Cannot turn WiFi off - HTC One M7 after Lillipop update

[Miner]

Three or four days after a phone restart, I cannot turn WiFi off, it immediately turns back on. Seems like one app is doing this, how do I find it?

Details: I have an HTC One M7 on Sprint. It’s not rooted. After the recent update to Android Lollipop, I cannot turn the WiFi off.

It’s not as black-and-white as it would first appear, the WiFi on/off feature will work for 2, 3, or 4 days after the phone is hard restarted.

During the initial 2, 3, 4 day period of time, (it’s inexact, I’m still experimenting) WiFi on/off works fine. After the 2, 3, 4 day period of time, the off won’t work. What I see in settings, the Wi-Fi On/Off button with the green triangle never goes to off. On the settings screen when you two-finger swipe-down, the square WiFi icon when clicked, the concentric power waves will turn off for a second or two, then come right back on. And the WiFi icon in the status bar constantly shows a connection when trying to turn off.

Searching for a fix gives 3 things, listed below, all of which are set and none of which fix the issue I have:

1. Sprint Connections Optimizer > it’s fully disabled (Apps > Disabled list).
2. Settings > WiFI > Advanced WiFi > Network Notification > Notify whenever a public network is available. Unchecked.
3. Location > Mode > Set to Device Only.

Before I try a divide and conquer approach – disable a group of suspect apps, then restart the phone then observe and test after 3 or 4 days -- I’m asking if anyone has any insights, or a more graceful approach to troubleshooting?

The more graceful approach I’m hoping for is to find all apps that have the permission to turn WiFi on. Permission like that used to be in the apps listings in older Android versions, but I can’t find that any more.

I’m stumped with no clean approach to fix this.

 

[Miner]

It's not solved yet. But I'll answer my own question with an in process update.

I found a few apps that list Android permissions, then found the permission 'Connect and Disconnect from Wi-Fi', and listed the apps that have this permission. I disabled most of the ten apps having the permission, restarted the phone and am waiting a few days to see if the issue persists.

Few of the apps that have the permission also have a setting allowing you to turn the feature on or off, so the app may just take the permission and use it and never allow you to override.

The permission listing apps are hit or miss. F-Secure App Permissions seems awkward at best to filter and lists what seems way too many apps (having the turn on WiFi permission).

So I settled on Permission Friendly Apps. Although it shows the shortest list of all I tried, so I'm somewhat suspicious of it's list because it doesn't for example show Sprint Connections Optimizer.

At this point any insights on permission listing or permission manager apps will be appreciated.

 

[auxiliary]

I have lollipop but not on a HTC and I have the same exact issue after I updated and just fixed it so im going back to tell you since I saw your post first.
Go to your Wi-Fi settings and then options. On my phone I have a drop down menu, so you should be to locate this on your phone. Could beer on the screen or a button. Mine is a button. There was an option to keep Wi-Fi connected when in sleep mode. So I would be on the phone, turn it off ....sleep mode and out would turn it back on.give that a try

 

[Miner]

Thanks. Just changed that setting, will let you know.

 

[SJeP]

Three or four days after a phone restart, I cannot turn WiFi off, it immediately turns back on. Seems like one app is doing this, how do I find it?

Details: I have an HTC One M7 on Sprint. It’s not rooted. After the recent update to Android Lollipop, I cannot turn the WiFi off.

It’s not as black-and-white as it would first appear, the WiFi on/off feature will work for 2, 3, or 4 days after the phone is hard restarted.

During the initial 2, 3, 4 day period of time, (it’s inexact, I’m still experimenting) WiFi on/off works fine. After the 2, 3, 4 day period of time, the off won’t work. What I see in settings, the Wi-Fi On/Off button with the green triangle never goes to off. On the settings screen when you two-finger swipe-down, the square WiFi icon when clicked, the concentric power waves will turn off for a second or two, then come right back on. And the WiFi icon in the status bar constantly shows a connection when trying to turn off.

Searching for a fix gives 3 things, listed below, all of which are set and none of which fix the issue I have:

1. Sprint Connections Optimizer > it’s fully disabled (Apps > Disabled list).
2. Settings > WiFI > Advanced WiFi > Network Notification > Notify whenever a public network is available. Unchecked.
3. Location > Mode > Set to Device Only.

Before I try a divide and conquer approach – disable a group of suspect apps, then restart the phone then observe and test after 3 or 4 days -- I’m asking if anyone has any insights, or a more graceful approach to troubleshooting?

The more graceful approach I’m hoping for is to find all apps that have the permission to turn WiFi on. Permission like that used to be in the apps listings in older Android versions, but I can’t find that any more.

I’m stumped with no clean approach to fix this.

I'm having the exact same problem with my Sprint HTC One M7.

Have you found a fix yet?