I have an XS Max, and sometimes while playing videos over wifi, the video will stop and I get a message saying to check my wifi signal or the signal strength is weak. I checked my wifi and the signal is strong and I get 125Mbps up and down. I've already cleared out my wifi connections on the phone and reconnected. What would be causing me to get the signal strength message?
iPhone XS Max, iOS 12
Update (15 min after I posted the message above, I called Apple support)
After 45 minutes of troubleshoot steps (similar to the above solutions), here is what we did finally and it seems to fix the problem so far: Settings -> General -> Reset -> Reset Network Settings
Your phone will restart. You will then need to connect to your WIFI. Hopefully it will work for most of the cases.
I just got the iPhone XS Max a few days ago. I didn't immediately notice the wifi issue, but discovered it just today. After troubleshooting everything for a couple of hours (resetting the modem, changing from 2.4 GHz to 5 GHz, resetting network settings on the phone, and so on) I kept getting very slow wifi speeds. I decided to switch on airplane mode then only turn on wifi. After doing that, my speeds were where they should have been all along. I toggled airplane mode off and only made sure wifi and cellular were on. I still had excellent wifi speeds. So I toggled bluetooth on and boom, my network speeds were terrible again. So I then switched bluetooth off again and my wifi speeds were back to normal. I did this operation several times, each time resulting in super slow speeds with bluetooth on and super fast wifi speeds with bluetooth off. I only have a couple bluetooth devices connected to the iPhone so my next step is to remove the remembered devices one at a time and see if one connection could be the problem or if just having bluetooth on in general is the issue. I can't have a phone where I cannot use bluetooth, though. I have several bluetooth accessories that I use frequently. I am curious if anyone else has toggled their bluetooth to see if their wifi issue clears up when bluetooth is off?
As a side note, I'm using the 2.4 GHz frequency on my router. 5 GHz gave more favorable results with bluetooth still being on but the wifi speeds were only decent. Also, during all of my speedtest testing, my upload speeds stayed consistent, perhaps because my wifi upload speeds aren't the greatest with my ISP service anyway.
To report back on my previous post, I was able to isolate my issue. At least for me, it appears my issue was with a bluetooth smart watch I had connected to the iPhone XS Max (iOS v12.1). This is an old Moto 360 gen 1 smart watch which has limited functionality but works well enough for notifications. I am a long time android and iOS user, but for the most part android. Now that the watch is no longer connected to the phone, I am getting normal wifi speeds again consistently. I wasn’t wanting to break down and get an Apple Watch. I prefer the round design of my Moto 360, but that is beside the point. I am hoping with an iOS update, the issue for me will be resolved and I can connect the watch again for notification purposes. And on that note, I reset the watch and connected it to my old iPhone 6s running iOS v12.1.1 beta and it is able to maintain and good wifi connection with the bluetooth on and the watch connected.
I hope his helps some of you all troubleshoot the issue with your devices. Good luck!
So, I just bought two iPhone XR's for my wife and I. Immediately I discovered the Wifi performance was horrific at best. Being an I.T. and network expert with several years experience I immediately began troubleshooting the issues using not only these forums but my own analytical process. My phones are now running full out 400 -480 Mbps as they should be on AC spec. Oddly, that kind of throughput (speed) required my 5GHZ band (in router settings on 5 GHZ wifi band) to be set ONLY to "AC ONLY" Setting it to mixed of any kind yielded a throughput of 40- 50 Mbps. Bear in mind my internet connection is advertised at 500 Mbps, and I get advertised speeds about 95% of the time.
On 2.4 GHZ band I was getting lack lustre speeds as well on WIfi. After changing the channel mode to "N ONLY" from mixed, and assigning channel 11 as opposed to "auto" My 2.4 GHZ speed doubled to a normal 90-105 Mbps. In this particular environment obviously TP Link (the router manufacturer) wasn't doing an outstanding job of auto selecting the least busy channel if at all. Setting it manually to 11 after a bit of testing yielded much higher results.
The long and short of it is, Apple's implementation is lacking in my humble opinion. A mixed Wifi signal shouldn't be throttling down to it's lowest common denominator. To get the throughput (speed) you have to sacrifice backward compatibility with everything except the newest spec. That isn't going to be acceptable to the general iPhone using public.
In fairness, my understanding is Apple is using an Intel based implementation. It occurs to me that there are probably some unintended consequences of the programming on a scale that is seen with iPhone users. I'm sure that between the resources of both Apple and Intel, it'll get sorted out. I believe at this point it's a software based issue.
In my case a new router solved my wifi connectivity issues.
I am experiencing the same intermittent WiFi signal strength issue on my new iPhone XS Max and have attempted the following solutions, none of which have offered a permanent fix:
- Reset Router
- Reset Modem
- Reset All Network Settings
Moreover, this issue is not related to 2.4 GHz versus 5 GHz, as I have the same issue on both spectrums. Lastly, I also own both a MacBook Pro & iPad Pro 10.5-inch, neither of which have any issue when on the same WiFi network and in the same physical location as the iPhone XS Max.
The only thing that I have found to be a temporary "fix" is to disconnect & then reconnect from the WiFi network in Settings.
Yes, this worked for me too, thanks! After resetting the network settings, I went next to the router when reconnecting to the WiFi. Phone connected to 5ghz network. FYI, I’m using Orbi RKB50 with Virgin Media Fibre 100mbps.
Thank you. I reset my network connection and it works fine now. It kept stopping the videos after a few mins in saying unable to play check signal strength. Works fine now. Thanks for the help!!!
Have you lodged a complaint with Apple on this issue? Please complain and get a case ID. They need to know about this as I have lodged in a complaint.
i_irina,
Thanks your replay and suggestions. I've reset my network settings, restarted my phone as well as my router and modem. I checked to see that my signal is strong and it in fact is. Usually I watch videos on facebook. My wife has an iPhone7 that doesn't have the same issue with video at all. I've also uninstalled facebook and reinstalled it and get the same problem. I checked the speed from my network and no issues there either.
I haven't tried airplane mode or taken the case off of my phone yet. I will try that at some point. Keep in mind, that this problem doesn't happen all the time. It's kind of luck of the draw if a video will play or not. I've also watched video watched video without the wifi turned on and have had no problems.
I have seen some articles on yahoo of people complaining about when their phones are on wifi and getting slow connections.
Same issue. My WiFi setup has been the same for the last two iPhones, and it’s only cropped on the iPhone XS Max. My iPads have no issue, and neither did my iPhone 8 Plus. It only started with the Max ...
Hi. I’ve been having the same issue with my iphone XS Max. Wifi connection keeps dropping randomly. My videos would pause and asks me to check the strength of my wifi connection when infact wmthe wifi is running fine on other devices. It was even working better on previous 6s. I’ve been having this issue since I bought this phone. Now it’s becoming really annoying. Hoping for a software update soon to fix this connectivity issue.
I had the same issue nothing worked and took my device back and got a new one and this is perfect so far no issues with WiFi or speeds. The last one I had would get like 12 mbps and my iPhone 7 and iPads would get 150 mbps.
Same problem here. I haven’t had any LTE issues, but WiFi is an absolute mess. My WiFi hangs up and stops loading multiple times per day in my house. It will show I’m connected but the load bar just stops in Safari less than a quarter of the way (same place every time - picture attached). Any other app requiring internet will hang up and not load as well until WiFi is switched off and on. Oddly enough, I’ve had the WiFi stop working at the :58 minute mark of any hour multiple times in a day like clockwork. Haven’t noticed this issue on other WiFi networks except in my house. When the WiFi works, it works fine. It’s just this constant dropping issue requiring WiFi to be switched off and on.
I’ve tried every troubleshooting method possible short of swapping for a new phone or buying a new router, and I’m skeptical that either would make a difference. Like another user, I have other devices in the same room next to each other that stay connected to WiF with no issue (iPad Pro 10.5, iPhone X, iPhone 8, and a Dell laptop). This has to be an issue with the XS Max only. My phone is running the most current iOS build.
What I’ve tried:
- Resetting my router
- Resetting Network settings in the phone (multiple times)
- Restoring from a backup (3 times with 3 different backups)
- Restoring clean (1 time)
- Testing connection in bedroom vs. right next to the router in the living room
- Turning off 2.4 GHz forcing the phone to use 5 GHz and vice versa
- With and without a case on the phone
XS Max wifi issues
