iOS has a bug that disables WiFi network on your iPhone. There is a specific WiFi name that causes your iPhone to disable the wireless network. We advice you to not connect to this network unless you want your phone’s wifi functionality to break.

A WifI naming bug has been discovered in iOS. It effectively disables an iPhone’s ability to connect to Wi-Fi. It was discovered by security researcher Carl Schou, who took to Twitter to reveal the development. According to Schou, after he joined network “%p%s%s%s%s%n”, his iPhone permanently disabled its wifi functionality. Moreover, 9to5Mac reports that the bug also affects iPads, as well as services like AirDrop.

“After joining my personal WiFi with the SSID “%p%s%s%s%s%n”, my iPhone permanently disabled it’s WiFi functionality. Neither rebooting nor changing SSID fixes it :~),” wrote Schou on Twitter.

After joining my personal WiFi with the SSID “%p%s%s%s%s%n”, my iPhone permanently disabled it’s WiFi functionality. Neither rebooting nor changing SSID fixes it :~) pic.twitter.com/2eue90JFu3

— Carl Schou (@vm_call) June 18, 2021

If you are thinking that a reboot would fix the problem, you couldn’t be more wrong. The bug leads to devices unable to connect to WiFi networks even after rebooting or changing the hotspot’s SSID. The researcher hasn’t revealed how he came across the bug. Although, the big was later confirmed by other Twitter users who tried to replicate it. As per a MacRumors report, the wifi on Android phones does not seem to break when connected to the same network.

How to fix the iOS WiFi bug?

That being said, this bug doesn’t appear to cause permanent damage to your Apple hardware. It can be fixed. To fix it, you need to reset all network settings. You need to go to Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings. It will reset all saved WiFi networks on your iPhone. Hence, erasing the buggy network name from the device’s memory. After this, you should be able to use your iPhone with WiFi connectivity.

Why is this happening?

As per an AppleInsider report, it seems like there is an input parsing issue that makes iOS think the characters following the percent sign are a string format specifier. It is also said that (via Gizmodo) this could eventually lead to memory corruption. Therefore, affecting the iPhone’s WiFi functionality.