Although Apple’s iOS operating system is widely regarded as one of the most reliable and stable on mobile devices, bugs can occasionally arise, causing features to glitch and even affecting a user’s activity until Apple issues a fix.
The latest iOS bug in this category gives iPhone users a new difficulty by cutting them off from Wi-Fi connection if they connect to the wrong network.
According to a report from BleepingComputer, just connecting to an unusual Wi-Fi hotspot can disable Wi-Fi connectivity on your iPhone.
If you’ve ever tried to connect to a Wi-Fi hotspot before, you’re already familiar with the process — it’s the same as connecting to a standard Wi-Fi network.
However, after trying to connect to his own hotspot, Twitter user Carl Schou discovered a strange bug with his iPhone, according to the report.
When he connected to his own hotspot, “%p%s%s%s%s%n” the Wi-Fi on his iPhone was disabled and refused to connect at all.
Schou discovered that as soon as he connected to the hotspot, his iPhone’s Wi-Fi stopped working, according to the report.
Tapping the toggle to turn on Wi-Fi didn’t work — it just turned off.
Meanwhile, no amount of rebooting or altering his SSID (human-readable Wi-Fi network name) could fix the problem.
He went on to say that he originally tried the experiment on an iPhone XS running iOS 14.4.2, but BleepingComputer has confirmed that the hotspot bug also affected iPhones running iOS 14.6.
If you’re concerned about the bug and how to keep your iPhone safe, make sure it’s connected to trusted networks.
There’s no news on when a fix will be released, which is concerning given that the bug might just break the phone’s functionality.
According to the report, cybercriminal may simply set up Wi-Fi hotspots in public places to mislead iOS users into connecting to the dummy network and turning off their Wi-Fi.
If you are affected by this bizarre iOS bug, it appears that there is a fix available for you.
If your Wi-Fi doesn’t work after connecting to this network, open the Settings app on your iPhone and go to General, then Reset.
Then hit the ‘Reset Network Settings’ option to undo all of your network settings and restore Wi-Fi connectivity to your iPhone.
However, prevention is always preferable to cure, especially when it means not having to redo all of your network settings.
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