IOS 14 WiFi
Your case in particular points very strongly at an issue with the environment where you are using the devices - I would bet that you have a WiFi interference problem rather than a problem with the devices.
In my case it was a rogue Sky Q box - in your case it could be a different source for the problem (maybe not a WiFi device but some other source of radio interference) but that is almost certainly, in my view, where your problems will lie.
1) I have a large Apple ecosystem in my house and I had none of these issues when all devices were on iOS 13. By the time I noticed the issue all devices except an old iPhone 7 were on iOS 14 and all except that old iPhone 7 that was on iOS 13 were experiencing this issue. I used that old iPhone for a couple of days and it didn’t drop WiFi in my house one single time. I then upgraded it to iOS 14.X and within 2 minutes of sitting idle on my desk it had dropped WiFi. Just like all my other iPhones and iPads it wouldn’t automatically reconnect without me manually connecting to the WiFi network. It has continued that behavior ever since.
2) I was using an aging Apple AirPort Extreme setup (3 units) and wondered if something was wrong with it so I bought an eero pro 6 setup and no difference. And if the sequence of events matters, I did this before testing that old iOS 13 device.
3) None of my Mac mini’s or MacBooks have this issue. I can walk around the house with the MacBooks and they seamlessly move between the mesh routers with no WiFi drops. My two youngest use Amazon Fire tablets (I’d rather they use iPads but Apple limits family sharing to 6 people), and those devices have never once dropped WiFi. I also have four HomePods in the house and none of those have ever dropped WiFi either. Oddly enough the four Apple TV’s upstairs that use WiFi wouldn’t stay connected to WiFi immediately after upgrading to iOS 14 but then the WiFi dropping stopped at some point but I’m not sure when. A month or so later I think.
4) My father in law has an iPhone still on iOS 13 and I get notified that he’s connected to my WiFi network the second they pull into the driveway. My iPhone almost never automatically connects to my WiFi without me manually connecting it.
5) Read this thread. Some of the issues are different but many of them are this same exact issue.
All of this points to iOS 14. I would LOVE for it to be something else but I can’t imagine that all of this is a coincidence. Apple made a lot of changes to WiFi in iOS 14 and somewhere in there they introduced a power saving change or something else that has manifested itself in this way at my house.
after 14.5.1 my iPhone will not connect to my wifi.
it is pretty bad ever since iOS 14.
thanks for the great product Apple. 👍🏻
after 14.5.1 my iPhone will not connect to my wifi.
it is pretty bad ever since iOS 14.
thanks for the great product Apple. 👍🏻
I was on IOS 14 before my wife and she just upgraded and of course she started having the issue.
Get it together Apple :)
Checking mobile data logs, it's clear that although connected to wifi, the phone is downloading over 4G network.
iCloud still refuses to backup.
Same for all phones and iPads in the household with Asus router.
How come this is not fixed after such a long time?
Today I changed my WiFi Router’s WPA 2 Key Regeneration from the default value of 3600 seconds to the max allowable value of 36000 seconds (10 Hours).
Today, I have not had any issues with my iPhone’s WiFi being connected or communicating. For the first time since updating my iPhone to IOS 14, it has worked exactly as expected.
I am not joking around when I say that as of all day today May 22nd, 2021, I never had to turn my WiFi off and on during any part of the day.
Yesterday I experimented with a shorter Key Regeneration timing value below the default of 3600 to only 900. That caused the problem to get much worse on my IOS 14 iPhone. However all my other computers / devices on WiFi still worked as expected.
For everyone:
When Encryption Keys on both ends don’t match, the end result is that WiFi can show that it is connected, but it will never send or receive any data due to a encryption / decryption failure!
The first wifi encryption key negotiation happens during the initial wifi connection. After that, the wifi connection is maintained by the encryption key regeneration timing cycle value which is configured on your WiFi router.
This totally explains why if we turn WiFi off and on, it reconnects and works until the next time.
Again, I only have this issue with IOS 14 devices.
I have no idea what the IOS 14 default is or what the compatibility is for supporting a router’s Key Regeneration minimums or maximums.
I believe more people should try and confirm that changing the Key Regeneration value on their WiFi routers fixes all these IOS 14 WiFi issues.
Also, please note that I believe that changing the Key Generation timing to a higher value than the router’s default is very much less secure. This may give a snoop more time to listen with a recently captured key set.
Hopefully a new IOS update can be created to properly work with WiFi Routers that frequently regenerate the encryption keys.
WiFi Group Key Interval, or Key Regeneration
The default interval in seconds is oddly different for many Wireless Router manufacturers.
Many default to:
3600 seconds (1 hour)
1800 seconds (30 minutes)
86400 seconds (24 hours)
0 seconds (not enabled)
and sometimes
Key Regeneration not enabled by default
After reading through many manufacturers websites, manuals, forums, etc
They all suggested disabling Group Key Regeneration to prevent issues with all apple products including iphones, ipads, and mac books.
Some routers have a check box to uncheck.
Other routers have either a minimum or maximum key interval value.
Setting that value to zero or the max may also disable the key regeneration interval on some wireless routers or wifi access points.
No more turn off and turn on WiFi anymore …. :)
First, yes IOS 14 now includes a private WiFi MAC address feature. So if you are filtering by MAC, resolve that issue first. Then if you are like many others still having issues, read the rest of my post.
Turning the WiFi off and on, was the original symptom.
WPA Key Regeneration timing interval was entirely the cause of the WiFi issues.
It also appears some new wireless routers have this feature disabled / not checked / zero or max by default now.
Since basically disabling the above feature on my WiFi router, I have had no more issues and it cost me nothing to login to the WiFi router and turn the feature off.
I am sure some big company could just sell you another new wireless router that fixes all these problems simply by turning off the same common feature by default to be more compatible with all the iPhones and iPads. $$$
For those of you who tried switching back to WEP security, the reason it worked, WEP security keys were static and there was no random number generator that rotates the security keys.
WPA2 now negotiates the pre shared key and then generates another random secret key to continue talking. The first negotiation seems to work just fine. After that, the group key regeneration timing value set by the wireless router starts to cycle and rotates the keys and that is when you will notice problems with your IOS 14 devices.
Disable the group key regeneration interval and the problem goes away.
Now on to the bigger question, why has this not been addressed in the IOS 14 WiFi drivers? Is it a compatibility issue with older wifi routers or do Apple products not support this feature? (Group Key Interval)
Does anyone know what the default value is on the new Apple Airport Express / Extreme wireless base stations?
The problem is that sometimes the wifi can't be "toggled". Even with the aformentioned solution, my iphone wont always find the wifi and then I have to reboot it. So no that's not the entire solution to the problem.
It has been a week and no issues after disabling WPA Key Regeneration timing interval This was entirely the cause of the WiFi issues.
If you are having problems with your iphone finding your Wifi, that is a totally different issue. You either have a bad wifi router, or the other most common problem, wifi frequency conflict. Relocate your router to the center of your home so that you have better signal strength throughout your home. Otherwise if you and your neighbor have the wifi routers on the same side of the house and they are on conflicting frequency channel, they will both be competing and the phone can’t distinguish them apart. Think of it like this, frequencies are either different or the same. If they are the same, they take turns sharing, if you neighbor is on the same frequency, and your wifi access points are to close, the sharing part is more difficult to do because of the signal strength being to strong and to close. Move them further apart. It does wonders.
More research information about having to turn WiFi off and On.
I am having no more issues after disabling the WiFi Group Key Interval on my Router.
However, others are now providing additional information from their wireless router debug logs to indicate their apple devices are generating error logs in their WiFi Router at the configured Interval.
The recorded error is this:
WPA: received EAPOL-Key with invalid MIC
This is an error from the wireless router that is generated by the client (apple device).
It appears that turning off the Group Key Interval is a work around to prevent clients from trying to rekey the encryption which avoids these types of errors with apple devices.
To prove this issue with IOS 14, I conducted another experiment.
My WiFi Router supports 4 virtual access points.
I disabled the Group Key Interval on one of the four virtual access points.
I reduced the Group Key Interval on the other three virtual access points to either 10 or 15 minutes.
IOS 14 connected to the same WiFi router on virtual access point one with disabled group key interval never has any more WiFi issues.
The IOS 14 devices connected to the same exact WiFi router on any of the virtual access points with a reduced group key interval have the WiFi problem way more often.
The WiFi problems with the IOS 14 devices on any access point with Group Key Interval enabled continue to have problems while IOS 14 devices on virtual access points with Group Key Interval disabled work exactly as expected.
When Group Key Interval disabled, set to zero, or Max Time, the IOS 14 devices never have any more WiFi Issues.
This experiment was done on the same wireless router using 4 different virtual access points to prove a point.
During these research experiments, none of the other wireless devices, laptops, computers, etc, had any WiFi issues regardless of changing these settings to on or off, high or low. It only affected apple IOS 14 devices.
My ios 14 problem doesnt revolve around only toggling wifi on and off. Sometimes the wifi cannot be toggled as I said. It is completely grayed out and cannot be selected. Then I have to restart my phone numerous times and if I am lucky the wifi will be fine for a while. Now this doesnt happen with an old iphone that I have which still carries an ios 12 or sth. I have already tried everything including your solution and it simply didnt work. So there is more to that. I expect from more people here to try it out and tell us what they discovered.