No WiFi Issue in iPhone 2G, 3G OS 3.0 Resolved

11 July 2009 by Vinay 46 Comments

Besides the problem of batter, it seems that the Firmware 3.0 leads to a serious decline in the WiFi signal, which occurs both on and on 3GS iPhone 3G. Even in this case I have to say that with regard to the WiFi signal, my iPhone 3G does not have any problem. Battery problem was resolved by disabling Push Notification in Settings. About WiFi problem many sites and forums filled up with no WiFi after upgrading iPhone OS3.0 Yesterday Apple updated their old article “Unable to use Wi-Fi or Bluetooth with iPhone or iPod touch because there’s no address listed for the device”. So it seems that it was an Apple Bug!

Symptoms

The device shows no Wi-Fi address or Bluetooth address (Tap Settings > General > About and scroll down to Wi-Fi Address or Bluetooth).
iPhone or iPod touch appears to be connected to a Wi-Fi network but cannot use Wi-Fi for checking email, surfing the Internet, or other data transactions.
iPhone or iPod touch showing Wi-Fi or Bluetooth icon on device as grayed out.
iPhone not able to pair with Bluetooth device or accessory.
When you tap Settings > Wi-Fi and then tap next to the network, no values or entries for IP Address, Subnet Mask, Router, or DNS appear.

Resolution

First, sync your iPhone or iPod touch to iTunes to backup your user information, Contacts, Calendar, and other data. Then try the following steps in order.

One : On the device, tap Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings. Check to see if the device now displays the Wi-Fi address or Bluetooth address (tap Settings > General > About and scroll down to Wi-Fi Address or Bluetooth). If there is a Wi-Fi address and a Bluetooh address, then you’re done with these steps and you can resync your settings and your media using iTunes.

If there’s still no Wi-Fi address or Bluetooth address, then continue to step two.

Two :On the device, tap Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings. Check to see if the device now displays the Wi-Fi address and Bluetooth address (tap Settings > General > About and scroll down to Wi-Fi Address or Bluetooth). If there is a Wi-Fi address and Bluetooth address, then you’re done with these steps and can resync your settings and your media using iTunes.

If there’s still no Wi-Fi address or Bluetooth address, then continue to step three.

Three :

Restore the iPhone or iPod touch software (this erases all data on the device) using iTunes.
After the restore is complete, sync your previous settings (mail settings, text messages, notes, call history, contact favorites, and so on).
Now see if your device shows a Wi-Fi address and Bluetooth address (tap Settings > General > About and scroll down to Wi-Fi Address or Bluetooth)

Via Apple Support Pages

46 Comments »

jon said:

wow that actually worked for my 3GS! thanks for that little tip!

# 12 July 2009 at 2:24 am

juanjo said:

none of the 3 methods worked for me. I have tried several times. Any suggestions?

# 13 July 2009 at 12:28 am

champ said:

if i reset my network settings will it return to default at&t sim? answer please!!!! asap thanks!!!!

# 24 July 2009 at 5:03 pm

Vikas Dem said:

hi,
My iphone 2G OS 3.0 is showing Wifi & Bluetooth address in setting–> about, but the problem is that phone is not able to catch the wifi signals , its always keep searching for wifi connection.
I had done all the three steps above, but the same problem.

Some time it shows the wifi, but as soon as i try to connect and give password for wifi signal, phone connects with wifi for few seconds and then again skip the signal and keep serching for wifi.

What to do now

Vikas

# 31 July 2009 at 2:11 am

reject said:

I’m getting tierd of these solutions that people are coming up with.. These are the same methods explained 1000 times.

There are a bunch of people that are having some serious problems with their wifi.

I’m of course talking about the heat related issues that caused a lot of iphone wifis to break down totally. This issue started with the 2.0 firmware update.

This is a growing problem, its getting worse for every update. I’ve heard that a lot of people are having some serious issues with iPhone 3Gs as well.

I’ve got a iPhone 2G that got fucked up after updating to 2.0, I’ve not been having a stable connection since that update. Let me explain my problem in detail.. Usually i dont get any connections listed at all, if I find any, it usually aint able to connect to it.

I’ve restored my phone several times but the problem remains..
Upgraded/Downgraded (1.1 – 3.0). I’m sure there is a solution (The freezer solution aint good enough for me ).

Its pretty hard for me to accept that there aint no genius that has cracked this problem. There must be a solution to our problems!

(excuse my bad english).

# 2 August 2009 at 2:56 pm

johnny boy said:

Hey guy before you do any of the steps. Put a Att sim card in the phone. If you have original Att sim that came with iphone even better. For some reason most of my 1st try it worked. 2nd this is if you have a Mac use a a Mac. If you dont try to find some one who does. I have fixed many phones with wifi problem. Some of them the bluetooth never came back but wifi did. So… use a Att sim and do everything in Mac if u can (restore, dfu restore).

# 17 August 2009 at 12:53 pm

sabu said:

Hi,

I have the same issue. I have bought a iPhone 3g from UAE open market which is officially unlocked by apple. I have the same issue of wifi grayed out > no wifi issue. When i bought the iPhone 3g, it come with 3.0 os and later it is upgraded to 3.1 b3 and got the issue with wifi.

I have followed steps which are listed in resolution (all the three).
Then i have downgraded the same back to 3.0.1 (after gr8 effort). But still i get the same issue. Could anyone suggest any steps which can help me ? could any one guide me, if this HW issue or software issue ? Any help in this regard would be highly appreciated.

# 28 August 2009 at 2:52 pm

fantasy1122 said:

It is a software issue most likely. The question is whether the process of unlocking it damaged the Wi-Fi firmware settings, or whether the 3.0 ipsw firmware update damaged it. Mine was working perfectly while I was running the 1.0.2 ipsw firmware; now Wi-Fi doesn’t work at all with 3.0 unlocked.

Agreed all those 3 steps are a crap shoot. Imagine that! Here let’s tweak this. Let’t turn this on. Let’s turn this off. Let’s twiggle this. Let’s, well, let’s just delete everything on the iPhone, press reset, and start again. Yes. This is some serious genius who’s awesome at debugging. Give me a break!!

No folks. This is not how you resolve the Wi-Fi problem. This advice is a waste of time! C’mon!

# 2 September 2009 at 5:25 pm

jitesh said:

hi,
My iphone 2G OS 3.0 is showing Wifi & Bluetooth address in setting–> about, but the problem is that phone is not able to catch the wifi signals , its always keep searching for wifi connection.
I had done all the three steps above, but the same problem.

Some time it shows the wifi, but as soon as i try to connect and give password for wifi signal, phone connects with wifi for few seconds and then again skip the signal and keep serching for wifi.

What to do now

# 8 September 2009 at 6:02 am

sabu said:

Hi

I have upgraded the phone from 3.0.1 to 3.1 for NO-Wi-Fi issue. But still issue persist. Question is now what ?

# 10 September 2009 at 3:36 pm

Sonar said:

Ok after you erase all content and setting and then do not run the backup install everything new do not import contacts, apps and the other apps from the backup. When you backup with the phone 3.0, the wife problem gets backed up to and all the setting that the 3.0 changes. so that is the solution to the wifi problem.

There is a upgrade to 3.1 for I phones 3g-s so when you do the upgrade do not run the back up or make any backup intact uninstall/install the new 9.0 iTunes so make sure there is no history for the phones backups. Sorry guys but this is the only solution. I pone with OS 3.1 has the same issue.
1. Uninstall the old iTunes and delete all the files and install the latest iTunes in pc/Mac.

2. go into the phone reset all the content and setting this is a master reset. (if you already upgraded to 3.1 than do not restore from a backup run a new phone setting).

3. DO NOT RUN THE BACK UP OR RESTORE THE IPHONE FROM THE BACKUP

4. Clean install of i phone can do the trick and you will need to add all the apps, contact, manual like when you first bought the i phone.

# 14 September 2009 at 1:14 am

Adrocks said:

I systematically tried every suggestion from every forum I could find on this topic. The only thing that finally worked was to run my netgear router in B mode only. Before I did this I experienced every classic symptom : sometimes no signal at all, sometimes intermittent signal. Since I set my router to B only I have not had any problems. Still it’s not a great solution, but it seems something in the 3.0 or 3.0.1 upgrade on my 3g has caused the wifi not to be able to ‘keep up’ with 802.1 g speeds.

# 14 September 2009 at 4:16 pm

Jamiahi Fears said:

I used the freezer trick, and its been wrking ever since. Been 3 weeks and it hasn’t lost a connection yet. It has to be a hardware problem and with the phones become really hot after charging and internet use. It happens alot with Laptops and PCs, when they get really hot they tend to break down and not function well. Same with the phone.

# 17 September 2009 at 8:08 am

Adrocks said:

Well after about a week after I set my router to B mode only, my wifi signal started to deteriorate, then it got to the point where I could not see any wifi points at all. At work I have three coleauges who could all pick up four hotspots -I could get none. So I took it back to the dealer (Telstra in Sydney Australia). They tried a software reinstall – it didn’t work so they gave me a replacement handset which so far works like a charm. I did a restore from backup of my old phone and it’s still ok. Also I noted that my gps software works much, much better now (Sygic). So it looks like it was a hardware problem all along (sigh).

# 21 September 2009 at 4:10 pm

Justin said:

My iPhone 3G is doing that same exact thing..

It says No WiFi and it’s grayed out and I restored and restarted numerous times

# 25 October 2009 at 10:25 am

Jeremy said:

I have the same problem as everyone else, again. I found, I purchased the Iphone used, when I got it, the seller already unlocked it to 3.0, I did find a wifi when I first fired up the phone, but then I went into cydia, they asked to update the software so I did, after that, no wifi at all
Solutions would be nice?

# 30 October 2009 at 10:55 am

Jeremy said:

So, After loading the latest update for “Rock” my wifi is back in business, not sure why, but if it was something in that update, thanks Rock
Cheers

# 14 November 2009 at 6:30 am

Anthony said:

Hey Jeremy what is rock I have the same issue as you do! Please respond to me asap. I updated in cydia and then my phone went a-wall with the wifi. Now who or what is ROCK? Thanks in Advance
Anthony

# 17 November 2009 at 11:00 am

Anthony said:

Hey I am curently running updates there are 6 I’ll post if it fixes the issue.
Thanks Anthony

# 17 November 2009 at 11:02 am

Baha said:

Thanks! Tip 1 worked!

# 27 November 2009 at 2:46 am

Hoasis said:

fantasy1122 – You sound so absolutist and sure of yourself

You should never rule out hardware issues nor software UNTIL AFTER you solve the issue. That is how things are troubleshot and answers are given. What experience do you have debugging embedded systems?

It could be EITHER SW or HW depending on the various issues on this board presented here. If you restore your iphone to DEFAULT state (wipe it completely clean) with no backup and the WiFi still does not work, that would likely point to a hardware issue. Why? Because numnutz the phone worked before with the exact same SW build! Duh!

If you erase back to default and the phone works, then it’s obviously a SW issue since that is all you changed (deleted your current settings and restored to a fresh state).

If you spent more than one hour debugging this, you are better off simply backing up your settings in itunes and then heading down to apple. Save yourselves the headaches of troubleshooting complicated HW and SW like you know what you are doing. sheesh!

# 7 December 2009 at 12:29 pm

blukido said:

very very disappointing Apple Support… ARE YOU REALY A SUPPORT?

IPHONE CONSUMER DID NOT PAY FOR THESE IPHONES FOR A CHEAP PRICE.

# 7 December 2009 at 3:13 pm

Kervin said:

Reset network settings! Tired of hearing that! It does not work! BTW fuck off Apple.

# 17 January 2010 at 9:36 am

londonlilly said:

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Resolution 1 worked for my 3GS. Was stressing out as I only got it last week.

# 30 January 2010 at 1:46 pm

JDMrolla said:

Hey, I have a 3G 8gb that i got used. The wireless works, but only in close range, my 16gb 3g picks up wifi all over the place, but for the 8gb i almost have to be right in front of a router to get the wireless

its running 3.1 update. any suggestions for me? needs new antenna?

if you have any suggestions email jdmrolla@hotmail.com

# 2 February 2010 at 12:22 am

MUSAMD said:

1) Suggestion:

Please use this wifi apps: Wifitrack-v2.6
wifi work on my iphone 3gs

# 22 February 2010 at 10:12 am

maximiliano said:

hy buddy…! i have the same problem jitesh!!! but the incredible that this problem start yesterday night!!!!! after one year???? i bought my iphone 2g with 1.1.4 and now working with 3.1.2 no problem really all works fine!!! yesterday night arrived at home open the iphone wifi .. check the wifi connect then 2 seconds disconnect … that’s all …:( i’ll try try try… at the end erase all and put a new one 3.1.2!!! but nothing same problem… now i have tried the 1st step but nothing …. now i try the 2nd one! …. will see.!!!!

# 26 February 2010 at 3:13 pm

igor said:

I have the same problem with my iphone 3g 8gb fuck of apple there is a lot of people hating apple NOW

# 2 March 2010 at 11:26 pm

Eric said:

I have the same problem. It stopped working after I brought windows 7 into the house. The phone was hot, and no wifi. I tried all reset tricks at home, and the restore trick and it didn’t work. I took it to a genius who said he couldn’t replace as I’m out of warranty, but didn’t try anything else. I can upgrade, but sheesh I don’t know if I should get another iphone if the wifi chips/software are faulty. Finally I took it to a repairman, who reset the network config and it came back until I came home. Then I couldn’t connect to the wifi even though I have several devices including another 3g 3.1.3 connected to the network. I turned off all windows 7 pc’s and tried to restore network settings with no luck. Back to the gray no wifi problem. I’m going to try and restore network settings at work tomorrow and see if that works while I’m there. If not that maybe I’ll try it where it worked for the repairman.

Any ideas? I see there is antennae replacement available on the web, has anyone tried this? Maybe it is battery related as another poster mentioned.

# 18 March 2010 at 8:23 am

Matt said:

someone plzzzzz help me
i have the original iphone with 3.1.2 software and the wifi is fine
but my bluetooth doesnt work.
i use it for games and stuff but i cannot connect
the bluetooth symbol seemes to be grayed out.
i have tried turning my iphone bluettoth n and off a bunch of times.
plzzzzz help meeeeee

# 21 March 2010 at 12:14 am

ateeque said:

hi,
My iphone 2G OS 3.0 is showing Wifi & Bluetooth address in setting–> about, but the problem is that phone is not able to catch the wifi signals , its always keep searching for wifi connection.
I had done all the three steps above, but the same problem.

Some time it shows the wifi, but as soon as i try to connect and give password for wifi signal, phone connects with wifi for few seconds and then again skip the signal and keep serching for wifi.

# 21 March 2010 at 11:56 am

Fabiano said:

Reset network settings|update 3.1.3 firmware|restore|downgrade firmware also same, i am very frusted my warranty expired on Feb. what should i do now? send for repair? cost? please advice..!
-iPHONE LIFE TIME IS SHORT-

# 22 March 2010 at 5:51 pm

Tim London said:

Yes the Grey out problem – again – I’m off to see Genius tomorrow but out of warranty.

Looks to me like Apple are selling with a self destruct mechanism as soon as out of warranty –

I love my iphone but am going to have to look at alternatives.

Would prefer it if Apple just put there hand up and admitted the problem and give us a solution.

Oh and yes it was the 3.1.3 upgrade that did it – fine until then.

Tim London

# 25 March 2010 at 7:06 pm

JEASON LEWIS said:

HELP IS HEREEEEEEEEEE

I JUST DIED 2 TIMES TODAY BUT I THINK I FINALLY FIGURE THIS F**IN PROBLEM OUT…..

GO TO WIFI –>>> OTHER —>>> NAME: INTERNET –>> SECUTIRY: WEP
PASS—> WEP ->>> PRESS JOIN 3 TIMES *WAIT 2 SEC. —> CANCEL
AND U WILL BE ABLE TO SEE YOUR NETWORKS WITHOUT ANY PROBLEMZ.
MAYBE U HAVE 2 WAIT THE CIRCLE TO REFRESH 2-3 TIMES BEFORE U SEE THEM ALL

WORKED 4 ME 10000% IVE TRY IT 1000000 TIMES..

U HAVE 2 DO DAD EVERY TIME U WANT TO CONNECT…. I HOPE 2 WORK
WITH YOUR IPHONE… IS BETTER THAN RESTART AND PUSH YOUR PHONE 2 THE
LIMITS OF EXISTING WHILE U TRYN TO RESTORE IT OR BICK IT @ ALL DDDDDD:DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
* OH AND FORGET THE FAIRYTALE WITH THE FRIGE DDDDDD

# 18 April 2010 at 11:33 pm

Prof Wifi said:

I’ve also experienced hardware failure on upgrading to 3.1.3
Wifi worked before and failed after. After resetting the network
I followed Apple’s instructions to restore as new but it did not
solve the problem. I would not get another Apple product given
my experiences.

# 28 April 2010 at 12:59 am

Mark said:

I went from having intermittent wifi connectivity problems to no wifi ability at all. I cannot access the wifi option so I cannot adjust for WEP, WMA, anything.

I also find it strange that my wifi completely shut down 1 month after my warranty ended and that the problem started with an OS update. Someone should really investigate Apple and their OS process. Seems like they intentionally break the old devices so customers upgrade. The thought of purchasing a new iPhone is scary. When will that one crap out?

I think I’m going to find a new manufacturer and keep the iPhone as a toy. I need a phone that is more realible then Apple has provided and I certainly do not want to throw good money after bad.

# 4 May 2010 at 12:31 am

WIL said:

HI FROM DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

MUSAMD Thank u!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! its works,,, wifitrack solved my problem!! the problem is with the firmware it’s doesnt show u the networks but u can see it with the wifitrack!!! im so happy i had try everithing!!!!!!!!

Sorry for my English!!

# 31 August 2010 at 8:41 am

ubetido said:

If you are in Au ring Apple, they will fix your phone/touch if wifi settings are gone after updating. Just don’t take no for an answer, tell them your unit functioned perfectly well before the update. If they give you the old “This is the first time I’ve heard of this” routine suggest they read some of the twenty seven thousand forums on this very same topic. Just be civil and don’t blow your stack and you will have your phone/touch repaired/replaced FOC.

# 20 September 2010 at 10:03 am

krysler said:

hi everyone,
i know this post is really late. maybe some of you already got rid of your iphone 3G.. anyway, if putting your iphone in the refrigerator didnt work for you, like it didnt for me, well i got this issue fixed!

just have your wifi enabled first. then open your maps app. i guess that this app forces your wifi or something.. i really dont know! now my wifi is back to normal after 1 year now!!

PS. if this doesnt work on your first attempt,well it didnt worked for me too! just try again and again

hope it helps!
cheers

# 5 October 2010 at 12:18 am

elaine.ph said:

thanks a lot, actually it help my problem.. and guys it’s normal that after the resetting of the network the screen will turn to gray with the apple logo..

# 12 January 2011 at 6:41 pm

riley said:

i got an ipod touch and when i go to settings wifi is grey and says “no wifi” and bluetooth is grey and says “unavailable” i tried these steps and i have version 4.2.1 and it still wont work is it just plain broken b.c. i dropped it in the toilet but everything else works other than that

# 13 January 2011 at 1:03 am