Every new piece of software has its teething problems, and iOS 17 is proving to be no exception. The latest involves issues with Wi-Fi for those that have upgraded. So if your internet has felt a little off over the past couple of weeks, rest assured, you’re not the only one suffering the problem.
Readers have told 9to5Mac they’ve been suffering these issues since upgrading to iOS 17 or on the iPhone 15 — which runs the new software right out of the box. People have reported a bunch of problems, including slow connections and apps failing to load content — while other have faced issues with web browsing.
Sometimes the issue goes away on its own, but at other times the problem persists until you manually disconnect and reconnect to the Wi-Fi network in question. Similar reports have been made over on X/Twitter and Reddit.
Apple hasn’t acknowledged this problem, which means there isn’t an official fix right now. Some users claim to have found some workarounds, with one 9to5Mac reader claiming that turning off the iCloud private relay has improved their issue — which specifically mentioned websites failing to load.
One Twitter user also claims that switching on Wi-Fi assist will solve the problem. But since Wi-Fi assist relies on cell data to improve your connection, this probably isn't solving your problem — and could be costly if you have a limited data allowance.
A Reddit thread documenting the issue claims that adjusting Wi-Fi range to 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz or 160MHz proved to be (mostly) successful. Another user says that they remain connected to the Wi-Fi using this method, but occasionally no data will come through — which apparently goes away by toggling flight mode on and off. It’s also noted that this workaround could affect your connection speed.
It’s not entirely clear how widespread this problem is, but it does seem to have affected a significant number of people so far. Hopefully it’s something that can be permanently solved by a software update, and quickly. Until that happens, be sure to try some of these workarounds until one of them seems to stick.
Or, failing that, you may be forced to stick with cellular data and ration out the megabytes until a permanent solution can be found.
More from Tom's Guide
