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iPhone 5 - WIFI Cuts off when locked

D

Damolee

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 20, 2012
512
79
Hi folks,

First few days of having the phone, everything was great.

Now, when I lock the phone the WIFI basically disables itself. I can tell because when I push the home button, the icon at the top re-appears.

This is pretty annoying because I use iMessage a fair bit and 3G signal seems to absolutely wreck battery life when I have a poor signal (so I keep it disabled)

Effectively, when the phone is locked things such as push mail and notifications have been deemed useless.

I thought persistent WIFI was something iOS did these days?
 
M

mpgolfpro

macrumors regular
Aug 3, 2010
117
5
Applejuiced said:
No. You thought wrong.
Wifi always turned off to save battery when the screen is off and locked.
Push and iMessages will work fine with carrier data.
Stop turning off 3G.
Click to expand...

It also has the potential to use up a TON of data if you are receiving a lot of emails when the phone is locked and using data.

I also just noticed this problem on my iphone 5. Im hoping there is a fix to this. When I connect to a wifi network, I want my phone to always be connected to that network, until I either leave the area of the network or disconnect from it.
 
apunkrockmonk

apunkrockmonk

macrumors 6502a
Nov 20, 2005
769
16
Rochester, NY
I'm pretty sure the WiFi kicks back on as soon as data traffic is starting to occur. Unless it's something as small as an iMessage which would be completely transferred by the time the WiFi had a chance to try and reconnect to the network.
 
Applejuiced

Applejuiced

macrumors Westmere
Apr 16, 2008
40,672
6,533
At the iPhone hacks section.
mpgolfpro said:
It also has the potential to use up a TON of data if you are receiving a lot of emails when the phone is locked and using data.

I also just noticed this problem on my iphone 5. Im hoping there is a fix to this. When I connect to a wifi network, I want my phone to always be connected to that network, until I either leave the area of the network or disconnect from it.
Click to expand...

There is no fix cause its not broken. That's the way it was designed and always worked since the original iphone.
You can turn off push emails and just check them whenever you want. that will save you TONS of data:D
 
V

Vetvito

macrumors 6502a
Sep 30, 2012
532
13
When data is disabled the Wifi should remain active. That is my understanding of it.
 
C

ckc

macrumors regular
Nov 13, 2010
108
10
mpgolfpro said:
It also has the potential to use up a TON of data if you are receiving a lot of emails when the phone is locked and using data.

I also just noticed this problem on my iphone 5. Im hoping there is a fix to this. When I connect to a wifi network, I want my phone to always be connected to that network, until I either leave the area of the network or disconnect from it.
Click to expand...

Wifi will always cut out when the phone is in sleep mode, with one exception, if the phone is connected to a live power source wifi remains active when the phone goes to sleep
 
M

mpgolfpro

macrumors regular
Aug 3, 2010
117
5
Applejuiced said:
There is no fix cause its not broken. That's the way it was designed and always worked since the original iphone.
You can turn off push emails and just check them whenever you want. that will save you TONS of data:D
Click to expand...

Sounds like a pretty dumb design then, if you ask me. Why would I want to use LTE data if Im purposefully connected to a wifi network?
 
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Applejuiced

Applejuiced

macrumors Westmere
Apr 16, 2008
40,672
6,533
At the iPhone hacks section.
mpgolfpro said:
Sounds like a pretty dumb design then, if you ask me. Why would I want to use LTE data if Im purposefully connected to a wifi network?
Click to expand...

To save battery. You wont use much data if you disable push emails. All imessages and push notifications will use a very few kb's of data so that's very minimal carrier data use.
If your iphone stays connected to wifi all day even if the phones screen is not turned on or then you will kill your battery very fast.
Like the user suggested if you keep it plugged in then it will maintain the wifi connectivity even when it goes to sleep mode.
 
M

mikeoui

macrumors regular
Jun 29, 2011
123
0
Québec City, QC, Canada
Is there any update to this? I'm having this problem on my iPhone 5c. I have it in airplane mode because I'm out of my home country. I have WiFi on but it turns off when the phone is locked so I don't get any messages/emails/etc. unless I unlock the phone. I swear this did not happen with my iPhone 4 that I traded in last month.
 
Last edited:
gotluck

gotluck

macrumors 603
Dec 8, 2011
5,712
1,204
East Central Florida
mikeoui said:
Is there any update to this? I'm having this problem on my iPhone 5c. I have it I'm airplane mode because I'm out of my home country. I have WiFi on but it turns off when the phone is locked so I don't get any messages/emails/etc. unless I unlock the phone. I swear this did not happen with my iPhone 4 that I traded in last month.
Click to expand...

Yea, that is wierd.. my old iphone 4 on perma-airplane mode (wifi on of course) receives push notifications with the screen off.
 
Frankied22

Frankied22

macrumors 68000
Nov 24, 2010
1,779
583
Is it just the iPhone that is designed this way? I don't recall iPods or iPads cutting off from wifi when locked.
 
A

alexsica

macrumors newbie
Feb 5, 2016
2
0
Hi,
New owner of 5C, and having the same problem, but in reverse. The wifi is always on. On my Iphone 4, when i locked the screen the wifi would disable itself and the data connection goes on. i could see that when i push the home button, the wifi goes on after a few seconds.
On my new iphone 5C when i do that, the wifi is on by default. The battery goes off quick and i think it's because of the wifi.
Any suggestions?

Thanks,
 
C

C DM

macrumors Sandy Bridge
Oct 17, 2011
51,390
19,458
alexsica said:
Hi,
New owner of 5C, and having the same problem, but in reverse. The wifi is always on. On my Iphone 4, when i locked the screen the wifi would disable itself and the data connection goes on. i could see that when i push the home button, the wifi goes on after a few seconds.
On my new iphone 5C when i do that, the wifi is on by default. The battery goes off quick and i think it's because of the wifi.
Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Click to expand...
Do you have a cellular connection (and cellular data enabled)?
 
A

alexsica

macrumors newbie
Feb 5, 2016
2
0
Yes, i have the data connection enabled. I think it's just because the new update, i saw many posts about the battery life. The wifi goes of after some time, i tried to check it by pinging it, and after about a minute, i have total package loss.
 
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