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Painfully slow WiFi on new iPhone 5

I don't think it's the iPhone 5. I think it's ios 6. I update to ios 6 on my 4s and iPad. My wifi is so bad I am just using 3G now on both. The connections just seem to stall.

My wife iPad Still runs ios 5 and is is working fine on both channels on my network.
 
Last night after dealing with a bunch of wifi drops I replaced my phone at the apple store. So far I have no problems. I can stream MLB games and even update apps that have a large file update.
 
So, got my brand new iPhone 5 yesterday afternoon. Out of the box, the wifi signal was weaker than my 4s. I tried the following:

  • Set the phone up as new.
  • Reset network connection.
  • Logged on to my "guest" network.
  • Restored the phone using my iTunes backup.
  • Rebooted my router.

Nothing made a difference. When I compare my 5 to my 4s as I move through my house, the signal on the 5 is weaker and inconsistent. It connects, just not well. The only time I get a full signal on the 5 is when I'm standing next to the router which is in my basement. All my other devices get a full connection in my home except in my bedroom where the connection indicates two bars instead of full.

When I brought the 5 upstairs to my bedroom it couldn't find the network at all. This morning, I took both phones to the closest McDonalds. Again, both phones connected - but the 5 didn't connect until I was inside the store and it disconnected as soon as I left the store and I never got a full signal. I tested both phones with some surfing tasts and twice I got a message that the 5 wasn't connected. Then, it would reconnect. The 4s connected and stayed connected until I got in my car and began to drive away. 4s had a full connection from right outside the store and inside.

Finally, the 4s searches and finds networks close by...nothing with the 5 unless I am right on top of a network.

I called Apple and the guy on the phone set me up with a Genius appointment today. I expect to walk out with a new phone.
 
I am able to connect to WiFi but my speeds are consistently 1/2 to 2/3 the speed of my other iOS 6 devices. Also, the 5 seems to lose AT&T cellular connectivity in areas where my 4S always had 4-5 bars. It shows no bars, and I have to restart the phone and then the network is picked up again. Yesterday, it could not pick up a signal for an hour. I had to restart and then it was able to connect. Same happened this morning. I'm probably going to have to exchange if Apple doesn't come out with some fix soon.
 
RatSalad said:
Last night after dealing with a bunch of wifi drops I replaced my phone at the apple store. So far I have no problems. I can stream MLB games and even update apps that have a large file update.
Click to expand...

Update. I am at a public location where wifi was great with 4s and pretty much non existent with 5. With the new 5 it is back to normal.
 
Just got back from STarbucks and it was painfully slow yet again yet back at home, speeds are blasing fast, I just don't get it.

I don't know whether to return this phone or not cuz i'm so happy with it otherwise. I really wish Apple would just come out and say "hey guys, we are aware of this issue with iOS6, a fix is coming shortly" so i am not debating what to do
 
Update - took my phone into the Apple Store, explained its a WPA2 issue (wifi at Apple store was working at 20mbps on my iPhone 5). They talked ab it and said iPhone 4 and other iOS 6 are reporting it, but they will replace mine. They didn't have any in stock so they have ordered it and will let me know. I don't even know if a replacement will work. Annoyed and hope Apple can fix this through software update.... however many of my friends aren't reporting any problems on their iPhone 5.
 
Wow, is something wrong with my phone or is it my Internet? Both wifi and LTE aren't performing so well.

2mergk5.jpg
 
Mine is becoming completely unusable on wifi now. These speed tests are all carried out on the same wifi network. The 12mbps result I'd from when I reconfigured my Time Capsule. But now, it's at the point where it can't even ping a server again.

Worth me logging a call with Apple? If its hardware, I don't want to bother until the issue is resolved, if its software it could take Apple weeks. Very frustrating.
 

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I went to the Apple store and they gave me a new phone - no issues with the new phone. It works perfectly.

I turned cellular off to do testing - that helped me figure out my problem.
 
Here are the results of my scientific test. I used my iPhone 5 and iPhone 4 both running iOS 6 both on the same wifi, in the same room, and I did the testing by doing the test on one, then the other, 6 times.

5 on left. 4 on right.

I don't know if I want to wait for a potential software update or just get it replaced. My phone is perfect otherwise.
 

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Any smart tech guy out there know the reason why the upload speeds are perfectly fine, but the download speeds are slowed? This seems more software related than hardware related. But. Could be wrong.
 
Oppressed said:
Any smart tech guy out there know the reason why the upload speeds are perfectly fine, but the download speeds are slowed? This seems more software related than hardware related. But. Could be wrong.
Click to expand...

Good question. Of all the test I ran, upload speeds remained the same.
 
jmunter said:
Here are the results of my scientific test. I used my iPhone 5 and iPhone 4 both running iOS 6 both on the same wifi, in the same room, and I did the testing by doing the test on one, then the other, 6 times.

5 on left. 4 on right.

I don't know if I want to wait for a potential software update or just get it replaced. My phone is perfect otherwise.
Click to expand...

Couldn't be any more clear than this.

As I'm sitting here my iPhone 5 will not connect to wifi, and I have noticed my iPad 3 seems to have problems too since iOS 6.

And your ping was consistently lower besides the first attempt.
 
Just got my iPhone 5 64GB today shipped from China and it's having the same ultra slow wifi. I have a D-Link DIR-655 router. Sounds like it isn't the router, but the device. Ugh.. I hope trading it in at the Apple store is not going to use one of my two AppleCare+ claims. :(
 
I've had the brutally slow wi-fi on a white 64 iPhone 5. A fix can't come soon enough.

Also, there is a surprising amount of LTE data usage while on wi-fi.
 
Ok this is REALLY weird... I walked down my street to a neighbors and we joined my iPhone 5 to his wifi and download speeds went WAY up to normal levels. That made me think my router and the iPhone had some issue, but as we were walking back to my house another neighbor's wifi popped up asking me for their password. I canceled after it incessantly asked like 5 times and then I selected to join my home wifi again. And BOOM.. speeds are good, normal and as expected! Hopefully that fixed it and it is consistently good, but if not I will exchange with Apple. I think I may call them and establish a case # though.

EDIT: broken slow again simply by opening settings app and peering at the different wifi networks
 
Last edited:
I experienced this as well. What I did was removed opendns from my router and my iphone 5's wifi was fast again!

Hth
 
More and more I think it is the antenna inside my phone. My backup I restored from my old iPhone 4 to the new one carried through a setting from the jailbreak tweak SBSettings onto the new phone that shows me the numeric signal strength instead of bars (don't ask me how, but I have signal level numbers instead of just the wifi pancakes). If the number is from -0 to -65 the wifi is fast. If it is -65 and up then the wifi crawls like old school 56K dial-up.

It's gotta be the antenna guys.. bad solder?
 
See, instead of the stacked pancakes icon I have the actual signal level numeric. The closer to -0, the faster the speeds\better test results.
If it is above -65 then speeds are pathetic!

And yes I am charging the battery now. :)
 

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egeek84 said:
Just got back from STarbucks and it was painfully slow yet again yet back at home, speeds are blasing fast, I just don't get it.

I don't know whether to return this phone or not cuz i'm so happy with it otherwise. I really wish Apple would just come out and say "hey guys, we are aware of this issue with iOS6, a fix is coming shortly" so i am not debating what to do
Click to expand...

Same here. Painfully slow at the local Starbucks but I am fine at home.
 
[/COLOR]I had my iPhone replaced due to the wifi issue and the light leak issue. My current iPhone still suffers from the wifi issues but not the light leak.

The craziest part was as soon as I went into an apple store today to get the current iPhone checked out the wifi was working. Get back home and its not working. I'm leaning towards some type of DNS bug versus hardware. It's so frustrating.
 
My gut tells me that this really isn't a hardware issue. I really think it's a software issue with iOS6. I don't see how they could ship out such a large "bad batch" of phones. Because as I said in my previous post, the wifi works perfect when I am at my house (and even at the Apple store) yet on ATTs network at Starbucks and the ATT corporate stores, it is so freaking slow. Anyways, i'm not gonna stress about it anymore. I have a feeling Apple will put out a patch soon and if it does turn out to be a hardware issue, I have a full year warranty so i'm not gonna go out and rush to return mine since besides the wifi issue, it works perfectly and i'm very happy with it :)

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goBills said:
[/COLOR]I had my iPhone replaced due to the wifi issue and the light leak issue. My current iPhone still suffers from the wifi issues but not the light leak.

The craziest part was as soon as I went into an apple store today to get the current iPhone checked out the wifi was working. Get back home and its not working. I'm leaning towards some type of DNS bug versus hardware. It's so frustrating.
Click to expand...

Maybe that's the issue, DNS versus hardware bug. That sounds very plausible.
 
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