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Fix for slow wifi and wifi disconnect issue

N

nickhutson

macrumors regular
Mar 15, 2009
137
89
I found this issue that when I would open Angry Birds the wifi would cut off! I restored my phone as new... still happened! Re-installed angry birds... still happened. Also reset network settings, turned router off an and on again, etc etc.

Does iOS 8.1 fix this, then? :)
 
J

jdaniel

macrumors 65816
Mar 21, 2009
1,150
15
Lviv, Ukraine
no idea but i installed 8.1 and no you do not have to be registered go look for phone rebel for the right links and it seems to be less buggy than 8.0.x
 
M

mazdamiata210

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 28, 2014
929
552
jdaniel said:
no idea but i installed 8.1 and no you do not have to be registered go look for phone rebel for the right links and it seems to be less buggy than 8.0.x
Click to expand...

You have to register if you want your phone to continue working. Apple can put out an update at any time and your phone could stop working... Plus it's better to restore, not update, especially to a beta.
 
J

jdaniel

macrumors 65816
Mar 21, 2009
1,150
15
Lviv, Ukraine
That is what a back up is for. And this "it is better to start from scratch thing" is rubbish, it is always safer but if there's no problems then not an issue.
 
F

funkymonkeyboy

macrumors regular
Aug 17, 2010
194
56
Northern Scotland
iOS 8.1 beta initially seemed to have solved my wifi issues. But a short time later they were back. So to everyone with wifi issues, try setting your WLAN to 2.4GHz mode only.

Seems that the issue is still with the 5Ghz band as when I select 2.4GHz only, the issue disappears.
 
Last edited:
S

sscaltri

macrumors member
Sep 30, 2014
37
1
I hope this helps ..for what it's worth

Let me start this reply stating that all of my observations are speculation based on the behavior I've observed on my phone.

Initially, I set up my iPhone 6 by using the iTunes backup I had made from my old iPhone 4. This turned out to be a big mistake. I had major wifi connectivity issues. I contacted Apple Support. They told me to restore the phone and then set it up as a new phone.

I did this. And still had problems.

I made an appt to go to the Genius Bar because I was experiencing wifi connectivity issues, but when looking at my log I had tons of seld_yyyy-mm-dd-hhmmss.iphone6.ips crashes. They gave me a new phone. Since I was determined to 'get it right', I stayed there with my laptop and took the new phone, updated the os to 8.0.2, and restored from my current iTunes backup. While in the store, I lost wifi connectivity and the "seld" crashes started.

At this point, I wiped the phone and set it up as a brand new phone (still at the Genius Bar). At first I didn't load any apps. I didn't get an seld errors and managed to stay connected to wifi. I then loaded about 6 apps on the phone, opened them up, played around some more, moved some music from iTunes to the phone. I remained connected to wifi and no "seld" crashes in my log. I do get my share of stacks+backboardd crashes.

Arrived home, connected to my wifi. Here's my observation, while I'm using the phone I remain connected to wifi. Once the phone goes to sleep for an extended period of time, and when I wake it up, it may or may not be connected to wifi. Most of the time, it will immediately connect to my wifi. Every once in a while, it'll try to connect to wifi, then immediately switch to 4g/LTE. If I go into Settings/Wifi, I cannot find my home network or guest network. If I put the phone to sleep (i.e., lock it), even for 30 seconds, then wake it back up, it'll reconnect to wifi.

I went into my router's settings and looked at the list of attached devices. I have a NETGEAR WNR2000v2. What I observed is that my iphone will drop in and out of the network while it is locked/sleep. The odd thing is that sometimes it doesn't completely drop. What I see is the MAC address listed without the device name or ip address (shows all ---- in these columns). It looks like it's in somewhat of a semi connected state (not sure what this means). Anyhow, while in this state, I decided to connect my laptop to my network to see what ip address would get assigned. My router did assign it to an unused address. I then tried to wake up the phone. Blammo. Couldn't connect to my wifi. I even started noticing degraded speeds in my network. I also want to add that I already have WMM enabled and am using WPA2.

So here's what I did. I went into my router and assigned my phone to a static ip address that would probably never be used (192.168.1.100). I then reset the network settings on my phone. When I connected to my home network on my phone, I then went into the settings for that connection, and updated the Static tab with the all of the same settings.

After all of this, here is what I've noticed. I seem to connect to my home wifi almost 100% of the time after waking up the phone. I did lose it one time after waking up the phone, but it reconnected.

To me, it appears to be an issue between my router and my phone.

My sister came over today. She has iphone 4s that is updated to ios 8.0.2 When she connected to my network, and put her phone to sleep, her phone totally disappeared from the list of attached devices. Hers didn't show up as a phantom device like the iphone 6 does when iit is asleep. My husband has an Android. His phone never drops from the network (even when it is asleep).

What all of this leads me to believe is that the new phone is not totally removing itself when it goes to sleep and when you wake it back up, it may or may not reconnect because of some glitch between the phone and the router. As other devices try to attach to the network, I'm not sure what my router wants to do with the ip address assigned to the phone (is it available or not?) For me, setting a static ip on my home network to an address that would never get used has re-mediated the problem somewhat.

I still would like to understand what the nature of the conflict is and Apple should have built this to work cleanly with all types of routers. Clearly, not everyone has an Apple Air Port Extreme!
 
Yun0

Yun0

macrumors 68000
Jun 12, 2013
1,558
826
Winnipeg, Canada
apple routers arent even that good as to my knowledge they force ht20 only on 2.4ghz, not even 20/40 dynamic(which is also crap)..now if they supported ddwrt then..:cool:
 
Vampire14

Vampire14

macrumors regular
Jun 22, 2013
143
68
Newcastle, Australia, NSW
sscaltri said:
Let me start this reply stating that all of my observations are speculation based on the behavior I've observed on my phone.

Initially, I set up my iPhone 6 by using the iTunes backup I had made from my old iPhone 4. This turned out to be a big mistake. I had major wifi connectivity issues. I contacted Apple Support. They told me to restore the phone and then set it up as a new phone.

I did this. And still had problems.

I made an appt to go to the Genius Bar because I was experiencing wifi connectivity issues, but when looking at my log I had tons of seld_yyyy-mm-dd-hhmmss.iphone6.ips crashes. They gave me a new phone. Since I was determined to 'get it right', I stayed there with my laptop and took the new phone, updated the os to 8.0.2, and restored from my current iTunes backup. While in the store, I lost wifi connectivity and the "seld" crashes started.

At this point, I wiped the phone and set it up as a brand new phone (still at the Genius Bar). At first I didn't load any apps. I didn't get an seld errors and managed to stay connected to wifi. I then loaded about 6 apps on the phone, opened them up, played around some more, moved some music from iTunes to the phone. I remained connected to wifi and no "seld" crashes in my log. I do get my share of stacks+backboardd crashes.

Arrived home, connected to my wifi. Here's my observation, while I'm using the phone I remain connected to wifi. Once the phone goes to sleep for an extended period of time, and when I wake it up, it may or may not be connected to wifi. Most of the time, it will immediately connect to my wifi. Every once in a while, it'll try to connect to wifi, then immediately switch to 4g/LTE. If I go into Settings/Wifi, I cannot find my home network or guest network. If I put the phone to sleep (i.e., lock it), even for 30 seconds, then wake it back up, it'll reconnect to wifi.

I went into my router's settings and looked at the list of attached devices. I have a NETGEAR WNR2000v2. What I observed is that my iphone will drop in and out of the network while it is locked/sleep. The odd thing is that sometimes it doesn't completely drop. What I see is the MAC address listed without the device name or ip address (shows all ---- in these columns). It looks like it's in somewhat of a semi connected state (not sure what this means). Anyhow, while in this state, I decided to connect my laptop to my network to see what ip address would get assigned. My router did assign it to an unused address. I then tried to wake up the phone. Blammo. Couldn't connect to my wifi. I even started noticing degraded speeds in my network. I also want to add that I already have WMM enabled and am using WPA2.

So here's what I did. I went into my router and assigned my phone to a static ip address that would probably never be used (192.168.1.100). I then reset the network settings on my phone. When I connected to my home network on my phone, I then went into the settings for that connection, and updated the Static tab with the all of the same settings.

After all of this, here is what I've noticed. I seem to connect to my home wifi almost 100% of the time after waking up the phone. I did lose it one time after waking up the phone, but it reconnected.

To me, it appears to be an issue between my router and my phone.

My sister came over today. She has iphone 4s that is updated to ios 8.0.2 When she connected to my network, and put her phone to sleep, her phone totally disappeared from the list of attached devices. Hers didn't show up as a phantom device like the iphone 6 does when iit is asleep. My husband has an Android. His phone never drops from the network (even when it is asleep).

What all of this leads me to believe is that the new phone is not totally removing itself when it goes to sleep and when you wake it back up, it may or may not reconnect because of some glitch between the phone and the router. As other devices try to attach to the network, I'm not sure what my router wants to do with the ip address assigned to the phone (is it available or not?) For me, setting a static ip on my home network to an address that would never get used has re-mediated the problem somewhat.

I still would like to understand what the nature of the conflict is and Apple should have built this to work cleanly with all types of routers. Clearly, not everyone has an Apple Air Port Extreme!
Click to expand...

I totally agree with your observations, as I've too had wifi issues upon waking my iPhone 6 (week 36 & factory C3). It only happens every 48 hours or so, & my issues started with the last update. My partner has my old iphone 5 & hasn't hsd any similar issues thus far.
To gain reconnection I've simply restarted my iPhone & upon it firing back up it connects & stays that way for aporox 48 hours. I too have a Netgear Router that has never given me any issues & I use this to back up iTunes & files from the Windows pc onto my time capsule, as it is connected to the router to gain connectivity, what they tend to call bridge mode. This router is only 2 years old, so like you think it's definitely the iPhone 6. I am hoping it's software related, just like the recent infamous update that killed cell reception only on the 6 & 6 plus models.
So, we will have to wait & see if the next update addresses this issue. Surely there are many other iPhone 6 owners with this same issue? Other than this annoying issue, I've found my 6 to be flawless & smooth as in just about all applications.
 
Z

z06gal

macrumors 6502a
Aug 30, 2011
503
16
@sscaltri,

Thank you for sharing this. I have just done the same and will see if this works. I have noticed the disconnects after waking from sleep and many times I have had to reboot the phone to get my connection back. It sees the connections available but won't connect until I reboot. Since installing 8.1 beta 1, I have not had to reboot as much as it generally connects but my speed is crazy inconsistent. It may be normal and 2 mins later, slow as ever. Thanks for your time in posting this ;)
 
Tzerlag

Tzerlag

macrumors regular
Oct 1, 2014
153
7
I'm baaaaack
My iPhone 6 (8.0.2) occasionally won't connect to my network when I return home. My iPad Air never drops wifi but never leaves the house.

I noticed that when my phone either won't connect when I get home or won't connect after apparently dropping the connection while it sleeps, on Settings/Wi-Fi, the phone struggles to even populate the "choose a network" list. The only solution is to restart the phone.

It seems that it can't or won't try to even search for networks.

I'm hoping it's the software and will be corrected in the next update. If not, I guess I'll try to exchange it.
 
i-aamir

i-aamir

macrumors 65816
Jul 7, 2010
1,103
691
UK - London
Tzerlag said:
My iPhone 6 (8.0.2) occasionally won't connect to my network when I return home. My iPad Air never drops wifi but never leaves the house.

I noticed that when my phone either won't connect when I get home or won't connect after apparently dropping the connection while it sleeps, on Settings/Wi-Fi, the phone struggles to even populate the "choose a network" list. The only solution is to restart the phone.

It seems that it can't or won't try to even search for networks.

I'm hoping it's the software and will be corrected in the next update. If not, I guess I'll try to exchange it.
Click to expand...

All,

Just to give you my chain of events. I'm now on my fourth iPhone 6 Plus - All brand new retail replacements (Not via genius bar). All four of them have been running iOS 8 and then 8.0.2 and unfortunately they have ALL exhibited the same wifi issues :

1. Cannot connect or find any wireless networks - Reboot required
2. Wi-Fi connected with full coverage but no internet or activity - Wi-fi toggle on/off required.
3. When phone is left idle/sleep for long periods of time especially overnight wifi remains connected with full coverage but needs a on/off toggle to restart connection.
4. No speed issues - Always maximum when connected so not facing that issue. 5. They have mainly been on my 5ghz network but similar issues do occur when tried on 2.4ghz.

Now the thing that leads me to believe is that this all down to software and only certain routers/ network setups is that I have got a work 5S that had no issues on i0S 8.0 on my my network but yesterday when I got my latest plus I updated both 5S 6+ to 8.0.2 and configured them exactly the same on my 5Ghz network. This morning they both exhibited the same wifi issues and when coming back after a 6 hours the 5S that had worked perfectly before couldn't detect wifi on my 5G network.

This shows that its a iOS 8 issue that only caused issues with some devices that are connected to a certain routers.

My brothers got the iP6 in his house that has no issues with his router.

So bottom line no need to get hardware replaced 4 times like me, we just have to wait for apple to address the issue in the next update and live with the unstable networks for a bit long which I appreciate shouldn't be the case for devices that we all pay so much for!

Other than that I love my ip6+ - By far the best phone I have ever owned!
 
S

sscaltri

macrumors member
Sep 30, 2014
37
1
i-aamir said:
All,

Just to give you my chain of events. I'm now on my fourth iPhone 6 Plus - All brand new retail replacements (Not via genius bar). All four of them have been running iOS 8 and then 8.0.2 and unfortunately they have ALL exhibited the same wifi issues :

1. Cannot connect or find any wireless networks - Reboot required
2. Wi-Fi connected with full coverage but no internet or activity - Wi-fi toggle on/off required.
3. When phone is left idle/sleep for long periods of time especially overnight wifi remains connected with full coverage but needs a on/off toggle to restart connection.
4. No speed issues - Always maximum when connected so not facing that issue. 5. They have mainly been on my 5ghz network but similar issues do occur when tried on 2.4ghz.

Now the thing that leads me to believe is that this all down to software and only certain routers/ network setups is that I have got a work 5S that had no issues on i0S 8.0 on my my network but yesterday when I got my latest plus I updated both 5S 6+ to 8.0.2 and configured them exactly the same on my 5Ghz network. This morning they both exhibited the same wifi issues and when coming back after a 6 hours the 5S that had worked perfectly before couldn't detect wifi on my 5G network.

This shows that its a iOS 8 issue that only caused issues with some devices that are connected to a certain routers.

My brothers got the iP6 in his house that has no issues with his router.

So bottom line no need to get hardware replaced 4 times like me, we just have to wait for apple to address the issue in the next update and live with the unstable networks for a bit long which I appreciate shouldn't be the case for devices that we all pay so much for!

Other than that I love my ip6+ - By far the best phone I have ever owned!
Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing. I think we are all in the same boat.
 
L

LIVEFRMNYC

macrumors G3
Oct 27, 2009
8,778
10,844
SRLMJ23 said:
First off, let me just state that I have a iPhone 6: 64GB Gold running 8.0.2 and I have had no problems with WiFi speeds OR dropping (also none on 8.0, skipped 8.0.1.)

With that being said, I think it would be wise for people with the WiFi issues to list the brand and model of their modems/routers, and I guess maybe their internet provider. I think, since some have reported that at certain places they have no WiFi dropping issues, then they go home or somewhere else and have the WiFi issues. One person in this thread said at the Apple Store he had no WiFi drop issues, so maybe it is a modem/router issue at play here? I am just trying to think out of the box as I really do not think this is hardware at all because I have had 7 friends with either a iPhone 6 or 6+ come over to my house for about 3-4 hours and no drop or speed issues. Also, they have no problem at their homes, and all but one have had zero issues overall. The one I mention had his WiFi drop at our local Panera Bread. So I am really thinking this is a modem/router issue and MAYBE how it is setup or just the modem/router all together and may possibly need a firmware update? So with that being said I will list my information.

1. Time Warner Cable: Ultimate Internet 300mbps/Download 20mbps/Upload.

2. I have a Time Warner issued Ubee DDW3611 Docsis 3.0 modem/WiFi router.

3. I just bought two days ago an Apple AirPort Express, which I bought because I was having some issues with my Ubee modems WiFi reaching certain parts of my house, and the AirPort Express solved the problem wonderfully.

4. I just want to state that I was not having any WiFi dropping issues or speed issues with the Ubee, just range problems and range extenders are in my opinion a bad choice when having this issue, so that is why I went with the AirPort Express. If the AirPort Express did not work, I was going to buy an AirPort Extreme, which I still may do due to the 802.11AC support but I will see. With the speeds I get from TWC I really do not think I need the AC right now.

One side note that I really liked was that with the Ubee I did not have to put it in Bridge Mode, just disabled the Wireless on it and let the :apple: AirPort Express take over and I cannot be more happy.

Anyway, my idea is maybe we can narrow this down to certain modems and WiFi routers, once that is done, those effected may be able to email or call the modems we find to be more problematic and let them know they are having issues and that may alert the company enough for them to look into it and release a firmware update? Just trying to help anyway I can.

:apple:
Click to expand...

Stay away from Ubee, wireless signal on Ubee modems suck, and so does the firmware. Ask Time Warner to give you an Arris DG1670A. It's dual wifi and has the best range on both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz Freq. And 5Ghz gives you the best speed. 2.4Ghz seems to cut speed in half in populated areas.

It's better to put the modem on bridge, especially when dealing with airport routers(they are finicky). But it's not necessary, and you can just change the router's ip to 10.0.0.1(my preference), and leave Wifi on the modem and the airport router without any conflict.

Being that you were most likely using a Ubee with default 192.168.0.1 modem address without it being bridged, it was probably conflicting with your airport even if you didn't use the other ethernet ports on your modem.
 
Z

z06gal

macrumors 6502a
Aug 30, 2011
503
16
i-aamir said:
apple have just released iOS 8.1 Beta 2 and I have read on another post that the wifi issue has been resolved?
https://discussions.apple.com/thread...t=330&tstart=0

Just need to wait for the final version to finally solve this big problem we have all been facing!
Click to expand...


I have installed beta 2 and have checked my speeds several times. They are back to what they should be for me and so far I have not had a dropped connection. I hope it continues ;)
 
S

Syph1x

macrumors newbie
Nov 9, 2013
3
0
Sweden
What solved the slow wifi for my iPhone 6 64GB (and two 16GB ip6) was to switch my wifi from 2,4GHz to 5GHz. It produced reliable results in all 3 cases.

Tried switching back to 2,4GHz again, and they all started spinning/loading again.

So for those who have a router that supports 5GHz wifi, try using that, at least as a temporary workaround until Apple fixes it.
 
i-aamir

i-aamir

macrumors 65816
Jul 7, 2010
1,103
691
UK - London
z06gal said:
I have installed beta 2 and have checked my speeds several times. They are back to what they should be for me and so far I have not had a dropped connection. I hope it continues ;)
Click to expand...

funkymonkeyboy said:
Yup seems like beta 2 has fixed things with wifi.
Click to expand...


Has 8.1 Beta 2 fixed the wifi issues we have all been having? Is that still the case now that you've tested it for several hours?

No cut off's requiring a restart or toggle wifi on/off ? Thanks
 
Last edited:
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