Android 4.0 WiFi stuck on

[parrotted]

This seemed to be different to the other Android 4.0 WiFi issues people have been reporting so I decided to start my own discussion, to see whether anyone else has this problem.  My phone will connect to WiFi hotspots without a problem, and I can generally turn on and turn off the WiFi as expected.  However, I have noticed that whenever I physically leave a location which is covered by the WiFi hotspot I am connected to, the phone's WiFi appears to remain "locked" to the hotspot. Obviously in reality this isn't happening, as there is no longer any connection, but it still shows up with a full signal.  What is most annoying though is that I cannot turn off the WiFi. Using any of the soft options to turn off the wifi does nothing to the wifi connection, and it will not pick up any new wifi hotspots, nor will it allow me to do a scan or anything in this mode.  What's more, because the phone thinks it is connected via wifi it does not have any data traffic, so I have no internet connection.

This cannot be rectified by trying any other fixes such as putting the phone into airplane mode (even in airplane mode it displays the wifi as connected at full strength).  The only way to restore functionality to my phone is to reset it (which is an annoying two step process thanks to Sony's decision to not enable a soft reset option unlike other versions of Android 4.0).  At first, the fault seemed more intermittant (i.e. it did not happen every time I left the WiFi spot) but now it is happening every time, and is incredibly annoying.  Does anyone have any idea what's going wrong here?  It is not a router problem so please do not suggest that I change channels etc.

On the whole I have been extremely disappointed by the Android 4.0 upgrade experience for this phone. For a dual core 1 GHz processor it runs like a slug.  There's so much slow down on browsing and even looking at the main screen.  I stopped using the xperia wallpaper but even with a static picture the main menu screens still seem very slow.  The comparison with gingerbread is staggering.  With gingerbread, this phone wasn't bad, but the dated software needed upgrading. With ICS, at times the phone seems unusable. However, I can cope with slow down (with a few grumbles), but this wifi issue is really, really annoying me and ruining my Xperia go experience.

[xfahim]

We all have various problems in Xperia Go. Mine is Wifi and GPS.

I can't say it'll be fixed. Yet we hope, a new update is coming in any time for Xperia Go ICS. So, just wait for the update, we'll see what we have fixed then.

[Johan]

I'm sorry to hear. I haven't noticed the problem scenario you're experiencing before.

By resetting do you mean using SUS or just doing the reset option in the phone?

If you haven't tried to reinstall the phone software using SUS I suggest that you give it a try and check if this problem still remains.

http://www.sonymobile.com/gb/tools/update-service/

[parrotted]

Hi Johan,

Thanks for trying. I used the repair phone function in the Sony PC companion software (which to my eyes looks exactly the same as the SUS) and it cured the WiFi problem...

...for two days.  The problem has now returned, and it doesn't seem to be related to any Google Play installations as I made no changes to the installed apps between when this problem was not an issue and when it was.  But equally, given that the problem was rectified by the repair, it would seem that it is not a hardware issue, but some software fault.  Repairing my phone every time this happens is not an option, given the frequency of the occurence.

BTW, what I mean by reset is that it would be good to have a soft restart option on the phone (given that I have to do this every time).  I don't know if there's a secret button combination but I don't think it would be hard to add it to the power off options, and I know a few manufacturers who have done this.

[Johan]

In that case it needs to be examined and fixed at an repair center. Contact your local support for more information.

http://www.sonymobile.com/global-en/support/contact-us/contact-info/

[parrotted · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Sorry for the late reply - I thought I would share my latest results regarding this problem, as the Sony online support people in Hong Kong seemed to know about this bug and offered a temporary solution.

Apparently, this is a software issue that is known by Sony, and they are working on a fix.  The problem (according to them) is that the phone's Wifi locks up when it "remembers" too many WiFi networks.  They will release a software update, but in the meantime you can "fix" the issue by only remembering ~1-3 wireless networks (i.e. the ones you use the most).

The steps are as follows:

- "forget" all the networks in your WiFi list apart from the few that you really want to keep.

- perform a "settings reset".

Then it seems to work fine.  Hopefully they'll release a fix soon (maybe with 4.1?) I thought I'd share this here as this appears to actually be the answer to my problem, just in case anyone else was having a similar problem.

[abeldup]

Thanks for this helpful tip.

I am experiencing the same problem with my Xperia U.

[egoeus]

Hi parrotted,

Thanks for share this information. There is a lot of people worried about the same problem you mentioned. Have you news about a software update from Sony that fix it? Have you experienced the same problem again after you reset the phone?

[milom]

You are a lovely person!

I searched the Xperia U forums for this problem multiple times, without finding any solution. Moved on to general ICS forums... still nada. Today I finally added the "stuck" search word and found this gem. More exposure should be given to this thread and your solution.