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harrisonjr98

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 15, 2019
345
200
Having a weird issue!

Both my work iPhone 8 Plus and personal iPhone X (both always updated to the latest software) have had a problematic behavior for years now, but either I’m noticing it more being at home often or it’s getting worse. When they’re asleep, locked, and connected to WiFi, they will occasionally get into “spells” (I don’t know how else to describe it) where, upon waking up, you’ll see the WiFi connection briefly disappear and go to LTE and then re-establish itself.

It happens on both of my phones, both my home WiFi and work WiFi, and seemingly at random. It appears to be temporarily solved by restarting the phone but can come back anywhere from a few minutes to a few days later and then happen sporadically from there.

Is this some kind of intentional thing? Is it a known iOS bug? I definitely recall it happening on occasion pre-iOS 13, but only on my personal phone iirc. When I saw it on my work phone too it really began to puzzle me! Sometimes it’ll happen at the same time on both, but usually not.

I don’t have unlimited data, so it irks me to think that potentially the phone is just chilling on LTE succin’ up my data for no reason when it’s in range of WiFi. Of course, I don’t know if that’s actually the case- it could just be a visual bug for all I know.

ANY guidance/help/“I have this too” is much appreciated. Thanks in advance!
 
Sounds like they're simply reconnecting to your wi-fi upon waking. It doesn't sound unusual or odd at all. My devices do that too.
 
Sounds like they're simply reconnecting to your wi-fi upon waking. It doesn't sound unusual or odd at all. My devices do that too.
That seems to be pretty much standard behavior for iPhones more or less since the beginning as I recall.
 
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Sounds like they're simply reconnecting to your wi-fi upon waking. It doesn't sound unusual or odd at all. My devices do that too.

Thanks for your response. My question then becomes - if this is normal behavior, why does it only occasionally happen? Why does it stop happening for a while after a restart and then begin again eventually?
 
Thanks for your response. My question then becomes - if this is normal behavior, why does it only occasionally happen? Why does it stop happening for a while after a restart and then begin again eventually?
I can understand that you want to nail down the fine details of this network behavior. Perhaps someone else can chime in with the in-depth technical answer you're looking for.
 
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I can understand that you want to nail down the fine details of this network behavior. Perhaps someone else can chime in with the in-depth answer you're looking for.

I'm just curious more than anything! Would definitely love to hear if anyone has a technical explanation. :)
 
You may also want to use the report button to ask the mods to delete the duplicate thread you created in the iPhone Troubleshooting forum.
 
You may also want to use the report button to ask the mods to delete the duplicate thread you created in the iPhone Troubleshooting forum.

I can do that. Is crossposting not allowed here? Genuine question, I will refrain in the future if so.
 
Thanks for your response. My question then becomes - if this is normal behavior, why does it only occasionally happen? Why does it stop happening for a while after a restart and then begin again eventually?
Sometimes it reconnects quickly enough that you don't necessarily notice it. Sometimes it holds on to the connection longer for one reason or another.
 
Sometimes it reconnects quickly enough that you don't necessarily notice it. Sometimes it holds on to the connection longer for one reason or another.

I would say most of the time it does this, and just appears as though it was on wifi while in sleep and everything. There are definitely times that the animation of the wifi signal dropping and then coming back does not occur.
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You might want to read the Rules FAQ section about overposting and one thread.

That's fair. I'm not around these forums too often (except lurking near product launches) but I owe it to the mods and community to have read the rules before posting. Thank you.
 
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