WiFi - Exclamation Mark!

[shaan123]

Hey guys this phone is amazing and is working fine, however ever since I got it my WiFi has had an exclamation mark next to it all the time, whether I'm hooked onto my home network, or my work network. The wireless works perfectly fine, extremely fast etc. However it's just a little annoyance as the exclamation mark is always there, even when mobile data is disabled?

Any help?

[Oti]

I also have the "!"icon on my wifi but the difference is that my wifi is reconnectig and disconnecting continuously. How can I resolve this please.

[R93]

Hi. 

My Wifi still has the exclamation mark. I tried adding in the IP address and all. My connectio0n is working fine on my laptop. Sometimes it works on my phone sometimes not. I really dont know what else to do. It seems to only be with my internet connection my house. its fine at my inlaws... Please help... 

[Taswavo]

This is what worked for me (my wife had wifi problems and her work IT department suggested the following)...

Turn on airplane mode - and leave for 10 minutes.

Turn off the phone (completely off).

Leave for 5 minutes.

Turn it on.

Turn off airplane mode.

I have an Xperia M4, she has a Z3.

Hope it works for you all.

Good luck.

[midooo0]

hi , 

i still have the same problem with wifi , 

i've done all what you have said ...... static ip , safemode and factory reset but the problem still presist ...and now i've no connection to download or update my apps again ......  

and every phone else with a lower android software can access the wifi with ease only after my update to 5.1.1 lollipop that problem showed and didn't go since ...... 

and now i don't know how will i download any new versions without connecting to wifi either 

help me out , isn't it supposed to be a patch to fix this issue untill the new android released ??? 

thank you for your time but this is the worst update ever tbh 

[Caiobrz]

Awesome support, nobody managed to say what the exclamation mark means! Ok, here it goes: meas the connection is considered poor and is being avoided. Lolipop introduced the option to avoid poor WiFi connections and Sony basically removed the option from the menu and FORCES IT ON so when you move around your house and the signal weakens, which happens all the time because you probably move in and out of home like a normal person, the phone "tags" your home connection as unstable/poor and disconnects... Worst android option ever, forced ON on Sony deviced, gz Sony... Short from rooting the device to change said setting there is no solution other to manually connect every time it happens

[Rickard]

@Caiobrz

I'm sorry to hear that. I will try my best to explain what it means.

In Lollipop, Android will test if there's internet connectivity on the WiFi connection by trying to reach one of two Google servers (there's one for 5.0 and one for 5.1):

http://connectivitycheck.android.com/generate_204

http://clients3.google.com/generate_204

If Android is unable to reach the server it will display the exclamation mark so it's not really about a poor connection. The exclamation mark tells you that a Google server can't be reached on the connection. In most cases, this means that there's no internet access (for example the phone didn't get an IP, a local network without internet access or a network where you need to log on like a Hotel) but it could also be a network with internet access but where access to Google servers are blocked.

Normally, Android will fall back to mobile data when you have the exclamation mark but our products will not do this. If the WiFi connection doesn't work in our products, you need to manually turn off WiFi to switch to mobile data.

The option "Avoid poor connections" was removed by Google in Lollipop (see this link). But if your WiFi connection doesn't work i don't think it's related to this option. Have you tried the suggestions in this thread?

[Caiobrz]

Please don't blame my connection, it is such a poor excuse. 

The option was NOT REMOVED in Lolipop, and the fact that the option was removed from the menu is well known as a BUG, proof:https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=81843

Oh wait ... that is the link you used too, except I READ THE FREAKING THING WHOLE. Pay attention:

Type-Defect

Priority-Small

ReportedBy-User

And that you can "fix" that by rooting and using adb:

"I can confirm that rooting the tablet and using ADB to run this command appears to have fixed the new 'feature' that everyone is complaining about;

adb shell su -c "settings put global captive_portal_detection_enabled 0" 

At least THEY ADMIT IT it is there.

My z3 will go into "avoiding poor connection" and get the exclamation mark sometimes with FULL BARS on the WiFi, sitting on TOP of the router, and I have to manually reconnect. I can forget the network, which fixes the issue for a couple of days until it decided my connection is poor just because my house is big and there are, indeed, areas where the connection is poor (but usable, certainly cheaper than switching to 4G)

I have two Z3 and two Z3 tablet compact. The two Z3 keep doing this, while the two Z3 tablet compact never disconnect even when on poor connection. Why? The Z3 tablet compact had the avoid poor connection OFF at the time it upgraded to Lolipop. For some reason it was on on the Z3.

Google kindly mailed me with their version of the fix: fastboot to KitKat, disable the option, let PC companion reinstall Lolipop ... I think I spent about an hour laughing. So I quit trusting Google and turned to Sony.

Appears Sony is even less prepared, since you won't even admit the bug exists, that is my luck to you

[sharmapratiik]

Just go to the WiFi settings, long press the network, select forget network. Enter the password and done. This method works for me, and I think it is due to the ip conflict.

[Rickard]

@Caiobrz

If you have enabled the setting in Android 4.4 and then update the phone to Android 5 it's possible that you still have it enabled. But you should be able to disable it using ADB without root or downgrading the phone.

Are you familiar with ADB? You can see if the setting is enabled or disabled with this command:

adb shell settings get global wifi_watchdog_poor_network_test_enabled

0 means disabled and 1 means enabled

If it's enabled and you want to disable it, run:

adb shell settings put global wifi_watchdog_poor_network_test_enabled 0

By posting the link to https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=81843 i was only trying to point out that the option is not removed by Sony as you wrote that in your previous post. But i did of course read it as well and from what i can see, there's no comment from Google there so i really can't say if they removed the option by intention or not.

[canonmaster]

If you do that you are stopping your phone using the DHCP in your router, or anybody elses router to give you the information you have entered manually. If you try to use your phone on another network you could just end up with an IP address clash or it fail all together if their network address number is different to yours.

Many home routers use a 192.168.0.x network, mine is 192.168.1.x but I used to use 10.0.0.x as that was the default on 3Com routers. 

This is a BAD piece of advice