Apple iOS 6 Wi-Fi problems persist for some iDevice owners

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
A 91-page thread on Apple's Support Communities webpage illustrates what appears to be a significant problem with upgrading iPhone 4S and third-generation iPads to the company's newest mobile operating system, iOS 6.

iOS 6


Forum members report that after upgrading to iOS 6, both the legacy iPhone 4S and new iPad are experiencing disabled Wi-Fi connectivity that leaves the option to connect "grayed out." The issue appears to be affecting Bluetooth capabilities as well, with some users claiming their units are unable to pair or even recognize other devices, and show the spinning "search wheel" indefinitely.

Another set of users have the ability to turn Wi-Fi on in Settings, but are unable to connect to their local network.

Both the nature and extent of the purported iOS 6 complications are unknown, including whether the two issues are related, though many affected users who have contacted Apple say the company is aware of the problems.

A number of fixes have been suggested, including a hard reset and reinstallation of iOS 6, but the most effective seems to be resetting Network Settings and changing the HTTP Proxy to "Auto."

For those who are seeing a completely grayed out Wi-Fi toggle switch in Settings, a few users have had luck with downgrading to iOS 5.1, suggesting the issue is exclusive to iOS 6. Other members have successfully exchanged their affected iPhones for new hardware after demonstrating the grayed out Wi-Fi option to staff at the Apple Store Genius Bar, though it is unclear if handset replacement is the usual course of action.

When iOS 6 was released on Sept. 19, a number of early adopters suffered from Wi-Fi issues, however Apple was able to trace the problem back to a downed verification page which was quickly repaired.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 45
    Home Sharing Problems Also Noted after iOS 6 (sicks) Upgrade.

    The following Apple Support Community forum addresses this problem.

    https://discussions.apple.com/message/19645743#19645743

    AI thank you for making this story a headline.

    GB
  • Reply 2 of 45
    91 pages at 15 post per page and assuming it's all unique posts, that would be 1365 affected out of the 1 million upgrades to iOS6. It affects .1% of the users who upgraded, so yea it's definitely an issue with iOS6.

    I upgraded one 4 and two 4s, and didn't see the problem. I guess I'm part of the 99.9%.
  • Reply 3 of 45
    I haven't had the described problem with the wifi 'greyed out', but I have noticed significant reduction in where my iOS 6 devices can pick up my Airport Extreme router's signal since upgrading. With iOS 5, I could easily pick up signal into my front and back yards, but now I lose signal at certain places inside my home that were never a 'low signal' area before.
  • Reply 4 of 45


    There is another very serious underlying issue with WiFi in iOS6... read here: https://discussions.apple.com/message/19654874#19654874

  • Reply 5 of 45
    Must we make every little problem news these days? 91-page thread and the solution is to reset your hardware? Another failed complaint! Wanna know how often I need to restart Windows 7 each day? Should this be news too?
  • Reply 6 of 45
    It is a serious problem when it occurs. I can reset my network settings, and the problem will return after about 2-3 hours. I have unlimited data, so usage isn't an issue, but Verizon has terrible coverage in my area, so speed is a problem.
  • Reply 7 of 45

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by neosum View Post



    91 pages at 15 post per page and assuming it's all unique posts, that would be 1365 affected out of the 1 million upgrades to iOS6. It affects .1% of the users who upgraded, so yea it's definitely an issue with iOS6.

    I upgraded one 4 and two 4s, and didn't see the problem. I guess I'm part of the 99.9%.




    It's probably not unique posts. On the other hand, it's quite probably only a few of affected users posting there. Can we please stop the fantasy math game. You really aren't making a point when you make up numbers and base conclusions on them as though they were real. Also, declaring problems don't exist because you weren't affected by them or because of your experience with a tiny number of devices is meaningless as well.

  • Reply 8 of 45
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,851member
    I have long given up even reading the Apple support pages since they don't seem to be vetted by Apple and contain and amazing amount of total baloney. I have read many times total BS solutions to issues there yet they don't seem to get corrected or removed if false. IMHO Apple should seriously monitor and vet posts there or close it since it seems to be assumed by the blog media to represent credible input. The comments on the Apple Store site are the same, many totally incorrect and false posts. The degree of effort and time put in by some folks to screw with Apple users is amazing.
  • Reply 9 of 45
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member
    Apple discussions pages are full of bogus reports and and bogus advice. There are people whose sole objective is to post as much as possible in order to get to the next "level." Trolls infest the site with false clams and dubious stories. That sites like AI are starting to use post counts and page views to gauge the validity or seriousness of an issue is alarming.
  • Reply 10 of 45


    So it looks like the folks that have figured out how to roll back to iOS 5.1.x are okay, then they can just wait till Apple gets this figured out and patched.

  • Reply 11 of 45
    I also had WiFi issues upon upgrading. After looking up in the Apple forums how to resolve WiFi issues, I reset the network settings, and all is now well. So far, no new problems with iOS 6
  • Reply 12 of 45
    I experienced problems with a synheizer MM400 not able to connect via Bluetooth to my iPod Touch
  • Reply 13 of 45
    jragostajragosta Posts: 10,473member
    neosum wrote: »
    91 pages at 15 post per page and assuming it's all unique posts, that would be 1365 affected out of the 1 million upgrades to iOS6. It affects .1% of the users who upgraded, so yea it's definitely an issue with iOS6.
    I upgraded one 4 and two 4s, and didn't see the problem. I guess I'm part of the 99.9%.


    No, no, no, no.

    If there are 1365 posts, that consists of:

    10 people with an actual problem, posting an average of 20 messages each.
    500 people posting "I don't have a problem"
    300 people posting "Apple sucks" and "why doesn't Apple spend their billions of dollars to fix this"
    200 people posting "I don't have that problem on Android"
    100 trolls who have never even used an iOS device saying "it's a huge problem and is going to cause me to lose my job, my wife, my truck, and my dog and Apple needs to be sued to oblivion"
    65 people saying "what is Wi-Fi?"

    While the above numbers are made up, the point is accurate. For 1365 posts, the number of people affected is far smaller. And I would venture that there would be just as many complaints even if they hadn't upgraded. People tend to blame upgrades for problems even if the problem existed previously.
  • Reply 14 of 45

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Jim Smith View Post



    I also had WiFi issues upon upgrading. After looking up in the Apple forums how to resolve WiFi issues, I reset the network settings, and all is now well. So far, no new problems with iOS 6


     


    That seems to be the common resolution. Probably just some weird combination of existing settings on certain networks that trip things up after the update. It's pretty much impossible to test for all possible conditions, but it doesn't seem like a hugely serious problem, just a lot of people panicking, like with Maps.

  • Reply 15 of 45
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    I may have this problem on iPad 3 but it hasn't caused me any great grief. It maybe a matter of a set of settings unique to some users causing issues.

    In any event I'm very happy because my iPad is picking up LTE all over the general area even at my house. It isn't 100% yet but it is noticeable performance wise! Yahoo! ????????.

    Honestly I'm expecting a bug fix update to iOS 6 anyways. Once they get a handle on this all of the unjustified excitement will go away.
  • Reply 16 of 45
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    anonymouse wrote: »
    That seems to be the common resolution. Probably just some weird combination of existing settings on certain networks that trip things up after the update. It's pretty much impossible to test for all possible conditions, but it doesn't seem like a hugely serious problem, just a lot of people panicking, like with Maps.

    I'm not sure panicking is the right word here. You have those that don't understand what is going on of course but you have a far larger number of people that seem to have developed some sort of new mental illness. It is an illness that is characterized by turning mole hills into mountains. Further the press, Appleinsider included, has become very irresponsible in pandering to the mentally ill. I guess ethics has truly left the building when it comes to the web.
  • Reply 17 of 45
    Reset your network settings fewls. Problem solved.
  • Reply 18 of 45


    I am having an issue with Bluetooth, but not the one that everyone seems fixated on at the moment.  I have been able to verify that the problem is generic to the IP5 hardware as a visit to the local Apple store allowed us to try several different IP5s and they ALL exhibited the problem.  The problem is an audio lag/sync issue when using a BT headset.  I have tried 3 different headsets of my own and one additional one at the apple store.  My spouse has an IP4S running iOS6 and the lag/sync issues does NOT exist on that hardware as tested on all three of my BT headsets.  I noticed the problem at first when texting as the audio clicks which started out more or less in sync (a VERY slight lag) would quickly become totally out of sync (3-5 clicks).  I then tested video by watching a few trailers from itunes and the audio sync issue exists there as well.  Interestingly, facetime does NOT exhibit the problem.  The Genius at the Apple store entered the problem into the system. I also opened a trouble ticket with AppleCare. The Apple Genius did offer me a new IP5, but we both realized that would solve nothing as we had proven the problem existed on several other IP5s.  


     


    DT

  • Reply 19 of 45
    rhino_tuff wrote: »
    It is a serious problem when it occurs. I can reset my network settings, and the problem will return after about 2-3 hours. I have unlimited data, so usage isn't an issue, but Verizon has terrible coverage in my area, so speed is a problem.

    I had that issue with my iPhone. When I took a peek inside the diags lists in the phone thee were probably like 30 screens of stuff. So I wiped the phone,restored it off the computer with a fresh download of iOS 6 and then used my iCloud backup from the night before I did the upgrade since the photos from that day were imported to the computer and I didn't care about the two SMS I got. No more problems

    Makes me think the issue is corruption in your user data, a bad install of iOS 6, perhaps both. If you had experienced that whole 404 issue before upgrading (which I had) perhaps something is stuck in a cache somewhere and it keeps thinking you are getting that reply again.

    Try it and if that doesn't work, go to Apple. That is my real beef with that board. They get on and gripe and get these kinds of articles but they never seem to just go to Apple etc.
  • Reply 20 of 45
    anonymouse wrote: »

    It's probably not unique posts. On the other hand, it's quite probably only a few of affected users posting there. Can we please stop the fantasy math game. You really aren't making a point when you make up numbers and base conclusions on them as though they were real. Also, declaring problems don't exist because you weren't affected by them or because of your experience with a tiny number of devices is meaningless as well.

    I don't think he's trying to say that the issue isn't real but that the blogs etc calling it a major flow etc are being overblown and hyperbolic. Just like they do and will continue to do for every issue that affects some 0.01% or other basically minor number of folks. Every tiny occurrence of something is played up as a serious engineering issue and Apple should recall all whatevers etc but in the end it could be as it was for me something in my data. or it could be outdated software in your router or some other type of issue from how iOS 6 handles wifi, especially If you can get on other places like Starbucks.
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