Join now - be part of our community!

Location based wifi not working as expected

SmartphoneNewb
Visitor

Location based wifi not working as expected

I would expect that location based wifi would either turn wifi off if not in a place with saved networks, or turn wifi on if arriving in a place with saved networks, but it does neither. I have tested this by turning wifi on when at home, then periodically checking status in places with no networks saved or open, and it's still on, and also by turning wifi off when away from home, then checking at home to see if it's turned on, and it isn't. So doesn't seem to be working either way. I have stamina mode active, and some people have said that location based wifi won't work with this.but most say works just fine, and would have expected Sony to say if different power saving options were incompatible. Always have location sensing GPS turned on. Often have mobile data off. Some have said that this is necessary for location based wifi to work, but others not, and to my way of thinking, location based wifi should turn wifi off whenever out of range of saved network, and add long as phone has some way of knowing where it is to wake up wifi, then it shouldn't matter which location modality it uses. Can anyone shed any light on this? Google's not being very helpful. Thanks
13 REPLIES 13
Sam
Legend
Legend

Hi and welcome to the community! Since you're new please be sure that you have checked out our Discussion guidelines.

You do need to have data turned on and as such you must also have Stamina mode turned off for this to work sorry.

sony_logo126x24.gif
What are your thoughts about this forum? Let us know by doing this short survey.

T816B
Visitor

Hi Technical Support,

I have problem understanding how the Location Based Wifi works?

- I am not in Stamina Mode

- I turn ON the Location Based Wifi

- Should I turn ON or turn OFF the Wifi?

- Should I turn on the Location/GPS or remain off?

Thanks.

TomKay
Visitor

Sam, you wrote

"You do need to have data turned on and as such you must also have Stamina mode turned off for this to work sorry."

From my experience (14.4.A.0.108) this is not correct.

I have STAMINA mode turned on and data turned OFF, and the location based WiFi still works.

TomKay
Visitor

Maybe you are suffering from this "Network-provided location is not updated" bug?

T816B
Visitor

Hi Tomkay,

Thanks for your reply.

- My location based Wifi actually works ok when I left my Office for example. But it does not connect to my Wifi when I reached home. I had to turn on my wifi manually in order to be connected to Home.

- When I left home again, the phone will switch off the wifi (which is good). However, it will not switch it back on when I am back to my Home/Office.

Do you think mine is suffering from this "Network-provided location is not updated" bug?

You mentioned that "I have STAMINA mode turned on and data turned OFF, and the location based WiFi still works." **bleep** does your phone have the network-provided location when you turned your data off? I am puzzled.

Thanks.

TomKay
Visitor

My location based Wifi actually works ok when I left my Office for example. But it does not connect to my Wifi when I reached home. I had to turn on my wifi manually in order to be connected to Home.

Do you have "Location" turned "on"? I found that it is safe to turn it on as the battery costly GPS only kicks in when it is needed. I may have had to do a few things (e.g., turning off Google location history), but now GPS only briefly kicks in when I use "Maps" and otherwise it is off. I believe that while I have "Location" turned "on", the only location information the phone gathers on a regular basis is from the cellular network.

Do you think mine is suffering from this "Network-provided location is not updated" bug?

I don't know. The OP of that thread describes a test that you could perform to see whether your location information is updated.

You mentioned that "I have STAMINA mode turned on and data turned OFF, and the location based WiFi still works." **bleep** does your phone have the network-provided location when you turned your data off? I am puzzled.

Yep, it works a treat. As I said, I have "Location" turned on but for the location-based WiFi control, the phone only uses the location provided through the cellular network and hence I'm not paying with battery lifetime (GPS is quite a battery **bleep**).

T816B
Visitor

Thanks Tomkay.

From your reply, it seems like we need to set the Location On in order for location based wife to wotk (I had it off all the while). 

That prompt me another question, will turning on the Location consume more power as compared to Not turning off the wifi?

T816B
Visitor

Tomkay, guess what, my location based wifi works even with I turned OFF the Location. Glad to report it here.

May I also ask you about Double Tap to Wake? Do you think this feature eats up battery life?

TomKay
Visitor


That prompt me another question, will turning on the Location consume more power as compared to Not turning off the wifi?

From what I have seen, having Location turned on does not consume any power at all, unless some app/service requires the use of GPS. The latter will take a toll on the battery life, but unless I'm using "Maps", GPS is never turned on.

I turned off all Google Location Services, etc. so that may help, but in general the location will just be inferred from the network connection and no additional battery consumers such as GPS or WiFi will be needed.