Everything is so friggin complicated...

[Needkeys]

I have probably spent somewhere between 40-50 hours over the past 10 days trying to get everything set up on my S6. I'm new to Android, and I can appreciate the realities of a learning curve, but I'm starting to think this operating system just isn't for me.

My latest problem is trying to figure out a way to automatically have my wifi turn on and off when I arrive at or leave my home. My home is the only wifi network I care about. I will manually deal with other networks if and when I want to. But when I get home, I'd like my wifi to turn on so I'm not using mobile data. When I leave home, I'd like my wifi to turn off so that I'm not draining the battery. I've also been told that location services drains the battery, so I keep location turned off at all times unless and until I use waze.

I've looked at Tasker. Forget it....wayyyy beyond me. I'm a layperson. I need it simple....kindergarten level simple. I tried Smart Wifi Toggler...it seems simpler than Tasker, but there are still 15 or so settings which are wayyyy beyond me. I don't understand any of the trigger this or trial timer that. It's all so exasperating...my experience with apps in the past is you download it, you toggle it on or off, and it works. Everything here has a gozillion settings and you really have to know what you're doing or you end up screwing something else up.

I'm exhausted from this device. I will resort to manually turning wifi on and off. How? I'm setting up 2 recurrent calendar appointments every day, each with a notification reminder...one to remind me to turn my wifi off...and one to remind me to turn it on. That's what this has come to...

I have always hated Apple. But now I understand why so many people leave android for it. It's like android goes out of its way to make things as difficult as possible with the benefit of making it as customizeable as possible. In the process, they have forgotten about the non-technical people...morons like me who don't have the time and have lost their patience with everything being so unbelievably difficult.

 

[Ryan Wallace]

Why are you over-complicating things? There is no need to turn off WiFi when you leave home. I've never had battery problems with just letting the phone manage WiFi on any Android device. I don't even believe Apple devices allow you to do what you're suggesting. And for whatever reason, all you have to do is pull down the notification shade and tap the WiFi toggle on or off. It takes seconds, and involves no extra apps or hassle. I mean, seriously.

 

[Crashdamage]

You're worrying about this stuff too much...relax...

Just apply the KISS rule (Keep It Simple Stupid). It works for Android most of the time just like it does for Apple. IOW, most of the time you can just accept the default settings and you will be fine. For example, the WiFi Toggled. Very likely you could simply turn it on and go. The default settings are probably reasonable and would work fine. Or as suggested skip the app and let Android handle WiFi as designed. It will use only a very small amount more power.

Same with location services. You can turn it off but if you do you can't locate a lost phone with Android Device Manager or other locators. I leave it on and accept a small hit on the battery.

Anyway, point is you have choices now, lots of them. That doesn't mean you have to make things more complicated. A while back I wrote a very short list, my guidelines for smooth, simple operation of Android devices.

See this

http://androidforums.com/index.php?posts/7082731

 

[cbreze]

Just connect to your home wifi and no others that may be along your daily route, and it will only connect to your home. (turn off wifi scanning or it will drive you nuts with pop ups and use battery as well) If you find another wifi you like to use connect to it and it will auto connect to that one when you are close enough. Check your wifi settings under "advanced". You can kill the pop ups there.

 

[chezm]

I don't notice a major difference in battery usage between having the wifi on or off when in non wifi used areas. That being the case I leave it on and it's all the same to me..

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[msugrad598]

I use the app Wi-Fi Matic. It remembers WiFi connects I use and automatically turns on my WiFi when I'm near a saved connection. When I'm not near a saved connection, it turns off my WiFi.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Seth Perry1]

Put your location on power saving you only need gps for apps that map you to your destination or waze that you said you had.

 

[edubb256]

I have probably spent somewhere between 40-50 hours over the past 10 days trying to get everything set up on my S6. I'm new to Android, and I can appreciate the realities of a learning curve, but I'm starting to think this operating system just isn't for me.

My latest problem is trying to figure out a way to automatically have my wifi turn on and off when I arrive at or leave my home. ... I've also been told that location services drains the battery, so I keep location turned off at all times unless and until I use waze.

As others have said, I think you are making things more complicated than they are. I've been using Android for years and I never turn off wifi and location services. The impact on battery life is hardly noticeable.

BTW, I think automatically turning wifi on/off based on location would be a lot more complicated in IOS than in Android. I think the only way to it with IOS is by jailbreaking, which is more complicated than using a wifi toggler app or Tasker.

 

[williams448]

Even if it was possible you would probably use more battery (minimal) because your location services would constantly be searching your location to see if you were home or not.

My recommendation would be IFTTT (If this, then that) app. Download it, set it up to turn WiFi off when you leave, and turn on when you come home. You will have to turn location on so it will know when you leave. It's not hard to navigate. Try it out.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[bbtkd]

I use an app named Wi-fi Matic. When learning, it will remember what cell sites are within range from the location your Wi-fi is being used. Once it records the tower IDs around you, you can tell it to stop looking so that it doesn't turn Wi-fi on too much. When you enable Wi-fi Matic it will turn your Wi-fi on when it senses you are within range of one of the cell sites received from the location of one of the recognized Wi-fi's, and then disables it again when you are no longer in range of one of those cell sites. I'd like to say this is 100% accurate, but there have been times where I have been at home for a while, certainly within range of one of the nearby cell sites, yet Wi-fi is off. It does work 90% of the time. It avoids having to have location services on, bur presumes you have cell coverage near the sites where you use Wi-fi.

 

[Bosbouer]

I have been using NFC tags to turn wifi completely off when I leave my home network.(wifi matic and others still need to scan for your home network to connect) Using the nfc tags method completely kills wifi. You will have to manually turn it on or use another tag for that if you want to use wifi. That said, I could not detect any improvement in battery life since using the nfc tags. As said previously, android does a pretty good job on its own.

 

[bbtkd]

I have been using NFC tags to turn wifi completely off when I leave my home network.(wifi matic and others still need to scan for your home network to connect) Using the nfc tags method completely kills wifi. You will have to manually turn it on or use another tag for that if you want to use wifi. That said, I could not detect any improvement in battery life since using the nfc tags. As said previously, android does a pretty good job on its own.

Wi-fi Matic does not scan for Wi-fi's, so does not require Wi-fi scanning to be enabled. Nor does it turn on Wi-fi periodically to see if your Wi-fi is in range - wish it did occasionally as a fail-safe. It uses the proximity to pre-determined cell sites to know when to turn Wi-fi on and off.

 

[Tswfootball]

Does wifi turn off automatically when you leave your home with an iOS device?

Also why are you turning off location services? You're basically turning off the thing that could be a solution to ure problem.
Location services is a standard feature in modern phones. Don't turn it off because of "battery life" and then complain.

If you want you can turn of location history. That's a Google feature and not really necessary.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Crashdamage]

Does wifi turn off automatically when you leave your home with an iOS device?

It apparently does not. It works like Android, doing occasional quick scans for known networks to connect to and auto-connects when it finds one.

All location-based WiFi toggles do is disable the WiFi scans to save just a bit of power. Location toggles depend on location by cell tower triangulation to determine that you're at a saved location where there should be a known, saved network. Triangulation is used instead of GPS because GPS is too power hungry and the whole idea of a location toggle is to save a bit of battery. anyway, when you're in such a saved location, it turns WiFi back on and it auto-connects as usual.

Like bbtkd said, after using several toggle apps I found that in actual use they work properly about 90-95% of the time. I never noticed a significant power savings over just leaving WiFi on and letting Android handle WiFi.

 

[Golfdriver97]

I've looked at Tasker. Forget it....wayyyy beyond me. I'm a layperson. I need it simple...

I made a guide not too long ago on how to set this sort of thing up: http://forums.androidcentral.com/am...r-marshmallow-unlock-when-connected-wifi.html

 

[LeoRex]

I've looked at Tasker. Forget it....wayyyy beyond me. I'm a layperson. I need it simple....kindergarten level simple.

First.... read all the recommendations.

But take a look at Llama. It will do quite a bit of what Tasker can do, all wrapped in an extremely easy to use interface that has a very short learning curve. It doesn't have the advanced tools that Tasker has, but for something simple like this, it's perfect.

But I would say listen to our advice and just leave WiFi on. It really doesn't use much juice when it's not connected... it is really only listening, not transmitting.

 

[Morty2264]

I certainly understand your frustration. Sometimes over-customization could result in things like multiple settings and headaches. I get it. However, as other posters have said, leaving your Wi-Fi on (and letting it lose signal to your home Wi-Fi network when you leave the house) won't/shouldn't do much at all to your battery performance. I just let my home Wi-Fi die out when I leave my house and when I come back, it will re-connect on its own.

 

[LeoRex]

I'd also say... "Don't Panic"

Just because there's a configuration option doesn't mean you have to push it, at least yet. Samsung does throw a massive amount of switches and dials at you, and that can really feel overwhelming at first. But you can just leave it be, pretend it isn't there, for a little bit while you get familiar with the rest. A lot of people barely touch their phones, even change the icons on the homescreen or the wallpaper....

I will say I like your enthusiasm. The best way to learn is to do what you are doing... go open every door and look what's inside. Me? Whenever I get a new toy like this, I go in and poke around every window and option I can to figure out how the thing ticks. Trust me, things will start to gel a little and then one day, you'll sit back and think "Wow, that really wasn't all that complicated"

 

[dpham00]

Here are directions for Tasker if you are interested.
http://tasker.wikidot.com/turnonwifiathome

 

[LegalAmerican]

Android can be as simple or as complicated as the user makes it out to be. Customize all you want, but once it gets past your "wants", simply stop worrying about it. Get comfortable with where you're at, and then later you can continue if you want to. Android is perfectly usable out of the box for someone unaccustomed to personalizing their device. Nothing HAS to be done, but the beauty is that things CAN be done when you wish to do so.