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iPhone 17 Pro Max Reboots ASUS ZenWifi BQ16 Pro router - repeatable behavior

vfontjr

vfontjr

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 23, 2019
39
13
Raleigh, NC
Here's an interesting case study that appears to indicate a problem with Apple's new N1 networking chip, which controls Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Thread, enabling support for Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.

I've been running an Asus ZenWifi BQ16 Pro mesh system for much of the year. It's been stable and functions well, that is, until I added my new iPhone 17 Pro Max to the mix. This is the current configuration:

IMG_3241.jpeg


The 2.4Ghz band is its own dedicated IOT network. The high bands are for WiFi 7. The iPhone 17 Pro Max is the only WiFi 7 device in this system.

Sometimes, I have to use analysis equipment that attaches to the iPhone through the device's private network. Whenever I switch networks on the iPhone, the main router reboots. Every single time!!
 
I'm having the same issues. I reported it to Asus via the Feedback page in the Router's Web interface and they got back to me with a Beta Firmware. They said it was "a compatibility issue with Apple's iPhone 17 series".

I have not installed nor tried the Beta firmware yet. In the meantime, I have forced the iPhone to use the IoT network (which I restrict to 2.4 and 5.0 GHz - no WiFi 7, no MLO) and it does not trigger a reboot of the router.

I assume ASUS will eventually release a "release version" firmware update to address this.

Mike
 
I have the same router and have not seen this behavior with my wife’s 17 Pro Max or my 17 Pro, but don’t do any manual switching. Thanks for posting this as will be on the look out for this type of behavior. Hopefully, Asus does a firmware update fast, but they normally do not.
 
vfontjr said:
Here's an interesting case study that appears to indicate a problem with Apple's new N1 networking chip, which controls Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Thread, enabling support for Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.

I've been running an Asus ZenWifi BQ16 Pro mesh system for much of the year. It's been stable and functions well, that is, until I added my new iPhone 17 Pro Max to the mix. This is the current configuration:

View attachment 2561698

The 2.4Ghz band is its own dedicated IOT network. The high bands are for WiFi 7. The iPhone 17 Pro Max is the only WiFi 7 device in this system.

Sometimes, I have to use analysis equipment that attaches to the iPhone through the device's private network. Whenever I switch networks on the iPhone, the main router reboots. Every single time!!
Click to expand...
There has been a lot of iphone 17 wifi issues. Did you load IOS 26.0.1 onto your 17 Pro Max? This update is supposed to resolve these sort of Wifi issues.

If you are already on this IOS version, you may want to report the issue to Apple. Router vendors should not be having to update their firmware because Apple releases a new phone without proper compatibility.
 
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dmccombs said:
There has been a lot of iphone 17 wifi issues. Did you load IOS 26.0.1 onto your 17 Pro Max? This update is supposed to resolve these sort of Wifi issues.

If you are already on this IOS version, you may want to report the issue to Apple. Router vendors should not be having to update their firmware because Apple releases a new phone without proper compatibility.
Click to expand...
IMO, nothing Apple's chip does, no matter how egregious, should cause my router to reboot. Even once. Much less over and over again. So I think ASUS has some work to do as well.

Mike
 
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dmccombs said:
There has been a lot of iphone 17 wifi issues. Did you load IOS 26.0.1 onto your 17 Pro Max? This update is supposed to resolve these sort of Wifi issues.

If you are already on this IOS version, you may want to report the issue to Apple. Router vendors should not be having to update their firmware because Apple releases a new phone without proper compatibility.
Click to expand...
I did. It doesn't resolve this issue.
 
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MDErnst0928 said:
I'm having the same issues. I reported it to Asus via the Feedback page in the Router's Web interface and they got back to me with a Beta Firmware. They said it was "a compatibility issue with Apple's iPhone 17 series".

I have not installed nor tried the Beta firmware yet. In the meantime, I have forced the iPhone to use the IoT network (which I restrict to 2.4 and 5.0 GHz - no WiFi 7, no MLO) and it does not trigger a reboot of the router.

I assume ASUS will eventually release a "release version" firmware update to address this.

Mike
Click to expand...
Thanks for letting me know. I sent the feedback to them as well after reading your reply.
 
Until Apple or ASUS removes this issue, I have to keep WiFi turned off on the iPhone when I'm home.
 
I have the bq16 also. You have to turn off WiFi 7 and MLO otherwise it will consistently reboot them. Either of those settings turned on cause the router to boot loop; from the logs it appears iPhones are registering with null MAC addresses (even if you turn the mac privacy off) and this gets triggered in a rapid loop until the router crashes.
 
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spybyscript said:
I have the bq16 also. You have to turn off WiFi 7 and MLO otherwise it will consistently reboot them. Either of those settings turned on cause the router to boot loop; from the logs it appears iPhones are registering with null MAC addresses (even if you turn the mac privacy off) and this gets triggered in a rapid loop until the router crashes.
Click to expand...
This is good information. I had a call with Apple Tier 2 support yesterday. The agent ran hardware diagnostics on the phone and it passed all tests. The phone's hardware is performing as expected. I haven't talked to ASUS yet, but will contact them today. Thanks for these details.
 
vfontjr said:
This is good information. I had a call with Apple Tier 2 support yesterday. The agent ran hardware diagnostics on the phone and it passed all tests. The phone's hardware is performing as expected. I haven't talked to ASUS yet, but will contact them today. Thanks for these details.
Click to expand...

FYI, I installed the beta firmware ASUS recommended yesterday and it has seemingly "fixed" all issues. No more router rebooting for me.
 
Last edited:
Today I spent almost 2-hours with a resource from Apple's engineering team. They seem very concerned over this router reboot situation. I also spect time with ASUS tier 1 support today. An ASUS senior engineer will be calling me back within 2 business days. Hopefully, we'll get to the bottom of this.
 
vfontjr said:
Today I spent almost 2-hours with a resource from Apple's engineering team. They seem very concerned over this router reboot situation. I also spect time with ASUS tier 1 support today. An ASUS senior engineer will be calling me back within 2 business days. Hopefully, we'll get to the bottom of this.
Click to expand...

Let us know what you find out. Thx.
 
vfontjr, you are my hero, sir! I purchased the Asus ZenWiFi BQ16 Pro about the same time as I got the iphone 17 Pro Max and have been going crazy trying to figure out the cause of the random reboots of the ZenWiFi nodes. I even returned the first set after working with Asus support, who told me that it was defective and needed to be returned. But I continued to have the same problem with the 2nd purchase, which was leading me to believe that Asus QA was horrible and their hardware was subpar.

However, I have just confirmed that the issue described in this thread is indeed my issue as well. (Easily reproducible).

MDErnst0928, I would also love to get a hold of that beta firmware. Until then, I'll keep my iphone off of Asus WiFi.
 
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Adding to the chain here....same issue as all others with the following deviations:

(1) I have the 3 node system sold at Best Buy (BE30000)

(2) my device is the iPhone 17 Pro (not Pro Max)

As I require WiFi calling at my home, only solutions I have found to stabilize my issue are connecting to IoT subnet (2.4 GHz, 5 GHz) or creating a 2nd main network with the 6 GHz-2 band only, w/o WiFi 7 enabled on this 2nd main. Either seem to stabilize my WiFi connection so far.

ASUS has been extremely non-responsive and downright avoidant about the issue. I have asked them for the beta firmware raised in this forum and they are consistent it does not exist. I doubt someone at ASUS created it on the side. I have been asking to speak to Tier 2 and after 2 weeks, finally have a direct phone number for them: 510.257.7782.

Last curveball I will throw in, I acquired the iPhone 17 Pro from an upgrade of an iPhone 16 Pro. I NEVER had any of these issues with that phone.
 
I use WiFi to connect my phone to Apple CarPlay. I kept forgetting to turn WiFi off on my phone when I would get home, thus causing the Asus WiFi to crash. So I created shortcuts on the iphone to turn off wifi when I arrive home, and turn it back on when I leave. It's pathetic that I have to resort to something like this to keep my Asus WiFi stable, but it works great.
 
While troubleshooting today, I discovered a seemingly stable connection to my normal WiFi 7, MLO network when I manual changed the DNS servers for my iPhone 17 Pro's WiFi connection to Cloudflare (1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1). Fingers crossed this sticks...
 
mb50 said:
While troubleshooting today, I discovered a seemingly stable connection to my normal WiFi 7, MLO network when I manual changed the DNS servers for my iPhone 17 Pro's WiFi connection to Cloudflare (1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1). Fingers crossed this sticks...
Click to expand...
Scratch this as it failed again.


Even though the Beta firmware is for BG16 Pro (2 node system), I installed on my BE30000 (3 node system). So far, so good.
 
MDErnst0928 said:
ASUS BQ16 Pro Beta Firmware

Sorry it took so long to post the link, I did get permission from my ASUS contact to post the link.
Click to expand...
This worked like a charm for me. Thanks for posting it! Asus support is a mess. The right hand doesn't seem to know what the left hand is doing. I reached out to them and they sent me a PDF asking tons of questions and requesting logs so they could troubleshoot the issue. I even sent them the link to this conversation and it didn't seem to help.
 
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cftenney said:
This worked like a charm for me. Thanks for posting it! Asus support is a mess. The right hand doesn't seem to know what the left hand is doing. I reached out to them and they sent me a PDF asking tons of questions and requesting logs so they could troubleshoot the issue. I even sent them the link to this conversation and it didn't seem to help.
Click to expand...
100% same experience. Not sure what magic was used to get the beta firmware on this forum from them, but it works!
 
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