We observed intermittent failures when iOS devices repeatedly attempt to connect to an AP via NEHotspotConfiguration.
When sniffing the packets, most failures occur before the WPA 4‑way handshake, with a smaller number happening during the handshake itself.
SSID and Password were verified to be correct.
Root Causes
Association fails before handshake (primary issue)
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iOS often fails at the association phase (Apple80211AssociateAsync errors such as -3905 / -3940).
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These attempts never reach the WPA 4‑way handshake.
iOS auto‑join suppression amplifies the problem
- After a single association failure, iOS marks the network as failed and blocks retry attempts. Subsequent attempts are rejected by policy (Already failed to auto-join known network profile) without new radio activity. This makes one real failure appear as many repeated failures.
4‑Way handshake failures (secondary)
- In some cases, association succeeds but the connection drops during WPA setup (Join Failure(6)).
The error (if received, not always) is Internal Error - 8. Could we inquire on what might be the best steps to resolve this issue?