This specific issue is not related to having a VPN, many of those who have commented mentioned they are not using a VPN. Waiting to see if ios 15.1 will resolve the issue as the patch contains a bug fix for “ipad not finding available wifi networks.”

1 year has passed. iOS 15 is out, and the issue still hasn’t been resolved. I’ve totally lost faith in apple. The suggestion about key interval doesn’t apply to me because my router doesn’t even have that setting option.

This is a known issue with apple products and iOS 14 (all versions of iOS 14 are affected). The programming is defective causing wifi to become unresponsive after placing your device to sleep. There is currently no solution to this problem. Apple has been advised of this issue and has either been unable/unwilling to fix it in a timely manner. The current solution is to continue waiting and hoping apple will release a fix, or you can move to another brand of device. If your device is under warranty maybe you can try demanding a refund since it cannot be fixed.

There are no workaround solutions to the current wifi issue (other than switching to a brand other than apple). This issue has been going on over 6 months and apple has demonstrated that they do not know how to fix the problem. If they did they would have solved it in iOS 14.1,14.2,14.3,14.4 or the 14.5 beta. All of which have defective wifi programming.