iPads turning off WiFi after storage - will not reconnect until after logon

[BillHart]

Hi,

We are managing 40+ trial iPads right now and are getting ready for another 200 soon.

Some of the iPads will not connect to WiFi until after logon.

This has made resetting the PIN code impossible.

Is there a way to make sure each iPad will connect at boot?

Also I am concerned that lost iPads are essentially gone forever since they wont ever check in. Any one else see this behavior?

Thanks!

[EClap5]

Our organization has a ton of iPads that are used in by our users and oftentimes not used much.  More time than I can count, these iPads are turned off for a period of time and lose wifi until the screen is unlocked.  This is a feature of iOS devices and seen as a security thing I believe.  The wifi connection sits behind the login and will not enable until the device is unlocked. 

I am not sure if there is anything that can alleviate this issue.  We have dealt with it for the entire time I was in Wireless Support.

[BillHart]

UGH!

Thanks but I was hoping that wasn't the case. 

May I ask what your process is to unlock these units?

[EClap5]

Most times we would have to track these iPads down based on what user was assigned to that device and make them unlock their device.  If they had forgotten the password (which was usually the case), we would have to use Apple Configurator to wipe the device.  I definitely hated telling a user that his/her iPad had to be wiped but that was the consequence for shoving it a drawer and not using it. 

Our trainers who are in our care centers all over the US got so bad that we had to stick them on a pooled cellular plan because we got so tired of shipping an iPad across the US multiple times. 

I know that's probably the last answer you wanted to hear.  I tried looking for the Apple article that I saw about this 'issue' but I've not found it yet.

[BillHart]

Yes indeed, the option we have been doing right now and hoping someone has figured on a work-around.

Thanks for sharing your experience - I'm surprised large Corporate IT haven't pressured Apple to change this feature or allow for network communications to be turned on under certain circumstances.

We were just discussing if now we need to set and keep record of the pass-code in these situations. Having to wipe devices due to user error when there is loss of data is a ridiculous design "feature".

Harrumph.

[EClap5]

I agree.  I swear Apple Support had an article on the issue but maybe not.  I did however find an article that talks about this.  Essentially the wifi password is encryted in the iOS keychain by Apple and isn't 'seen' until the first unlock. 

https://www.quora.com/Why-don%E2%80%99t-iOS-devices-connect-to-known-WiFi-networks-when-being-powere...

[BillHart]

Great find with that Quora post.

Yes, I see the point pairing WiFi passwords to the IOS keychain however if I were designing this system I would have used elliptic curve cryptography to create a subset of the keychain for decryption of MDM networks or WiFi in general.

The MDM cert be able to decrypt just those items (along the user key) so that if the management network is present (or any setting defined by the MDM agent meaning all WiFi passwords as well) then the device could communicate on power up.

[DCooper]

Is the SSID a PSK or 802.1x?

What version of IOS? There were known issues in some versions of this behavior

[BillHart]

This is for the latest IOS ver 11 I believe.

[BillHart]

Single SSID set in management - PSK

[DCooper · Accepted solution]

After re-reading the thread this is expected behavior. You could attempt this hail mary https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5966841 or try the restore using Configuration.

[BillHart]

Holy cow!

That Hail Mary is such a kluge!  But it works so I'm putting it into our process notes.

WTF Apple (that's coming from myself - a longtime Apple fan boi)

That may work - I'm calling this.

Thanks

[Limitless]

We have the same issue with i phones on 12.3.1.we had to go to settings / reset network / reset network settings.  After that the phones remained connected.  Not a global fix and still worried that phones disconnecting will not probe out.

Gary

[beks88]

For phones or Cell iPads, just put a SIM card without PIN into the device and it will talk to Meraki