Is your wifi constantly downloading?

[MBSMD]

Same here, both at home and at work (with very different WiFi access points). Annoying to say the least.

 

[g1toevo678]

I just updated my galaxy Tab 7 plus to 4.0.4 and it's doing the same thing even with sync turned off. It didn't do that when it was running HC.

Sent from my GT-P6210 using Tapatalk 2

 

[vmmatty]

Did anyone get anywhere with this? I don't recall my phone doing this previously (I could have missed it) but now I'm seeing it almost constantly downloading.

I also just hooked up a Network Extender today but I don't see how those two could be related, and the behavior persists even with it unplugged.

 

[MBSMD]

Still doing it here, too. Doesn't seem to matter what wifi network I'm on. At least it appears not to have any impact on the battery and it doesn't do it on 3G or 4G.

 

[Ricky Babalu]

I use "Cool Tool" to help me identify potential Problems, maybe of use to some here. There is a feature that will list Most resource - intensive process.

 

[montanaxvi]

Mine just started doing this today after having the phone for a week. Sitting at home and the phone says I'm connected to my home network but the signal strength indicator isn't lit up and BOTH of the arrows are staying lit up.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

 

[bc3-au]

I have been having issues with my battery for about a month now with Galaxy S2 my battery life went from about 40 hours down to less than 8 overnight and I wasn't able to work out the reason for it. It was happening on both Wifi and HSDPA.

I upgraded to ICS as some forums mentioned there were some power utilisation fixes there.
ICS made no difference. Eventually I discovered that turning off Wifi and 3G would significantly fix the issues, although was a real pain in the ass.

Having some time this arvo I decided to investigate & plugged my Wifi into the back of my linux box to monitor the traffic.

What I saw was constant IMAPS traffic to the google servers. Killing processes made no difference - the phone task manager & ES task manager didn't show my mail client running, but there was still constant traffic.

I checked all my mail settings & set the account to completely passive, check once an hour and still the traffic continued. Eventually in frustration I deleted my gmail account from the accounts list and then the traffic stopped instantly. I haven't seen anything since.

I'm going to investigate now if it's the mail client I use (K9 mail) or something else in the phone.

 

[kilofoxtrot]

I think its Samsung's TouchWiz version of the Gallery. It syncs everything. I dont think there is a way to stop it unless you unregister all your accounts that have media/pictures in them.

 

[Gav508]

Although I do not have a Slll i read that someone was having alot of wifi trouble elsewhere. Connecting - disconnecting. The writer was able to track it down to trouble with the 2.4 ghz portion of the wifi. He went to his router and turned on the 5 ghz portion, allowing his phone to connect through the 5 ghz. After doing this he had no more connection issues.

I am thinking that maybe those having this constant data exchange might be on the 2.4 ghz side of your router, and the phone is trying to maintain a connection. Maybe those who have dual band routers, could try shutting off the 2.4 side, and see if it connects on the 5 ghz band, maybe this data exchange will stop.

It is only an idea because like I said I do not have the Slll, and am currently only researching it for a possible purchase. Good luck

 

[Forgetful]

Unfortunately I don't have a 5ghz only channel on my router. It's become a non issue for me, it drives me crazy but I try and forget about it. Whatever, hopefully JB fixes it.

I just set my wifi to turn off when the screen is off so I don't have to worry about it sacking battery. When the screen is on I'm typically actively using Internet.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Epsom_D2]

My girlfriend just got a Sprint version and is seeing the same behavior. I have tried all of the above and I have also had the phone replaced, but the problem persists. I have now set the wifi off during sleep to try to alleviate the problem, but this is something on Samsung's end that needs to be corrected.

 

[Battsman]

*BUMP*

Anyone come up with a real fix? (No disrespect intended to anyone, but I consider disabling WiFi when in sleep mode to be a "work around" rather than an actual fix - when I'm working during the day, I want notification of new e-mail arriving.) FYI - I also tried deleting the GMail account from my phone and rebooting - I still see a low level semi-continuous download averagin in the 8-12Kbps range - it spikes above that to as high as 30Kbps and drops as low as 0.7Kbps, but generally is in the just under 9-10Kbps range.

 

[Forgetful]

*BUMP*

Anyone come up with a real fix? (No disrespect intended to anyone, but I consider disabling WiFi when in sleep mode to be a "work around" rather than an actual fix - when I'm working during the day, I want notification of new e-mail arriving.) FYI - I also tried deleting the GMail account from my phone and rebooting - I still see a low level semi-continuous download averagin in the 8-12Kbps range - it spikes above that to as high as 30Kbps and drops as low as 0.7Kbps, but generally is in the just under 9-10Kbps range.

I've seen this phenomenon after I did a factory wipe and hadn't even signed into any accounts or downloaded a app so there should have been anything user caused. From this I can conclude it's nothing we as users are doing.

I've just learned to live with it using the wifi sleep while screen off option. I still get emails since my 3g takes over when wifi is off. Of course I only sync email every 30 mins so the 3g coming on for the small time doesn't hurt anything.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

 

[daha_sgsii]

Guys I think that the problem with constant wifi traffic can be caused by multicast. Check my findings at XDA pst here xda-developers - View Single Post - Constantly receiving WiFi traffic - unstoppable

 

[HectorCG]

I just got a Galaxy S3 and I'm experiencing the same problem: constant slow download while in WiFi. As others have said here, I tried installing an app to trace what app is doing it but all I get is that it is a system process. A factory reset also didn't make it go. My router doesn't have multicast functionalities so that doesn't seem to be the source. Anyone has gotten any other clues?

Thanks!

 

[eden_orient]

I Solved mine

I had the same issue with my 3 days old Samsung galaxy S3, was driving me nuts ... !!!
i went through everything you can imagine .... from the phone to the router .... then here was the Issue .

there is something on your network that is constantly broadcasting its ip address stupidly to every ip on the lan , in my case ( IT WAS THE REMOTE MOUSE SERVER) app installed on one of my computers .

so here is my advice , disconnect everything wired from your network / Router .... and see if it stopped downloading , if not disconnect all other wifi devices on the network. ... if it stopped then you are in luck start reconnecting one by one ...

hope it helps ...

 

[Junior777]

I was having the same issue and I know for a fact it's not our phones its just the routers for wifi it just means it searches for signal so don't worry much about the issue..

 

[Junior777]

Re: I Solved mine

Just turn off router and reboot the rooter and you should be okay

 

[CTgirl509]

Re: I Solved mine

Just turn off router and reboot the rooter and you should be okay

Just clicked on this post because I have been having this same problem since I returned from the holiday break (right after I got upgraded to JB), but only when at work on my work's WIFI. I noticed my WIFI light was always downloading but I also do not receive any Yahoo! email notifications or any other notifications other than texts when I am at the office (while on WIFI)! Once I take the elevator downstairs, out of WIFI range, my phone goes nuts giving me all the notifications from the entire day! SO FRUSTRATING! Took my phone off my charger this morning at 100%, drove to work and already at 94% when I have not really touched the phone! At home I have no issues with my WIFI or notifications. Nuts.

So, I guess my fix is to ask my IT guy at work to re-start our company router and it will fix the problem? In the mean time, I have turned off WIFI to see if that stops the drain on my battery. For the most part, I don't touch my phone during the day while at work.

Thanks for these posts. Very helpful!

 

[fishcotheque]

Ok. I think I may have figured this out (at least for my setup).

I used to get the orange download arrow lighting up every 2-3 seconds both at home and at my office and I couldn't figure out why. I would not get this behavior if connected to the mobile data network. Turns out that the router was at issue. I used the same brand and model of router at home and at the office (Asus RT-N16).

Apparently, the default Asus firmware has something called "STP" (Spanning Tree Protocol) enabled. There is no way to disable this in the Asus firmware. I used WireShark to look at the packets on a router with absolutely nothing connected and this STP packet kept coming in repeatedly. As far as I can tell, there is no reason to have this enabled on a home network. Even on a corporate network, it doesn't seem like it is needed (but I'm not an expert).

I don't know if Linksys/Cisco equipment has this enabled by default but you can take a look in the firmware to see if there's an Enable/Disable button. If you don't see anything, try running WireShark and look for Spanning-tree-(for-bridges) under the destination. If you see that pop up constantly, it means it's enabled. It also helps to do this on a router that's only connected to your computer so you can more easily scan the traffic.

To combat this (and see if it makes any difference in battery life), I've installed DD-WRT on the Asus router. DD-WRT has an option to disable STP and it's disabled by default. So far, so good. The constant blip of the orange arrow is gone and I don't see any STP lines in WireShark.

Hope this helps someone out there!