Intermittent failure to connect to a hidden AP when connecting programmatically

Hello there!

We have an app that connects to an external device via Wi-Fi to send and query content from it. This external device generates a hidden AP that the phone connects against. However, sometimes the app fails to connect to the external device with the system alert "Unable to join the network...".

We have been debugging for a couple but couldn't find any clear reason of why this thing is happening. What could be the reason behind this alert appearing?

For the connection, we are using the NEHotspotConfigurationManager to connect to the AP of this external device. The configuration for the connection is the following:

NEHotspotConfiguration(
    ssid: ssid,
    passphrase: password,
    isWEP: false
)
configuration.hidden = true

There are some logs that we extracted that show two connections.

One happened at 20:37, which was a successful connection.

Another connection was made at 20:38, which failed.

Inspecting the logs, one difference that I see between them is the __WiFiDeviceManagerDispatchUserForcedAssociationCallback: result %lld, which in the successful case is 0 and in the failed case is 1.

Can anyone help with this? We're very lost on why this configuration could be an issue at all.

Answered by DTS Engineer in 812419022

Unfortunately there isn’t much we can do to help you in the context of DevForums. The NEHotspotConfigurationManager API is very straightforward. If the resulting configuration works most of the time and then fails intermittently, that’s something our Wi-Fi engineering team will have to investigate.

I recommend that you file a bug about this. Make sure to follow the Wi-Fi for iOS instructions on our Bug Reporting > Profiles and Logs to ensure that your bug has all the necessary debugging info.

Please post your bug number, just for the record.

Share and Enjoy

Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"

Unfortunately there isn’t much we can do to help you in the context of DevForums. The NEHotspotConfigurationManager API is very straightforward. If the resulting configuration works most of the time and then fails intermittently, that’s something our Wi-Fi engineering team will have to investigate.

I recommend that you file a bug about this. Make sure to follow the Wi-Fi for iOS instructions on our Bug Reporting > Profiles and Logs to ensure that your bug has all the necessary debugging info.

Please post your bug number, just for the record.

Share and Enjoy

Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"

Intermittent failure to connect to a hidden AP when connecting programmatically
 
 
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