iPad Unable to join wifi on an old iPad

[Sukach]

A relative gave us an old iPad 4th Gen (2012) that I planned on letting my 6 year old daughter to use (I didn't know how old it was until she gave it to us). I reset it and I am unable to join our wifi network. It just keeps says "Unable to Join." I know I am typing the password right. I was able to join my hotspot from my iPhone. I did that just to get past the setup screen. Then I reset network settings. Same thing. Now, I just completed a DFU restore. I'm back at the setup screen and still can't join wifi. I'm pretty sure my router is broadcasting both 2.4 & 5GHZ (I know I have other devices that are 2.4 only). Does this iPad only support a certain version of WPA? Is there any other reason why it can't join to my wifi? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[iStorm]

Couple things come to my mind...

• What encryption protocol is your router using? If it's using something like WPA3, that isn't supported on the old iPad. You'd need to bump it down to WPA2. (link)
• Are you whitelisting/blocking certain MAC addresses on your router?

 

[Sukach]

Yeah, has to be something related to WPA. My router is set to "WPA3-Personal+WPA2-PSK" and this old iPad won't connect. I enabled the guest network on my router and set it to "WPA/WPA2-Personal" and it successfully joined. Guess I'll leave this iPad connected to the guest network as I'm reluctant to lower security on my main network.

 

[GMShadow]

Is the clock right? If it's a cellular enabled model you may need to install one final update to fix a GPS timekeeping bug.