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iPhone XS Max Xs Max - Subpar Wi-Fi Performance (Solved!!)
- Thread starter DonnieZ
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I found my phone was slow in bed where my WiFi signal was weaker than the rest of the house.
The phone was dropping back to 4G frequently, and while switching between WiFi and 4G my apps would often time out so I turned off WiFi Assist. This seems to have massively improved things for me.
My phone holds onto WiFi much more stable and doesn’t resort to falling back onto 4G nearly as much. Maybe by trying to help, the phone is causing the issue.
Might be worth others trying?
Settings-mobile data-WiFi assist-off
The phone was dropping back to 4G frequently, and while switching between WiFi and 4G my apps would often time out so I turned off WiFi Assist. This seems to have massively improved things for me.
My phone holds onto WiFi much more stable and doesn’t resort to falling back onto 4G nearly as much. Maybe by trying to help, the phone is causing the issue.
Might be worth others trying?
Settings-mobile data-WiFi assist-off
Turning off WiFi assist means that your phone will NEVER fall back to cell data. It was likely falling back because of the Wifi issues people are seeing.
Exactly why I posted. Might help some people while they wait for Apple to patch this.
Ah gotcha. Yes, I'm guessing a lot more people are seeing things switch to cell data with their Max....assuming they had assist turned on.
I'll wait it out for now. I did extensive testing and sent logs to Apple for review. If they come out with some BS about this being normal.....I'll return the phone. But I don't really expect that. Wi-Fi performance for me is fine.....IF......I'm in the same room as the router. It's only when I get into another room that the phone wants to hop onto the 2.4 band. Assuming there is a software fix, I'm fine waiting.
Got it. It’s concerning to me that they wanted/needed your logs and weren’t already on top of this issue.
Nothing is working.
I have a 6s, an X, and a Xs Max all running 12.1. Only the Xs Max is causing me trouble, and it’s causing me a ton of trouble. WiFi is unreliable/unusable, and the cell signal is always 1-2 bars lower on the Xs Max than on the other two. I’d love to return it, but know they’ll come out with a fix as soon as I do. This sucks almost as bad as my experience as an iMac Pro early adopter...
I love Apple, but it’s been a rough year.
I have a 6s, an X, and a Xs Max all running 12.1. Only the Xs Max is causing me trouble, and it’s causing me a ton of trouble. WiFi is unreliable/unusable, and the cell signal is always 1-2 bars lower on the Xs Max than on the other two. I’d love to return it, but know they’ll come out with a fix as soon as I do. This sucks almost as bad as my experience as an iMac Pro early adopter...
I love Apple, but it’s been a rough year.
Same thing is happening to me dude. It really sucks. I want to return it but you’re right: they will come out with a fix as soon as we do.
Let’s just hope it happens soon because it’s getting absolutely ridiculous and quite unacceptable.
if they come out with a fix you can always buy a new one.
if they don't and 14 days pass, you will be out of luck.
For those with WiFi issues, do you you have WiFi assist turned on in your phone? If so, turn it off. Settings >Cellular, and scroll all the way down WiFi Assist and toggle it off.
I've tried the reset network, disabling WiFi assist, home network reset and modem reset options. All work temporarily, but my iphone xs max eventually goes back to the 2.4 network. Will consider setting up as a new iphone as a last resort - it's a real PIA to do so. I currently have an eero setup at home so I can't set up an SSID for both 2.4 and 5.
We've got 4 of the new iphones in total - my iphone xs max and 3 iphone xs. All experiencing the issue of eventually connecting to the 2.4 frequency after the above temporary fixes.
Hoping this will be a software issue that will be corrected via an iOS update vs a hardware issue.
Really hoping to hear about a fix soon.
@netnothing - thanks for keeping the group posted on your communications with Apple. Hopefully they'll have something for all of us experiencing this issue soon.
We've got 4 of the new iphones in total - my iphone xs max and 3 iphone xs. All experiencing the issue of eventually connecting to the 2.4 frequency after the above temporary fixes.
Hoping this will be a software issue that will be corrected via an iOS update vs a hardware issue.
Really hoping to hear about a fix soon.
@netnothing - thanks for keeping the group posted on your communications with Apple. Hopefully they'll have something for all of us experiencing this issue soon.
so glad I found this thread. I have separate SSIDs for 2.4 vs 5 networks in my house so I haven't noticed an issue there. My issue was simply that my 400/20 internet connection that I have always realistically gotten 460-470/23 on was maxing out in the mid 300s on my XS Max. (this is with no other wireless devices connected and LONG after my iCloud restore had completed). Went in and did the network settings reset and instantly was back up to the 470/23 I had always gotten on my X. I did the reset back on 9/26 and all still seems normal speed-wise as of this morning. very strange....
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Same general scenario here. Had 2 iPhone XS with same issues (1st one got replaced after a few days due to nick on screen out of box). Have an eero network 1st gen with 3 nodes, latest firmware and band steering enabled. Have a half dozen iOS devices in the house all running iOS 12. The only device having issues is my 512 GB XS. I have an open ticket with Apple but Senior advisor says they haven’t heard of this being an issue.
He said maybe some issue with eero. So I even pulled out my old 6th Gen AirPort Extreme and plugged into my network with separate SSIDs on it so I could force the connection to 5 GHz. 5 GHz would randomly just stop working.
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Eero 1st gen with 3 nodes, latest firmware and band steering enabled.
Apple Support reached out to me after I replied to a thread on the apple discussion forums.
Haven't managed to line up with them yet as they're EST and I'm NZST so timezone isn't exactly favourable.
Hopefully I can add more logs for engineering to decipher whats going on.
Haven't managed to line up with them yet as they're EST and I'm NZST so timezone isn't exactly favourable.
Hopefully I can add more logs for engineering to decipher whats going on.
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Like many on this forum I am experiencing the same issues with WiFi connectivity on 5GHz networks. I too have a eero setup and have the band steering turned on however my xs will only lock on to the 2.4GHz network all the while our two macs, the other 4 iPhones in the house, three iPads, and appletv all lock on to the 5GHz band.
I have reached out to apple and talked to an engineer on for day that had me load a profile to monitor WiFi settings and sent the logs into apple. I was emailed yesterday to set up a call for today. Did so but the tech just started going through what I had already done. He asked me to hold on and emailed the engineers working on the issue and came back to say sorry for the call but they had not found anything yet and would possibly call back today or tomorrow.
Will give apple till Friday to give me some sort of answer if not the XS is going back and will consider buying again once the issue is fixed.
I have reached out to apple and talked to an engineer on for day that had me load a profile to monitor WiFi settings and sent the logs into apple. I was emailed yesterday to set up a call for today. Did so but the tech just started going through what I had already done. He asked me to hold on and emailed the engineers working on the issue and came back to say sorry for the call but they had not found anything yet and would possibly call back today or tomorrow.
Will give apple till Friday to give me some sort of answer if not the XS is going back and will consider buying again once the issue is fixed.
I returned my XS and got a new one. Things looking good so far. There is obviously an issue with a large number of devices though. Apple better make it right for everyone.
I’d love to get a replacement Xs Max but how would I know if that new device doesn’t have the same issue? Is Apple able to prove in any way that it doesn’t have the same issues?
I don't think this is a hardware issue. I'm sure Apple will come out with a software update to address this.
I am glad they at least got some logs from you. I was hoping they would ask the same from me and so far no go. I even contacted eero and their suggestion was to swap my gateway eero with another node. Since I have even tried with a last generation AirPort Extreme with separate SSIDs and still saw issues staying connected to 5 GHz even when the RSSI was good. Almost like it’s setting an artificially high RSSI threshold before it drops the connection.
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I have had a 2nd device and it has same issues.
I use EERO too and it’s rock solid WiFi throughout my entire house. Best signals I have ever gotten on a WiFi network. All apple devices connect properly to 5ghz band except the 2 XS Max’s we have. If right next to the node for 5-10min, it will usually connect to 5ghz but once I leave that area it drops to 2.4ghz. All other apple devices maintain 5ghz no matter where I walk or with changing nodes.
In my case, 5ghz gets great speeds. I just can’t keep it connected to that band.