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wifi constantly searching after 4.3 update

I love my Galaxy Note 2 and I always had fantastic battery life but after 4.3 was added the wifi is in constant motion. I can just watch the arrows dance around all day and the battery drain. I am at home all day so my connection is constant and strong. My Kindle and other devices work just fine. My husband is now having the same issue with his phone after he received the update. Can anyone point me in the right direction to fix this?

Thank you

Kim

Comments

Chir

You're not alone. It's doing the same thing to me. It's so bad, I had to turn the wireless off just to use the phone.

This (is no good); my unlimited data is gone, and now I'm forced it used 4G for internet access because the battery life is so horrible with wifi on. I would charge my phone every other day, and now, if wifi is on, I have to charge it 3 times a day...

kmf66

Goodness that looks like where I am headed. I hate that. It is a great phone.

kbachler

Have also had significant battery drain. Checking to see if its due to wifi.

kmf66

I did a factory reset last night to see if that would help but no luck. The wifi is constantly scanning even though I am connected with a strong signal.

bluestar

I found this solution posted on cnet.

To disable Wi-Fi scanning always available on your Android 4.3 Jelly Bean device, launch the settings app and tap on the Wi-Fi option under wireless & networks.
Next, tap on the menu button in the lower-left hand corner and select "Advanced" from the list.
You should then see "Always allow scanning" with a checkbox next to it. Uncheck the box and your device will no longer scan for networks at all times.

But when I checked my phone, the box was unchecked and, despite this, the continual scanning is still ongoing. Not sure why it didn't have the desired effect for me but maybe this might help some folks anyway.

Waimon

Do not have that kind of phone but there is one thing you might could try. Go to your wifi settings on your phone. Then at the top right there is a menu for more options, if it is like my droid dna, click it and go to advance. In there uncheck notify me option and keep wifi on during sleep and set a certain frequency for which ever frquency your wifi is on and the check but wifi optimization. Doing all that might fix your problem. Do not know if anyone has tried that but I had to do that on my droid dna when I got it and it has fixed my wifi issues. Hope this helps for yours.

kbachler

I have also posted in another thread, as I initially had battery drain without clear excessive WiFi scanning - although I did later observe the excessive scanning also. I have now documented some additional behaviors since the update.

1. For awhile the phone worked fine. I was unable to identify a reason. However, it started working fine after charging it from a battery, as opposed to a charger.

2. I turned off all radios, plugged the phone in to charge using chargers that had previously charged it fine. However, the phone continued to discharge.

3. I downloaded a CPU monitor. Although I was looking at a graph and couldn't tell exact speeds, the CPU was running 2-3 times faster when the phone was discharging.

4. Watching the battery meter, Android went from the 4% to 6% range when the phone was acting well, up to the 30% range when it was discharging.

5. Since the upgrade, when the phone re-boots, it opens MANY apps. These are apps that did not run on start-up prior to the upgrade. Simply killing or using force stop of these apps does not change the CPU use or the ability to charge the Galaxy Note 2.

Given the above, I have to conclude that there is something FUNDAMENTALLY WRONG with the last upgrade.

If possible, is there any way to revert the device to its pre-upgrade status?

Ann154

No. You can't revert to the previous OS version.

kbachler

Any sense of whether other devices have had similar issues? Something is clearly not right here.

Verizon_Support

Hey there kmff66,

Let's get your device an energy drink and keep it running throughout the day. When you have it charged to 100% how long does it take to get to 0%? How do you use your phone on a daily basis? Do you notice a longer battery life when not connected to WiFi?

Please provide additional details so that we can better assist.

NicholasB_VZW

Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport

kbachler

Please see my comments above.

In addition, I have now found the following odd circumstance. After rebooting the device continued to drain even though connected to a charger, all radios off, apps killed, screen turned way down (20% brightness) OR off. CPU running at a high rate.

THEN I plugged it into a PNY external battery to charge. CPU speed dropped, device charged normally. I then switched to the normal charger, and it charged normally. I really looks like changing the charger caused a change - and this appears to be the SECOND time this has happened for me. I was uncertain how I got the GN2 to act normally the first time, and remembered that in an effort to charge it while I was out and about, I plugged in the external battery. At the time, I thought it was coincidence. Now I am less certain.

Verizon_Support

Hi kmf66,

We want you happy with your S3. I understand wanting to be able to use Wi-Fi but not have it drain your battery. When you enter the Wi-Fi Settings screen, the Wi-Fi network scanning may run automatically, regardless if it is already connected to a Wi-Fi network. Have you made sure you're not in the Wi-Fi Settings screen when noticing the scanning?

ElizabethE_VZW

Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport

kbachler

Also see my two sets of comments from today in this thread. Some more detailed info on what seems to be happening.

nickfd3s

Hello. I'm also having the same problem with my note2. After the update wifi goes on and off all the time in the house where it was always fine before. I use it for hours doing random things and suddenly see I'm not on wifi(but its turned on). I had lost my job last year and had to move my plan down to the minimum data I could and now it has me worried about going over since wifi is a issue now. I'm sure it does mess with the battery life but since I've been staying home I haven't really payed much attention to that part.

Verizon_Support

kbachler, we want to make sure that your phone has enough juice in your battery no matter what. When did you notice the battery issue. started to happen. Do you have your wifi on all time time even when you are not using it? Do you use bluetooth on the phone? I hope to hear back from you ASAP

KevinR_VZW

Please follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport

kbachler

Consolidating the info I've posted for you:

1. The battery draining rapidly problem started immediately upon the 4.3 upgrade.

2. I tried several solutions - something inadvertently made the phone work fine after I had been trying solutions for the battery draining issue - but at the time no clear reason was apparent for the temporary fix. At the time I was unable to identify a reason. However, it started working fine after charging it from a battery, as opposed to a charger.

3. When the battery was draining rapidly, I turned off all radios, plugged the phone in to charge using chargers that had previously charged the GN2 with no issue. However, after the upgrade, the phone continued to discharge, even with the radios off, the screen off, and with apps killed.

4. I downloaded a CPU monitor. Although I was looking at a graph and couldn't tell exact speeds, during the time the battery was draining, the CPU was running at least 2-3 times faster than when the phone was behaving normally. (Note that I believe the concern about excessive WiFi searching is probably a red herring. I think its this CPU issue.)

5. Checking the battery meter, Android OS went from the 4% to 6% range when the phone was acting well, up to the 30+% range when it was discharging.

6. Since the upgrade, when the phone re-boots, it opens MANY apps. These are apps that did not run on start-up prior to the upgrade. Simply killing or using force stop of these apps does not change the CPU use or the ability to charge the Galaxy Note 2. Prior to the upgrade, on startup, I had 650M to 750M free. Now on startup I have 350M free.

7. As mentioned, the phone began behaving normally for a reason that at the time was unclear, after I tried charging it from an external PNY battery. Then TODAY, the phone again began draining the battery again. Again, the CPU was running much, much faster than normal. After trying several things, I again happened to plug in the battery attempting to charge the phone, since even when plugged into a charger, the phone was still losing charge. At that point the CPU dropped to a normal speed, and the phone began charging. I switched to a charger and the phone began to charge normally.

My conclusion is that something is causing the CPU to clock high, and for some reason plugging in the PNY battery is reversing that effect.

Yes, I use WIFI and Bluetooth and GPS. Prior to the upgrade, that wasn't an issue. No, if the phone gets into "battery drain mode" even with all radios off, the screen low, and the phone plugged in, the phone STILL discharges, and it appears to be due to a racing CPU. Plugging in an external battery APPEARS to stop the CPU from racing. I have not yet had a charger stop the CPU from racing, although I've tried several now.

kbachler

To clarify 2. I tried several solutions - something inadvertently made the phone work fine after I had been trying solutions for the battery draining issue - but at the time no clear reason was apparent for the temporary fix. At the time I was unable to identify a reason. However, it started working fine after charging it from an external battery, as opposed to a charger.

steve1811

I have had the same problem on my Verizon Note 3 running Android 4.3 updated on Nov 11, 2013. My WIFi continually drops out, even close to the router. The phone would say internet connection unstable.

After weeks of searching I discovered that turning off the Bluetooth fixed the problem.

I have searched further on the web and see that many others are having the same problem. It extends to the Galaxy S line as well. Wifi and Bluetooth use the same frequency band, but with much different channel widths. There is some interference mechanism that seems to be impacting lots of users and wasting a lot of people's time.

I just posted a complaint to Samsung on their website. Since this is a common problem that seems to be unacknowledged, perhaps someone should think about a class action.

Steve

jakskitt

I have been having a battery drain issue as well. This issue started the day I upgraded to 4.3. I also have the Galaxy Note II and my mom has a SIII and just updated, she is having issues with battery drain as well.

Before the update I could run my phone with Wifi and GPS on, and fairly heavy screen usage on auto-brightness from 100% to 10% over the course of 14-15 hours. After the update with GPS OFF and Wifi constantly scanning OFF my battery runs from 100% to 0% in about 10-11 hours. I have not installed or run any new apps besides the bloatware that came with the update, and I constantly kill running apps trying to conserve battery life.

I have not run into any issues with the phone continuing to discharge while plugged in. However, I have also noticed a marked difference in charge time. I have not clocked it yet but I do know it has increased rather significantly. There is no way that it is the charging device. I have used 5 different AC chargers including the one the phone came with, two different car chargers and an Anker external battery and run into the same results with all of them.

One other minor issue I noted is when opening my gallery or camera (something that used to take under 2 seconds) it now takes the gallery anywhere between 5 and 20 seconds to open and the camera between 5-10 seconds, and that is even after I have killed the apps I opened in the task manager.

Haven't checked CPU usage but will be downloading an app to keep an eye on it.

There is SOMETHING(s) buggy in Verizon's 4.3 update. I sure hope they follow through and figure this out and get a patch out soon because it is extremely frustrating. I had no major issues with the Note II prior to the Verizon 4.3 update but now... been finding little ones popping up since the update. If I wanted to run a beta version of their 4.3 I would have signed up for it.

kbachler

Another incident.

From 6 am to 11:30 am, phone went from 100% charged to appx 70% charged. From 11:30 to 12:00 went from 70% charged to 11% charged. Phone was hot, and CPU was again running fast.

Plugged phone into a charger, by 12:15 was at 8% charged.

Plugged phone into an external battery (as described in my earlier posts) -- CPU immediately slowed down, phone immediately charged and could be switched to a charger to complete the charge.

What is the anticipated timing for Verizon to fix this?

brentwoodperson

Stop the pain. You have hardware problens due to the 4.3 upgrafe. Take your phone into a verizon store. Ask for the manager. Tell him the 4.3 update created hardware problems with your wifi. He will connect your phone to his wifi then wait for the phone to drop the wifi signal. He will order you a new phone.

kbachler

The phone doesn't drop the WiFi signal.

CPU racing is sporadic.

kbachler

Is there any word on a fix?

I have tried a different CPU app to see if I could get better information.

When the battery is draining, the CPU load is ranging between 80% and 100% when the phone is idle.

When all is well, the CPU load is ranging between 30% and 50%.

There is no indication as to what is causing this other than Android OS.

At this point, the phone is unreliable.

***

An additional piece of information - according to CPU-Z, the software I am using, it indicates: "Root Access - Yes". I have not rooted the phone. Does this make any sense?

ronirons

My phone is a Galaxy Note II and after the 4.3 upgrade my WiFi gradually developed the 'Connection is unstable" problem. I have tried many things to correct this and have finally had good results by changing my Router so that it only allows one type of 811 service. It was set to "auto b,g and n" by default. I changed it to "n" only and had good stability with the connection but my web cam wouldn't work with "n" so I switched to "g" only and haven't had a problem for two days now. Clearly this workaround shouldn't be required but there appears to be some problem in the latest Android that needs to be corrected by Verizon.

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