iPadOS 26.1 – iPads lose internet connection and stop checking in to Intune after reboot

Thanks Paul, just wanted to confirm that we've just tested this on our devices too, and allowing Defender to be visible appears to resolve the issue.

If you're using Intune and you can push the change our quickly, some devices are still checking in and getting the update. However if you've got the no internet connectivity message on the device already then it is a wipe/reenrol to fix unfortunately.

Done the same and just made Defender and the app I wanted to be in Kiosk Mode visible on the iPad, which works fine — but as soon as you put the device into Kiosk Mode, it does the same again. Looks like Kiosk Mode is completely broken at the minute, so as a workaround you can lock the iPad down to be as restricted as possible without using the Kiosk setting in the configuration.

Update - I have excluded Defender from installing on the Kiosk devices altogether and have my device working in Kiosk mode

We’re seeing the same issue across our managed iPads since updating to iPadOS 26.1.

All of our devices are also enrolled in Microsoft Intune without user affinity (set up as kiosk mode devices). After the update, everything works fine initially — the iPads connect to Wi-Fi, check in to Intune, and apply policies normally.

The problem only starts once the device is restarted. After a reboot, it loses all network connectivity — it won’t connect to Wi-Fi or mobile data — and as a result, it stops checking in to Intune. The only way to bring it back online is to wipe and re-enrol the device, but the same issue reappears after the next restart.

It looks like the iPad is retaining the Wi-Fi configuration but failing to actually connect, possibly due to how iPadOS 26.1 is handling Wi-Fi profiles or kiosk mode connectivity.

Would be good to know if anyone has found a workaround or if Apple or Microsoft have acknowledged this as a known issue yet.

Currently we have no get around and have a huge amount of devices out in the wild.

We tested with some iPads running 26.0.1 and they were working fine could access the internet. As soon as we update to 26.1 internet access stops working.

We have wiped a device running 26.1 and re enrolled however the device still has no access to the internet so we are basically stuck with a bunch of bricked devices.

Happened to us as well across hundreds of enterprise enrolled Apple iPads in Microsoft In-Tune. To make matters worse, the Windows 11 25H2 Apple Device APP used to restore the iPads from their broken WIFI state ends up bricking the IPAD further as the restore fails around 50% with the following error. The iPad could not be restored. An unknown error occurred (1109). 06B4.0000. The only way to recover from this is to place the Ipad into DFU mode and restore the image using a MAC laptop. Apple should accept all these broken devices back and re-issue us new devices for the amount of time it takes to restore these units. Everything was working just fine for us up until IOS update 26.1. Not a very happy customer.

You can boot into DFU mode and restore an image (Downloaded via apples site) by holding the option button then selecting restore however due to our MDM configuration we are unable to do this as the iPads are declining the image.

This is also happening to our devices and they are enrolled with User Affinity. I don't think the enrollment matters in this case. We set the devices to Kiosk mode using different SSIDs in our Intune config and they all stop connecting to WiFi after a reboot. The Ethernet to usb C cable adapter to plug them in hard wired also does not work. We now have a bunch of devices that won't connect to Intune so basically cause they are in Kiosk mode and stuck they are bricked and we have to use a Apple computer to wipe them. We can't roll back these devices to a earlier iOS. Apple need to fix this ASAP!!!

We have this exact issue devices appear to be connected as soon as you upgrade to 26.1 no communication back to the mdm at all an when you go to the internet on the device you are unable to get to anything as if it has no internet

yeah i'm seeing the same issue. Got it into that mode and downloaded iPadOS 26 but it won't allow me to do it, are you doing this from a windows device or a mac? I was doing it from a Windows device so i'm going to take it home and try it on my mac and see if I have better luck.

Are you just accepting this as an Apple issue now and waiting for a resolution? I honestly don't think I can try anything else to prevent this from happening, I have tried everything to get these devices back online and nothing will work.