Wifi and Bluetooth shot after update?

lytefall

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Both my wife's and my sister in laws iphone 4s's have been repeatedly losing wifi and Bluetooth function after the 7.1.1 update. My wife has had hers replaced twice in one month now and my sister in law 5 times since the 7.1.1 day of release. Every time within a short time frame wifi greys out and stops working and Bluetooth functionality ceases as well.

I haven't updated yet and my 4s is fine. Has anyone else had this issue in these circumstances as well? Looks like I am stuck not updating my iOS for fear of having the same issue. My year is up in 2 weeks. If I do update I have to hope everything fries before that so it's covered. Kinda frustrating.

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kataran

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Very strange behavior you stated a total of five times they replaced the devices is this an Apple store replacement or AppleCare?

What did they say the issue was because this is the first time I've heard of this
 

lytefall

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Both devices (sister in laws X 5 and my wife's X 2) through the apple store. Every time they make an appt, take it in and they look it over, run a diagnostic on it and say "yep the wifi is fried" and hand them a new device. They tell them it's a hardware issue, but both of them have only been experiencing it since 7.1.1, both had their devices for close to a year with no issues prior.


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kataran

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All the said devices given to them with the current OS installed or are they updating them as they get them?
 

iOS Gravity

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Both devices (sister in laws X 5 and my wife's X 2) through the apple store. Every time they make an appt, take it in and they look it over, run a diagnostic on it and say "yep the wifi is fried" and hand them a new device. They tell them it's a hardware issue, but both of them have only been experiencing it since 7.1.1, both had their devices for close to a year with no issues prior.


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Do they update the devices via OTA or iTunes? Try restoring them and see if that fixes the problem.
 

lytefall

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They update their devices via iTunes.

They have tried numerous fixes I found around the net.

Resetting network settings. Turn wifi off, airplane mode on, shut phone off, turn on, airplane mode off and wifi back on. Restore from backup. Reset to factory. Just to name a few. Nothing works.

I found a bit of an off the wall fix saying to purposely overheat it and then put it in a ziplock bag in the freezer. Haven't tried that one yet.

Very little hassle on replacing them which makes me feel like this isn't an off the wall occurrence.

I find it very coincidental that both have 4S's and both had it happen within a few days of the 7.1.1 update on numerous devices. Everyone I know with a 5 or 5S and 7.1.1 hasn't seen any issues. I have a 4S and 7.0.3 with no issues. Just makes me worry about upgrading so close to being out of warranty.

EDIT: just found an article from 5 days ago about a class actions suit filed over this same issue along with some other problems. Is external linking allowed here? If so I will link it.

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lytefall

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Here's a short quote from the above mentioned article:

"Users have experienced vastly reduced functionality of their iPhones, including, most notably, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity issues, after downloading iOS updates onto their iPhones.

For example, as alleged herein, the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity issues experienced by users (the "Wi-Fi/Bluetooth Connectivity Issue" or "Grayed out Issue") appears to be most prevalent to iPhone 4s users who downloaded iOS 7."






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lytefall

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Just an update. My wife had her 4s replaced again shortly after I started this thread and today (less than 3 weeks later) the wifi is non functional yet again!!

This time the phone was left bone stock except re-adding all her contacts manually. Apple claimed it was something in her backup file that was causing the problem so she decided to leave the new device factory for a month to see if they were right (even though logic with her sisters doing the same thing indicated otherwise). There goes that theory.

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lytefall

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....Apples now saying her iOS version was corrupted during update (she hasn't updated the phone, so it happened prior to being handed the phone at the Apple store)) and this caused the wifi failure. They are saying this is a completely random issue that had nothing to do with the previous wifi failures. And that her and her sisters issues are the only ones they have ever heard of despite her bringing the class action suit to their attention. They also suggested she buy the extended apple care warranty because, despite having 4 phones with the same issue in the last 2 months, her year from original purchase is up in 4 days and they won't cover her after that.

I am left scratching my head here. This is so frustrating. How is a total of 9 replacements in 3 months between 2 people for the exact same issue a coincidence and "rare" as Apple puts it? I think "rare" went out the window weeks ago.

What is next? Just keep buying more extended warranty knowing this issue will continue. We can't do much more than keep the phone completely factory, and yet this keeps happening. Is my only option option here really to drop the money on a 5 or 5s?

I still find it highly ironic that I have yet to upgrade to the latest iOS and I haven't had a single issue.


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lytefall

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No I have not. I have been reluctant to since it is still under warranty. I had a friend get his iphone stuck in DFU mode (even apple couldn't recover it) and apple claimed he had jail broken the device (he hadn't) and voided his warranty.

I didn't want to take the chance when I was still in warranty but if the warranty is over I would certainly do that yes.

Are you asking for the purpose of downgrading the iOS or a fresh install of 7.1.1? I only ask because although downgrading may solve the issue at hand it would be counterproductive going forward if I could never update the iOS again.


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rayz336

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No I have not. I have been reluctant to since it is still under warranty. I had a friend get his iphone stuck in DFU mode (even apple couldn't recover it) and apple claimed he had jail broken the device (he hadn't) and voided his warranty.

I didn't want to take the chance when I was still in warranty but if the warranty is over I would certainly do that yes.

Are you asking for the purpose of downgrading the iOS or a fresh install of 7.1.1? I only ask because although downgrading may solve the issue at hand it would be counterproductive going forward if I could never update the iOS again.


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Fresh install, downgrading is usually never an option
 

lytefall

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Apple rep talked my wife through a fresh install of 7.1.1 today over the phone. No improvement. They are now sending yet another phone.


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lytefall

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My wife came home last night and told me that her Bluetooth had also stopped working and (this is a new issue) the phone was so hot she couldn't even keep it in her pocket. I started searching the internet for this new symptom and it brought up a lot of posts with the overheating issue being related to the fried wifi. I even found petitions online relating to the 4s greyed out wifi and overheating for apple to acknowledge the problem and replace out of warranty devices for free.


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lytefall

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By way of an update. Still no resolution to this. An apple manager gave my wife his direct number and said to deal only with him. He sent her a "new" phone. Turned it on and the touch screen only had about 25% function. Took 20-30 swipes to enter phone. Multiple areas on keyboard were non functional and you couldn't turn the phone off because the top 1/3 of the screens touch feature didn't work at all. Screen images were fine though.

This manager advised to return that phone and he would send another "new" one. That was almost 2 weeks ago. Haven't seen another new phone and multiple phone calls have went unanswered and messages unreturned. *sigh* I've about had enough.

It's frustrating. We have wifi almost everywhere we go. Home, work, Friends, family. There was no reason to need a large data plan. Now overages charges are rolling in by the bucketful. No new phone from apple and no recourse with the carrier. They have no sympathy because it's not their fault. The suggestion was made by apple to consider "upgrading" to a newer model iphone. Normally I would have just taken that suggestion as a helpful one but after all this issue an now not even returning calls it makes me wonder whether that's the endgame here by them. Force her into making a new apple purchase.

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Ledsteplin

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I've never seen this issue anywhere on any iPhone forum or anywhere else. It's hard for me to believe that many phones would do the same thing. Has the sister in law been using your wifi? Could it be some odd issue with the wifi, wifi provider or something other than the phones? There's a lot of people with a 4s who have never had that problem on iOS 7.1.1.


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lytefall

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Sister in law not using my wifi. They live 100km away from us. The first few phones she went through we didn't even have any physical contact with each other so it can't be their wifi or vice versa.

We have wifi in multiple different places (work, home, other families and friends houses). The wifi has crapped out at different times and on different wifi signals.

As I said above I initially found only a few small references to this issue but soon found it more and more in internet searches and forums (including this one) and including that class action lawsuit in California.

Search "iPhone greyed out wifi lawsuit" and you will find no shortage of information.

And the USB cable I am using is an official Apple brand cable so I can't see that being an issue. And I have used more than one apple cable too to rule that issue out a cause of the corrupting of the phones.


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