EPIC WIFI: "unable to scan for networks"

[eriksseven]

So I've been playing with my new epic all day. Got home and connected to WIFI. It showed like, 5 different WIFI networks around me. I signed into my home network, did a few other things, connected the Epic to my computer for the first time via USB, transferred some music and some images onto the phone...

A short time later I notice the WIFI was disconnected. I attempted to reconnect and wa-la, it says: "scanning" and then 5 seconds later, "unable to scan for networks".

WTF?

I've searched around this site and on the net for the past hour and all I've seen are people commenting on (other Galaxy S phones for example) that the whole phone needs to be RESET or whatever. At least this seems to be a generic answer when other people have mentioned getting this "unable to scan" message...

Any clues, or anyone else experiencing this issue?

PS, I've restarted the phone a couple times and played around with the various wireless settings (not much to mess with) and fiddled with some of the security stuff, BUT since none of this was changed and it was working less then two hours ago, I doubt I'm going to "fiddle" my way into it being able to scan for networks again...

 

[eriksseven]

Bahh, just did a factory reset and now I can connect to WIFI like I could a couple hours ago.

I'm glad I "fixed" the problem, but I didn't really fix anything... hmmm. Don't want to have to reset every time a minor problem comes up. It would be nice to know WHY the WIFI wouldn't scan... LOL.

 

[sstea]

I have a similar problem. This seems to be a serious bug. I have a linksys router with WPA Personal security, SSID hidden. The phone ends up showing my network two or three times. Then the phone would not automatically reacquire Wifi when I came back within range of the network. At this point I couldn't get it to scan properly and bring up any network names. Wifi went completely dead. I called up Sprint and got my lock code and did a hard reset to fix. The Wifi is still flakey. This could be a real problem because doing a hard reset is not an acceptable fix...They need to fix this. You would think they would have seen this problem before.

 

[ZoogieZork]

Ditto -- WPA2 Personal, hidden SSID, wifi went splat.

I was about to try a factory reset a few hours later when it magically fixed itself after a reboot. We'll see if it happens again tomorrow.

Quite a downer after a great day of playing with the device...

 

[arashed31]

This is similar to what happened to my Moment. One day it just wouldn't connect to wifi and gave me the same error. I flashed it a hundred times and couldn't fix it. I took it to the Sprint store and they flashed it and it fixed the problem for a bit. The next day the problem came back. I ended up getting a new phone.

 

[caliskimmer]

Meh, I had this problem on my iPhone. Nothing like a factory reset to fix it!

 

[eriksseven]

Mine was also a WPA2 personal WIFI network with a password. Obviously not sure if there's any relation--but worth mentioning.

Crashing the whole WIFI system though? Hmmm...

 

[eriksseven]

So, after using WIFI and staying connected for over an hour with 1 bar my phone disconnected from WIFI (while not paying attention). So yeah, on attempting to reconnect to my WPA2 protected network, my EPIC decided that it was now officially UNABLE TO SCAN FOR NETWORKS.

So yes, the problem has now returned and I'm *guessing* that the only way to remedy is to RESET? WTF... so stupid.

 

[ChuckieBaby]

This seems to be a serious problem

I see this post all over the internet, as I'm looking for any solution other than a "hard reset". I need my Wi-Fi...if Samsung can't make it work, I'll return my phone and buy something else. This is pathetic.

 

[Ghengis]

I have this problem as well. I haven't tried the fix I found yet, but it sounds promising:

Unable to Scan for Networks - Android Forums

Basically, it sounds like a wifi settings file is getting corrupted, and simply removing it (or renaming it) and letting the phone auto-generate a new one fixes it. Of course, the *real* fix would be for Samsung to issue a patch that stops it getting corrupted in the first place, but for now this will have to do.

 

[trustnoone4555]

Ghengis thank you verymuch for your solution for wifi fix!!!!! You are a light in the end of the tonnel

 

[preston411]

This worked like a charm!

I have this problem as well. I haven't tried the fix I found yet, but it sounds promising:

Unable to Scan for Networks - Android Forums

Basically, it sounds like a wifi settings file is getting corrupted, and simply removing it (or renaming it) and letting the phone auto-generate a new one fixes it. Of course, the *real* fix would be for Samsung to issue a patch that stops it getting corrupted in the first place, but for now this will have to do.