Wi-Fi Calling not working on iPhone 12 Pro Max? Fix

If Wi-Fi Calling isn’t working properly on your iPhone 12 Pro Max, walk through these troubleshooting steps to fix it.

Wi-Fi Calling is great if your home or office network connection is more reliable than your carrier signal. But the feature isn’t perfect.

If you can’t get Wi-Fi Calling to work right on your iPhone 12 Pro Max, here’s how to troubleshoot Wi-Fi calls on iOS.

What Is Wi-Fi Calling?

Wi-Fi Calling makes it possible to places phone calls over Wi-Fi instead of the mobile network. The primary reason for this is if you have a poor cellular signal in your home. If so, Wi-Fi Calling allows you to still make and receive phone calls without issues.

Since you can place and receive phone calls anywhere you’re connected to Wi-Fi, it decreases the chances of dropping phone calls throughout your workday.

Fixes For Wi-Fi calling not working on iPhone 12 Pro Max

When Wi-Fi Calling doesn’t work on your iPhone 12 Pro Max, here’s what you need to try.

1. Verify Wi-Fi Calling Is Enabled

It’s possible that an update or stray touch turned off Wi-Fi Calling without you realizing it. To start, you should thus confirm that Wi-Fi Calling is actually turned on:

Start the Settings app.
Scroll down and tap on Phone.
Under the Calls section, tap Wi-Fi Calling.
Confirm the toggle next to Wi-Fi Calling on This iPhone is enabled.

When Wi-Fi Calling is working as advertised, you’ll see “Wi-Fi” next to the name of your carrier in the status bar.

2. Restart Your iPhone

If Wi-Fi Calling is already enabled, but it’s not working, the simplest method for getting your iPhone 12 Pro Max to work properly is to just restart it.

To restart your iPhone 12 Pro Max:
Press and hold one of the Volume buttons and the Side button until the Power Off slider appears.
Drag the slider.
Wait 30 seconds for your iPhone to turn off.
Press and hold the Side button until you see the Apple logo.

3. Check for a Software Update

Apple regularly releases minor software updates to fix bugs iOS. This means if you aren’t updated to the latest version, updating could cause Wi-Fi Calling to start working correctly again.

To update your iPhone:

Start the Settings app on your iPhone.
Tap General.
Tap Software Update.
If an update is available, tap Download and Install.

4. Check for a Carrier Update

Aside from software updates, which are handled by Apple, your carrier can also push updates to your iPhone. Carriers release these updates to improve network connectivity while adding support for various features such as VoLTE or Wi-Fi Calling.

However, the process to check for a carrier update is a bit different than your normal software updates:

Start the Settings app.
Tap General.
Tap About at the top of the page.
If there is a carrier update available, a prompt will automatically appear on the page. From there, you can download and install the update. Once it’s finished, restart your phone.

5. Double-Check the Router in Your Home

While it’s easy to think your phone is at fault with these problems, don’t forget that your router also has an effect on Wi-Fi Calling.

It’s important to double-check the router in your home, verifying that the internet connection is working properly. In order to do this, you can just fire up Safari on your iPhone and navigate to a website. If you want to rule out your iPhone have network problems, test your connection from another internet-connected device.

6. Toggle Airplane Mode On and Off

Airplane mode effectively disables all wireless sensors and antennas from communicating. When you turn Airplane Mode on, you disable cellular data, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi connections.

The easiest way to toggle Airplane mode is using Control Center:

Swipe down from the top-right of your iPhone 12 Pro Max.
Tap the Airplane button.
Wait 30 seconds for your connections to stop.
Tap the Airplane button again to bring all connections back online.
The second method for toggling Airplane Mode requires you to dive (quickly) into the Settings app:

Start the Settings app.
Toggle Airplane Mode on.
Wait 30 seconds.
Toggle Airplane Mode off.

7. Turn Off Cellular Data

Some users have found that if you can “force” your iPhone to use a Wi-Fi network instead of relying on the cellular connection, this will make Wi-Fi Calling work. That’s because there’s nothing else for your iPhone to use when it tries to connect to the internet.

To turn off your mobile data:

Start the Settings app.
Select Cellular.
Turn Cellular Data off.
Wait up to one minute.
Turn Cellular Data back on again.
If this doesn’t fix your issue, you can try leaving cellular data turned off for longer. Just don’t forget to turn it back on when you go out!

8. Reset Your Network Settings

One of the final steps you’ll want to take with Wi-Fi Calling issues is to completely reset the network settings on your iPhone. This method will reset all your connections, meaning that you will need to sign back into your Wi-Fi network after completing this step.

Keep in mind that you’ll need to reconnect to all saved Wi-Fi networks and reconfigure VPNs after doing this. To reset network settings:

Start the Settings app.
Select General.
Scroll down and tap Reset.
Select Reset Network Settings.
Enter your passcode.
Confirm the operation.

9. Reach Out to Your Carrier

If everything is fine with your iPhone and your Wi-Fi network at home, the problem may lie with your carrier. Wi-Fi Calling must be supported by your carrier, so reaching out and explaining the situation may be the best route.

It’s possible that there is an outage in your area, or that your plan is not properly set up to have Wi-Fi Calling enabled.

10. Restore Your iPhone to Factory Settings

Have you exhausted all the other methods for getting Wi-Fi calling to work, and the feature is still not working properly? The final step is to perform a factory reset on your iPhone.

This will erase everything, which could strip out any underlying issues that are causing Wi-Fi calling to fail. Keep in mind that doing this reset will permanently erase everything on your phone.

Contact Apple

The last line of defense when it comes to getting your iPhone 12 Pro Max to work properly is to reach out to Apple directly. Its customer support team is top-notch and will help walk you through any additional steps necessary to figure out what your problem is.

Plus, if your iPhone is found to be defective, you’ll be able to send it back to Apple and get a replacement. This may not be the best outcome if you don’t have a spare phone, but it’s better than having a phone that doesn’t work properly.