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Ever since upgrading to iOS 5 my iPhone(s) have problems auto joining my home wifi network.

They seem to auto join it for a few days and then it just stops working. The phone can still see the wifi networks if I go to settings->Wi-Fi, and once I do it will even auto-join it after a few seconds. However; it only remains connected for a few minutes and then disconnects.

The only solution I've found so far is switching my Router's channel from auto to a specific number. That works for a few days and then stops working again, if i bump the channel number in either direction it then works for a few more days.

This was a problem with my iPhone 4 after upgrading to iOS 5 and has been a problem with my iPhone 4s since purchase.

My (original) iPad has no issues and remains connected regardless of what I do to the router channel.

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Have you tried telling your iPhone to forget the network and then re-joining it after it's forgotten? – Ian C.♦ Feb 8 '12 at 15:51
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Yup. However; I should also note that I use a hidden SSID. – Randyaa Feb 9 '12 at 14:45
It may be an issue with your router. My iPhone works just fine with my hidden SSID (except if it sees a non-hidden one it knows about, it will tend to join it first). – asmeurer Apr 28 at 0:51

1 Answer

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Apple recommends not using hidden SSID's. There's no security in hiding them and as you have found out, it causes a problem with iOS devices discovering and joining the network after they come out of sleep mode.

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That's not an answer. I want a hidden SSID. – Randyaa Apr 14 '12 at 19:36
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That is the answer. It keeps dropping the connection because you have a hidden SSID. – Matt Jul 20 '12 at 14:49
This is an an answer! By the way I think that hiding SSID's increase security... – R. M. Sep 23 '12 at 14:10
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@R.M. Not much, if any. Put a card in rfmon mode, and capture an association packet, and you have the SSID (even on a hidden SSID network). And you can often force reassociation. – derobert Sep 23 '12 at 15:11
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Can you document Apple recommending non hidden SSID or provide a bug report that documents this being broken? I've not had such experience and would be interested to know if there is actually something technical to what you state. – bmike♦ Nov 20 '12 at 18:42
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