How to find Wi-Fi dead zones in your house
A dead zone is rarely the whole house. It's a room, a corner or a floor. Here's how to find exactly where your Wi-Fi gives up, and why.
Wi-Fi heatmap for iPhone
Find your Wi-Fi dead zones, room by room.
Walk through your home with your iPhone and get a color map of your Wi-Fi: strong where it flies, red where it drops.
- Create a floor plan of your home
- Measure connection quality in every room
- See the weak spots on a map
Your maps stay on your iPhone
Full bars in the living room. Nothing in the bedroom.
Wi-Fi fades with distance, walls, floors and even furniture. Guessing where it fails leads to moving the router at random or buying an extender you may not need. A map shows you exactly where the signal gives up, so you fix the right spot.
How it works
- 1
Create a floor plan
Walk through your home with your iPhone to draw the rooms you want to check.
- 2
Measure every room
Move from room to room. The app records how your connection responds where you stand.
- 3
Read your map
Colors show where Wi-Fi is strong and where it drops, with a quality score out of 100.
One look, and you know where the problem is
Each room gets a color and a label, so the weak spots stand out even if you don't know anything about networks.
Network quality
● Fair- Living room: excellent, right next to the router
- Kitchen: fair, one wall away
- Bedroom: weak, behind two walls
Free guides to fix your Wi-Fi
Practical answers to the questions people ask most about weak Wi-Fi at home.
Wi-Fi heatmap: what it is and how to make one at home
Network engineers have used heatmaps for years to plan Wi-Fi in offices. You can make one for your home with a phone, and it takes minutes.
How to check Wi-Fi signal strength on iPhone
Your iPhone shows three Wi-Fi bars and nothing else. Here's what you can actually measure, and which numbers matter.
Where to put your router for the best Wi-Fi signal
Moving the router costs nothing and often fixes more than buying new hardware. Here's where it should go, and the spots that silently ruin your Wi-Fi.
Wi-Fi not reaching one room? 9 fixes that actually work
When the Wi-Fi works everywhere except one room, the fix is usually cheaper than a new router. Start from the top of this list and re-test after each step.
Wi-Fi and walls: what really blocks the signal
Not all walls are equal: one plasterboard wall costs you almost nothing, one reinforced concrete wall can end your Wi-Fi. How to tell which is which.
Phone won't switch to the nearest node
You're standing next to the node and your phone is still talking to the router at the other end of the house. Here's why, and what really helps.
Mesh vs Wi-Fi extender: which one do you need?
Both promise Wi-Fi in every room, but they work very differently. Here's how to choose, and how to check whether you need either before buying.
Where to put a mesh node or Wi-Fi extender
The most common mistake is putting the second unit in the room with no signal. Here's how to find the spot that actually works, and how to check it.
How many mesh nodes do you really need?
Most homes need fewer nodes than the box suggests, and adding more can make things worse. How to decide from your own home, not from square meters.
Frequently asked questions
What is a Wi-Fi heatmap?
It's a floor plan of your home colored by Wi-Fi quality. Warm colors mark weak spots and dead zones, cool colors mark areas with a strong connection, so you can see at a glance where the signal fails.
Does the app show signal strength in dBm?
No. iOS doesn't let apps read the raw Wi-Fi signal value, so no App Store app can show real dBm on iPhone. WiFi Heatmap measures how your connection responds in each spot and turns it into a quality score and the colors on the map.
Do my maps leave my iPhone?
No. Your floor plans and measurements are saved on your iPhone.
Do I need extra equipment?
No. You only need your iPhone and the Wi-Fi network you want to check.
Is it a speed test?
No. A speed test measures your internet line to a remote server. A heatmap shows how your Wi-Fi changes from room to room, which is where most problems at home actually come from.
Stop guessing where your Wi-Fi fails
Map your home in a few minutes and fix the right room first.