Is Your iPhone’s Wi-Fi Not Working? We’ll Help You Fix It

Having Wi-Fi problems on your iPhone? We certainly feel your pain. There are a number of troubleshooting steps you can try out if your iPhone Wi-Fi is not working, none of which require any technical knowledge whatsoever. Each solution only takes a few minutes to complete, so you’ll be able to go through this entire list in no time.

There is nothing new about the problem of Wi-Fi not working on iPhone as it has been experienced on almost all iPhone models. The issue has affected many iPhone models, including iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6S, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X, iPhone XR, iPhone XS, XS Max, iPhone 11, 11 Pro, 11 Pro Max, iPhone 12, 12 mini, 12 Pro, 12 Pro Max, iPhone 13, 13 mini, 13 Pro, 13 Pro Max, iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 14 Pro Max and iPhone SE.

We’ve listed a few of the most common fixes below, which should hopefully solve your iPhone Wi-Fi issues. Let’s get started.

How to Fix iPhone Wi-Fi Not Working Issue

Here are some time-tested solutions to fix the Wi-Fi connectivity problems on your iPhone.

1. Are you in range?

A lot of the time, your router’s signal may be poor. If your home or office has a lot of metal, walls, or other objects that could interfere with wireless signals, then you might have a shorter range bubble than you think.

You can check your signal by looking in the Status Bar – three Wi-Fi bars is optimal, two is okay, and one is poor. Sometimes, you might have none at all and it’ll show LTE, 5G, 4G, 3G or E instead; this indicates you’re on a cellular network instead of a Wi-Fi network.

When your signal is too poor, your iPhone will have trouble transmitting data back and forth with the router, and so you want to make sure you’re close enough to the wireless router to do so.

If you’re not in range, try getting closer to the wireless router and see if your iPhone Wi-Fi connectivity problems disappear. If not, move on to the next step.

2. Toggle your Wi-Fi off and on again

Whether your iPhone cannot connect to Wi-Fi at all or your Wi-Fi connection keeps dropping, toggling the Wi-Fi connection is known to be effective in many cases. I know this sounds obvious, but you’ll be surprised how often turning Wi-Fi off and then back on again will troubleshoot your iPhone Wi-Fi problems.

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Next, tap Wi-Fi.
3. Finally, tap the Wi-Fi On/Off Switch twice. Once to turn it off and another time to turn it back on.

3. restart your router

Restarting your router is yet another quick fix for Wi-Fi problems. Just as you reboot your iPhone frequently to ensure optimum performance, a simple restart will cool down your router and resolve the underlying issue.

The steps below will help you accomplish this efficiently.

1. Turn your router off by pressing the off button.
2. Now unplug all the cables connected to your router
3. Wait for a couple of minutes
4. Reconnect all the cables
5. Turn your router on.

If everything is plugged in, but Wi-Fi is not working on your iPhone, try the next step.

4. Restart your iPhone

If restarting the router didn’t solve your iPhone Wi-Fi problems, then rebooting your phone might help.

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Go into General.
3. Tap Shut Down.
4. When the power off slider appears, drag it from left to right to turn off the phone.
5. To turn your iPhone back on, press and hold the Side/power button once again until the Apple logo appears.

5. Have you logged on to the network?

You may have accessed the Wi-Fi network, but you will need to enter a password if your Wi-Fi network is protected with a security key. In most cases, you’re asked to enter the security key the moment you join a secured network.

In other cases, you might be accessing a Wi-Fi network where you need to open Safari on your device and try to load a website. When you do, you’ll be redirected to a login portal. These kinds of networks are common in schools, colleges, and institutions.

Once you’re all logged on to the Wi-Fi network, try to use it again and see if you have complete internet access.

If password entry wasn’t the root of your problems, continue on to the next step.

6. Forget WiFi Network and Rejoin

If your iPhone can’t connect to a WiFi network and are prompted that the password you’ve entered is incorrect despite entering the correct password, try to forget the WiFi network and join it again.

To forget the WiFi network, follow the steps below:

1. Launch the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Go into Wi-Fi.
3. Tap on your WiFi network from the list.
4. Tap Forget This Network. You’ll be prompted with a popup message asking you if you want to forget the WiFi Network.
5. Tap Forget to forget the network.

Now go back to Settings > Wi-Fi, select the network again, enter the password, and Join the network again to see if it helps.

7. Disable Wi-Fi Assist

The iPhone includes a WiFi Assist feature, which provides more reliable Internet connections when your WiFi network becomes spotty. This feature could do more harm than good in many cases and cause WiFi issues on your iPhone.

To turn off WiFi Assist:

1. Launch the Settings app.
2. Navigate to Cellular (Mobile in some regions)
3. Scroll down to the bottom where you will see WiFi Assist. Tap on the toggle to turn it off.

8. Disable VPN

If you use a VPN to browse anonymously then you should know that all VPNs slow down internet speed to some extent. VPN route the traffic through their servers and also encrypt and decrypt data in real-time. This leads to slower processing as your internet needs to deal with more data. If a VPN is enabled on your iPhone, open the VPN app and turn it off. Alternatively, follow the steps below:

1. Launch the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Toggle off the VPN switch.

9. Update iOS

When it comes to diving into more troubleshooting, one step is to double-check and make sure that your software is up to date. This is especially true as of late, as Apple has been releasing some “point” updates at a more frequent pace. Here’s how to check your software:

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Go into General.
3. Select Software Update.
4. If an update is available, download it and then once prompted, install the update.

Another reason for this is if you happen to be on the iOS beta cycle, as releases are coming even more frequently than the stable releases. So it’s important to make sure that your iPhone is up to date, as there could be some bugs wreaking havoc.

10. Set Date and Time on Your iPhone

This one might sound weird, but believe it or not, improperly set time and date can cause several issues with iPhone, including wi-fi problems.

So, you need to make sure that you select the accurate region and set the Date and Time correctly. To do this, follow the steps below:

1. Launch Settings.
2. Go into General.
3. Tap Date and Time.
4. Switch on the toggle next to Set Automatically.

11. Reset network settings

This option is something you should definitely try when having Wi-Fi issues on your iPhone 14 Pro Max. It will restore the network settings to factory defaults. Follow the steps below:

1. Head to Settings.
2. Tap General.
3. Select Transfer or Reset iPhone.
4. Choose Reset
5. Tap Reset network settings
6. You will have to enter your passcode
7. Tap Reset network settings.

12. Reach out for help

If you’ve done all this and Wi-Fi is not working on your iPhone, it might be time to contact either your ISP (who manages your internet), or Apple support. Chances are they will confirm whether you have performed a series of steps to try and get your iPhone back in working order. Be sure to share all of the steps that you took if asked, as it will help the Support Team to determine what route to take.

Successfully fixed iPhone Wi-Fi problems

These are the best solutions for your iPhone Wi-Fi problems. If you are still experiencing Wi-Fi problems on your iPhone, drop a comment and let us know.