I have tried this, and my phone will drop the wifi again randomly. Sometimes it is a few moments later, others hours.
Same thing with me. But then how does this stop your phone from searching
for wifi all the time when you are outside of your house, office, etc.
I have narrowed down the problem with WiFi to a specific protocol. My replacement came today and is running 4.2.2, which is the first update that added the stock android WiFi toggle back to the notification panel. It has the same problems as the 4.3 phone I am sending back.
Anyway, if I force my router to use only WPA2-TKIP, I can get 20mbps down from my phone. If the router is set to either AES only or AES/TKIP, the phone maxes out at 3.5 mbps down.
The problem is with how the phone handles AES. This must be resolved since TKIP is outdated, has security issues, and limits the speed of the entire network. I.E while my phone goes up from 3.5 to 20 mbps on TKIP, every other device drops from 56 mbps to 20mbps.
Now, which chat specialist would like to tell me to boot into safe mode? lol
Hi SupaMoose,
Thanks for the info! Is this occuring with every router you attempt to connect to? Have you tried changing the Wi-fi settings on the router to a different security protocol? Keep me posted
Thanks,
PamelaF_VZW
Tweet us @vzwsupport
Hello,
I do not have the ability to reset or change security protocols on most networks I hook onto because they are either public networks, or at work. All of these networks worked fine before the last updated. At home my S4 is the only device that has issues. My wife's Verizon Nexus Phone, Her old classic Kindle, my Kindle Fire, our 3 year old desktop,our Xbox, both of our work laptops, and our new Chrome book work fine, and have been since we got each device respectively. My S4 worked fine until the latest update. Now I have authentication errors with only My S4 on any and every network public or private, with or without a secure network .
Nothing else has changed except this update, and that is precisely when my issue started. I have turned the phone on and off, and even removed the battery. I have turned the router on and off. I have done a hard reset from Comcast at home to reset. I have tried all of these processes in every which combination and order, but nothing has worked. By a simple process of elimination the issue is the latest update.
When is a patch or update coming? Can I get free data on my plan until then since a mistake beyond my control is causing me to chew through my data? Could I get a discount on my plan since if I limit data I essentially have an expensive candy-bar style phone from 2003?
Wi-Fi Network Connection Problem
There is a known issue with Wifi stability while connected to a network using D Link routers.
As a temporary fix, you can try these steps:
> Settings => Connections and tap Wi-Fi. Then tap Menu and make sure Keep Wi-Fi on during sleep is set to Always.
>Or turn off Wi-Fi power save mode on your S4. Type *#0011# on the phone dialer, then Menu => Wi-Fi and turn Wi-Fi power save mode to Off.
> Or change the router settings to 802.11 model
I have to turn off wi-fi to get it to stop searching. For me the battery holds long enough that I can charge it wherever I need to (at home, in car, or in office).
SupaMoose, thanks for these helpful details. Have you downloaded 3rd party applications to your device? Some application software can affect the performance of your device when conflicted with the recent software update. I recommend that you uninstall a few applications, power your device off/on, and try to connect your WiFi device again. If your issue still persists after completing these steps, then you may need to hard reset your phone http://vz.to/16pEsMH
Stay tuned for information regarding future software updates here:http://bit.ly/n5snpq
We want you to recieve the service that you pay for each month. I apologize that we're unable to issue credits for your data plan as you are recieving the full data allowance when connecting to 3G and 4G service.
LasinaH_VZW
Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport
So I have downloaded apps from the Google Play store. I have actually removed almost everyone and still had the issue. The frustrating thing is that Many that I removed I cannot put back because I cannot connect to WiFi, and do not want to go over my data plan.
My WiFi works randomly for random amounts of time. The other day when I was home it was connected for a few hours, and in the middle of listening to Pandora while cooking it shut off...I have no idea when, but I chewed through data in the process.
I know you are trying to trouble shoot, but a hard reset is a time consuming pain in the butt. I would do it, except I am seeing this same problem mentioned all over the place by lots of people. I really do not want ot sit through the same scripted routine to reset my phone only to have that not work.
njuneer seems to have a very good potential answer to this problem in the post on the bottom of this thread:
I have narrowed down the problem with WiFi to a specific protocol. My replacement came today and is running 4.2.2, which is the first update that added the stock android WiFi toggle back to the notification panel. It has the same problems as the 4.3 phone I am sending back
Anyway, if I force my router to use only WPA2-TKIP, I can get 20mbps down from my phone. If the router is set to either AES only or AES/TKIP, the phone maxes out at 3.5 mbps down.
The problem is with how the phone handles AES. This must be resolved since TKIP is outdated, has security issues, and limits the speed of the entire network. I.E while my phone goes up from 3.5 to 20 mbps on TKIP, every other device drops from 56 mbps to 20mbps.
Now, which chat specialist would like to tell me to boot into safe mode? lol
It really seems this is the issue. A complete reset and wipe of my phone will take a lot of time and frustration. And since the WiFi will most likely not work I will then have a phone without any apps or data on it. At that point you will send me another phone, and I will start this process over again. Then eventually a code update or patch will come out, and my phone will work again.
By the way the link you pasted for updated brought me to some Verizon based news aggregation site, and I did not feel like digging around to figure out where updates are announced. All I could find was a list of updates that have already happened...nothing about pending or future updates. Next time try to send a better link
Can you please escalate the issue experienced by all these people so they can at least research to see if this is a software issue...and let us know instead of giving us the stock trouble shooting routine.
Thank you so much for completing all of the steps so far SupaMoose,
I know your time is definitely valuable and I want to ensure that the steps we're providing are only to help determine the root cause of this concern. We can then lift it up to our developers with complete confidence that all steps have been completed.
Through our troubleshooting with multiple customers, in almost every case this concern was resolved by doing the following steps, and testing WIFI after each step for functionality. Of course, once it functions, we don't have to go any further with the below steps.
I recommend completing the following steps in order, testing after each one and if the issue persists, please let us know. Of course please skip any you've already completed, but complete those you have not.
1) Power Cycle the Device and power cycle the Wifi Router/AP and re-test.
2) Uninstall any non-preloaded security, antivirus, power saver, and data saver applications then power cycle the device and test again.
3) Boot the device into Safe Mode and test again.
4) Perform a Factory Data Reset on the device and test again.
5) Contact your Wifi Router/AP manufacturer to get assistance in both performing a factory reset on the device and also updating the firmware to the latest available version. After both have been done, please re-test Wi-Fi functionality with default settings.
Again, once all of the above steps are completed and if the issue persists, please let us know and we can forward your device specific information to the software developers.
Thanks!
MelissaM_VZW
Please follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport
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