How can I force a device (iPhone 12) to connect to specific Eero?

[zyjack]

I have 2 Eero's and obviously a fair few devices, however there's a clear issue with iPhone 12 that I can't fix whatever I do.

Eero setup is one in backroom downstairs attached to the line, and one in upstairs office front room.

I have nothing else connected to the backroom one.

I have both ethernet ports in use upstairs and it delivers great speeds on both through that ethernet.

While in that office, my iPad, Macbook, PS5, Samsung TV all get fairly strong 500mb wireless speeds consistently. No issues.

My phone however.... almost always struggles beyond belief, at times it'll be below 1mb, yes you read that right, 0.6mb is the worst I've had, yet upload speeds are always very very good. But that's no use.

If I turn that Office Eero off and force connection to the backroom downstairs one, it works, everywhere in the house. So how can I just force this? (I can't just go off the one Eero, because the two computers I use the Ethernet ports for will drop from 800mb to substantially slower, as will the wi-fi devices, but I'm happy to work with around 200mb on the iPhone)

I've managed to switch Eero's thanks to TalkTalk to check if it was an Eero issue, it clearly isn't... and it can't be an iPhone issue since it works on the other Eero and in many other locations?

I don't get it. It's amazingly frustrating. How do I just force it to always connect to the one eero?

[KeithFrench]

I doubt that you can force the phone to connect to a particular node. Any device will make its own decision on which one to connect to, unless you have roaming disabled within the phone. I do not have any Apple devices so cannot offer any more help on your iPhone than that.

On the eeros, have you enabled Client Steering?

This automatically pairs your device to the optimal eero as the device is moved around the property. When enabled it allows a steady Wi-Fi signal to be maintained when moving closer to or further away from each node.

In the app go to:-

Settings > Network Settings > Client steering

Toggle the switch to activate/deactivate Client steering.

Press the arrow button at the top of the screen to confirm your changes.