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Eero iPhone Connectivity Issues

Hello, 

I have not yet purchased an Eero system yet; I am in the research stages deciding between Google Wifi, Orbi, Luma, Unify mesh, Amplifi, and Velop. 

I have seen many reviews and threads in forums in regards to Apple IOS devices failing to 'roam' between APs, or randomly dropping connections, or staying connected to the furthest AP rather than switching to the closest one. 

A couple years back I set up a $1000 Cisco Meraki AP for my home network. After countless issue with our iPhones and iPads not being able to connect, not seeing the SSIDs, and randomly dropping connections I switched back to my $100 Asus router, which has superior performance (for Apple devices) to the enterprise grade AP. I am looking for a modern WiFi solution to power all of our devices, including many Apple devices.

In any case, it seams Apple devices always have issues with WiFi, I am looking for a solid solution to this, I thought Eero was the winner until I started reading it also has the same issues with Apple. I have read that people have open cases with Eero regarding this, but it's still a known issue. 

At my office we have a ton of Enterprise Cisco APs, in which iPhones can seamlessly roam between without loosing a video call. Obviously at the price point of Eero we cannot expect enterprise grade features, but I am looking for some input if others are having this issue with their iPhones on Eero, and what support / development teams are doing to solve this issue? 

One other item of interest is outdoor WiFi coverage. With other mesh WiFi options on the market; outdoor weather resistant APs are offered. Does Eero have any intentions or future plans to offer the addition of outdoor APs to the mesh network? 

Thanks in advance. 

252 replies

    • miamojo
    • 6 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    My guess is that a lot of people are having this issue but are attributing it to various other things like a bad modem, ISP outages, too many people sharing a cable connection, apps crashing, old iPhone, people in the house streaming video, etc...  No one in my house(four more adults) has complained and we all use iOS devices. Today I tested all of the phones and they all have the same issue.

     

    I think we’re the people who notice, mind, and evaluate. I think people might be more inclined to notice if they had speedy, rock-solid internet all the time. I think we’re all used to shoddy WiFi. I work at a tech company and wrestle with WiFi all day, switching networks, moving closer to APs when I need speed... 

    But hey for three or four glorious days when I first installed the eero system, I had a taste of what things could be like... Hoping to get there again. Thanks everyone.

      • jblevins
      • 6 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      miamojo This is a great point.  I thought it was just affecting my iPhone since our eero network is new and I had been running the iOS 11 beta.  My wife hadn't mentioned having any trouble, but I asked her today and indeed, she's having the same issue.  She's still using iOS 10, on an iPhone 7.  She is accustomed to toggling WiFi when she has a bad connection, so she hadn't thought to tell me about it.

      • rtlee
      • 6 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      jblevins Several times a day a family member tells me their Wifi isn't working and asks me how much longer they have tolerate this (having been months now already), only adding to my frustration with the issue. So I know where you're coming from.

      • brintonh
      • 6 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      miamojo Absolutely!  I've lived with this problem for a couple of years.  I purchased through kickstarter and have had issues from the start with dropped connectivity etc.  My wifi printer became incompatible.  My phone can't discover other devices on the network s/a Chromecast.  I just chalk this up to a unique situation (for some reason) and turn off and on my wifi until I get the connection back.  In hindsight it's a pretty frustrating issue that has made my wifi LESS useful than before - before I didn't have connection in a couple of remote rooms but otherwise the wifi was reliable.  I'll give a shot at this forum to resolve before junking the system but suspect this is a widespread issue.

      • miamojo
      • 6 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      brintonh That is absolutely the trade-off and why I haven't given up on the eero: I live in a four-story house with a lot of weird, remote spaces and pre-eero, with a few Netgear extenders(not the Orbi), I was resigned to hard-wiring through ethernet or sticking close to the router if I needed speed but everyone could get and stay connected. Not exactly Sophie's Choice, I know, but seems like if I'm paying for 200 Mbps downloads, it shouldn't be impossible to get that even if you're two floors above your router. My first speed tests in the (technically 5th floor) attic, once I plugged in an eero beacon made me euphoric, as even the extenders couldn't get a signal before then. I hold out hope for a workable solution soon- I believe in the dream of wifi on 5 floors.

      • eero Community Manager
      • Jeff_C
      • 6 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      brintonh -

      Thanks for reaching out and I’m sorry to hear you’re experiencing a similar issue. As mentioned in the pinned note at the top, our team is actively working on a solution. Thanks for the patience and understanding. 

      As for the issue you are experiencing with your printer, please let our support team know. It looks like you submitted a ticket, but be sure to let them know of this issue once you hear back. 

    • Armydoc214
    • 6 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Anyone having problems connecting to a MacBook Pro running OS 10.13 Beta (17A360a)?  I just returned from a two week trip out of town and now my MacBook will not connect to the network. It times out and tells me the password is incorrect which I know is connect. 

      • mattv123
      • 6 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Armydoc214 I'm not seeing this problem... I am running the 10.13 beta on my MacBook and it has been rock solid for me...

      • bdplatt
      • 6 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Armydoc214 I didn't have that issue when running that build, nor with the 10.13 GM.

      • eero Community Manager
      • Jeff_C
      • 6 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Armydoc214 Thanks for reaching out. That shouldn't be the behavior. If you haven't yet, please first try forgetting the network from your Macbook and then having it rejoin. If the issue persists, feel free to give us a call at 1-877-659-2347 or email us at support@eero.com . We'll get to the bottom of it.

      • rtlee
      • 6 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Armydoc214 That sounds like it may be a different issue altogether than the issues primarily covered in this thread. I think for most if not all of us with these issues, our MacBooks are not having any issues. It is specific to iPhone (and perhaps iPad) devices (at least the issues being discussed here - see the title of the thread).

      • Armydoc214
      • 6 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Jeff C. I had to completely delete the network and re setup everything. It’s working now but I still have the iPhone issue like everyone else. 

      • eero Community Manager
      • Jeff_C
      • 6 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Armydoc214 I'm happy to hear that was able to resolve that matter. We'll be sharing additional updates as soon as they become available. Thanks again!

    • djyareed
    • 6 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    I'm seeing connection (moving from eeros and after sleeping) issues with my iPad after upgrading to iOS 11. This iPad had no connection problems when running iOS 10. Other iPads and iPhones that haven't upgraded aren't experiencing any issues. My MacBookAir has connection issues from time to time but other MacBook devices don't seem to be having this issue. I originally bought a 3 pack years ago and had lots of problems from the get-go. I ended up replacing two of my eeros and my router, but I had been cruising without large problems for at least 9 months.

    • cpwest
    • 6 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Jeff C. &   weaves   I am having this issue have been watching this thread for awhile now. Rather than post here though I have been working directly with support, which has been a pretty slow and somewhat disorganized process. I am thinking now that it is probably worthwhile to document here what is going on there, so that everyone is on the same page and hopefully we can inject some efficiency into the process. 

    Basic facts: 

    • I have an eero 3 pack, series 1 purchased during the initial crowdfunding campaign. 
    • Eeros have been on the network for around 2 years and have been working well up until about 6 weeks ago. 
    • Eeros are all hardwired using CAT 6. 
    • Eeros all running 3.4. The issue seems to have started on 3.3. After switching to 3.4 there was a slight improvement in that the connection failed over to LTE more elegantly. 
    • Eeros are distributed around a 3 floor (counting basement) 2800 sq ft house as such:
      • Eero 1: Dmarc: In basement northern side of house
      • Eero 2: Office: Main floor southern side of house
      • Eero 3: Living room: Main floor: northern side of house
    • There are no eeros on the top floor of the house, which is where the bedroom is, there is strong signal up there though. 
    • Problem occurs when I move around the house. Seems to be tied to the phone switching APs based on location. 
    • I can easily repro the issue by walking upstairs to the bedroom. 
    • I have provided detailed info to support including MAC addresses and exact timing of the issue and toggling wifi on and off. 
    • Support used the info provided and has responded with a theory that seems a bit off. They stated: 
      I think the confusion may have arisen due to a potential overlap in signals from your Living room eero and your Dmarc eero. If there's a large enough overlap, your phone may realize there's another eero with a slightly better signal, but once it connects to it, it realizes that the original eero has slightly better signal and hops back. This transition is where I believe the breakdown in communication is stemming from. 

      I think this is unlikely because the eeros he mentioned are very far from one another. They are on completely different floors, it seems odd to me that the system would get confused by the signal strength of an eero 2 floors away and one 1 floor away. Further, there has been no change to my eero placement in over a year and this problem is quite recent. 
    • I pointed this all out to support and they had me reset my network settings on my phone. I did that and confirmed that the problem still exists. I gave them the details of that failure and that is where we have left off. 
    • I have mentioned the existence of and linked to this thread multiple times in the support process.

    I'm very interested in getting this issue resolved and am willing to help out in any way necessary. So far I feel that the back and forth with support has been a little slow and somewhat disorganized, which is a little bit frustrating. What I hope you can do Jeff C.  and weaves  is possibly look into my tickets and see if you can get them escalated or get a bit more visibility on them. As I said I am more than willing to assist your team in digging into this, but I would like to see a more concerted effort from support to keep the ball moving forward. 

    Thanks and let me know if you have any questions, 

    Chris

      • eero Community Manager
      • Jeff_C
      • 6 yrs ago
      • Official response
      • Reported - view

      cpwest  —

      Thanks for reaching out, and I'm sorry to hear you're experiencing a similar issue to what has been reported. As mentioned, our mesh team is continuing to work towards a solution and we will pass along any additional details or next steps as soon as they become available.

      In regards to hearing back from support, our team gets back to every incoming email as quickly as possible. Response times can vary based on volume, but you should be hearing back from someone soon. We thank you for your patience and understanding.

      Thanks again. 

      • rtlee
      • 6 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      cpwest Chris - Thanks for taking the time to post all those details. I hope that others that may be lurking with the same or similar issues will do the same - the more info the better. I can say that in reading your scenario and issues, it is virtually identical to my setup and experiences as well. Only main difference is that only my main Eero (the one serving as a router) is hardwired, the other two Eero units are wireless.  I've had these Eeros for a little less than a year. They worked nearly flawlessly and plenty acceptable for several months. Then some time ago, maybe 6 months ago, I had some issues like the ones being discussed. I worked with support on those. Then at some point weeks later a firmware update came along and resolved those issues, and things had been rock solid. Then about 2 months ago I started having all these issues like others are reporting. I've spent countless hours on the phone and emailing with Level 2 support at Eero. Although the support agents have been friendly and very knowledgeable, I agree that in many cases the information I am reporting and that they are collecting seems to be of limited value. It would be great to have a better understanding of what factors lead to the issue, assuming not all iPhone users of Eero's are affected. At least then we could do something to try and work around the issue. The workarounds suggested by support so far have not helped. It would also be helpful to know how close the Eero team is to having updated beta firmware for us to try.

      • afx114
      • 6 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      cpwest Thanks Chris, your post pretty much lays out my situation exactly.  I have pretty much the same exact setup and problems, with the only difference being instead of 3 floors, I have 2, with my 3rd Eero in the detached garage in the back yard. 

       

      I've also opened support tickets and provided MAC addresses of my devices, and tried various things (disabling WiFi Calling, disabling cellular data, etc) but no luck.

      Other than these disconnect issues, I really love my Eeros so I'm really hoping a fix comes quick.

    • brintonh
    • 6 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Also surprised to hear there are "no known connectivity issues for apple products".  I've had issues since opening the box over a year ago with all my devices (phones and ipads) randomly dropping connection, losing connectivity, despite strong signal all over.  I have to frequently turn off my wifi and turn back on to regain connection, especially after moving around the house where I am assuming it does a handoff.

     

    The other major issue is connection to other devices s/a chromecast where you are streaming from your phone.  The connection may discover your device at first, allow you to start streaming, then when you go back in to pause or stop it can't find it.  I can only solve by turning on and off my wifi on my phone until it finds the connection again.  I am assuming here the devices get connected to different hubs and aren't talking to each other properly.

     

    Also was very bummed to lose wifi connection to my printer making it an expensive obsolete piece of tech that the Eero network didn't support.

     

    This is all a deal-breaker.  I can't imagine others aren't seeing these same issues.

      • miamojo
      • 6 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      brintonh What make is the printer? I haven't heard of issues with printers yet, but mine is hard-wired. Definitely having issues with iPads on iOS 11 too, and they aren't all hand-off related as they happen when stationary and literally inches from an eero. I need to check on some of the other devices that I'm assuming are ok just because people haven't complained- we have various Fire sticks and TiVos and gaming consoles which obviously aren't used as much or moved as much as an iPhone. If this isn't resolved, then it is a deal-breaker, but a heart-breaker too. I don't think it's just the eero- I think all the mesh and mesh-type(orbi) systems are having similar problems.

      • rtlee
      • 6 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      miamojo Interesting that you mentioned your printer. I never had problems with my printer being "offline" in the past, but starting around the time of these other Wifi issues, my printer is occasionally offline and I have to recycle its power to get it back. Its a Brother inkjet connected wirelessly. 

      • adammiarka
      • 6 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      miamojo this is not true about Orbi. Switched out my eero gen 2 and 2 beacons with an Orbi yesterday because of the roaming issue and I have not experienced a stall or drop yet.  With our devices all upgraded to iOS 11, we can’t afford to have WiFi that doesn’t work around the house as it should. 

      • adammiarka
      • 6 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Okay, replying to myself here.... had to swap back to eero.   Although the roaming issue is annoying, Orbi would consistently drop my VOIP calls for work.  That's even worse, and I can handle a quick toggle of the WiFi button in control center.  I can't have a WiFi that disconnects every time I try to make a call.   😅

    • Jason.1
    • 6 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    All:  I received the iPhone 8 yesterday. Up until then I had issues with getting higher speeds and connecting to the 5GHz band. It may be coincidental, but the speeds have been much better when using the 8. Not sure what the difference might be. 

Content aside

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