WiFi to iPhone 7 with iOS 13 Will Not Stay Connected to T3200M Router

[RonAKA]

Have had an ongoing problem with all versions of iOS 13 on my iPhone 7 dropping my home WiFi connection. My recollection is that this issue has started with the "upgrade" to iOS 13 and was not a problem with iOS 12.4.1. I have tried all the usual tricks like rebooting the router, resetting the phone, and resetting the phone network connections. Rebooting the router seems to give some temporary relief, but the problem comes back. I currently can't get much more than hour without the connection dropping out. I am currently using iOS 13.2.2, which is the latest version at this point. 

Any suggestions as to what to try? I keep reporting it as a bug to Apple, but so far nothing has changed from iOS 13.1, 13.1.1, 13.1.2, 13.1.3, 13.2, and now 13.2.2. When I go to WiFi on the phone it shows the correct network connected, and when you go in, it shows a checkmark like it is valid and working, but it is not. The workaround I have discovered is to simply turn off WiFi and turn it back on again. It immediately connects to the WiFi -- for another hour or so... I am at the point that I am resolved to do this before any attempt to use anything that requires WiFi.

[xray · Accepted solution]

Is Smart Steering turned on? If so try turning it off. You will need to create a separate SSID for each WiFi band (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) so keep the SSID for the band used by the most devices and create a new SSID for the other band.

[RonAKA]

I will be frank and admit that I don't understand what you are talking about. We have the T3200M router which feeds our main Telus PVR with wired Ethernet, plus some other Ethernet connections to printers and a computer. It also feeds a satellite wireless TV box, plus a number of other wireless devices including my iPhone. I have no idea what they are using for connection. My WiFi is a hidden network so when I connect something new, I have to manually identify it and enter the password. Generally everything stays connected fine, except for my iPhone since iOS 13. Can you or someone else give me a little more info on what my options are. 

[WestCoasterBC]

Same process as located here but disabling not enabling. You will then have two separate SSID a 2.4ghz and 5ghz network. If you disable smart steering try connecting to the 2.4ghz network and see if that makes your phone stable.

[RonAKA]

I guess I am wondering what happens when I Disable SmartSteering. What will I be presented with for options?

[WestCoasterBC]

You will simply then have two SSID with your network name. (what ever you network name is) 5ghz and 2.4ghz. Some devices you may have to re-enter a password but should not have to. Only if you want to connect to the newly created SSID. TV side will not be effected making the change.

[xray]

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@RonAKA wrote:

I guess I am wondering what happens when I Disable SmartSteering. What will I be presented with for options?

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Take inventory of all your devices and count how many are 2.4 GHZ only vs 5 GHz. Keep your current SSID for the frequency that has the most devices to minimize the number of devices you need switch to the other frequency.

[RonAKA]

How do I tell which ones are on 2.4 GHz vs which ones are on 5 GHz? I see a list of devices and you can tell which ones appear to be hard wired (full duplex) and which ones are wireless, but how do you tell what wireless frequency they are using? And with SmartSteering, I presume that changes?

[RonAKA]

I never did figure out what they were on, but I disabled SmartSteering, and then renamed the default 5G SSID to my old single network name so everything currently connected went to it. Renamed the 2.4G network to Guest with a new password. I guess our next Guest will find out of that one works!! 

Not sure this is going to solve my iOS 13 iPhone issue. We will see. About all I can see that will have changed is that the iPhone (along with everything else) is now forced on 5G. 

[xray]

I guess you'll find out soon enough whether you have any devices and can only connect to 2.4 GHz.

As for the iPhone connetion issues, the reason for turning off smart steering is that there are reports that iOS does't handle the automatic switching between 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz well.

[RonAKA]

Well, it has been about 2 hours and my iPhone 7 currently on iOS 13.2.3 has dropped out. This does not appear to be a solution to my problem. Perhaps it is a iOS bug that I will have to just wait for Apple to fix, or at the rate they are going, never fix. 

[xray]

You are not the only one with this iOS 13.2.3 WiFi issue:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ios/comments/e1hfuz/is_it_just_me_or_are_there_major_wifi_problems_on/

[RonAKA]

The strange part of it is that if I just look at my iPhone, it shows the WiFi is connected to my specific WiFi network, but it is not. All it takes is to turn WiFi off for a few seconds, and then turn it back on again to let it reconnect. Then I am connected again for an hour or so. 

I just tried a couple of the other frequently suggested "solutions" which is to power down the router and then power it back up again. I also Reset the Network setting on my iPhone. In the past this has worked for longer -- like a day or so. We'll see this time. If this fails, I guess I can connect my iPhone to the 2.4G network, and see if that is the silver bullet...

[buckycat]

Had the same issue with our Apple devices I gave up on the TELUS Wi-Fi and using my own router now with no issues. It fixed the dropouts and issues with wireless printing.

[Powderjockey]

I don't think the Telus Boost is ready for Prime Time. I don't think I would recommend it to anyone.  Very disappointed in it.

[NFtoBC]

@buckycat 

I found the issue was resolved on the T3200M by using the Boost Wifi devices, as they appear to the router as an Ethernet-connected device, rather than wireless. There does appear a disconnect between the wireless side of the T3200M and the wired side, preventing Wi-Fi devices to talk to your wired network.

[RonAKA]

After separating the 2.4G and 5G bands and moving all of our connections to the 5G yesterday afternoon, and then doing a Network Reset on my iPhone and powering down the router and back up again, there have been no dropouts of my WiFi. I did power the iPhone right off overnight, but it has been on today since 8:00 AM, and is still OK. That is the good news. The bad news is that I have gone this long before after doing the network reset and power down of the router trick, but it never seems to "stick" long term. Will be interesting to see if it does this time...

Any thoughts on what the power down of the router and network reset on my iPhone would be doing? And even more importantly why it may not "stick" as a permanent solution?

[RonAKA]

Well it has been 4 days now and no real dropouts of my WiFi. I did get a short delay once today, but it connected. It looks like the combination of disabling the SmartSteering and switch my network SSID to the 5G band may have solved the problem, after I powered down and powered up the router, and reset the network settings on my iPhone, in addition to resetting the band. I'm hoping!

[RonAKA]

I have dug a little deeper and determined that SmartSteering is enabled. My question now would be how I can go from essentially one merged 2.4 and 5 speed to two separate ones. I'm a little worried I might mess things up, and especially the TV...

[RonAKA]

Well, my dropout plague has returned. The change to 5G, router reboot, and network settings purge fix seems only temporary. I've kind of resolved I have to turn off my WiFi and back on again every time I want to use WiFi. Seems to be the only reliable solution. Such a pain in the butt. 

[xray]

Do you have any non-Apple devices? Are you experiencing dropout on those?