The connection between my iPhone / iPad and my TV breaks often, what can I do?

a router, two iPads and an iPhone on yellow background

Screen Mirroring from your iPhone or iPad to your Smart TV can put a significant strain on your home network. That’s because your device sends a lot of data that has to reach the TV instantly. If you experience network lag or the connection between your iPhone and TV breaks, there are some solutions you can implement.

In this FAQ we’ll show you what you can do to increase the performance of your home network.

person plugging an internet cable into a black router

Restart your router

Take out the power plug, wait 10 seconds and put it back in. This resets your router and will make your home network faster and more stable.

Why resetting a router works?

Routers are in essence little computers. Their software will have small memory leaks and some processes will stop working correctly over time. That’s why it is a good idea to reset your router once in a while. Our recommendation: do it once a week.

a man sitting on a couch with legs on a table screen mirroring his phone to a TV

Put your iPhone or iPad and your TV on the same router channel.

Some routers (dual band) have create both a 2.4Ghz and a 5Ghz wireless network. For the best performance, put your iPhone/iPad and your TV on the same network. Preferably the 5Ghz network.

But definitely don’t put the iPhone/iPad on 5Ghz and the TV on 2.4Ghz, because that will negatively impact the performance of screen mirroring.

three AC routers

Use an AC router

If the connection between your iPhone or iPad and TV breaks, try using an AC router.

Newer routers support WiFi AC. Older routers might only have Wifi B and/or G and/or N. B, G and N are not really up to scratch anymore for modern networking tasks, so go for an AC router.

If your router supports AC also make sure that your router is set to use either the Wifi AC networking.

Learn More:

I have multiple subnets in my home network. Does screen mirroring work?

My TV is connected through a powerline adapter. Will screen mirroring work?

Screen Mirroring is not working. Which settings should I have on my router?