Can't connect Nexus 7 2012 to wi-fi (solved)

[lemmelone]

I know this has been asked a million times, but I've been searching the internet for a week and none of the suggestions work. I'm hoping someone knowledgeable will respond with a recommendation I haven't already tried multiple times.

I have the Linksys E7350 router and my Nexus 7 will only connect to my wifi if I disable security on the 2.4ghz channel entirely, which isn't a permanent option. When I try to connect with security on, it just goes to authentication then saved. It never goes to the obtaining IP address step.

My LG Stylo 4, Lenovo laptop, Xbox, and HP printer all connect fine. My Nexus can connect anywhere I've been so far except here.

What I've tried through the router

• Mac address filtering was never on
• Restarting the modem and router
• Factory resetting
• Firmware is already up to date
• DHCP was on and already had 50 slots reserved but I tried increasing it anyway
• Also tried changing the IP address numbers and range entirely
• Assigning my Nexus an IP address manually using its Mac address
• Switching to google's DNS
• Changing the network passwords
• Changing it from WPA2 personal to WPA2/WPA3 personal (those are the only options)
• Changing the 2.4ghz channel from auto to going through each one individually. Stopped when I got to number 5 (2.432) because it was tedious.
• Using WPS. Doesn't matter if I do it by adding the pin my Nexus gives me to the router or pushing the WPS button. Both result in my PC saying that the connection succeeded, but my Nexus says "WPS succeeded. Connecting to network" and spins indefinitely without ever connecting. I have to manually cancel it.

What I've tried on the Nexus

• Factory reset
• Turning wifi off and on
• Forgetting the network
• Wiping cache partition through recovery mode
• Manually adding the network and password (yes, the password, ip, gateway/dns info etc is correct)
• Turning off NFC/bluetooth
• Making sure date and time is correct and set to automatic

What I haven't tried

• Some fixed their problem by changing their "router rate" to 48mbps. I don't see anything like that anywhere.
• Others changed their network mode, but mine only has one option, which is mixed b/g/n/ax.

Is the Nexus 7 incompatible with this router's security? I used to have a Linksys E2500 but it broke. I don't remember if I was ever able to connect to the new one with it.

I tried to update google connectivity services after the last factory reset in case it fixed the issue, but I had to disable security to connect to the play store to do that and the update just sat on pending.

I wasn't comfortable with how long I was sitting with no security waiting for it to show progress so I stopped. My wifi is lightning fast on everything else. The update would have happened in a second. Could the wifi antenna be messed up?

I don't think my Nexus was ever rooted, but in case it was at some point in the last decade and I don't recall, would that cause this? Are there any options under the developer mode settings to check?

Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Laura Knotek]

Have you tried turning off Bluetooth? Bluetooth frequently interferes with 2.4 GHz WiFi.

That's a device that is 11 years old, so there is a good chance that it's too old for current routers. WEP is useless, as your router doesn't even support it. However, WEP is an outdated security protocol that is not much better than no security at all.

As far as picking the best 2.4 GHz channel on your router, this article might be helpful.

 

[lemmelone]

Thanks for the article! Bluetooth is off on all devices including the Nexus since I don't use it. The fact that it connects to my router with security disabled made me think the router itself isn't too new for it, just its security setup.

When I searched general reasons why wifi would go from authentication to saved instead of to obtaining IP, the most common answer I saw was a weak signal.

My wifi is strong on all devices but the Nexus shows networks as poor or fair, so I suspect it has wifi problems beyond my router. I just don't know if it's software or hardware. That's why I wanted to update the connectivity to rule it out. I've seen people with a poor signal realize their pins are busted or bent inside, but mine seem fine.

This is annoying because I don't even need to use it for stuff that requires the internet. I just need to update and install some things once then it can stay how it is.

 

[J Dubbs]

Like Laura said, WEP is no longer usable, and that's probably the only security protocol that tablet can use, that would explain why it only connects with the router security off. You may need to install the things you need with security turned off, then turn it back on when you're done.

Although I'm wondering what you could install that would actually still work on that tablet? If it's running anything as old or older than Android KitKat, which it most likely is, then most likely nothing's going to work on it. We have a tablet running KitKat (Android 4) and nothing works on it... Google or otherwise

 

[Laura Knotek]

What about using the tablet with no security as a guest on your network? That way you don't need to disable security on your router for your main network. It should be easy to enable the guest network on your router. You could use the tablet whenever you want but on the router's guest network and use everything else on your secure main network.

 

[lemmelone]

Thanks for the responses! The main problem is that my Nexus shows wifi signals as weak/poor that are actually strong and fast to every other device, so it takes way too long to download/update anything. I don't mind disabling security for a few minutes, but not for hours or indefinitely.

I tried the guest thing originally but abandoned it when stuff still wouldn't download/update. That was before I realized my Nexus was showing connections as weak, so I thought the guest setup itself was the problem.

Now I know it's the Nexus wifi reception, so I'm trying to figure out why it's so bad. If I can fix that, it'll fix the rest.

Answering questions, I have a lot of pixel art projects to finish so I've been trying to catch up by working on them away from home too. I can do simple pixel work on any device then transfer it to my workstation later.

I decided to use my Nexus since I like it for artwork and the most basic pixel art apps will run fine on it. I just need to get one on there.

When I saw I couldn't access the play store or update the Nexus properly because of this wifi problem, I tried to sideload an app, but the apk file wasn't visible in the downloads folder for me to select and install it.

I googled that issue and the number one solution was installing a file explorer to navigate to the file directly. But I can't download anything because the wifi is screwed up lol That's what finally brought me here.

I get that it can't connect to my router's security. I suspected as much but I needed to make sure by asking in case I was missing something. Now I just want it to connect to anything with proper reception so I can do what I need to do. If I can't fix the wifi, then I need another way to sideload the apps.

 

[fuzzylumpkin]

It sounds like your WiFi module or antenna may be failing... People love when I say this, but the Nexus 7 is too old to be worth troubleshooting. By the time you fix one issue, another will surface. And the thing will never be secure. I'm surprised the battery even holds a charge.

 

[lemmelone]

I hesitate to mark this solved but I'm going to unless something changes. I kept digging for other reasons the wifi signal could be poor on my Nexus besides the obvious one where people don't realize their antennae aren't making full contact and have to bend them up or snap the case more tightly.

I came across a thread on some site where people had luck either clearing the data from or disabling some of the built-in google apps (or in one case, a security app they'd downloaded).

I don't have anything else installed and have no idea why clearing anything from the default apps would help since I'd already done a factory reset and cleared the cache through recovery, done restarts, etc. But it couldn't hurt to try it more individually.

This was before bed so I may forget something, but I went to settings>apps>running>show cached processes. I stopped the one that just said google and the google connectivity services.

Then I went back to apps>all and cleared the data and cache from google and google connectivity services there. I then force stopped both. Then I restarted the Nexus. When it came back on, its wifi signals were all showing strong again.

I have a free hotspot from my cable company right near my house that I can access inside, so I was using that to compare to what was going on with my router. Seeing it also show as weak despite all of my devices seeing it as strong too is what made it click that it wasn't just my router. It was the reception.

Anyway, after it all showed strong following restart, I connected to that hotspot again, went back to the play store, and tried downloading the pixel app. It downloaded and installed immediately. I then clicked update on the google and google connectivity services and they updated immediately.

I also noticed one other difference. All this time I've been troubleshooting, in advanced settings under wifi, down where it lists the mac address and ip address of the device, it said "unavailable" under ip.

That was one of the reasons I originally tried manually assigning it one with a static connection as one of my first attempts to connect to my new router. I thought it was having trouble grabbing one on its own or something.

After doing this clear/delete/disable for just those two processes and restarting, there's an ip address under that section now.

Could this all be a coincidence? Sure. But considering I've been at this for a week and the Nexus responded to this immediately, I assume it did something. Either way, my wifi is back to normal!

It still can't connect to my router with security on since it's incompatible, but the signal strength is normal again so I can use it as a guest without security just fine now.

I forgot to respond to an earlier comment mentioning kit kat 4. My Nexus is on 5.1.1 and runs like a charm. I haven't had any issues with google stuff not working on it, so it may be the android version that's an issue?

To the later comment, I replaced the original battery with a new one about a month ago when it finally lost half its capacity. It had a good run though lol

Thanks everyone! I tried to be really detailed throughout this thread in case it will help someone else. It's frustrating when you find someone who says something helped and they don't explain it at all.