iOS5 losing WiFi again

So a few weeks ago had no WiFi on our 3GS and 4 for days (it worked fine right before after the update). So after restoring numerous times, finally worked again. Lo and behold, today, just like before... no WiFi unless I'm within like 5 feet of the router. I'm in my home office on the other side, and it keeps going from 3G to 1 bar of WiFi sometimes.

I know it's not the router, impossible, I have a good N router and my Macbook Pro picks up the signal all the way on my dock behind the house. All other devices work fine, and our iPhones worked fine before on the network. But even then, I've reset and changed parameters in the router, no difference. Only after the iOS 5 update does this keep happening.

Nobody else on here has this problem? This seems to be the only Mac forum with like no post about it. Elsewhere online you can find tons and tons of post on this. Like from Apples Discussions: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3381610?start=0&tstart=0

Why it's only affecting some and not others, and why some things (Resetting etc) fix it and not others... no idea, but it's irritating as hell. My local Apple store said they've had people come in with their phones after updating saying their having WiFi issues, but they don't show anything in their system from Apple nor online does it look like Apple is even addressing this issue.

It has to be something in iOS 5 software that's causing this bugging out. Looks like people have even gone to Apple stores and showed that thread I posted above and others to the workers there after they came in with WiFi issues.

Mine was just holding on to 1 bar (when I used to get full bars in my home office), and if I start walking to the living room it goes back to full bars. Don't know why some aren't affected by this and have no problems, and others are.

Calidude said:

I've had this issue with my 3GS since iOS 5 but it only happened once. You have to toggle Airplane mode. Hasn't happened since.

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Believe me I tried that lol... did nothing on either phone.Reset network again and did another restore (I've now restored like 15 times since iOS 5). No change, they only work in the living room area for WiFi, you start walking away and the bars drop until either there's no WiFi or barely holds 1 bar. Before iOS 5 I had full bars across the house, and could even keep 2 bars at my pool.

Apple screwed something up in iOS 5 causing this issue as there are way to many complaints now elsewhere online. But what fixed it for one person, doesn't seem to work for another and vice versa. What's worst is Apple won't even acknowledge it, I even went to our genius bar at the mall when I was there. They told me they've had quite a few people complaining about this after updating to iOS 5, however Apple shows nothing in their system as far as a fix or any acknowledgement of the issue. My phone connected to their store WiFi, then to show them, as I started walking around the store and towards entrance the signal would drop. I said it worked perfectly before, they only started this after updating

cmeisenzahl said:

It's definitely freaky that this seems to be largely a 3GS problem.

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Happens to our 4 as well.

Searching around it seems the Apple stores have had people come in with the 4S as well either having no or intermittent WiFi, and they got a replacement. So obviously Apple is having a QC issue on the 4S for that similar issue.... but on the 3GS and 4 it has to be a software issue as these are phones that worked perfect before the update.

I mean our local genius bar said they've had people call or come in regarding WiFi trouble after going to iOS 5 but there's nothing they can do b/c Apple won't acknowledge it, nothing as far as a fix in their system.

I have unlimited, but this could screw a lot of people as they'll be stuck on 3G using up their data plans way faster then before.

Look at some of the recent post regarding this:
I'm really surprised this issue hasn't been reported on by Gizmodo or any other big tech site (that I've noticed). I really thought this issue was just something to do with my wireless router or something but I have tried to reset it a few times. My 3GS connects and even shows the wifi signal icon but it actually works only for a few seconds and just doesn't for no reason (and the wifi icon is still showing a signal after it stops working). I'm not going to even bother restoring my phone because I'm almost possitive it won't solve the issue considering it looks like most of the people that replied to this post tried that and it failed to solve the problem. I really hope 5.01 takes care of this issue.

It's good to see I'm not the only one with the iOS5 WiFi problem. However, I cannot even get it to work on public WiFi hotspots and I can't control the settings on those devices. When is Apple going to man-up and fix this egregious problem?

opps double post

Calidude said:

I think its pretty obvious that iOS devices prefer Airport routers over other routers and that's why the Wifi issue never really goes away every year. It's not a software issue. It's a hardware issue. Apple needs to spend a couple extra bucks and use a chipset that isn't beholden to their routers and this problem will go away completely.

Also, I will say that some people who complain about Wifi issues are really ignorant people who buy crappy routers and never update their firmware, so there's that problem as well.

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True, and I'm not a fan of the airport router at all. Never been a fan of Apples WiFi system. I used to have a ton of problems with my Macbook Pro connecting and dropping WiFi, or going slow as hell when the PC's on the same network were blazing. It still does that once in awhile.

I noticed also that Mac's prefer N routers, I bought a dlink 655 xtreme last year.

This is so f'n irritating though. One of my friends that didn't do the update before, did now and knew my issue. Said his works at home still but it's been screwy, only showing 2 bars max and says it drops the signal a lot. Then when he was at Starbucks it wouldn't connect to their network even though it showed up on the phone with full bars.

I'm in my home office right now, and usually with iOS 5 I can get at least 1-2 bars if it doesn't drop the sig, but it's not even showing up in my network today. Yet I walk towards the living room and it pops up.

Leslie Barbaro said:

I have issues with my 3gs even with airports. It only started after upgrading the iOS. Same problem as others seem to be reporting. I need to be within 3 feet of the router to get 4 bars. When I move even 10 ft. away (where I previosly had no issues picking up wifi) I have no connection at all.

This is super frustrating. I can't believe more people aren't outraged about this, especially those who have limited data plans. It's clearly a software issue. Apple has to address this, right?

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My 3GS is jailbroken so I downgraded back and WiFi works perfect as it did before. Re-installed iOS 5 (not 5.0.1) and still can't get WiFi unless I'm near the router so there's proof right there Apple screwed up the software.

My 4 has the same issue but it's not jailbroken so I can't downgrade back