Solved My wifi works intermittently...

[Ted Gervais]

I am in a situation where I am forced to only use wifi. And I am finding on a regular/daily basis that the wifi simply does not work.
My phone is the Galaxy S5 and I am using Flight Mode.

I have the wifi turned on and I do all my email and banking etc with the phone. But there are times that it can't reach the wifi in my house even though my laptop is using it just fine.

I have tried to fix it by resetting the wifi connection by turning the wifi off and than on. That sometimes gets it to do a connection and away I go.

Other times the turning off and turning on the wifi doesn't work so I than turn off the flight mode and than turn off the flight mode and reset the wifi. That seemed to work the best for me. It normally got things to work. But now at this moment that doesn't even work.

So I am lost. My phone plan doesn't include network/mobile data. So that is why I am using Flight Mode. But when I am back home, my plan is turned back on and for the most part it uses 4G when I am sitting in a WIFI area?? Meaning that wifi never seems to work properly.

I am made no changes with the phone in any way. Perhaps I need to upgrade something. Maybe new software or something.

Any thoughts on what to do before my warranty runs out??

 

[leeshor]

Welcome to the forum

If I understand the problem it sounds like this is happening everywhere, or is it just at home? If at home I would suspect your router, possibly try restarting it.

 

[Ted Gervais]

Welcome to the forum

If I understand the problem it sounds like this is happening everywhere, or is it just at home? If at home I would suspect your router, possibly try restarting it.

It happens anywhere. Here in Florida in the Condominium or home in Windsor. Or at MacDonalds or anywhere.
The S5 just seems to not be working properly especially when I try to use beside my laptop and it doesn't work, but the laptop is working fine. And my wifes laptop on our wifi is working fine. But not the S5..

 

[Ted Gervais]

It happens anywhere. Here in Florida in the Condominium or home in Windsor. Or at MacDonalds or anywhere.
The S5 just seems to not be working properly especially when I try to use beside my laptop and it doesn't work, but the laptop is working fine. And my wifes laptop on our wifi is working fine. But not the S5..

 

[leeshor]

Based on the things you have already tried I would see if you can get a replacement under warranty. It sounds like a WiFi fault in the phone, unless it;s wrapped in tin foil.

 

[Ted Gervais]

Based on the things you have already tried I would see if you can get a replacement under warranty. It sounds like a WiFi fault in the phone, unless it;s wrapped in tin foil.

I believe you. My wife insists i take off that tin-foil.. Hmmmmm.
I will try and a few weeks to get it replaced. I hope they do that without hesitation . Or will they say they will keep the phone for a month or two to make sure the phone is really broken, or will they simply just take out a new S5 and put my Sim cards in it , and I will be off and away.. Hmmmm.

Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[Ollie]

Download Samsung Kies on your PC, attach your phone to the PC and make a backup using Kies, and then do a factory data reset from within the Settings app of your phone.

Login to your WiFi and try it out. If it works better then restore your phone from the backup you made in Kies. If it doesn't work better then take it back to the store and exchange it.

They should swap it out on the spot with another one.

You can also check for updates while your phone is plugged into Kies or from inside of your settings app.

 

[Jonny Kansas]

What do you mean when you say you're using "Flight Mode"? Airplane Mode? Because that disables wifi.

If you can't/don't want to use mobile data, that can be turned off, so at least you won't burn up data when you're not connected to a wifi network, but again, Airplane Mode, if that's what you mean by flight mode shuts off all radios. Now, it could be that Flight Mode is something new I've never heard of that allows wifi to work since they've got wifi on planes now, but I'm just trying to clarify your meaning.

As for swapping it out on the spot, depends on whether you've got it under warranty, or insurance. I had the mobile data crap out on my s4 and had to supply myself with a spare (thank God I still had the Galaxy Nexus handy) while I waited for the replacement to arrive. Cost me nothing, but took a day or two to get the replacement. Shipping was pretty quick, but they couldn't offer me a "loaner" while I waited.

 

[Ollie]

WiFi works in Flight mode aka Airplane mode. You just have to toggle it on.

 

[Jonny Kansas]

WiFi works in Flight mode aka Airplane mode. You just have to toggle it on.

Yes. I see that now. Now that I think about it, I only ever used it when I was on mobile, generally when I was putting my phone in my locker at work and didn't want to burn through battery searching for signal in a metal cage that blocked it.

Thanks for pointing that out Ollie!

 

[Ted Gervais]

I did the backup and when I was doing that it updated some of the software.

WiFi works now. And I didn't have to do a reset.

Thanks for the tip. It was a good one.

 

[Jonny Kansas]

Excellent!

Sent from my Note 4

 

[Ollie]

Awesome. Little things like that can be frustrating!

 

[Ollie]

Yes. I see that now. Now that I think about it, I only ever used it when I was on mobile, generally when I was putting my phone in my locker at work and didn't want to burn through battery searching for signal in a metal cage that blocked it.

Thanks for pointing that out Ollie!

I use Airplane mode everyday (when I can remember!) and then toggle on WiFi to use the satellite Internet while at work. Sometimes we go too far out to sea to justify the phone fighting for one bar of signal strength. Saves the battery!