How to Fix Weak Security Wi-Fi Warning on iPhone with iOS 14

If your iPhone has been updated to iOS 14 (or your iPad to iPadOS 14 respectively) or higher version you might have seen “Weak security” warning under your Wi-Fi network name. Here is how to fix the problem and actually make the warning disappear from Wi-Fi settings.

What Does the Weak Security Warning Mean?

It means that your Wi-Fi router is configured to use an outdated and vulnerable security mode, such as WEP or WPA.

On top of that, the “Weak Security” warning appears in case if the TKIP encryption is used. If you don’t know, being insecure TKIP severely slows down your Wi-Fi speed in addition.

iPhone Weak Security Warning
iOS 14 warns about weak security

It goes without saying that iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 consider open Wi-Fi hotspots not secure either.

In this case your iPhone will say “Unsecured network”.

Unsecured Network iPhone
Unsecured Network on iPhone

How to Fix the Problem and Make the “Weak Security” Warning Disappear?

The issue is totally related to the wireless router or access point of the specific hotspot. This means that you can get rid of the “Weak Security” warning on your iPhone and iPad only in case if you have access to the router settings page.

Step 1. Log in to Your Wireless Router Settings

The steps to log in to your router settings differ depending on the make and model of your particular device.

Commonly used methods to access the configuration page of your router is typing the IP address (e.g. 192.168.1.1, 192.168.0.1) or the hostname (e.g. tplinkwifi.net) into the address bar of your browser.

Step 2. Find the Wireless Security Settings

As a rule, you need to first dive into the Wireless section and than navigate to the sub-section called Wireless security or something close to that.

Step 3. Switch to WPA2-PSK + AES or WPA3

Finally here is the crucial step: select WPA2 as your security mode and AES as your encryption type. This is why you actually got the “Weak security” warning on your iPhone and iPad.

WPA2-PSK+AES on old TP-Link Router
WPA2-PSK+AES on old TP-Link Routers

Note that, you should opt to use “WPA2 only” but not the combined option that is usually called “WPA/WPA2”.

However, on some routers’ settings you may need to select “WPA/WPA2” and then you will be able to select WPA2 in a separate menu that appears.

WPA2-PSK+AES on modern TP-Link Router
WPA2-PSK+AES on a modern TP-Link Router

Here is how it looks on LinkSys devices:

WPA-PSK+AES LinkSys router

On Asus.

By the way, if your router supports WPA3, you’d better opt to use “WPA3/WPA2-Personal” to make sure all your devices will be able to connect to your Wi-Fi network.

WPA3-WPA2 on Asus router

As you can see, the same setting is regarded as Authentication method instead of Security mode.

Actually, this is exactly what I recommend in the article How to secure your wireless router.

Step 4. Save Settings

Don’t forget to click “Save Settings” or “Apply” depending on what button you have on your router’s config page.

save router settings

Extra Step

Most modern routers support dual band operation. Therefore, they broadcast at least two Wi-Fi networks: in 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz range.

I recommend that you do the same for each Wi-Fi network on your router. To be more specific, switch both your 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz networks to WPA2-PSK with AES to get rid of “Weak security” warning on your Apple device.

On top of that, don’t forget about the guest network or multi-SSID feature if you are currently use one.

Normally, you don’t need to reconnect to the network after applying the above unless you’ve changed the security key as well.

Enable Private Address

Privacy warning is yet another thing you can observe in iPhone’s Wi-Fi settings under your active network name.

It means that you are not using a randomized MAC Address for this network connection. The feature is designed to prevent hotspot administrators from tracking you by your real MAC address.

What to do? The answer is simple. Enable it when connecting to a network that doesn’t belong to you. Optionally disable if connecting your own router.

First, connect to the hotspot.

Then, tap the network name.

Toggle on the “Private address: option.

enable Private Address iPhone
Enable Private MAC Address on iPhone

Done!

Disabling the randomized MAC address actually makes sense if you want your router to be able to assign the same IP address to your device every time you connect it to your Wi-Fi. You may need this in a limited number of cases.

Thus, in most cases there is no need in disabling the feature.

What to Do If “Weak Security” Error Persist?

If you have followed all the steps above and resolved the problem in your router settings but the “Weak Security” warning is still displayed under your Wi-Fi hotspot name, here is one more step.

First, go to Wi-Fi settings on your iPhone or iPad, select your network and tap “Forget This Network”.

forget Wi-Fi network iOS 14

Then, re-connect to it from the scratch by typing your network security key.

connect to Wi-Fi on iPhone

Conclusion

To my mind, Apple is doing the right thing by warning the users in case if their devices happen to connect to insecure Wi-Fi networks.

You have a right to be aware of how secure the current network is and decide whether or not you wish to continue using it.

This especially applies to public hotspots. You never know who is currently connected to the same network and what are their intentions. And this is public hotspots where user accounts and even banking credentials most often got stolen.

Consequently, this warning on Apple devices will motivate network administrators to pay more attention to improving network security of their hotspots.

10 thoughts on “How to Fix Weak Security Wi-Fi Warning on iPhone with iOS 14”

  1. I have followed all the steps you recommend to eliminate the weak security message. My wifi status-wireless network properties-security tab page on my Windows 10 PC says security type-WPA-personal, encryption type-AES. I didn’t need to change it, those were the settings I found when checking it. I tried forgetting the network and signing in again. Also powering down and restarting my I-phone 7 with IOS 14.0.1. Still getting the message. My wife’s phone, same model same IOS version

    Reply
  2. Hi

    In my router admin I can select WPA2 and save and reboot. However, the SSID of the network then fails to appear on devices and network scanners!?
    I can only see the SSID of the network if I reapply WPA/WPA2 Mixed mode.
    Any idea why the network becomes invisible when applying WPA2 please?

    Thanks Jon

    Reply
    • Hi! Sorry for the late answer. It’s hard to guess. I haven’t faced such situation after switching to WPA2. I can only advise to check the following:
      1. Make sure that SSID doesn’t contain “special” symbols. Use only Latin symbols without spaces.
      2. Check the Country and Wireless channel settings. Some routers are able to use 12 and 13 channel that can be invisible to client devices. Select your country and try Channel #1.
      3. Make sure that your router or client device is not too old. I happened to face weird situations when a very old router (from 2007) stopped broadcasting its Wi-Fi hotspot when I selected AES as my encryption type. It started working fine as soon as I switched from AES to TKIP (supporting 54 Mbps throughput).
      4. Try factory resetting your router. Sometimes there can be simply a glitch. Do not export and import settings. Configure from a scratch.

      Reply
  3. I got the weak security message on a new iPad, and accordingly changed my router security setting from WPA/WPA2 (TKIP/AES) mixed to WPA2 (AES). Everything worked fine except my HP Officejet Pro printer. According to the HP manual it should work with WPA2, but in fact it contains firmware that cannot be modified, that is pre-set to expect only WPA authentication on the router. It worked flawlessly for years with the mixed WPA/WPA2 setting but now will not, despite hours of trying every possible solution, work with the WPA2 setting. So I am considering reverting to the original WPA/WPA2 (TKIP/AES) router setting and my question is this: Will the weakness in this setting potentially allow a hacker to enter the system only through the printer? … or also through the computer and/or any other devices attached to it (or would they use the higher security WPA2 (AES) part of the mixed setting for their connections? If so, and since all the other devices work fine with WPA2 I am thinking I could eliminate or lower any security risk by simply switching off the printer when I am not using it. Is that correct?

    Reply
  4. Did all that was suggested and was fine for over a week. Then Reverted back to Weak security message and dropping out.

    Version Damson 19.4

    Reply
  5. Hello

    Thank you for the very clear guidelines. I’ve followed all the steps including the ‘forget network’ step, but still get the weak security signal.
    Is there anything else I need to be aware of?
    Thank you

    Reply
  6. thank you so much for the easy step-by-step to resolve the issue. what if though i am aware of the weak security and still want to go ahead, maybe because i am using someone else’s router and i am a guest for example in an Airbnb? i think it is fine that apple tries to get high security but it shouldn’t stop the user from using the weak security once alerted of the danger. is there a way to ‘tell my mac’ not to worry and to get connected anyway? thank you for your help.

    Reply

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