Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

jjk454ss

macrumors 601
Original poster
Jul 10, 2008
4,481
500
Starting yesterday, my iPhone and iPad both on iOS 12 keep telling me I have an incorrect Wi-Fi password. The password works on all my other devices including my Mac. I reset the router, and it still tells me it’s an incorrect Wi-Fi password when I know it is not. I didn’t see anything about this issue, any ideas?

It was working OK, it’s seem to stop working after I reset network settings on both devices to try to fix an issue with messages
 

Tsepz

macrumors 601
Jan 24, 2013
4,826
4,638
Johannesburg, South Africa
Starting yesterday, my iPhone and iPad both on iOS 12 keep telling me I have an incorrect Wi-Fi password. The password works on all my other devices including my Mac. I reset the router, and it still tells me it’s an incorrect Wi-Fi password when I know it is not. I didn’t see anything about this issue, any ideas?

It was working OK, it’s seem to stop working after I reset network settings on both devices to try to fix an issue with messages
This is an issue I had on both my iPads and my mother's iPhone X. It fixed itself once I got close to the WiFi router. It seems to happen when connecting for the first time after the iOS12 update, after that it's fine.

I wonder if it may be due to it just not picking up some bits of data when you are further away.
 

jjk454ss

macrumors 601
Original poster
Jul 10, 2008
4,481
500
There could be something to that, but mine does it randomly. I have slow Internet, but good Wifi signal. It's saying incorrect password again right now. This is by far the worst experience I've had with a new iPhone/version of iOS. So many issues
 

phil1995

macrumors member
Aug 4, 2008
80
0
I recently had this issue with my iPad. I rebooted the router, reset network settings, even wiped the iPad clean and started over and none of that helped. Strange thing was, I could keep hitting join over and over with the same password, and it would finally join. So I knew it was not actually the password.

I dug in my router a little deeper, and found that I had 2.4 and 5ghz with ssid and password the same. I changed the ssid and password for the 5ghz and poof, the problem went away.

Seems that it was somehow jumping back and forth and getting confused. Not sure why, but it solved the issue for me.
 
Last edited:

OddyOh

macrumors 6502
Nov 29, 2005
315
100
Regina, SK, Canada
I'm having the same problem with my iPhone 7, iPad Pro, and my roommate's iPhone 7. Every day when I come home from work, my phone and iPad won't connect and want me to log on manually to my 5GHz network. I've tried typing the password in, copying it from 1Password and iCloud Keychain, and sharing it from other devices. I have to submit the password 10 to 15 times, and then suddenly it works. So obviously I'm not inputting the wrong password. And I'm in the same room as the router, so it's not a range issue.

Thanks for any ideas. I've tried resetting network settings on the iPad, but I've done that before and it didn't help.
 

one more

macrumors 601
Aug 6, 2015
4,524
5,690
Earth
I'm having the same problem with my iPhone 7, iPad Pro, and my roommate's iPhone 7. Every day when I come home from work, my phone and iPad won't connect and want me to log on manually to my 5GHz network. I've tried typing the password in, copying it from 1Password and iCloud Keychain, and sharing it from other devices. I have to submit the password 10 to 15 times, and then suddenly it works. So obviously I'm not inputting the wrong password. And I'm in the same room as the router, so it's not a range issue.

Thanks for any ideas. I've tried resetting network settings on the iPad, but I've done that before and it didn't help.

The problem might be coming from your router. If both of its 2 and 5 GHz antennas are enabled and different 2 and 5 GHz devices share the same router, this can mix things up. Try turning 5 GHz band off in the router settings and see if it makes things smoother?
 
  • Like
Reactions: OddyOh

jschnee21

macrumors regular
Sep 26, 2018
163
78
I find that my i-devices do this when there is too much channel interference on the WiFi channel the router is set to. This is especially true in the 2.4GHz spectrum which is more crowded and more subject to interference. Moving closer to the router/AP can help if the signal strength can drown out the noise.

As a general rule, band steering does not work well. Always use different SSIDs for 2.4 and 5.8 radios and join your 5.8GHz devices (all modern i-devices) to the 5.8Ghz SSID only.

Still, best case, you’ll only get 300-450Mbit of useful bandwidth on a 2x2. 802.11ac connection (~50% of 866Mbit, best case). Always use 20MHz channels for 2.4GHz and 80MHz or less for 5.8.

Save the 2.4Ghz network for home automation and iOT.
 
  • Like
Reactions: OddyOh

OddyOh

macrumors 6502
Nov 29, 2005
315
100
Regina, SK, Canada
Thanks for the replies. I ended up re-flashing the current factory firmware on my router. That solved the incorrect password problem. But after that, all my wireless devices were limited to 30mbps download, when it should be 250+. Seems to be a fairly common problem with Netgear devices.

Bought a new router last week, and so far my speeds are back where they should be, and so far I haven't seen the incorrect password problem again, but I've only had it a couple days. Here's hoping.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.