Good evening guys,

Hope you’re all ok?

I’m going nuts because I’m not able to get my car to see my router, but it sees my neighbours!? Bought in January this year, and I am getting very frustrated. It has acknowledged my iPhone. I’m wondering what I’m doing wrong. Please advise. So far I have tried to add my home internet, but when it searches for it, it doesn’t find it. I signed into Ford pass app. Still no luck.

Does anyone have any advice or do I have to contact a local Ford garage?

Edit to add screenshot. Followed these instructions but still no joy…

Thanks in advance, Helen

Edited May 7May 7 by Poodlebugie
Edit to add screenshot. Followed these instructions but still no joy…

27 minutes ago, Poodlebugie said:

Good evening guys,

Hope you’re all ok?

I’m going nuts because I’m not able to get my car to see my router, but it sees my neighbours!? Bought in January this year, and I am getting very frustrated. It has acknowledged my iPhone. I’m wondering what I’m doing wrong. Please advise. So far I have tried to add my home internet, but when it searches for it, it doesn’t find it. I signed into Ford pass app. Still no luck.

Does anyone have any advice or do I have to contact a local Ford garage?

Edit to add screenshot. Followed these instructions but still no joy…

Thanks in advance, Helen

How far is your car from your router ?

Are there any solid obstructions between the two ?

Try restarting the router.

Good thinking Mondeo TXS, I will try that when I’ve calmed down! 🤣 There are no solid obstructions between the two.

4 minutes ago, Poodlebugie said:

Good thinking Mondeo TXS, I will try that when I’ve calmed down! 🤣 There are no solid obstructions between the two.

Given that your car can " see " your neighbours router, I suspect that the issue is with your router and not your car.

Routers can be set to either 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz. I don't know which Sync 4 needs but it's worth checking that.

1 minute ago, TomsFocus said:

Routers can be set to either 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz. I don't know which Sync 4 needs but it's worth checking that.

There's a range versus power trade off between the two iirc ?

I've only had Sync 3 (3.0 on my previous car, and 3.4 to this one), but neither had any difficulty picking up my** home router or others, eg if we stay in self catering holiday accomodation for example.

Instructions to connect Sync 4 are still the same:

Connecting the Vehicle to a Wi-Fi Network



1. Press Settings.

2. Press Wi-Fi.

3. Switch Wi-Fi on.

4. Press View Available Networks.

5. Select an available Wi-Fi network.

Note:   Enter the network password to connect to a secure network.

Focus Owner's Manual

Oddly, I sometimes find a device - tablet or phone - won't connect to my home router. Never figured why - I'm clueless with this stuff - but switch everything off and restart seems to work in those cases!

(**Mystery underlining again!!)

1 hour ago, MONDEO TXS 2.2 said:

There's a range versus power trade off between the two iirc ?

Honestly, I have no idea! It's just that I've got a wireless printer that wouldn't connect to a new router until the setting was changed.

Thanks to you all who have responded so far, much appreciated.

I never thought about what you said Mondeo TXS, if it can see my neighbours…

May I ask what you would do next in this situation?

My plan is to find the time tomorrow to call my favourite Ford dealer and ask for advice. But, I will reset router first. Strangely, my internal home wifi cameras have reconnected to router without having to reset router, so has TV.

If anyone has any other suggestions for me to try, please let me know…cheers guys! 👍🏻😊

2 minutes ago, Poodlebugie said:

Thanks to you all who have responded so far, much appreciated.

I never thought about what you said Mondeo TXS, if it can see my neighbours…

May I ask what you would do next in this situation?

My plan is to find the time tomorrow to call my favourite Ford dealer and ask for advice. But, I will reset router first. Strangely, my internal home wifi cameras have reconnected to router without having to reset router, so has TV.

If anyone has any other suggestions for me to try, please let me know…cheers guys! 👍🏻😊

Have you restarted the router yet ?

If you did, has it made a difference ?

I take it your router is broacasting it's SSID ?

Dual band Router ?

I had the same issue a few years ago with a laptop I purchased abroad.
I went to a friends house and it couldn't see their network but it could see their neighbours.
Cause was the transmit channel of their router which was channel 13, (2.4Ghz), my device could not see channels above 11.
Fix was to change their routers channel number.
Log into your router and check/change the transmit channel, alternatively if its an ISP supplied router your ISP could possibly do it remotely for you.

Sorry for the delay in responding to your questions. Been super busy, and not felt like stressing myself out with it again! The other reason I haven’t been back to it is because after only a short while, approx 10 minutes, my car insisted I turn the engine on “ to save battery life”! Plus, today, it’s just too darn hot to sit in a stationary car!😂

My router is NOT showing in the car on the list of other available SSIDs. It is set to both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz. My internal cctv camera needs the 2.4Ghz.

Mondeo TXS 2.2…I must be honest , I haven’t yet restarted the router because the other things that are connected to it are working fine. If you think it would help, then I will do it.

Dan 62…thanks for your reply. I’ve not heard of channel numbers…are you referring to the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz?

1 minute ago, Poodlebugie said:

Sorry for the delay in responding to your questions. Been super busy, and not felt like stressing myself out with it again! The other reason I haven’t been back to it is because after only a short while, approx 10 minutes, my car insisted I turn the engine on “ to save battery life”! Plus, today, it’s just too darn hot to sit in a stationary car!😂

My router is NOT showing in the car on the list of other available SSIDs. It is set to both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz. My internal cctv camera needs the 2.4Ghz.

Mondeo TXS 2.2…I must be honest , I haven’t yet restarted the router because the other things that are connected to it are working fine. If you think it would help, then I will do it.

Dan 62…thanks for your reply. I’ve not heard of channel numbers…are you referring to the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz?

I'd restart the router, if everything else it communicates with work ok then there's no reason why they shouldn't continue to do so.

Honestly, restarting often cures a multitude of issues on laptops, phones etc.

Okey doke, I’ll add it to my list of things to do tomorrow…and let you know how I get on…cheers, Helen👍🏻😊

17 hours ago, Poodlebugie said:

are you referring to the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz?

NO, the 2.4Ghz band it is split into 14 available channels.
Country rules determine which can be used legally.
The idea is you select a channel that doesn't overlap a different router's WiFi, which is impossible.
For UK, channels 1 to 13 are legal, for USA 1 to 11.
The thought is that possibly Ford restricts their firmware to operate only up to US spec?, which is the the issue I encountered.
The same principle applies to the 5Ghz band.

Do a hard reset on your router that normally sorts alot of stuff out

Is it a must u need to conect to ur home network

U can conect to ur WiFi on mobile and hot-spot it and see if it helps

Who's ur Internet with

Evening all!

An update on my connection issues…

Firstly, I reset my router.

Then I reset the car to factory presets

Then, this morning I phoned Vodafone, and they talked me through how to turn on “Compatibility Mode” via the back end of my router.

They added an extra SSID.

Then I went out and tried to get the car to connect.

NO JOY!

What I did notice was that when I was in the car, my iPhone didn’t see this network. However as soon as I got back in the house, it did! I noticed that there were no bands visible on the WiFi logo when in the car.

So, my plan is to let them know tomorrow when they call me back…hopefully they are able to fix this as my car can find my neighbours wifi, which is farther away than mine!

Cheers, Helen

Can you create a WiFi Hotspot with your Apple phone?
My old Microsoft Tablet stopped working on works WiFi after they changed it,
My Android phone was ok so I created a Hotspot which my tablet could use.

I park on a terraced street so not often I'm parked close enough for direct WiFi,
I'm intending at some point to try a phone Hotspot like I did at work to extend my WiFi to my car.

30 minutes ago, RAIDER32 said:

Can you create a WiFi Hotspot with your Apple phone?
My old Microsoft Tablet stopped working on works WiFi after they changed it,
My Android phone was ok so I created a Hotspot which my tablet could use.

I park on a terraced street so not often I'm parked close enough for direct WiFi,
I'm intending at some point to try a phone Hotspot like I did at work to extend my WiFi to my car.

Thats a good question. I’m thinking I won’t be able to as my phone can’t see my router when I’m in the car either?

4 minutes ago, Poodlebugie said:

Thats a good question. I’m thinking I won’t be able to as my phone can’t see my router when I’m in the car either?

You can still try it in the car anyway via your phones data to see if you can get it connected, it will still look like WiFi,
Obviously it's then using all your data if that's limited, you don't want it updating 30GB of SYNC4 Maps etc.

On 5/12/2026 at 8:06 PM, Poodlebugie said:

So, my plan is to let them know tomorrow when they call me back…hopefully they are able to fix this as my car can find my neighbours wifi, which is farther away than mine!

The fact that it detects the neighbors WiFi which is further away does not say anything.

WiFi relies on signal strength. A strong signal will simply reach further than a weak signal. Things like router quality, router positioning, presence of walls, etc. but especially the presence of other interfering WiFi networks hugely affect signal strength and reach.

The fact that both the car and your phone do not detect the WiFi network suggests that the WiFi signal is just not strong enough to reach to the position of the car. Your neighbours WiFi network seems to be much stronger and is possibly interfering with your signal. This is quite common when the WiFi bands of both networks overlap.


I do not see any benefit for connecting a 2021 Focus MK4 to the WiFi network. A 2021 Focus MK4 is fitted with SYNC 3. Updating SYNC 3 over a WiFi connection is extremely slow and unreliable. It only updates while the CANbus network is active which means that it downloads for about 15 minutes. After the vehicle is locked and all modules enter sleep mode the download is suspnded. Updating SYNC 3 this way can take literally Months and starting/stopping the download process multiple times can even cause a bricked SYNC 3 system due to corrupted files.

Just tether it to your iPhone.

If you have a new mesh style router it may not be compatible. (is it wi-fi 6 or something like that)

My printer won't connect to my new router, I had to configure a wifi extender with it's own SSID just for the printer

On 5/14/2026 at 11:17 AM, JW1982 said:

The fact that it detects the neighbors WiFi which is further away does not say anything.

WiFi relies on signal strength. A strong signal will simply reach further than a weak signal. Things like router quality, router positioning, presence of walls, etc. but especially the presence of other interfering WiFi networks hugely affect signal strength and reach.

The fact that both the car and your phone do not detect the WiFi network suggests that the WiFi signal is just not strong enough to reach to the position of the car. Your neighbours WiFi network seems to be much stronger and is possibly interfering with your signal. This is quite common when the WiFi bands of both networks overlap.


I do not see any benefit for connecting a 2021 Focus MK4 to the WiFi network. A 2021 Focus MK4 is fitted with SYNC 3. Updating SYNC 3 over a WiFi connection is extremely slow and unreliable. It only updates while the CANbus network is active which means that it downloads for about 15 minutes. After the vehicle is locked and all modules enter sleep mode the download is suspnded. Updating SYNC 3 this way can take literally Months and starting/stopping the download process multiple times can even cause a bricked SYNC 3 system due to corrupted files.

Thanks for your response. I understand what you’re saying. Do you have any suggestions for updating the maps on the sat nav if I’m not able to update via wifi please?

Cheers, Helen

I suggest to avoid the update system on the Ford website. This used to work perfectly fine but approximately 2 Years ago several known errors were introduced. The Ford update system is simply rubbish, and Ford seems not to be interested to fix it properly. There are multiple signs that SYNC 3 is reaching the end of support soon so I would be surprised if Ford comes with a fix. The update software itself is available on the Ford servers but without a way to download it and create the USB drive you cannot use it.

Years ago, Cyanlabs developed a much better, faster and more dependable update method. The Cyanlabs SYN3Updater. This tool is far superior to the Ford system and downloads the required update files directly from the Ford servers. In other words: Cyanlabs offers the exact same SYNC 3 software but combined it with an update method that actually works.


I strongly recommend using Cyanlabs for updating SYNC 3.