[ghporter]

I've posted here before about my iPhone 4S not being able to connect to random WiFi networks, regardless of their security settings, etc. I've done all the various fix attempts suggested here and elsewhere, without real success. Folks at both AT&T stores (yes, I'm with the Evil Empire for phone service ) and at Apple Stores have said "that's just a software issue, reload the OS and it'll work" without that helping either. Ever.

So this past weekend I was out of town at a professional conference and my phone just WOULD NOT see the hotel's network. That was the very last straw for me. There was an AT&T store a block away so I went there and the guy tried all the "usual suspect" fixes, including the network reset, turn WiFi off then on, reboot the phone, etc., without success either. Then he tried something nobody else had: he had a private network in the store that he tried to get my phone to connect to. No dice, but it was another bit of data to add to the puzzle. He said "I think your antenna is broken. There's an Apple Store a couple blocks that way (he pointed); I'd have them check it out." Finally someone didn't think I was crazy about this phone problem! I made a Genius Bar appointment for the next morning.

Aside from the scheduling problems at the Genius Bar (my 10:30 appointment actually "met" at 11:00), I explained the issue, and particularly that I'd been repeatedly advised by Apple employees that "it's just software," even though the problem had gotten worse over time... They replaced my phone on the spot (out of warranty, no Apple Care).

I've found networks in places I never knew had networks, now that I have this new phone. It's amazing.

One issue I had was that my phone is backed up on my iMac at home, and I was not home. The Apple Store app recommends backing up via iCloud, but that requires WiFi... My contacts and calendars were already in iCloud, but I had to get home to restore the phone completely. Now I'll admit I have too many apps, but only about 5% of them restored to the folders I'd had them in, and only a couple of my folders were restored. That was a pain, but I'm really not concerned about it since I now have a phone that works as well as everyone else's! Yay ME!

[andi*pandi]

woohoo! three cheers for perseverance, and finding the problem!

[ghporter]

I think the real issue with getting it addressed earlier had to do with relatively crappy support for all the different things that can go wrong with WiFi on essentially all Mac platforms. Usually it IS software, whether it's a MBA that won't reconnect after sleep, or an iPad that behaves oddly in an enterprise network. Add to that the intermittent nature of the problem, and even when someone wanted to believe that the phone's hardware was at fault, it was hard to reproduce the problem.

I want to say that the electrical problem is most likely a common point where WiFi antennas are connected to the board(s) within the phone, but that is only a guess. A guess based on 30 years of electronics maintenance and troubleshooting experience - but without actual knowledge of the detailed guts of the 4S's WiFi systems, it's still just a guess.

[ghporter]

Well now I'm not calling it a "fix."

I got the original 4s replaced in November. The replacement suddenly stopped seeing networks OR Bluetooth and demonstrated the "dreaded 'grayed out WiFi'" setting symptom, so on December 21 I got that one replaced at my local Apple Store.

Friday (January 10), the second replacement stopped seeing WiFi networks, with the WiFi option again grayed out (though the Bluetooth seems to still be working). I have been under the weather since Wednesday night, so I haven't yet set up an appointment to get this one replaced.

For a comparison, my wife's 4s, purchased on the same day as my original phone, has been ticking along just fine. I think we got the phones in October of 2012, and my AT&T contract isn't going to allow me to simply upgrade to a 5s until this coming October. I'm quite upset that I'm having to get these phones replaced about every month due to what is apparently a design issue. My wife is curious whether the 5s line has similar issues with their antennas failing, but I haven't been able to get a good handle on how common the 4s problem is.

Any thoughts on this? Comments on the 5s' reliability in this area?

[ibook_steve]

I think you've just had some terrible luck. I had zero wifi issues with my 4S (just over 2 years of use) and I've had no issues with my 5S (other than the occasional springboard reboots which seems to be an iOS 7 issue).

Steve

[ghporter]

I did a hard reboot of the phone ("slide to turn off" and wait 20 minutes before even plugging it in to charge) because the phone was draining the battery way too fast, then charged it overnight. Viola! I had my WiFi on/off control again... But the phone won't see WiFi networks anyway. When I get a chance I'll be headed to the Genius Bar yet again.

I guess I really have had bad luck with this model, since my wife's 4s has given her zero problems of any kind, but it's pretty irritating that the issues have cropped up so frequently.

[ghporter]

Another update: now the WiFi toggle is grayed out... I guess my luck is worse than I'd thought.

[ghporter]

I just got my most recent replacement iPhone 4s, and the phone is now restoring from my previous backup. The Genius Bar guy (James) also told me that the diagnostics indicated there had been a number of software crashes involving OS components over the recent past. I wonder if there were any issues related to the WiFi and Bluetooth failures and those OS components...

Anyway, since November, this is the third replacement iPhone 4s I've received. My wife asked me if there were essentially some "magic number" of "replace the unit" repairs for identical problems at which point Cupertino just says "give him a brand new phone instead of a refurb." I don't know the answer to that...

[FastiBook]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

One issue I had was that my phone is backed up on my iMac at home, and I was not home. The Apple Store app recommends backing up via iCloud, but that requires WiFi... My contacts and calendars were already in iCloud, but I had to get home to restore the phone completely. Now I'll admit I have too many apps, but only about 5% of them restored to the folders I'd had them in, and only a couple of my folders were restored. That was a pain, but I'm really not concerned about it since I now have a phone that works as well as everyone else's! Yay ME!

I have found that on iOS 6, often free apps do not back up the same as purchased apps. Also, if the backup was corrupted or interrupted somehow, it could have an incomplete data set as to which you had and where they were supposed to be.

With iOS7 that changed as well, you get shaded out app icons. Any key app not on the phone by default will show up this way. Folders and such are all exactly how you left it at the last backup. So basically you get folders/pages full of shaded out apps, and those can take hours to fully restore, and even then some or all data from the app may be lost, such as progress in a game. Each app backs up user data specified by the publisher. Self-populating apps that tie into a service may not lose anything because it isn't stored on the device, but rather in the cloud.

It is recommended that you do not use your apps at all till 100% of them are restored and it says the restore is complete, so you have a complete data set as close to what you had on before as possible and avoid any conflicts which could cause further problems.

If you're having wifi problems as you say, those tips above are important, as intermittent data transfer can cause corruption.

- Andy