Help White WIFI Signal?

randomdude · Jun 3, 2011

anybody else experiencing this? the connection to my wifi was fine up until today, and the signal strength icon in the notification bar turns white the whole time. (meaning zero data, no emails, no facebook, etc)

any suggestions on how to fix this?

bamhm182 · Jun 4, 2011

I'd start be checking your available networks, are you actually connected to any of them?

boteman · Jun 5, 2011

randomdude said:
anybody else experiencing this? the connection to my wifi was fine up until today, and the signal strength icon in the notification bar turns white the whole time. (meaning zero data, no emails, no facebook, etc)

any suggestions on how to fix this?

While reading the Android User's Guide PDF I discovered that green means "connected to Google" and white or gray means not connected to Google. I guess that means logged in to the first Google account that you configure on the phone.

So maybe you need to check your Google account settings?

randomdude · Jun 5, 2011

it's weird bc it only happens over wifi. 3g, 4g are fine.

and yes, it does show i'm connected to my home wifi network but data isn't being transferred.

Mindless42 · Jun 5, 2011

I have this same problem from time to time. I only have one google account on my phone.

boteman · Jun 5, 2011

I have left my Nexus on battery all day to see how long it lasts. It seems that when it goes to sleep it drops the WiFi connection because when I wake it up the WiFi icon pops in the status bar after a second, white, then turns green if I do something that exchanges data.

I have an HTC Hero to experiment with that I think does that also, so I guess that's just an artifact of the phone going to sleep and conserving battery power if it isn't actively using the data connection.

tyhart44 · Jun 6, 2011

boteman said:
I have left my Nexus on battery all day to see how long it lasts. It seems that when it goes to sleep it drops the WiFi connection because when I wake it up the WiFi icon pops in the status bar after a second, white, then turns green if I do something that exchanges data.

I have an HTC Hero to experiment with that I think does that also, so I guess that's just an artifact of the phone going to sleep and conserving battery power if it isn't actively using the data connection.

This.

randomdude · Jun 6, 2011

right, but it should go back to green once the phone wakes up correct? i believe 4g has the same properties.

at work now, and i connected to the wireless network just fine. now i'm starting to believe something is wrong with my home wireless network which sucks.

Deleted User · Jun 8, 2011

boteman said:
I have left my Nexus on battery all day to see how long it lasts. It seems that when it goes to sleep it drops the WiFi connection because when I wake it up the WiFi icon pops in the status bar after a second, white, then turns green if I do something that exchanges data.

I have an HTC Hero to experiment with that I think does that also, so I guess that's just an artifact of the phone going to sleep and conserving battery power if it isn't actively using the data connection.

By default, wifi sleeps when the screen is turned off, hence using 3g or 4g for data. Most of the time this uses more battery. I'd suggest go into wifi advanced settings and setting the wifi sleep policy to never so it will stay on wifi when the screen turns off. With a decent wifi signal, that will save battery life when the phone is on standby.

rscarawa · Jun 9, 2011

I have the same problem with a white connection. I could be 3 feet from my access point, the phone sees it but will not connect to it. I then open web apps and they error out with no network connectivity. Then a few minutes later, it turns green. What makes it do that, I do not know. Been a problem since I owned the phone. All other home wireless devices work fine when my Nexus signal is white.

jmorse · Jun 9, 2011

Download an app called 'Wifi Fixer' from the app store. It's free and fixes the dropped wifi issue.

rscarawa · Jun 15, 2011

jmorse said:
Download an app called 'Wifi Fixer' from the app store. It's free and fixes the dropped wifi issue.

Thx for the suggestion. Google does need to build a fix for this as it is annoying. I suspect that the GPS has a similar issue too. Sometimes the GPS just keeps searching for the sky and never gets a fix. This happens most when it is turned off and an app such as Google Navigation tries to turn it on.

jwpilly · Jun 15, 2011

rscarawa said:
Thx for the suggestion. Google does need to build a fix for this as it is annoying. I suspect that the GPS has a similar issue too. Sometimes the GPS just keeps searching for the sky and never gets a fix. This happens most when it is turned off and an app such as Google Navigation tries to turn it on.

I have this happen every now and then with the GPS, Wifi, and 3G/4G. Usually if I just toggle the wife on and off it seems to kick start it back to green. With the 3G/4G, I just put the phone into airplane mode and then switch back out. That also seems to kick start the network connection back to green. With the GPS, there is an app call GPS Status. In that app if you hit menu/tools/Manage A-GPS state/Reset and then Download, that usually solves the GPS issue. Hope that helps.

rscarawa · Jun 16, 2011

jwpilly said:
I have this happen every now and then with the GPS, Wifi, and 3G/4G. Usually if I just toggle the wife on and off it seems to kick start it back to green. With the 3G/4G, I just put the phone into airplane mode and then switch back out. That also seems to kick start the network connection back to green. With the GPS, there is an app call GPS Status. In that app if you hit menu/tools/Manage A-GPS state/Reset and then Download, that usually solves the GPS issue. Hope that helps.

I will give that a try and see what happens.

Thx

tyea · Jun 16, 2011

I tried to toggle my wife, but she wouldn't let me.

jwpilly · Jun 17, 2011

tyea said:
I tried to toggle my wife, but she wouldn't let me.

Please post on here when you get it to work. I would like to be able to use that function.

GhostRed · Jun 20, 2011

In case you guys still haven't figured this out, this is how it works, whether its the 3G/4GWiFi indicator:

Green=Upload/outgoing signal

White=Download/incoming signal

This phone uses only the absolute minimal necessary power to the radio until the radio is accessed.

You'll notice the bars stay white (usually) unless you're accessing something, like a phone call or downloading, surfing the web, etc.

It doesn't mean anythings wrong.

rscarawa · Jun 21, 2011

GhostRed said:
In case you guys still haven't figured this out, this is how it works, whether its the 3G/4GWiFi indicator:

Green=Upload/outgoing signal

White=Download/incoming signal

This phone uses only the absolute minimal necessary power to the radio until the radio is accessed.

You'll notice the bars stay white (usually) unless you're accessing something, like a phone call or downloading, surfing the web, etc.

It doesn't mean anythings wrong.

Is this documented as such? When I get white signal my network connection fails. When it is green, I get both up and downloads.

mantis92gsr · Jun 27, 2011

All the above answers are wrong, let me fill you all in on the color code here. White means you are connected to the access point but it is in a state where there is no data feed whatsoever to the internet. To test this you can set up an ad-hoc network but do not share a wired internet connection to your router. Once you enable internet sharing the connection will go green. 3G does the same thing if the network is having issues. Happens often where I am.

rscarawa · Jun 28, 2011

mantis92gsr said:
All the above answers are wrong, let me fill you all in on the color code here. White means you are connected to the access point but it is in a state where there is no data feed whatsoever to the internet. To test this you can set up an ad-hoc network but do not share a wired internet connection to your router. Once you enable internet sharing the connection will go green. 3G does the same thing if the network is having issues. Happens often where I am.

Are you saying this is normal/expected behavior then?

GhostRed · Jun 30, 2011

rscarawa said:
Are you saying this is normal/expected behavior then?

Yes, it is but that answer still isn't right.

This phone uses battery saving techniques to power down the radio to minimal signal strength to maintain a connection.

His answer is sort of right, but not entirely accurate, and not actually in contradiction to what I said above.

Networks have a heartbeat signal that is sent periodically from the access point to the device and vice versa.

If you haven't accessed your phone, either for voice or data, for a period, it may very well be white for a moment until you perform some action to access one of those things.

The heartbeat signal is all that is necessary to maintain a "conversation" between your phone and the network, so it's not going to hit full bars unless you're actually using it. This is intentional and significantly reduces battery drain.

Usually, unless you've left your phone's voice/data functions alone for a LONG time or if you happen to be in a weak coverage area, you will have some green on your signal strength, and probably on the 3G/4G, but not full bars until you actually use one.

GhostRed · Jun 30, 2011

rscarawa said:
I have the same problem with a white connection. I could be 3 feet from my access point, the phone sees it but will not connect to it. I then open web apps and they error out with no network connectivity. Then a few minutes later, it turns green. What makes it do that, I do not know. Been a problem since I owned the phone. All other home wireless devices work fine when my Nexus signal is white.

This specific issue with WiFi is essentially the same thing, however in this case it could happen for another reason: you simply haven't waited for the access point to authorize your phone on the network. It usually takes slightly longer than your normal PC WiFi connection.

If you've already connected, but not used WiFi for a while, the issue might be like I described in the last post, but you might be able to resolve that one:

Your router should have a setting for "time to live" in "hops" (usually, or it might just give a specific period of time). You can adjust this to a higher number.

This is the number of tries your router will give to reconnect with the devices on your network after it stops receiving a signal from them (specifically a call for download/upload). Normally, it's 30 minutes.

Keep in mind, increasing this might actually end up reducing your phone's battery life because it will result in keeping the connection alive for longer after you've stopped using it.

rscarawa · Jul 1, 2011

I see no setting on my Linksys router called 'Time to Live' under Wireless.

I feel this is a defect in the phone regardless. When an app needs to use the network, there should be a "Wake the hell up" funtion to start up networking if it is sleeping. Response time is unacceptably slow.

mantis92gsr · Jul 4, 2011

rscarawa said:
I see no setting on my Linksys router called 'Time to Live' under Wireless.

I feel this is a defect in the phone regardless. When an app needs to use the network, there should be a "Wake the hell up" funtion to start up networking if it is sleeping. Response time is unacceptably slow.

I believe "keep alive" settings are generally going to be available on higher end routers. Your everyday linksys firmware probably wont allow you access to this type of option because is not necessary to the average user. I would also assume that the power saving features that turn off the radio when idle would be built into the kernel directly and would not have an option to modify it either. Please correct me if i'm wrong.

Also, this is a Google Dev phone, they are gonna test all sorts of shit on it. I wouldn't say anything about our phone is a defect, just a working progress. You have to expect a buggy phone to an extent, like my phone reading everyone's RFID cards while i'm in public, have to keep that thing turned off for now.

rscarawa · Jul 5, 2011

mantis92gsr said:
I believe "keep alive" settings are generally going to be available on higher end routers. Your everyday linksys firmware probably wont allow you access to this type of option because is not necessary to the average user. I would also assume that the power saving features that turn off the radio when idle would be built into the kernel directly and would not have an option to modify it either. Please correct me if i'm wrong.

Also, this is a Google Dev phone, they are gonna test all sorts of shit on it. I wouldn't say anything about our phone is a defect, just a working progress. You have to expect a buggy phone to an extent, like my phone reading everyone's RFID cards while i'm in public, have to keep that thing turned off for now.

I am used to seeing keep alive settings on things such as SSH clients which hold the session open during periods of inactivity. I think these disconnected sessions is the reason for my weather widget not refreshing itself when it should.

Are OS patches available thru google mkt place or is there another way we get them? I have not see a single os update since I got my phone a month ago. I figured something had to be out there was fixed by google.

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