Installed iOS 14 on your iPhone and now facing Wi-Fi connectivity issues? While Apple has not made any Wi-Fi-related changes in iOS 14, it is quite common for a major software update to bring some connectivity issues. If your iPhone cannot connect to a Wi-Fi network, dropping the connection to one, or if Wi-Fi speeds are being extremely slow, check out some tips to help solve the problem.

The tips below will work even if you face Wi-Fi connectivity issues with future releases of iOS 14. These Wi-Fi-related issues are also quite common on new iPhones or if you have just installed a new Wi-Fi router in your home.

How to Fix Wi-Fi Issues in iOS 14 – iOS 14.7.1 on Your iPhone

Here are some time-tested solutions to fix the Wi-Fi issues on your iPhone after upgrading to iOS 14 – iOS 14.7.1.

1. Restart Router

Before we look at troubleshooting the issue on your iPhone running iOS 14 – iOS 14.7.1, let us do some basic troubleshooting at the router level. It has helped resolve the issue for several readers.

Restart your router and try connecting your iPhone or iPad again to see if it resolves the issue.

The router is like a mini-computer with a CPU, memory, and local storage in the plastic box, running in an operating system. So like a computer, restarting your router can resolve the problem. It is also recommended to wait for 10 seconds after you have turned off your router before restarting it to Ensure that every capacitor is fully drained, and thus every bit of memory is cleared. This ensures that all the settings on the router that may be causing the issue are reset.

2. Update Router Firmware

Update your router’s firmware to ensure that the known bugs have been fixed. This should be done regularly as firmware updates for your Wi-Fi router can improve its performance or fix bugs and security issues.

3. Auto Connect Problem

If you have connected your iPhone to a Wi-Fi network, then it should ideally connect to that network automatically when you are in its range. Suppose your iPhone is not automatically connecting to the WiFi network, and you need to connect to it manually. In that case, you might want to check if the Auto-Join setting is enabled by launching the Settings app and navigating to Wi-Fi > <Name of the WiFi Network with which you are facing the problem> and check if Auto-Join toggle is enabled. If it is already enabled, then you can try the solutions mentioned below.

4. Hard Reset or Force Restart

Like all tech problems, there is no harm in starting off by force restarting or hard resetting your iPhone or iPad to see it helps.

• On iPhone 11/Pro, iPhone XS, iPhone XR, iPhone X, iPhone 8/Plus, press and quickly release the Volume Up button. Press and quickly release the Volume Down button. Then press and hold the Side button until you see the Apple logo.
• On iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus, press and hold both the Side and Volume Down buttons for at least 10 seconds until you see the Apple logo.
• On iPhone 6s and older, iPad, or iPod touch; press and hold both the Home and the Top (or Side) buttons for at least 10 seconds until you see the Apple logo.
• On iPad Pro 11-inch or iPad Pro 12.9-inch, press and quickly release the Volume Up button. Press and quickly release the Volume Down button. Then press and hold the Power button until the device restarts.

5. Disable VPN

One of the most common reasons that seem to cause WiFi issues is VPN. If you have enabled it via the Settings app or a VPN app, then try to disable VPN to see if it resolves the issue. You can disable VPN via the Settings app and navigate to the VPN settings to disable the Status toggle from Connected to Not Connected. If you are not able to disable it, then launch the VPN app to disable VPN temporarily to figure out if it resolves the WiFi problem on your iPhone or iPad.

6. Forget Wi-Fi Network and Rejoin

If you’re not able to connect to a Wi-Fi Network and being prompted that the password you’ve entered is incorrect despite entering the correct password, then try to forget the Wi-Fi network and join the network again.

To forget the Wi-Fi network, tap on the Wi-Fi network from the list under Settings > Wi-Fi. Then tap on Forget This Network. You will be prompted with a popup message asking you if you want to forget Wi-Fi Network. Tap Forget to forget the network.

Now go back to Settings > Wi-Fi, select the network again, enter the password, and join the network again to see if it helps.

7. Reset Network Settings

Most networking-related issues I’ve experienced have been fixed after resetting network settings. Resetting these settings flushes caches and clears DHCP settings and other networking-related info. To reset network settings, open the Settings app and navigate to Settings > General > Reset and tap on Reset Network Settings.

8. Disable Wi-Fi Networking Services

Many users generally tend to solve the Wi-Fi issues on their iPhone by disabling Wi-Fi Networking under Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services. This only relates to your location being used for Wi-Fi Networking, so it doesn’t disable Wi-Fi entirely.

9. Set Custom DNS

If you find your WiFi connection is slow on your iPhone, then it is possible that your ISPs DNS servers are having problems. You can switch to Google DNS, Cloudflare, or OpenDNS to see if it fixes the problem. You can follow the instructions in our post linked below to change your DNS settings to Google or Cloudflare DNS.

• How to change the DNS server on your iPhone and iPad
• How to Use Cloudflare DNS on your iPhone and iPad

10. Ask To Join Network

This is not an ideal solution, but if none of the solutions mentioned above work, then you can try enabling “Ask to Join Networks” by going to Settings > Wi-Fi. If it works, you can try disabling it again after a few days or weeks to see if the problem crops up again or not.

10. Wi-Fi Assist

iOS includes a feature called Wi-Fi Assist, which provides more reliable Internet connections when your WiFi network becomes spotty. However, this can cause issues, particularly if your ISP has patchy connectivity. So, it is best that you turn off Wi-Fi Assist by going to the Settings app and navigating to Cellular (Mobile in some regions). From there, scroll down to the bottom, where you will see Wi-Fi Assist. Tap on the toggle to turn it off.

11. Restore and Setup as new iPhone

If none of these tips fix your issues, the last resort is to restore your iPhone via iTunes and set it up as a new device. This way, you start afresh and get rid of possibly problematic customizations and settings on your device. Follow the instructions in the post linked below to do a clean restore to the latest version of iOS via iTunes.

➤ How to restore your iPhone or iPad with iTunes

Drop a comment and let us know if the above tips help in fixing the Wi-Fi issues on your iPhone running iOS 14 – iOS 14.7.1 or not.

This article was last updated on August 2, 2021.