iPhone 16/16 Pro/iPad Air (M3): WiFi Drops Sporadically

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iPhone 16/16 Pro/iPad Air (M3): WiFi Drops Sporadically

I have dozens of devices on our home network (Orbi) and only the new iPhones and iPads have this issue with dropping the connection continuously.

I also see some people on the Xfinity forum reporting the same thing, so it is not specific to Orbi networks.

We have older iPads that work fine as do our PCs and dozens of IoT devices. Something seems broken with the newer Apple devices WIFI.

Additionally, these problems started sometime around mid-April. I hope this is something Apple is aware of and is fixing - ASAP.

Posted on Jun 11, 2025 11:59 AM

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Answer 1

Jun 11, 2025 12:29 PM in response to stevepow

First: Restart your router; it may have run out of IP addresses.

Do you have a 3rd party VPN installed, even if you are not using it? If so, delete the VPN profile in Settings/General/VPN & Device Management/VPN. Don't just turn it off; delete the profile. If that fixes it, you can try reinstalling VPN.

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Answer 2

stevepow Author

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Jun 11, 2025 01:17 PM in response to Lawrence Finch

There are people on both the Orbi and Xfinity forums with this issue....at least and another thread on here about was closed with no solution.

It's not a simple fix or even a not so simple fix - I wish a reboot or VPN (I don't use one) was a solution. I think an Apple update in the Spring broke it.

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Answer 3

Jun 11, 2025 02:27 PM in response to stevepow

OK, but why didn’t it break millions of other iPads; only yours?

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Answer 4

stevepow Author

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Jun 11, 2025 03:46 PM in response to Lawrence Finch

eh..."There are people on both the Orbi and Xfinity forums with this issue"...

Not sure if you are trying to be helpful or simply contrary.

My first inclination was to find out if it was a "me" issue or if others were seeing the same and if they knew of any workarounds. Yes and potentially Yes.

FWIW, only my new iPad Air(M3) has the issue - older iPads (I only have two, not millions, but it's valid subset of millions I suppose), including older iPhones, seem unaffected.

The current thought is there is an issue with WIFI routers set to "(WPA2-PSK + WPA3-Personal)" security and a suggested workaround is to set it to WPA3 only. I think that may cause issues with my other devices that don't support WPA3, but worth a try to isolate the issue - and maybe move those other devices to another SSID with WPA2. Will test this and report back when I get a chance.

So the number of people with newer Apple devices and newer WIFI routers that support WPA3 may be relatively small compared to "millions" of everything else. Bleeding edge sometimes means a bit of bleeding. We'll see. :)

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iPhone 16/16 Pro/iPad Air (M3): WiFi Drops Sporadically

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