Wi-Fi not working in iOS 16 on iPhone? 12 Ways to fix it!

Installed iOS 16 on your iPhone and now facing Wi-Fi connectivity issues? This can happen due to a number of major underlying changes or some configuration error on the router side. If your iPhone on iOS 16 cannot connect to a Wi-Fi network, is continuously dropping the connection to one, or if the Wi-Fi speeds are extremely slow, check out some tips to help solve the problem.

The solutions below should help you fix all iOS 16 Wi-Fi issues that you are facing. 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.

Identify Where The Wi-Fi Problem Happens

As with any other smartphone-related problem, the first thing you need to know is whether the Wi-Fi issue occurs with an application, your iPhone, or your Wi-Fi router. In short, you must identify the problem first.

iOS 16 Wi-Fi Not Working in an App

Sometimes, you might run into problems with your Wi-Fi while using only a particular application. The best thing to do first is to restart the application. Additionally, if the application happens to be a web browser, clearing your browsing data could help ensure that the Wi-Fi problem won’t happen again.

Therefore, if you’re using Safari and your Wi-Fi stops working, restart the app. Then, go to Settings > Safari > Clear History and Website Data.

iOS 16 Wi-Fi Not Working on Multiple Applications

If you encounter problems with Wi-Fi in iOS 16 while using several applications, it would be best to restart your iPhone. Hopefully, restarting the iPhone, which clears out temporary files, will solve your iOS 16 Wi-Fi not working issue.

Wi-Fi Not Working on iOS 16 Due to Router Issue

Another test that you can perform if your Wi-Fi is not working is to try using another device, such as your iPad. If the Wi-Fi works on that device, the issue is with your iPhone. However, if the Wi-Fi still does not work, there is likely an issue with the router.

In this case, you should contact your Internet provider to help resolve the issue.

Once you’ve identified that the problem is with your iPhone running on iOS 16, follow the steps below to solve the Wi-Fi problem.

How to Fix Wi-Fi Not Working on iOS 16

Here are some time-tested solutions to fix the Wi-Fi issues on your iPhone on iOS 16.

1. Are you in range?

A lot of the time, your router’s signal may be poor. If your home or office has a lot of metal, walls, or other objects that could interfere with wireless signals, then you might have a shorter range bubble than you think.

You can check your signal by looking in the Status Bar – three Wi-Fi bars is optimal, two is okay, and one is poor. Sometimes, you might have none at all and it’ll show LTE, 5G, 4G, 3G or E instead; this indicates you’re on a cellular network instead of a Wi-Fi network.

When your signal is too poor, your iPhone will have trouble transmitting data back and forth with the router, and so you want to make sure you’re close enough to the wireless router to do so.

If you’re not in range, try getting closer to the wireless router and see if your iPhone Wi-Fi connectivity problems disappear. If not, move on to the next step.

2. Restart Your Wi-Fi Router

Before blaming your iPhone or iOS 16 for Wi-Fi issues, you should check your Wi-Fi router. First, restart your Wi-Fi router and connect your iPhone to the network again to see if that helps 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 30 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.

If your ISP has also supplied a modem with the Wi-Fi router, make sure to restart it as well.

The steps below will help you accomplish this efficiently.

1. Turn your router off by pressing the off button.
2. Now unplug all the cables connected to your wi-fi
3. Wait for about 30 seconds
4. Reconnect all the cables
5. Turn your router on.

If everything is plugged in, but Wi-Fi is not working on your iPhone, try the next step.

3. Toggle Wi-Fi On/Off

Whenever I encounter an issue with Wi-Fi while working on my iPhone, the solution i always try without fail is toggling the Wi-Fi switch off and on. Most of the time, that solves the Wi-Fi issue. While you’re on the Wi-Fi menu, be sure to check also that your iPhone is connected to the correct Wi-Fi network and not somewhere else. The quickest way to do this is to Go to Settings > Wi-Fi > On/Off.

4. Restart your iPhone

If restarting the router didn’t solve your iPhone Wi-Fi problems, then rebooting your phone might help.

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Go into General.
3. Tap Shut Down.
4. When the power off slider appears, drag it from left to right to turn off the phone.
5. To turn your iPhone back on, press and hold the Side/power button once again until the Apple logo appears.

5. Have you logged on to the network?

You may have accessed the Wi-Fi network, but you will need to enter a password if your Wi-Fi network is protected with a security key. In most cases, you’re asked to enter the security key the moment you join a secured network.

In other cases, you might be accessing a Wi-Fi network where you need to open Safari on your device and try to load a website. When you do, you’ll be redirected to a login portal. These kinds of networks are common in schools, colleges, and institutions.

Once you’re all logged on to the Wi-Fi network, try to use it again and see if you have complete internet access.

If password entry wasn’t the root of your problems, continue on to the next step.

6. Forget WiFi Network and Rejoin

If your iPhone can’t connect to a WiFi network and are prompted that the password you’ve entered is incorrect despite entering the correct password, try to forget the WiFi network and join it again.

To forget the WiFi network, follow the steps below:

1. Launch the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Go into Wi-Fi.
3. Tap on your WiFi network from the list.
4. Tap Forget This Network. You’ll be prompted with a popup message asking you if you want to forget the WiFi Network.
5. 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. Disable Wi-Fi Assist

The iPhone includes a WiFi Assist feature, which provides more reliable Internet connections when your WiFi network becomes spotty. This feature could do more harm than good in many cases and cause WiFi issues on your iPhone.

To turn off WiFi Assist:

1. Launch the Settings app.
2. Navigate to Cellular (Mobile in some regions)
3. Scroll down to the bottom where you will see WiFi Assist. Tap on the toggle to turn it off.

8. Disable VPN

If you use a VPN to browse anonymously then you should know that all VPNs slow down internet speed to some extent. VPN route the traffic through their servers and also encrypt and decrypt data in real-time. This leads to slower processing as your internet needs to deal with more data. If a VPN is enabled on your iPhone, open the VPN app and turn it off. Alternatively, follow the steps below:

1. Launch the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Toggle off the VPN switch.

9. Update iOS

When it comes to diving into more troubleshooting, one step is to double-check and make sure that your software is up to date. This is especially true as of late, as Apple has been releasing some “point” updates at a more frequent pace. Here’s how to check your software:

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Go into General.
3. Select Software Update.
4. If an update is available, download it and then once prompted, install the update.

Another reason for this is if you happen to be on the iOS beta cycle, as releases are coming even more frequently than the stable releases. So it’s important to make sure that your iPhone is up to date, as there could be some bugs wreaking havoc.

10. Set Date and Time on Your iPhone

This one might sound weird, but believe it or not, improperly set time and date can cause several issues with iPhone, including wi-fi problems.

So, you need to make sure that you select the accurate region and set the Date and Time correctly. To do this, follow the steps below:

1. Launch Settings.
2. Go into General.
3. Tap Date and Time.
4. Switch on the toggle next to Set Automatically.

11. Reset iPhone Network Settings

You may also try resetting your iPhone’s network settings if the methods above still won’t solve the Wi-Fi issues. See below for how to reset your iPhone’s network settings.

1. Head to Settings.
2. Tap General.
3. Select Transfer or Reset iPhone.
4. Choose Reset
5. Tap Reset network settings
6. You will have to enter your passcode
7. Tap Reset network settings.

12. Reach out for help

If the above steps did not help fix your iPhone’s Wi-Fi problems on iOS 16, you should take it to your nearest Apple Store or Apple Authorized Store. There could be an underlying hardware issue with your iPhone that’s causing the Wi-Fi issues.

Successfully fixed iOS 16 Wi-Fi problems

These are the best solutions for your iOS 16 Wi-Fi problems. If you are still experiencing Wi-Fi problems on your iPhone running iOS 16, drop a comment and let us know.