Canon Community

vlarson45 · ‎10-08-2017

The connection was working fine until I had to wipe out my old Apple ID and get a new one, thus having to download all my apps again. When I tried to connect the camera and the iPhone, it asked for a password which I didn’t know so it was unable to connect. I’ve tried so many things and pushed so many buttons, deleted some things, cleared WiFi settings, etc. I think I need to start from scratch,however, I’m not sure how to do that. Please help!
Thanks!!!!

TCampbell · ‎10-09-2017

Here's a video that walks you through the process:

Note that he does a few things...

1) He has to go into the camera menu (the page with the first yellow wrench icon) and ENABLE the WiFi -- but this doesn't configure it.

2) He has to go into the "WiFi Function" menu and this is where you get to control settings. NOTE: In this video, he doesn't have a configured WiFi set so it forces him to configure one. If he already had created a set then it would have let him choose that set. On the page where you get to choose a set, you can also "delete settings" (and it'll ask you which set you want to delete).

2a) If you already have an existing set, but you don't know the password, you can find it. There's a menu option to "Review/Change settings", pick that. Then pick "Change Set." then pick "Easy Connection" and the next page will show you your existing camera SSID name as well as the encryption key (that's the WiFi password).

Ok, so at this point you've either created a new setting or you've chosen an existing set. You will probably be parked at a "waiting to connect" screen (the page that shows the camera name & password should say "waiting to connect" along the top.) Now it's time to grab your phone.

3) On your phone, go into your WiFi settings. Note this is not the Canon Camera Connect app -- you want your generic WiFi settings menu for your phone. Pick the camera's wifi network and enter the password (that's the 8-digit numeric "encryption key" that is displayed on the back of your camera) and join the network. You're almost done.

4) Now open the Canon Camera Connect app on your phone. Since your phone has joined the camera's wifi it should now see the camera listed in the Canon Camera Connect app. But keep in mind that this app is designed to work even on networks with more than one camera... so you have to pick the camera (tap the choice on the phone screen) even though there is only one choice (if you had joined an "infrastructure" network with lots of cameras then you could see more than one choice.)

5) NOW return back to the camera and you'll notice the screen has changed. It'll probably say "Connect to this smartphone ______" (with the phone's name listed) and you have to pick "Ok" to confirm.

At that point the camera and phone are talking and you should be able to control everything.

Tim Campbell
5D III, 5D IV, 60Da

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TCampbell · ‎10-09-2017

You can change those communication settings at any time -- don't worry that you don't know the password. There are a few ways to setup communication.

For example:

If you are at your house (or working out of a studio) and there's a WiFi network available at the location... then you can have your phone and camera both join the same WiFi network (this is sometimes called "infrastructure" mode because you join existing WiFi infrastructure.) In that mode you need to know the WiFi password of the network you want to join (e.g. such as your home WiFi network).

If you are out in the field shooting and there's no WiFi network available, the camera can create it's own WiFi network (the caveat is that this WiFi network doesn't really connect to the Internet... you're just using it so the camera & phone can communicate). In that mode, the camera creates a WiFi network (or "SSID" which stands for "service set identifier" and it'll probably default to a name that has "Canon" in the name and probably the camera model number. It will also create an "encryption key" (that's the WiFi password) and when I do it for my camera, it's just a set of numbers (e.g. it could be "12345678" except it'll be random). On my camera I can enable WiFi, go into the "WiFi function" menu, go into the set and view the details and it'll show me what the key is. But you can also just delete it and walk through the wizard that lets you set up a new connection and key.

Another options... IF your phone supports WiFi "tethering" (sometimes called "hotspot" and it's a feature that the mobile carrier may charge extra to use) is meant to allow you to use, say, a laptop... and use your phone to create a mobile WiFi hot-spot for your laptop (so the phone is basically your internet modem). In this mode (and it's not available to everyone ... that feature must be enabled on your phone plan) you can tell the PHONE to create the WiFi network and tell the camera to join the WiFi network create by your phone. (so it's basically the reverse of the case in the paragraph above). The advantage to this is that your phone continues to have internet access (you could take a photo... and immediately use your phone to share it out to a social media site). (Note: I just tested this on my camera and despite that I do have tethering/hot-spot, I cannot get the software to work in this mode. The camera does connect to the phone, but the Canon 'Camera Connect' app doesn't see the camera.)

I find that Canon's setup menus are a bit more confusing than they need to be. I'm highly experienced in this area and even I found it a bit confusing. I also had a case where the camera & phone would establish the network link in the settings menu... then I'd go open the Canon "Camera Connect" utility and the connection would immediately drop (I never did figure out why it was doing that... but by blowing away the settings and just starting over the problem went away.)

I'm not sure if it will be the same on your T6i, but on my 5D4, I go into the Menu, find the "Communication Settings", "Built-in wireless settings", then enable the WiFi/NFC (I set mine to WiFi only), then go into "WiFi Function" pick the "Connect to Smartphone" and there's a page that says "Choose Set"... I can create multiple sets... so for example if I had a setting to use one phone to join the WiFi network... but maybe I also sometimes use it at home and want to join my own home WiFi, I could create a set for each case and just switch between them.

I might suggest you go to YouTube or Vimeo and search for "setup WiFi T6i" and you should get lots of tutorial videos that walk you through the process and you can visually see what they are doing to make it work.

Tim Campbell
5D III, 5D IV, 60Da

vlarson45 · ‎10-09-2017

I used to see Set 1 with Set 2 and Set 3 not highlighted but in trying to figure this out, I deleted Set 1 and now that doesn’t come up at all when I click connect to smartphone. I think my phone is still trying to use the old password and that’s why it’s not letting me connect. I’ve tried to forget the network but it doesn’t allow me to do that. I’ve gone through the easy setup guide too and it’s just not working. It just tries to make the connection and the wheel just keeps spinning without a connection being made. I’m not sure what to do.

TCampbell · ‎10-09-2017