You wanted to stream some online music and videos but for some reason, your iPhone is getting poor Wi-Fi reception. Apparently, something is wrong and that needs to be rectified. Read on to find out what to do if your iPhone XR is getting poor Wi-Fi reception or weak signal from the Wi-Fi network.
Before we proceed, if you’re looking for a solution to a problem with your phone, try to browse through our iPhone XR Help Guides page to see if we support your device. If your phone is in the list of our supported devices, then go to the troubleshooting page and look for similar problems. Feel free to use our solutions and workarounds.
Fixing your iPhone XR that’s getting poor WiFi reception
Before troubleshooting, make sure that you are near or close to where the wireless router or modem is located. If your iPhone is way far from the wireless access point, chances are that the Wi-Fi signal it’s getting is unstable or weak. So move close to your modem or wireless router to eliminate distance from the underlying cause. Then try performing these subsequent solutions to rule out software-related factors that might have caused your device to get poor Wi-Fi reception.
First solution: Restart (power cycle) your wireless router/modem.
Start from the very source of the Wi-Fi signal, which is the wireless router or modem (depending on your network setup). And as the first possible solution, try to reboot or power cycle the modem/wireless router. This process will give your router/modem a fresh start, and eventually eliminates minor firmware crashes that might have adversely affected the phone’s Wi-Fi signal strength. Just refer to these steps:
- On your router/modem, press the Power switch to turn it off.
- Then unplug the AC adapter from the power outlet for at least 1 minute.
- After the elapsed time, plug the AC adapter to the power outlet and then press the Power switch to turn the equipment on again.
- Wait until the light indicators become stable.
Then reconnect your iPhone to the Wi-Fi network again and check if the signal strength has improved. If it doesn’t, then continue to troubleshoot and try the next option.
ALSO READ: How to fix YouTube app that keeps crashing on iPhone XR
Second solution: Restart (soft reset) your iPhone XR.
Having a poor Wi-Fi signal on your phone is also an indication of a minor glitch transpiring on the phone’s Wi-Fi system. To get rid of these glitches, performing a soft reset or rebooting the iPhone would usually suffice. Here’s how it’s done:
- Press and hold the Side/Power button and either Volume buttons simultaneously for a couple of seconds.
- When the Slide to Power off command appears, release both buttons.
- Then drag the power off slider to the right.
- After about 30 seconds, press and hold the Side/Power button again until the Apple logo appears.
Allow your device to finish booting up and then see if the Wi-Fi signal has improved. If it remains weak, then you’ve got to try other possible solutions.
Third solution: Enable and disable the Airplane mode on your iPhone XR.
Another way of fixing random glitches that affect the wireless radios functionalities on your iPhone is by utilizing the Airplane mode trick. This trick will also refresh your phone’s Wi-Fi network connections. Here’s how:
- From the Home screen, go to Settings.
- Select Airplane Mode.
- Then tap the Airplane mode switch to it ON. Doing so will automatically turn off the wireless features on your phone such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections.
- Leave the Airplane Mode ON, then restart (soft reset) your iPhone XR.
- Once the phone is already back on, head back to Settings.
- Then scroll to the Airplane Mode menu.
- Tap the Airplane Mode switch again to turn the feature OFF.
Since the Wi-Fi feature was disabled from that trick, you need to enable it again. To do so, navigate to your iPhone Settings-> Wi-Fi menu and toggle the Wi-Fi switch to enable the feature. Wait until your phone shows that it is already connected to the Wi-Fi network and then see if the signal strength is already better.
ALSO READ: How to fix an Apple iPhone XR that has no WiFi internet
Fourth solution: Forget the Wi-Fi network on your iPhone and then connect again.
When the selected Wi-Fi network becomes corrupted, chances are that the signal being acquired by your device from that network is also unstable or weak. In this case, you will need to forget the problematic Wi-Fi network and then add it back. Doing so offers a clean start to the network. Here’s how to get this done:
- From the Home screen, select Settings.
- Tap the Wi-Fi menu.
- Then tap the information (i) icon next to the name of the Wi-Fi network you wish to delete or forget.
- Tap the Forget This Network option.
- And then tap Forget to confirm.
- If there are multiple Wi-Fi networks saved on your phone, might as well delete all of them to avoid conflict with the Wi-Fi network you are currently using on your iPhone.
Once you have successfully deleted all the Wi-Fi networks, restart (soft reset) your iPhone. Then go back to Settings-> Wi-Fi menu, then set up your Wi-Fi network and then reconnect.
Then check if the Wi-Fi reception is already getting better.
Fifth solution: Reset network settings on your iPhone XR.
If the above mentioned solutions didn’t resolve the Wi-Fi reception issue, the next possible solution you can try is a network reset. This is when you reset network settings on your device. Performing this reset clears out incorrect settings and invalid network configurations from your device. Just follow these steps whenever you’re all set to start:
- From the Home screen, select the Settings app.
- Tap General.
- Scroll down to and tap on Reset.
- Select Reset network settings option.
- When prompted, enter your device code to continue.
- Then tap Reset network settings option again to confirm the reset.
Your phone will reboot automatically after the reset and then restores the default network settings. Once the phone is finished booting up, head back to Settings-> Wi-Fi menu and enable the feature. Wait for your iPhone to connect to your Wi-Fi network and then see if the problem on poor/weak Wi-Fi signal has been resolved.
Still getting poor Wi-Fi reception on your iPhone XR?
If none of the given procedures worked, then you may have to consider escalating the problem to your Internet service provider/carrier. You can ask them to look into their outage boards to find out if there’s an ongoing issue that might have affected Wi-Fi services. And to ensure that the modem/router is okay, ask them to provision or reset the network equipment remotely. Most, if not all leading Internet service providers do have a dedicate software for remote provisioning of the wireless router or modem.
For more advanced solutions like reconfiguring the router settings, you can contact your service provider’s technical support team to walk you through configuring IP addresses if needed.
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