a store so they can look at it and I really don’t want to deal with that at all. lol

So for everyone stating that the XS phone has no issue and the bars don't represent a true measure of signal strength; look at the regulatory wireless submissions. The RF power output is lower than the 8 and X.

So sorry, science is science. I don't think Apple can fix this with software.

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

Well, finally received the new phone from Apple. Same exact issue. No difference. Behaves exactly like the previous unit. Also had a friend over with his Xs, same issue on his unit as well. Meanwhile, like I’ve said before, both of my iPhone 5s’, my iPhone 6, my iPhone 7 Plus and my iPhone 8 work flawlessly in the exact same spots of the house that these three Xs units coherently show unusable 5 Ghz wifi, reverting back to cellular connection.

Guess I’ll just have to keep my fingers crossed for iOS 12.1.1, but at this point I’m more or less convinced this is a hardware issue. The Xs simply has way worse wifi range than all previous iPhone models. And that’s a true shame.

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.

Then your phone with the issue may require service.

Genius Bar Reservation and Apple Support Options - Apple

People with issues may have a bad device, but it is not an issue with all phones of the same model.

There was an issue with the software that was largely fixed in iOS 12.0.1.