Pro FW r3.8.24-R-1531355-PROD-1 issue connecting guest wifi to Apple Devices .

psychobudgie · ‎18-09-2025

As of the update pushed out over the last 24 hours, none of my Apple devices in the home will connect to the guest Wi-Fi but will connect fine to the main wi-fi. Non Apple devices connect fine to both. Tried removing and readding the guest wifi, forgetting connections, etc, nothing works. No indication as to the issue on the logs either. They just refuse to connect.

All windows, games consoles and my linux devices connect with no issues to either networks.

Anyone got any ideas?

bobpullen · ‎23-09-2025

@psychobudgie - thanks.

FWIW, my Pro has also been upgraded to this FW build and I have Guest WiFi enabled. I've just tried connecting an iPad A16 and an iPhone 15 Pro Max to the Guest SSID (both on *OS 26) and they connect without issue 🤔

@psychobudgie wrote:
In Guest Wi-Fi it says it is set to WPA3-Personal-Transition on the 2.4ghz and 5ghz channels
with the option of adding 6ghz on WPA3-Personal which I have also tried with no success.

I've never tinkered with 6GHz on Guest WiFi, nor changed the security setting, and mine is set to WPA2 which would lead me to believe that's the default.

WPA3-Personal-Transition on the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands is only really necessary if you also enable 6GHz. Might be worth dropping back to WPA2 to see if the Apple devices connect? If they do though, you may then find that other devices refuse to connect to the SSID as they won't like the fact it has been 'demoted' from WPA3-Personal-Transition to WPA2. Solution for that would be to 'forget' and re-join the Guest WiFi network on the devices in question.

Tried removing and readding the guest wifi, forgetting connections, etc...

What were the exact steps you took to do this? IME, Apple devices can be very fussy/particular when it comes to 'properly' forgetting a network.

i.e. instead of tapping into the network and forgetting it from there, I've found better success with clearing from the keychain using the section underneath the (easy to overlook) 'Edit' button circled below (might have to wait for the image to be approved before you can see it): -

psychobudgie · ‎25-09-2025

I believe I have found the issue and it lies with WPA3-Personal-Transition mode which does not appear to allow any devices that are WPA3 only to connect suggesting the router is not enabling WPA3 correctly when it is set. If I set it to WPA3 only the apple devices connect but nothing that is WPA2 will. This shouldn't happen with Transition mode on as I understand it and didn't previous to the update.

bobpullen · ‎25-09-2025

@psychobudgie - that doesn't make much sense to me.

The Apple devices are not 'WPA3 only'; it would be daft if they were as there are plenty of Wi-Fi access points out there that do not support WPA3 at all. All Apple devices, no matter how recent, can happily connect using WPA2 in the right circumstances.

There's an easy test to see if WPA3 works in transition mode and that's to enable 6GHz on the Guest Wi-Fi network/set transition mode and see if a 6GHz device can be connected to the 6GHz band. 6GHz mandates WPA3, ergo if one can get a device to connect to it, then it has to be using WPA3.

This still feels to me like Apple throwing its toys out of the pram due to a known SSID having it's security mode fiddled with. The following suggestion would help prove if this is the case: -

1. Change the security mechanism on the Guest Wi-Fi network to the desired setting (personally, I would leave it at the default WPA2 unless you've got a decent reason to enable 6GHz for Guest devices).

2. Rename the Guest Wi-Fi SSID to a Wi-Fi network name that has never been used/seen before.

3. Try connecting the problematic devices to the new Guest Wi-Fi network name.

psychobudgie · ‎26-09-2025

Did all of that, enabling 6ghz was one of the first things I tried. If you enable it for Guest WiFi you can no longer manually configure the authentication and it locks to WPA3-Personal-Transition for the 2.3 and 5ghz range. If the guest wifi is not set to WPA3 the 2 Apple devices do not connect. Every, and I mean every device here connects to the guest wifi with zero issues including games consoles, routers, windows laptops, wireless home devices and 2 linux pc's along with a raspberry pi.

To be clear, when 6ghz is on it locks to WPA3-Personal on that band within the settings but the 2 Apple devices will still not connect on 6ghz. I'm stumped. I've just moved the guest network to WPA3 only and connected any older devices to the main wifi for now. I'll have a further mess around next week when I get some time.

bobpullen · ‎27-09-2025

@psychobudgie wrote:
To be clear, when 6ghz is on it locks to WPA3-Personal on that band within the settings...

Yep, mindful of this. It has to use WPA3-PTM or WPA3 because standards dictate that 6GHz must use WPA3. From my last reply: -

@bobpullen wrote:
... 6GHz mandates WPA3...

So, to be clear: you've tried renaming the Guest WiFi network to something completely new/different and still have the same problem?

I'll enable 6GHz on my hub when I next get the chance and try connecting some 6GHz devices to it. I have quite a few (including an iPhone) so should be a fairly representative test.

As an aside: why are you using the Guest network?