Samsung Galaxy S4 Wifi Constantly Downloading

[Elv02]

Hey everyone,

I recently got a Samsung Galaxy S4 and I've run into an issue with my wifi connection. It seems that while I'm connected to any router, the phone is continuously downloading (upon using wireshark to check the traffic, it seems the phone is repeatedly sending encrypted packets between my phone and google). Under the phone's Data Usage it's simply listed as "Android OS" It's obviously a drain on the battery but I can't seem to find any way to fix it. I've turned off all backup and syncing that I can think of. It happens with every router I've tried (public and at home) except one old b/g Linksys router.

The interesting thing is my friend and my father (who have an S3 and S2 respectively) both have the same thing. My father just decides to turn Wifi off when he's not using it. However, I would like the constant updates.

Any help would be appreciated!

 

[STSVA]

Re: Samsung Galaxy Wifi Constantly Downloading

It sounds like a lot of apps are updating, syncing, or something else involving data. It could be, for example, Google Play updating apps.

 

[clintw22]

Re: Samsung Galaxy Wifi Constantly Downloading

One thing I don't get is when I'm connected to wifi, it randomly disconnects and reconnects at random but quite often. I've tried factory resetting.

Sent from my SCH-R970 using AC Forums mobile app

 

[Elv02]

Re: Samsung Galaxy Wifi Constantly Downloading

That's the thing, wouldn't it say updating apps in the notification center? I"m wondering if it isn't android trying to sync something with Google and it's not succeeding, so it keeps trying again and again, hogging data and battery.

EDIT:

I should also mention that I've factory reset both the S2 and S4 phones, and that they still have the problem. Also, the s2 is running Android 4.1.1 and the s4 is running android 4.2.2

 

[SpookDroid]

Re: Samsung Galaxy Wifi Constantly Downloading

You should install Onavo Count. It lets you see each app's data consumption and even let you monitor in real time in case something goes rogue and decides to gobble up your data at once and it's a bit more detailed than Android's report.

It definitely sounds like it's syncing something when on WiFi, like maybe Dropbox syncing photo/video. Or it might even be Google+ or Facebook syncing the camera folder or even Samsung's Cloud services. In any case, have you tried turning the 'Sync' option Off for a while and check if the data rate still goes haywire?

 

[Elv02]

Re: Samsung Galaxy Wifi Constantly Downloading

I did do that on the s2 when my father originally got it and I believe it just showed the usage as "Android OS" or something similiar... Is there a more specific app I get can or would I have to root to do that?

EDIT:

And as mentioned previously turning off all syncing options does not seem to fix the download issue :/

 

[MBSMD]

Re: Samsung Galaxy Wifi Constantly Downloading

This behavior is well documented on the S3 as well. Seems to be a long-standing Samsung issue. While the wifi indicator flickers, at least for me it doesn't seem to unusually drain the battery. I ignore it.


Posted from my Galaxy Note 8.0 via the Android Central App

 

[Elv02]

Re: Samsung Galaxy Wifi Constantly Downloading

Well, I know for sure on the s2 it does drain the battery significantly, as for the s4, as I've only had it a short time I am unsure how much it is affected, but it does seem to drain quicker than if I connect to the older Linksys router I have.

Could you link to any s3 discussions on the issue? I've thus far had trouble finding many people with this same issue.

Thanks

 

[SpookDroid]

Re: Samsung Galaxy Wifi Constantly Downloading

Yup, for such a 'well documented' issue, I'm also having a hard time finding it Plus, I've owned an S2, and S3, and an S4... all three units with no issue.

 

[Elv02]

Re: Samsung Galaxy Wifi Constantly Downloading

Weird, as now I've tested it with a friends S3 as well and he has the same issue with both of my D-Link routers and a Linksys, but not the old Linksys one. Is it possible it's a problem with my router settings or my ISP? I'm doubtful as I've also noticed the phone downloading when I connected to my schools Wifi as well, unless they happen to have a similar setup to mine.

Thanks again guys, this is an awesome phone otherwise and I just wish this wifi issue could get resolved

 

[SpookDroid]

Re: Samsung Galaxy Wifi Constantly Downloading

There might be an issue with the router. I don't know about a 'well documented' WiFi download issue, but I do know of one where people have trouble connecting to their routers in certain setups. Maybe that's what's causing your phone to constantly download data, maybe it's connecting, getting disconnected, trying to connect again?

 

[Elv02]

Re: Samsung Galaxy Wifi Constantly Downloading

The internet connection seems to be fine in general though, which is odd. I did find a lot of people talking about the D-Link disconnection issue, which I haven't experienced. However, it did prompt me to go out and get a new Linksys (which I returned). What could both my D-Links and the schools network have in common that a single old B/G linksys router doesn't? (I have tried simple things like changing the routers to b/g only and without security and at 20 MHz instead of 40 or mixed, etc)

 

[SpookDroid]

Re: Samsung Galaxy Wifi Constantly Downloading

In my case going from Channel 11 to Channel 1 helped. In some cases I've read 'downgrading' from the fastest transfer mode to a medium or lower helped as well (i.e. going to WiFi mode g instead of n, or b instead of g...)

 

[Elv02]

Re: Samsung Galaxy Wifi Constantly Downloading

I just tried changing the channels (1, 6, and 11) and none of those worked... Also tried a combination of that and different signals (b/g and n) and no success :/ If it's a setting, it might be a more obscure one. Is there some new technology that wouldn't be in pre-2006ish routers that would be causing this?

 

[Elv02]

Re: Samsung Galaxy Wifi Constantly Downloading

Alright guys! Big update (Still no solution, but bear with me here).

I was looking through the tPacketCapture logs (which I'm still very new with) and I find that the data that all the phones have been transmitting is unnamed jpegs and pngs! The host site for these files is either lh3.ppght.com or lh4.ppght.com (which are google image server apparently?) So then, I wondered with so many "unnamed" pictures going through, but perhaps not successfully, how would a ping look?

So pinging from a wifi connected laptop worked as expected, sends 4 packets, takes about 35ms average.

But then I ping from the phone, and now I don't understand whats happening. I ping lh3.ggpht.com from my phone and boom, it starts receiving packets from the site continuously. It doesn't stop. Being new to networking I'm not sure why it's doing this, and I've googled all day trying to find related topics or an answer.

Curiously I wondered if it was a DNS issue, but since my phone isn't rooted, I can't seem to change the DNS. (The phone's dns points to my local wifi router, why is that?)

Two more points: 1. The only fairly similiar topic I could find on this issue is here. However, this dealt with the phone not being able to connect to the site at all (although he did fix it by changing his DNS)
2. A snippet of the packets the phones are sending look like this:

GET /ROJaVzOcldg5rqQyZ_bPjFq1_-vIAHEIkYaFcW8yAxp0IccRZdceglhqThN063Ve4PI=w216-h216 HTTP/1.1
Host: lh3.ggpht.com
Connection: Keep-Alive
User-Agent: unused/0 (jfltecan JDQ39); gzip

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *
ETag: "v1"
Expires: Fri, 06 Sep 2013 02:01:47 GMT
Content-Disposition: inline;filename="unnamed.png"
Content-Type: image/png
X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
Date: Tue, 10 Sep 2013 02:27:15 GMT
Server: fife
Content-Length: 32596
X-XSS-Protection: 1; mode=block
Cache-Control: public, max-age=86400, no-transform
Age: 0
Alternate-Protocol: 80:quic

I feel like I'm getting closer to a solution, and I'm just hoping this can also help someone else out there (as this seems to be an issue that's discussed here and there, but without success for some).

TL;DR My phone is pinging a google image server constantly (causing massive battery drain). Thoughts?

 

[STSVA]

Re: Samsung Galaxy Wifi Constantly Downloading

It certainly sounds like some kind of Google image sync issue. You may have already done this, but if not I'd try looking through all your Google account and app settings to see if something is set up to do image syncing.

 

[Elv02]

Re: Samsung Galaxy Wifi Constantly Downloading

I already did that, I couldn't find anything, unless it's something really buried or hidden by Rogers (my carrier). It's odd that it would be on 3 separate phones though (with 3 seperate carriers), if it was an app issue I mean. Could it be some settings on my routers are causing a specific common app to misbehave?

My other thought (which is the avenue I'm currently exploring) is that none of the phones have this issue when connected to the mobile network, even with app syncing over wifi disabled. This is what's leading me to think it may be a DNS issue with the phone :/ Does anyone know of a good DNS changing app? DNSset (which is supposed to work on wifi without root) didn't work on the S4 or the S2.

Thanks for the help so far guys I'll be sure to post more as I find out what's going on with this

 

[nataswon]

Re: Samsung Galaxy Wifi Constantly Downloading

Has there ever been a concrete solution to this issue? I have an S3 and a 2Wire router (Att UVerse). Recently I noticed a steady send/receive indicator on wifi. A factory reset only made it now remain stuck at downloading. I have not reloaded any apps and local ATT store did a warranty return. Guess what? The replacment device is stuck downloading as well.
I will try rebooting my router but I'm at a loss as to why this is occuring and why it just started out of the blue.
Samsung support suggested a clean reflash of the OS (its not rooted) which is why I visited the local ATT store.

 

[Almeuit]

Re: Samsung Galaxy Wifi Constantly Downloading

Has there ever been a concrete solution to this issue? I have an S3 and a 2Wire router (Att UVerse). Recently I noticed a steady send/receive indicator on wifi. A factory reset only made it now remain stuck at downloading. I have not reloaded any apps and local ATT store did a warranty return. Guess what? The replacment device is stuck downloading as well.
I will try rebooting my router but I'm at a loss as to why this is occuring and why it just started out of the blue.
Samsung support suggested a clean reflash of the OS (its not rooted) which is why I visited the local ATT store.

I've always seen the S3/S4 do this. I'd just ignore it honestly.. It doesn't hurt anything.

Sent from my T-Mobile Note 3 using AC Forums.

 

[nataswon]

Re: Samsung Galaxy Wifi Constantly Downloading

True.
Only thing I noticed since it started doing this was that it seemed the battery life was taking a hit. I guess the annoyance is not knowing why its doing it (absurd curiousity on my part?).

Funnt thing, it worked normally on att's hotspot at their store. Didn't get stuck.

Maybe the 4.3 update will fix it as mysteriously as it started?

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