How to fix Xfinity Wi-Fi issues with iPhone 16 Pro Max?

Flatfoot6150 wrote:

Tried that on the original phone 6 months old and the replacement phone 3 weeks old. No change.

What does that mean? You do have a VPN profile on your iPhone or you don't have one?

Do you experience the same problem on other wireless networks?

Have you tried resetting the network settings after removing the VPN?

If all else fails, back up the phone, put it into recovery mode, restore iOS (but not your backup) and set it up from scratch. If the problem persists, I would have to assume that the problem lies in the Xfinity hardware.

If it does work at the point, I'd say re-sync your iCloud data and re-load your apps from the App Store rather than restoring the backup. Do NOT re-install the VPN at all.

There is another post I read about making sure the Xfinity router is set to WPA3 personal transition mode in the WiFi settings. Mine was already set to that. I toggled it to WPA3 (without the transition) just to see if that helps and I don’t think it has.

i also read something about the pods not supporting wifi6 which could be the issue? If my iPhone is using wifi6 when connecting to the router but then can’t transition to WiFi 5 when trying to connect to the pod. That seems like maybe the iPhone should see that the WiFi has been lost and then try multiple methods to reconnect? I get the feeling newer Apple devices are trying to always use the same protocol on the same SSID and since the router and pod are using different protocols, the iPhone won’t connect to the pod unless you forget the connection and reconnect to force the iPhone to try using wifi5. So either the pods need to support wifi6 of iPhones need to have a better method to transition to access points using different protocols. Also I could have the details wrong and it could be WPA3 vs WPA2 on the routers and pods…

Sorry, I've been searching the internet for a fix, and I have been reading things on both Apple and Xfinity sites, and others. Apparently, I forgot which site I was on lol. I tried to see if I could edit my post, but I can't figure out how to get it to let me edit it. I'm so frustrated at this whole thing, I just want someone, anyone to fix it!

While this is an Apple forum, so we shouldn’t be asking Xfinity for a fix, I think the trouble may lie with the newer Apple devices. My older gen iPad seamlessly connects to my Xfinity pod. However, my iPhone 16 will not. I think that the Xfinity XB8 and gen2 pod combo creates a certain situation that the newer Apple devices can’t negotiate correctly.

I think the next thing I will try is to disable WIFI6 for my WiFi network on the iPhone. From settings->wifi, select the info button next to name of home network, then change wifi6e mode to off. Will report back if that does anything

Oh wait! I remember what I did that may have fixed it for me!

I logged into the router at 10.0.0.1

Then selected Connection in the left bar

Then found the Wireless Network (Wi-Fi 6 GHz) and hit edit

Set 6GHz to be inactive.

Ever since then, my phone happily migrates between the Router and Pods probably because it isn't switching from 6GHz connection on the router to 5GHz on the pod.

Just reporting back that disabling the WiFi 6Ghz band in the router has kept my iPhone happily migrating between the router and pod. Maybe not an ideal fix but much better than the previous issue of being disconnected all the time.

By chance do you use a VPN on your iPhone? If yes, they are completely not needed and often cause connectivity with WIFI issues. Unless absolutely required by your employer or school, don't just turn it off, remove the VPN profile completely in Settings > General > VPN & Device Managment.

Flatfoot6150 wrote:

And no issues on WiFi with my phone outside of my home when connected to Xfinity.

Well, that just about guarantees that the problem is with your home router or its internet connection.

I have been trying to solve this issue for months with no luck. What I can tell you for certain is there is an incompatibility with my iPhone 16 pro max and the new Xfinity router/pods. Everything was working fine for me with my previous Xfinity router and then they sent me the new one. I re-added the pod and even went a bought another pod to test that and the same issue happens every day. When I am near the router, my wifi connection on the phone is strong. As soon as I head downstairs and lose connection to the router, the phone fails to connect to the pod that is down here (and shows as strong connection in the xfinity app). If I try to manually join the wifi SSD I get an "unable to join" message. I have to manually remove the wifi connection on the iphone and rejoin. Then everything is fine until I go back upstairs and come back down - and then rinse and repeat.

I spent hours with xfinity support to no avail. I will prob end up getting a mesh router again and see if that works as expected as this is such a waste of time. I have tried switching WPA settings on the router from 2 to 3 and 3 transition. no difference so far. I have tried turning off that iphone setting that switches to Cell data when the wifi signal gets low(Wifi-assist). For a minute I thought that was it! But no. It has been off for a while and issue still happens every day.

It seems there is a protocol issue somewhere that doesn't like iphone 15/16 and the new Xfinity router as far as Wifi transition (mesh hand-off) goes. I don't know the correct terms as I am not a network engineer.

Oh my gosh! It's not just me!! I have been struggling with this on my iphone 16 pro and it's driving me insane!!!!!! If I am in my home office right next to the Xfinity router I am fine. But if I walk to another room, and this is frustrating because I have xfi pods all around my house, my calls drop! It is such a pain! Everyone in my family thought I was nuts, but I feel so better that I'm not, lol! But I am aggravated that there is no fix for this. And I'm mad that Xfinity is trying to say it is not their router, which I know for a fact it has to be because my phone doesn't do this anywhere else, but at home. In fact at times if I know I have to make an important call and I'm like in the kitchen, I'll put my iphone on cell service and my calls don't drop. But what a pain that is, and if someone calls me it's on the wifi and hard to turn off while talking to someone. Xfinity PLEASE acknowledge and fix this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!