"No Wifi." Wait, WHAT?!

[scaredpoet]

So, i noticed this morning that while my computers and iPad, and my girlfriend's computers, iPad and iPhone all seem to be humming along fine on the house WiFi, my iPhone 4S isn't connected; it's still on 3G. So, I go into Settings to see what's up. And I get this:

That's right. Not "WiFi is off." Not "Not Connected." But "No WiFi." As in, WiFi itself doesn't exist in my iPhone 4S' universe, anymore.

I can't turn WiFi back ON, because I can't tap WiFi and go into its settings (it's greyed out, hence "No WiFi," I guess). Turning Airplane Mode off and on doesn't seem to do the trick either. Nor does a reboot.

Has anyone run into this before? I'm thinking it's time to visit the Genius Bar...

 

[r.j.s]

Yeah, if a reboot doesn't fix it, take it to Apple.

 

[lamboman]

Never had this myself, as mine have always worked.

Have you tried resetting your network settings under General, Reset?

If not, a restore should fix it if it is a software issue. Otherwise...back to Apple you go, I'm afraid!

 

[Jordan921]

Have you tried a restore to see if that helps?

 

[Certinfy]

If a restore doesn't do it then it may just be that the wifi card is damaged I would think.

 

[scaredpoet]

Thanks for the input. Well, now it's back. Before I could initiate a restore, it just up and decided that it had WiFi again, and connected to the router as if nothing was wrong.

I guess I'll keep an eye on it and see if it does this again.

 

[r.j.s]

I'd still consider taking it in ... there might be an underlying problem.

 

[scaredpoet]

I'm going to contact Apple Tech support online and see what they say. So far WiFi has behaved since yesterday's little incident. And I really don't want to go to the mall in holiday shopping traffic only to have a Genius treat me like I'm a hypochondriac first-time iPhone user and tell me in faux-sugary tones that my 4S is in fact, just fine.

The bummer is that I'll be traveling in a week, but thankfully there's an Apple store not far from where I'll be staying.

 

[blevins321]

I'm going to contact Apple Tech support online and see what they say. So far WiFi has behaved since yesterday's little incident. And I really don't want to go to the mall in holiday shopping traffic only to have a Genius treat me like I'm a hypochondriac first-time iPhone user and tell me in faux-sugary tones that my 4S is in fact, just fine.

The bummer is that I'll be traveling in a week, but thankfully there's an Apple store not far from where I'll be staying.

I'd go into Apple anyway for a replacement. Show them your screenshots; they can't really refute that there is an issue.

 

[mattraehl]

If a restore doesn't do it then it may just be that the wifi card is damaged I would think.

Definitely sounds like iOS responding to a hardware failure of some sort. Maybe the WiFi chipset just crashed or something and it's transient, but as other have said, it's worth getting it looked at even if it's working now.