FIX for when apps won't connect but you can get to sites using Internet browser (Wi-Fi device)

[lunytnz]

If your e-mail isn't updating, Play Store won't connect and other apps won't work/update, but you ARE connected to Wi-Fi and CAN access websites using the Internet (browser), check the Date on your device (on the Home Screen). If you find the date set to Jan 1, 2012, go into Settings and under the System section, tap Date and Time and set it to the current date. Just as suddenly as it stopped working, the apps will now connect.

I was totally surprised that this fix worked, so wanted to post to help others that run into this problem (since it's such an easy fix and such a confounding problem!).

If you find out why, or how, the date suddenly gets set to 1/1/2012, please let us all know so that we can all maybe prevent this from happening in the future. And... if you find out why the wrong date causes app connections to break, that would just be nice to know because... I don't think I've run into a more bizarre software problem on any computer, EVER.

 

[Bonnie Pankratz]

Guess more like another question, my phone works the way you describe but does not have an incorrect date. Is there something else I am missing?

 

[LongNguyen0410]

it work perfect. Thank you so much

 

[thymaster]

This happened to me too. Thanked god I found your thread. This is definitely the most bizarre bug and fix I have seen.

 

[Maria Turner]

ThankYou. It worked. So easy.

 

[michael thorene]

the common reason for a date reset is full power loss. In a phone when you run the battery to 0 or remove the battery then the device will lose the current time and reset to the device default time sounds like yours is 2012

 

[tagee777]

Thank you so much! after spending 1 1/2 hours with Sprint and 30 mins with Samsung, your fix worked.

 

[Alberto Paradisi]

It worked for me.
Date was set to 1/1/2000.
Thanks very much

 

[Vanessa Smith3]

Guess more like another question, my phone works the way you describe but does not have an incorrect date. Is there something else I am missing?

I'm having the same problem suddenly...the date is correct. Only some of my apps are doing this, some work perfectly fine.

 

[Laurel Gorman]

For me the date was correct, the browser and email worked, but YouTube and social media and pretty much any app I downloaded from the Play Store claimed that there was no internet connection. Every other device I had was running smoothly. When I tried to get to YouTube or Facebook through the browser, it stopped me and made me go through a couple of steps claiming that my connection wasn't private.

As I understand it, the OS doesn't trust the wifi security and therefore blocks everything that it doesn't deem to be sufficiently encrypted on its own. On different, apparently more secure wifi connections, everything ran smoothly.

I don't know how to override this or if that is even possible, but if anyone does know, please enlighten me.

 

[el K_rico]

This happened to my sons Galaxy A51 (SM A515f)
It would connect to the internet through a browser or many of his games, but youtube netflix and google play did not.
I found that some app servers will refuse connections to devices who's date/time is out by several weeks.