iPhone 4s wi-fi issues

[Will T.]

After wanting a smartphone for a while, I received a slightly-used iPhone 4s as a gift from my parents for Christmas. It works great, except that the wi-fi switch under "Settings" is grayed out, and there's nothing I can do to get it to work, meaning any Internet usage I do will use up valuable megabytes of our data plan - which thankfully is a good one, but still, I'd like to have use of our home network on the phone if possible. Google gives all kinds of results from the standard turn-it-off-and-back-on-again (I've tried that of course, as well as resetting the network settings and resetting the phone to factory defaults) to such bizarre things as using a hair drier and a freezer to shock the system's temperature sensor (I'm afraid to do this because it could destroy the hardware). From what I can find, it's a common issue with the 4s when using iOS 7 or iOS 8. My next step is to go to an Apple store, but my dad is convinced they'll just try to sell me a new phone after asking me to try all the same things I already have.

Does anyone know how to fix this? Has anyone else had a phone with this issue and resolved it? Any help would be much appreciated!

[Larry]

My bro also has a 4s. It's got all sorts of silly things wrong with it. Is it just with your home network or everywhere else?

[Rumps]

Have you tried restore and setup as new phone through itunes? Make sure to back it up first.

[Will T.]

My bro also has a 4s. It's got all sorts of silly things wrong with it. Is it just with your home network or everywhere else?

The issue is that the wi-fi antenna refuses to activate at all. I can go into Settings -> Wi-Fi and see the switch for it on-screen, but tapping it does nothing. It's as if it doesn't recognize that it has a wi-fi antenna, which I know it does. My dad says the previous owner (who was far from unfamiliar with smartphones) found no hardware problems and was willing to give a full refund if there were any, so I don't think it's a hardware failure.

Have you tried restore and setup as new phone through itunes? Make sure to back it up first.

I've restored it completely and set it up from scratch; it didn't change anything.

[Tilgasse]

I've seen this once before on an iPad 2. I had to go to apple with it and swap it out :/

[Boss Llama]

I'd take it to the Apple store. If they try to upsell you or get you to buy something else, tell them it's an option between fixing the phone you have, or getting a new one from a different provider that doesn't have broken equipment. They don't have to know that isn't true!

I have no experience with the Apple Store myself, but my g/f is a dedicated Mac and iPhone user, and has had various problems resolved by them without issue in the past. It's worth a shot!

[DDYzErO]

Some people say this method works.

Go to Settings and turn Airplane Mode and Do Not Disturb ON

Power down and wait 5-10 minutes

Power up

Go to Settings and turn Airplane Mode and Do Not Disturb OFF



If that does not help, backup your content and go to Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings and then restore from the backup.