iPhone and MacBook devices constantly disconnecting from the wireless network

[Orlando_Elias]

In my work as a TAC support agent for RUCKUS Wireless products, I've recently encountered cases where iPhone and MacBook users complain of frequent disconnections from the wireless network. I've been able to resolve those cases by following the steps below. 

This is part of the symptom you will see in the AP support log:

Aug 19 17:58:11 clbd sta join XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX wlan3(YY:YY:YY:YY:YY:YY) 1 rssi=(25 42) 2g(0x0 4 31) 5g(0x0 4 13) 
Aug 19 17:58:12 clbd sta leave XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX wlan36(YY:YY:YY:YY:YY:YZ) rc=1 rss(20 0) 0 pkt(3588 12841) byte(498065 12750895) 
Aug 19 17:58:15 clbd sta join XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX wlan36(YY:YY:YY:YY:YY:YZ) 116 rssi=(11 22) 2g(0x0 4 29) 5g(0x0 4 12) 
Aug 19 17:58:16 clbd sta leave XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX wlan3(YY:YY:YY:YY:YY:YY) rc=1 rss(43 0) 0 pkt(1011 2437) byte(101751 2409641) 
Aug 19 17:58:20 clbd stamac=XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX bssid:YY:YY:YY:YY:YY:YZ score=0 oldstate:NONE newstate:GOOD

I tried ensuring that the airtime was decongested and free of interference, the RSSI was good, the SNR was good, and coverage for roaming was good. There weren't any notorious sources of interference, high retransmission rates, or physical errors in the APs.

For troubleshooting, I even enabled features like 'RSSI threshold' and 'Transient Client Management', but none of those were causing any difference in the constant and annoying disconnections.

So, I started to suspect more and more that there was an issue with those Apple devices, especially when there wasn't an obvious reason for this problem. I began to research within online forums and Apple support pages, an I found many people were complaining about this issue, but there wasn't an actual resolution or valuable comments from the Apple support team until I found this Apple support forum.

This is the workaround that worked for every customer I have suggested it:

In your iPhone:

1. Go to Settings, scroll down, and select 'Privacy and Security.'

2. Select 'Location Services' and make sure the toggle is switched on.

3. Scroll down and select 'System Services.'

4. Switch off the toggle for 'Networking and Wireless.'

5. Forget the Wi-Fi network and then reconnect.

After applying these steps in iPhones running iOS 16.1 the issue was solved immediately. However, the computers kept disconnecting. Then, an upgrade on the computers to the MacOS Ventura version 13.6, finally solved the disconnection issues for the MacBooks as well.

I hope this article is useful if you're experiencing similar issues.