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Wifi connected on iPhone but keeps reading LTE

I cannot get my iPhone to connect to home internet. My iPad connects just fine, but the iPhone stays on either 5g or LTE. I’ve turned the phone off and on, turned the wifi off and on, still happens.

iPhone 13 Pro

Posted on May 27, 2023 1:25 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on May 27, 2023 4:52 PM

No, I don’t see the wifi bars. When I go to Settings and Wifi, my Wifi shows a blue check mark as of it were connected. But, the top indicator by the battery readout says LTE.

11 replies

Jul 10, 2023 7:06 AM in response to Mindzman

  • There are many possible reasons that Wi-Fi has issues. If you describe what you have tried that might help to narrow down the problem.

  • Here is a general answer→If your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch won’t connect to a Wi-Fi network - Apple Support. If that doesn’t resolve the problem you will have to provide a lot more information, including, among other things:
  • All networks, or one specific network?
  • Is it a secured network, or open network?
  • What is the message when you try to connect?
  • Does the network have MAC filtering enabled (aka Access Control)?
  • Do you control the network, or is it someone else’s network?
  • Do you have Private Address enabled for the network?
  • Are you using a VPN connection?
  • What other troubleshooting have you done?


Jul 10, 2023 8:05 AM in response to Mindzman

Mindzman wrote:

• All networks, or one specific network?
• All networks (we have a 5gh 2.5 gh and a guest network
• Is it a secured network, or open network?
• secured
• What is the message when you try to connect?
• It shows it is connecting to all of my networks
• Does the network have MAC filtering enabled (aka Access Control)?

As you have MAC filtering AND Private Address, the iPhone’s MAC address is a “fake” address, and if the fake address is not in your MAC whitelist it won’t recognize the phone.


• yes
• Do you control the network, or is it someone else’s network?
• Mine
• Do you have Private Address enabled for the network?
• Yes
• Are you using a VPN connection?
• expressvpn and tried it both on and off

Don’t just turn off the VPN, actually delete the VPN profile and app.


Jul 10, 2023 7:46 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

  • All networks, or one specific network?
  • All networks (we have a 5gh 2.5 gh and a guest network
  • Is it a secured network, or open network?
  • secured
  • What is the message when you try to connect?
  • It shows it is connecting to all of my networks
  • Does the network have MAC filtering enabled (aka Access Control)?
  • yes
  • Do you control the network, or is it someone else’s network?
  • Mine
  • Do you have Private Address enabled for the network?
  • Yes
  • Are you using a VPN connection?
  • expressvpn and tried it both on and off


May 28, 2023 7:53 AM in response to Jake RS

Great, I hope it continues. Here’s why:


Wi-Fi normally connects to a router, which assigns an IP address using a protocol called DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol). But it’s possible to also use Wi-Fi to connect a group of devices to each other rather than to the Internet in what is called an ad-hoc network. Ad-hoc networks use IP addresses in the range that starts with 169.254.0.0. Each device in the ad-hoc network creates its own IP address in this range. When you connect a device to a network it will "ask" the router for an IP address using DHCP. If it doesn’t get an IP address assigned within 30 seconds it assumes that it is an ad-hoc network and assigns itself a random address in the range 169.254.x.y.


There is a common failure mode in many routers where the DHCP “daemon” process in the router fails, and it stops assigning IP addresses, so a new device connecting to the network will self-assign. But any device connected to the router that already has an IP address will continue to work. This makes it look like the problem is the phone, because everything else connected still works, but it’s actually the fact that the router is no longer assigning IP addresses. While it can happen to any device using the router the problem is more common with phones that disconnect when they go out of range, and reconnect when you get “home” and thus get a new IP address assigned. Rebooting the router restarts the DHCP daemon and resolves the problem.


The reason it happens with many different routers is that most routers have the same underlying open source operating system. It’s primarily a problem with routers more that a few years old; newer ones from top tier manufacturers rarely have this problem.

Wifi connected on iPhone but keeps reading LTE

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