[ipad] Ipads randomly forget wireless networks

[localzuk]

We have a dozen or so iPads in school, and randomly a few of them will just completely remove all the remembered wireless networks, meaning we have to re-enter them.

 

Has anyone else come across this and have a solution?

[Michael]

Never seen that happen before - what version of iOS and are you using any form of management system?

[localzuk]

We've had the issue with iOs 7 and iOS 8 (we're now on the latest and its still happening). They're iPad 2s. No management really - dabbled with Meraki but not really rolled it out.

 

Actually, thinking back, we had the issue with iOS 6 too.

Edited March 3, 2015 by localzuk

[tmoon-mint]

The only reason I can see for this is a user going into settings and pressing "Forget this network". Using a profile from either Apple Configurator or Meraki should sort this.

[localzuk]

Nope, it does it by itself. It did it to me 3 times with one iPad today, for example!

[Michael]

I have lots of schools using iPads 2, 3, 4 and Air - all now running iOS8.1.2 or iOS8.1.3 with and without management systems not experiencing such issues.

 

What type of security/deployment are you using for your wireless? All of mine use a WPA2-PSK AES key.

[localzuk]

We connect all of these to our Ruckus system, via WPA2-PSK AES and a captive portal for login after connecting. Broadcast SSID is off, so we have to manually specify the SSID.

[Tesla]

Assuming your dabbling in meraki hasn't meant that it's trying to push blank wifi settings to your ipadd?

[localzuk]

Nah, we only have the management actually installed on a single iPad and we haven't experienced anything with that one.

[kennysarmy]

We've had issues with AppleTV's and a hidden SSID, so much so that we turned it ON!

 

Can you create a test wireless network with SSID ON to see what happens?

[Michael]

Hmm maybe try enabling SSID broadcasting - shouldn't make a difference, but I don't disable that at any sites. Very simple/easy to enable/disable to see if it does make a difference, as you could have unearthed another Apple bug.

[localzuk]

I've enabled SSID broadcasting to see if it makes any difference. Its definitely something to do with the iPads - we use the same SSID for 30 Surface RTs and a few Mac desktops, and none of those have experienced any issues.

[Michael]

To be honest, I think hiding the SSID probably creates you more work typing it in manually. You're using the strongest encryption, which would take an outsider like me (to your school) many months to break, by which time I would have given up!

[Michael]

I found this from mid 2014 which describes exactly the same problem. It does appear to be an iPad software issue, seeing as Windows and Macs are OK.