Why does my Galaxy S5 Toggles between WiFi and Mobil Data?

[AC Question]

Why is my Galaxy S% Toggles between WiFi and Mobil Data

I've had my Galaxy S5 for eight months now, and I've never experienced any problems connecting to my WiFi internet service when at home, and automatically connecting to the mobile data as I exit the WiFi range.

However, about four days ago, while being at home, my phone started disconnecting from the WiFi and connecting to Mobile Data intermittently. The only way to stop my phone from doing this, is to manually turn of the Mobile Data option when I'm at home, and switching it back on when I leave home.

Does any one know how to correct this erratic behavior on my Samsung Galaxy S5?

 

[Crashdamage]

Re: Why is my Galaxy S% Toggles between WiFi and Mobil Data

Have the phone 'forget' the WiFi connection. Power down the phone.
Disconnect the power to the router for at least 30 seconds. Reconnect the power and wait until the router is fully rebooted.
Turn on the phone and connect.

If this doesn't help, post back here and we'll do a little more troubleshooting.

BTW, are you having WiFi problems anywhere else or only at home?

Android since v1.0. Linux user since 2001.

 

[Rukbat]

Re: Why is my Galaxy S% Toggles between WiFi and Mobil Data

Unless other devices (laptops, desktops, other phones) are having a problem maintaining the wifi connection, don't bother with the router. If it's doing anything wrong, all wifi connections will be affected.

Since the phone is still under warranty, I'd bring it in to the carrier and ask for it to be replaced (unless they can push a few buttons to fix it - they won't do a full repair while you wait). Be sure that everything is backed up (if you don't always do that anyway, which you should).

Phone under warranty doing something wrong = replace phone if you can't fix it in 5 minutes. Samsung charges you for a warranty (it's included in the price) because they know that a certain percentage of their phones are going to be sold as scrap when they get them back.

 

[Crashdamage]

Re: Why is my Galaxy S% Toggles between WiFi and Mobil Data

The idea behind rebooting the router is to force it to renew IP leases. Turning the phone off to unlock the IP and refresh with a new one usually is not enough. A new IP will only become available once the lease time, set in the router's DHCP config section, has expired. Until that time period expires the device will be assigned the same IP address on every connection because it is matched to the device's MAC address. Some routers, like mine, *always* assign the same IP to a device, matched to the MAC, even through reboots, making the DHCP function effectively act like static IPs. Anyway, thing is sometimes default lease times are very long and the simple, easy way to get everything to reset and start over fresh is to reboot.

So all that said, I respectfully beg to differ with you. I've seen many times that refreshing things was all it took to straighten everything out in just this kinda situation. It may be a mystery why, but it works more than I suppose it logically should. Having the phone forget the connection and reboot is kinda just for good measure.

If the easiest fix fails and the OP says his G5 WiFi works OK elsewhere, then it's time to check into 2.4Ghz vs 5Ghz, signal interference, alternate channels and stuff like that. If he says that WiFi sucks everywhere then it could be time to take the pos back.

Android since v1.0. Linux user since 2001.