iPhone XS Max Me too - WiFi DL speed very slow on XS Max

[mtulman1]

I'm not as tech language experienced as most of you but while the speeds are a lot slower than other devices, including my iPad pro, are your actual speeds affected? Using chrome on my max and my iPad pro at same time, I am not seeing much difference. Could the speed test show different than actual results?

 

[elitypes]

I'm not as tech language experienced as most of you but while the speeds are a lot slower than other devices, including my iPad pro, are your actual speeds affected? Using chrome on my max and my iPad pro at same time, I am not seeing much difference. Could the speed test show different than actual results?

Hi. That's an interesting question. Like you I am not a tech expert in any way. My experience with this issue has been from what I have seen via speed testing apps (Ookla) where I see SIGNIFICANTLY degraded LTE/Wifi speeds on the Xs Max compared to my previous iPhone 7+.

I have wondered if anything might have changed or if things are reporting differently on the app, however my phone does struggle to load photos, websites, and videos so I am led to believe the speed reading are accurate.

 

[dman999]

Eero mesh here too, and XS Max with 2.4Ghz problem.

One thing I tried that has helped was going into Eero Network settings -> Eero Labs (Beta) and enabling “Band Steering”. It has kept me locked to 5Ghz at home. Then Rebooted device. Hoping that helps for now until Apple figures it out.

Hope that helps another fellow Eero user...

Use EERO mesh at home so can’t separate SSID.

Currently have the following:

2 iPad Pro, 2 iPad Air, iPad 4, iPhone 6, iPhone 7+, Mac air, iMac, appletv - all are connected to 5ghz and are located in 7 different rooms.

2 iPhone XS Max’s - connected to 2.4ghz

I placed the iPhone max, iPhone 7+, and iPad Pro next to each other on the table. Turned off WiFi on all 3. Then turned WiFi back on. iPhone 7+ and iPad connected to 5ghz and iPhone Max connected to 2.4ghz.

I get close to 80mbs on 2.4ghz and 400mbs on 5ghz with the max so not a speed issue. The max just doesn’t want to connect to the 5ghz band on a reliable and continual basis.

 

[paulisme]

I'm having connectivity issues, too. My router is dual band with different SSIDs for 2.4 and 5 GHz bands. My old iPhone 7 Plus had no problem keeping a connection to the 5 GHz, but my iPhone XS constantly disconnects. Since I don't even have the phone configured to connect to the 2.4 GHz band, I just end up on LTE, and even then I have to turn wi-fi off on my phone for it to actually load anything, like it's still trying to connect to my router rather than use LTE for data.

 

[archer75]

My Xs max will max out my home wifi. I haven't had any issues with it so far. I'm also on fios and have 100mbps down/up. I had an asus router(can't recall the model #) but switched to unifi access points with an ethernet backhaul and it works so much better.
I use the same SSID for 2.4ghz and 5ghz. It has no issues connecting to and staying on 5ghz.

 

[netnothing]

Looks like Apple support just replied on Twitter with:
Thanks for the update. We are aware of this issue and plan to patch it in a future update.
This was in response to my initial tweet about the slow WiFi.

EDIT: Ok, sorry for this. Didn't realize the user that tweeted me was @AppleSupportEN. That doesn't look like any Apple related account.

 

[donawalt]

We may never know, but from my software dev days my bet is the problem is caused by an 11th hour change in what would appear on the surface to be an unrelated area, like battery/power management. Testing failed to catch the break in WiFi connectivity as it was "a small tweak" late in the game and no one thought of the consequences in this area, or the testing was very cursory. This problem seems widespread enough I have to believe it would have shown up in the field in the extensive beta testing period, hence my theory. If true, this will be a relatively simple fix.

 

[Tusk]

I’ve talked with Apple support via twitter and have a support call scheduled for Thursday morning (first time I would be able to spend any substantial time on a call). Made them aware that this is probably a systemic issue and not just isolated to my 2 phones. Wanted them to basically log the problem so someone will look into it.

As I noted before, get great speed for 2.4ghz band and great speed for 5ghz band, just can’t keep it connected to 5ghz like my 10 other apple products.

 

[Ryand123]

My 8 Plus is consistently beating the Max in wifi speeds in my house. Erasing network settings has narrowed it a little but the 8 Plus is still ahead by a lot.

This combined with the piss yellow screen has diminished all enthusiasm I had for the Max.

Have you turned off True Tone?

 

[sppunk]

Just set up my new Xs and did a test between my 6S I just moved everything from and the Xs, while sitting in the same chair.

6S WiFi speed via fast.com: 273mb
XS WiFi speed via fast.com: 34mb

What the hell?

 

[Mornnb]

Quick workaround. Enable band steering on your access point.

 

[DavidMc]

Band steering is not the fix. I’ve had band steering enabled for years on my Unifi setup. The phone will still drop to 2.4G. New issues yesterday with the only 5G SSID I created which I noticed when apps were taking forever to update. The phone will start the download test around 200mb but then just drop and bounce between 40-50 like I have a rule in place to throttle the speeds. Forget the SSID, reboot and reconnect and the speeds return to 190-250 for about a half hour or so and then drop and bounce between 40-50.

Another think I noticed is at work on 5G, which is older hardware and only N, I don’t see the 2.4G drops I do at home on 5G AC network. That is odd

Right now I’m sitting at work with 4G signal and no cellular data working at all. I’m done. The phone is very nice and the screen size is great but this is rediculous and I don’t need to be stuck with bad hardware for two years if this cannot be fixed with software. Heading to AT&T tonight to return and hopefully resume the remainder of my Next contract on my 8 Plus.

 

[donawalt]

It's a small thing, but for those suffering from this 2.4 GHz madness, instead of going thru the forget network-reboot-connect or something similar, I have had good luck just flipping it into Airplane Mode then turning Airplane mode off - if I am otherwise in an area where 5 GHz should be the preference it connects to that. Small consolation but still will save a minute or so if it's necessary to get back to 5 GHz.

 

[netnothing]

12.0.1 just released.

iOS 12.0.1 includes bug fixes and improvements for your iPhone or iPad. This update:
- Resolves an issue that could cause iPhone XS devices to rejoin a Wi-Fi network at 2.4 GHz instead of 5 GHz

Nice that Apple publically stated it was an issue.

So, reports of it working? For me it has seemed to have helped. In my short time since installing I have managed to stay on the 5GHz band in places where before it would go to 2.4.

 

[donawalt]

12.0.1 just released.



Nice that Apple publically stated it was an issue.

So, reports of it working? For me it has seemed to have helped. In my short time since installing I have managed to stay on the 5GHz band in places where before it would go to 2.4.

It's working for me too! 5.0 GHz solid where it should be.

 

[marmiteturkey]

Yup, I’m back to a reliable 370mbps on 5ghz instead of 70 on 2.4.

Seems to be fixed, good stuff. A carrier update earlier this week also seems to have made my 4g more reliable too.

 

[netnothing]

So far 12.0.1 is better for my XS Max, but it's still not even close to my other devices. My iPad mini 4 and our 6s phones in the house still work much better and stay on 5GHz far longer than the Max does.