Help Wi-Fi issue

Canesfan · Jul 1, 2013

leekevin said:
Hi,

No issues here with my set, But all I can scanning problem comes when signals are low...I presume that the issue...

Hmmm.....that's why my WiFi problems occur equally as much when it says "strong signal".

It's an inherent flaw in many (all) of these phones.

Canesfan · Jul 6, 2013

(Warning, duplicate post)
AT&T replaced the phone on 7/3. So far using WiFi at only two facilities, I've had mixed results. One facility experienced the same unsuccessful problem with obtaining and keeping a WiFi connection, plus it's previously described schizophrenic behavior. The other was successful but not perfection. At least I'm able to make and complete phone calls without 4-5 attempts. i will continue to post my WiFi experience with this phone for those with similar problems.

Canesfan · Jul 12, 2013

UPDATE: Got my replacement phone a week ago. I had the well documented problems with my WiFi, then problems making calls necessitating its replacement after only 2 months of ownership.

I am pleased to report a MUCH improved experience with WiFi with the replacement. Accessing WiFi at multiple places (other than my home router which was never an issue), is now easier and the phone seems to maintain the WiFi connection most of the time. That's not to say that there are not delays getting on, specifically signing on, to the WiFi connection. On one occasion, at one facility, it took 15 min. to establish a successful WiFi connection.

In conclusion, this replacement phone is much more WiFi friendly than the first S4 I had, but you still need to still "jump through some hoops" to utilize WiFi at multiple locations.

xiteg79 · Jul 15, 2013

So I will now add to this thread. I have had my gs4 for about 3 weeks now and NO issues at all connecting to my wifi at home during this time. All of the sudden today I tried to do a group text and send a picture out. For some reason the text kept failing. I then tried to send a picture I had recently sent out to my mom about 5 days ago and send that same one to my wife and it would not send the picture over text. So after coming on this thread and seeing wifi issues I decided to turn off my wifi and try to send my wife the same picture and it went through. I then tried to resend that group text with a picture and it sent. Not sure why turning wifi off for this worked. I am also using the stock messaging app with the phone as handcent could never turn off the stock app correctly.

I wonder if it could be that I have my phone set to auto install apps from google play on wifi.

jonsaddles · Jul 26, 2013

Have had my new S4 for about 3 weeks now and am starting to notice that it continually forgets my wifi network key.
It scans and finds the routers no problem but I have to enter the key manually most times.
This happens irrespective of if I toggle wifi on and off or not.
Have already done a factory reset and no I don't have any D link routers.
Any help very gratefully received.
Thanks
Jon

Shotgun84 · Jul 26, 2013

Hi Jon

Are you rooted or running a custom ROM?

jonsaddles · Jul 26, 2013

Shotgun84 said:
Hi Jon

Are you rooted or running a custom ROM?

No not at all, the phone is completely standard

Shotgun84 · Jul 26, 2013

Cool, I'll move this over to the main GS4 forum. It should get more attention there so hopefully someone will have a solution

Rypated1987 · Jul 26, 2013

I had the same issue, but I came to find out that their were too many devices connected in my household. Voila, my problem was solved.

veccster · Aug 6, 2013

xiteg79 said:
So I will now add to this thread. I have had my gs4 for about 3 weeks now and NO issues at all connecting to my wifi at home during this time. All of the sudden today I tried to do a group text and send a picture out. For some reason the text kept failing. I then tried to send a picture I had recently sent out to my mom about 5 days ago and send that same one to my wife and it would not send the picture over text. So after coming on this thread and seeing wifi issues I decided to turn off my wifi and try to send my wife the same picture and it went through. I then tried to resend that group text with a picture and it sent. Not sure why turning wifi off for this worked. I am also using the stock messaging app with the phone as handcent could never turn off the stock app correctly.

I wonder if it could be that I have my phone set to auto install apps from google play on wifi.

I think MMS messages use some data - even when connected to WIFI. I learned this on my GNEX because i was using Tasker to turn off all data when connected to Wifi - thinking it might save battery. When I was on WIFI and data was turned off, i was not able to send or receive MMS messages. I called Verizon and they confirmed that Data needed to be on to send an MMS - even while on wifi.

Not sure that was the cause of your problem but thought it was worth mentioning.

speedlever · Aug 6, 2013

I ran into the same issue on my first Android using Juice Defender to turn off data thinking I would save battery power. So much for that idea.

atmasters · Aug 13, 2013

I can get on to my wifi but when reading this sticky I was watching my phone and it keeps scanning every 5 seconds. Is this normal ? is it a battery killer ?

Canesfan · Aug 14, 2013

atmasters said:
I can get on to my wifi but when reading this sticky I was watching my phone and it keeps scanning every 5 seconds. Is this normal ? is it a battery killer ?

I have the same repeat scanning issue where it may go off and on WiFi, although I'm not sure it's every 5 sec. This is with my replacement S4. The phone indeed still has real WiFi issues that must be addressed by Samsung.

atmasters · Aug 14, 2013

Canesfan said:
I have the same repeat scanning issue where it may go off and on WiFi, although I'm not sure it's every 5 sec. This is with my replacement S4. The phone indeed still has real WiFi issues that must be addressed by Samsung.

I agree I hope they fix it or even know about it

Mr. Lucky · Aug 14, 2013

Eric618 said:
1. Go to your (stock) phone dialer
2. Dial *#0011#
3. Select "WiFi"
4. Turn off "Wifi Power Save Mode".
5. Exit this menu, turn off your Wifi and turn it back on. If you already entered all your wifi credentials, forget your network info (remove it) and re-enter it again.

Unlike the S3 however, this "fix" does not survive a power-down. When you reboot your phone it will be ON again.

Canesfan · Aug 14, 2013

(Answered my own ?)

Canesfan · Aug 15, 2013

Mr. Lucky said:
Unlike the S3 however, this "fix" does not survive a power-down. When you reboot your phone it will be ON again.

This "fix" doesn't do it for me. WiFi is really "effed", even on my replacement S4.

Mr. Lucky · Aug 16, 2013

I should add that I don't have an issue. Wifi is quick connecting, rock solid, and fast

Canesfan · Aug 16, 2013

Mr. Lucky said:
I should add that I don't have an issue. Wifi is quick connecting, rock solid, and fast… at home and work. I was just reporting the news, before someone got their hopes up. Personally, I believe it's a router problem, and updating its firmware should be a first step.

Consider yourself lucky (no pun intended). Likewise, my home WifI is "rock solid", the one place I don't need it as I have a desktop computer and pad. Now, most of the 15+ facilities I go to for work (where I really need it) have the WiFI connection issues, which I did NOT have formerly with my old iPhone. What really pisses me off is that he phone keeps tells me I'm connected to WiFi when I'm not. My replacement S4 is not as bad as my original one but still not great.

jede55 · Aug 17, 2013

Since i use Samsung Galaxy S3 and i had wifi connection issue with my router before, i tried many tricks i found on the webs but can't fixed the problem and after exploring any futher on my router, it actually really simple, all i got to do is :

Go to the router settings,find the Wireless Mac Filter : choose Disable and save !
After it successfully changed then exit, that's it ! My phone connects in one second after i turned on the wifi

Don S · Aug 25, 2013

I am having the issue as well. I just got my S4 a week ago. I am on VZW and I have a ASUS RT-N66U router. I tried most of the tricks mentioned here (and some others) without any luck.

I connect fine, stay connected for a time (sometimes for a while, sometimes only for minutes), then it loses connectivity. I can toggle wifi off and on to regain it immediately, or just wait it out, but this really is an issue.

It is a frustrating, grating issue on a phone I just love otherwise. What a shame, and what a pain! I hope there is some upcoming update to address this, though given how sporadic and inconsistent the problem seems to be, I am not very confident one is forthcoming ...

juanito157 · Aug 30, 2013

SMALBA said:
Guys i had the same problem with both the one and the s4. The only solution I got to work was buying a completely new router. For reasons unknown to me, my s4 didn't like the old router. So I bought a new netgear $100 router with both 2.5 ghz band and 5 ghz band . I connect to the router using the 5 g band and have not had any issues at all.

I know this is an expensive solution but it worked for me. Good luck guys.

I have the same router and have connection issues. Didnt realize you can choose to only use 5ghz ..how is this done?

Canesfan · Sep 11, 2013

Now, my latest issue is that the phone is not holding its established WiFi connection and/or doesn't automatically complete a WiFi connection as it had been doing, such as with my home WiFi . None of my home or phone settings have changed.

This phone has WiFi issues !!! (I'm saying for the 1001-th time....)

Now, for all of you wanting to respond that your S4 is rock solid with WiFi, good for you!

xiteg79 · Sep 14, 2013

Canesfan said:
Now, my latest issue is that the phone is not holding its established WiFi connection and/or doesn't automatically complete a WiFi connection as it had been doing, such as with my home WiFi . None of my home or phone settings have changed.

This phone has WiFi issues !!! (I'm saying for the 1001-th time....)

Now, for all of you wanting to respond that your S4 is rock solid with WiFi, good for you!

Yup this is really pissing me off also. I have updated my firmware on my home router when there was no issues before when I first got the phone. I did a forget network on the phone and tried to add it back over and over again. The phone does a scan of wireless networks, then says that the home network is saved and secured then tries to re-establish and IP then obtains an IP then saves and secures. Then the phone scans the wireless networks and repeats the whole process over and over and over again.

So I got so pissed off while writing this that I went into my router and started messing with some settings. I have a linksys ea2700 with updated firmware. Side note, I hate this router and what linksys has done.

So, I noticed that my wireless was set for wpa/wpa2 personal mixed mode. I set it this way because my xbox will not connect to wpa2!! Since I rarely use my xbox I changed the setting for both 2ghz and 5 ghz to just wpa2 personal. And, HOLY SH** it worked!!!!!!!!!!! :smokingsomb:

I have now had a solid connection for over 15 minutes and ran speed tests with solid results. Though I still notice the device scans networks every 5 seconds still but the connection to my router is solid.

Though the problem at my work is still going to persist as they use mixed mode there as well. So it seems the problem lies in the gs4 not taking mixed mode very well. Or, at least it does not like mixed mode on the specific router that I have.

Hope this helps others

Canesfan · Sep 14, 2013

xiteg79 said:
...the problem at my work is still going to persist as they use mixed mode there as well. So it seems the problem lies in the gs4 not taking mixed mode very well. Or, at least it does not like mixed mode on the specific router that I have.

Hope this helps others

Well, the 18 or so facilities I am at, related to my work (where I really need the WiFi), probably have mixed mode routers. As I've repeatedly stated, I don't really need my smartphone's internet connection at home where I have both a desktop and 2 iPads at my disposal. Secondly, iPhones don't have apparent issues with mixed mode routers as I had no problems using it with WiFi at these same facilities. Samsung is either ignoring this problem or is in denial.

Help Wi-Fi issue

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