iPad almost not connecting to wifi

[evennewerbie]

Hope right forum.
Last days my iPad 5 connection to the net goes between slow-painful-impossible. Particularly noticeable when browsing, e.g. on forums like this. Often end up with 'could not be reached because your Device is not connected to the net'
Some things which I believe require only intermittent connection, download subscribed newspaper, receive emails still give me a service.
First suspect my provider.
However my Mac is connecting the net quite reasonably, and usually it is the iPad which is faster and easier to latch onto anything. My wife says her connection OK.

I now NEVER SEE THE WIFI SYMBOL .))) which used to be at top right of home screen and other places and which indicated strength of connection.

I have done renew lease. Have lots of free memory, 30 GB of 128 GB used.
Have two networks, is the same for both.

Any suggestions?

Possible virus?

I am warned due for OS update tonight,, so will leave it plugged in and switched on, but these updates to take quite some time so who knows whether that will work or not.

 

[scifan57]

Have you tried resetting network settings on your iPad?

 

[evennewerbie]

I think I went to that at some point in the past days. When I see 'this will return all your settings to factory defaults' it is the kind of thing that frightens me, I don't know what I may lose. Maybe I should just do it?

 

[evennewerbie]

Don't seem to be able to edit to put this in last message. Why changing scares me is my experience is that they will ask me for password. I know the passwords of my Wi-Fi networks. Then they will ask me for other types of password that I don't know. This kind of thing has frozen me into another change anything mentality.

 

[PrismStudios]

At the risk of sounding goofy,have you tried the classic hard reset, AKA, “ power it off then back on” trick? That one can work wonders. Also, my favorite response in times of frustration.... contact Apple support. They are very helpful, at least I’ve had nothing but great experiences with them, and it’s free.

 

[PrismStudios]

Don't seem to be able to edit to put this in last message. Why changing scares me is my experience is that they will ask me for password. I know the passwords of my Wi-Fi networks. Then they will ask me for other types of password that I don't know. This kind of thing has frozen me into another change anything mentality.

I keep a small notebook with all of my passwords, and codes ( yep, I'm paranoid, but prepared)as well as keeping everything on my iCloud Keychain, As long as I know my Apple ID, and password, I have all my passwords handy.

 

[evennewerbie]

Have you tried resetting network settings on your iPad?

Not yet. Sorry if this sounds stupid to people who know these things, but I am dead scared of of losing a recent manuscript which I have in iPad Notes which it was a lot of work to prepare. So I dread this is 'unsaved data' and will get deleted. Saving it the only way I can be sure would mean sending it somewhere else, but while my iPad is not connecting too well I cannot send it anywhere! I cannot even print it. Also to try and save it I put it in 'Save to Files' and that put it into Pages where it says 'waiting to upload'. I even found in the settings somewhere something to 'upload to I cloud'. This did something This did something, a horizontal bar that's took 15 minutes to fill and told me it had been successful, but on my Mac I do not see anything new under iCloud or Pages. I saw there was some other way of saving, forgot now.

If you or someone tells me there is just no risk in simply resetting I can just go ahead, but as losing data would be very damaging I need to know.

 

[evennewerbie]

At the risk of sounding goofy,have you tried the classic hard reset, AKA, “ power it off then back on” trick? That one can work wonders.

Yes I have tried that 3 times. Does nothing.(Once I saw the the wi-Fi .))) Symbol appear for about half a second.

 

[scifan57]

Resetting network settings will not cause any data loss but you will have to log in again to sites that normally remember you.

BTW, have you tried to connect to another WiFi hotspot?

 

[evennewerbie]

I have reset NW settings. It made no difference to my bad connection. To be sure I then reset again, still same. I still see no Wifi .))) sign. (Rather I do see it on the Settings-WiFi screen which even shows different strengths of different networks. but I do not see it on the Home screen etc. where I am used to seeing it.) Sites stilll recognised me, I did not have to login. Tonight there are no unprotected Wifis where I could log in.

 

[scifan57]

Do you live close enough to an Apple Store to visit the Genius Bar? They can run a free diagnostic on your iPad to determine if there is a fault in the iPad.

 

[evennewerbie]

Do you live close enough to an Apple Store to visit the Genius Bar? They can run a free diagnostic on your iPad to determine if there is a fault in the iPad.

It would probably need an appointment and take away a good half day but I may have to do that.

 

[evennewerbie]

I did find the cause of the problem. It may be of interest to you or help for others.

I did as you said and contacted Apple. I had not done this earlier because my warranty has run out although the iPad is not very old yet, maybe three or four years. In fact rooting around on the Apple site I got the message "looks like you're not entitled..." or something like that. I had just read that Apple has just opened the the possibility of buying AppleCare for longer periods. But that looked expensive for me because I had never once needed their help for this iPad as far as I remember (very differently from my Mac). So I was looking for a one-off help which they do for about $30. that was going to involve an international phone call, Credit card etc etc and I was saying to myself I'll do it tomorrow. But somehow someone from Apple had noticed me rooting around and magically opened a connection for me to a help chat.

It saved time that I had already done the generally recommended things, plus I had written down the explanations of the problem and what I'd already done so could communicate this succinctly in chat. So the helper could go straight to other things. She put me on hold for a few minutes and came back and asked me if I had a VPN app.

Actually I had bought one recently to make myself more secure. I have actually not been able to get it to work yet, it is still in trial period. The helper invited me to delete VPN apps, and doing so normal Wi-Fi connection was immediately restored, functioning as expected and the .))) symbol reappeared! She explained that there are often conflicts between VPNs and WiFi networks. Next thing I will have to see whether I can install this VPN compatibly or not, but at least a cause was identified which I don't think I would ever have got to myself .. Wondering a bit about what Apple's help policy is but I don't feel bad about getting the free help considering I never used any help at any other timer for this iPad that I remember.

 

[scifan57]

I did find the cause of the problem. It may be of interest to you or help for others.

I did as you said and contacted Apple. I had not done this earlier because my warranty has run out although the iPad is not very old yet, maybe three or four years. In fact rooting around on the Apple site I got the message "looks like you're not entitled..." or something like that. I had just read that Apple has just opened the the possibility of buying AppleCare for longer periods. But that looked expensive for me because I had never once needed their help for this iPad as far as I remember (very differently from my Mac). So I was looking for a one-off help which they do for about $30. that was going to involve an international phone call, Credit card etc etc and I was saying to myself I'll do it tomorrow. But somehow someone from Apple had noticed me rooting around and magically opened a connection for me to a help chat.

It saved time that I had already done the generally recommended things, plus I had written down the explanations of the problem and what I'd already done so could communicate this succinctly in chat. So the helper could go straight to other things. She put me on hold for a few minutes and came back and asked me if I had a VPN app.

Actually I had bought one recently to make myself more secure. I have actually not been able to get it to work yet, it is still in trial period. The helper invited me to delete VPN apps, and doing so normal Wi-Fi connection was immediately restored, functioning as expected and the .))) symbol reappeared! She explained that there are often conflicts between VPNs and WiFi networks. Next thing I will have to see whether I can install this VPN compatibly or not, but at least a cause was identified which I don't think I would ever have got to myself .. Wondering a bit about what Apple's help policy is but I don't feel bad about getting the free help considering I never used any help at any other timer for this iPad that I remember.

Great. I’m glad the solution was so easy.

 

[giradman]

I did find the cause of the problem. It may be of interest to you or help for others....

t saved time that I had already done the generally recommended things, plus I had written down the explanations of the problem and what I'd already done so could communicate this succinctly in chat. So the helper could go straight to other things. She put me on hold for a few minutes and came back and asked me if I had a VPN app.

Actually I had bought one recently to make myself more secure. I have actually not been able to get it to work yet, it is still in trial period. The helper invited me to delete VPN apps, and doing so normal Wi-Fi connection was immediately restored, functioning as expected and the .))) symbol reappeared! She explained that there are often conflicts between VPNs and WiFi networks......

Hello, first glad that your Wi-Fi conflict was resolved - congrats! However, the presence of a VPN app on your iPad was not mentioned on the first page of this thread - if your Wi-Fi was working well before adding the VPN, then stopped connecting, one of the initial recommendations would have been to remove the VPN to see if that could be the issue?

Just an observation and a hint to other posters who come here w/ a problem(s) on their iDevice - if possible, always supply as much information 'up front' which makes responders posting provide more specific details and likely 'earlier' solutions. This information not only includes the type of iDevice owned (i.e. specific model) and the iOS installed, but other facts such as apps that are misbehaving, recent iOS installs/updates, new apps added, etc. - if installation of a new app and/or an iOS upgrade/update causes the loss of another iDevice function, such as Wi-Fi, then that knowledge may be indispensable in resolving the problem. This is not meant to be a criticism but simply a suggestion for providing an informative first post. Dave