Help Wif-Fi takes forever to enable itself

[Tormentednihilist]

Hey all on forum...

My samsung S4 on Lollipop 5.0.1 takes almost a minute to enable the wifi function.
If I am to toggle the wifi on from the settings tab or even from the quick access menu toolbar (from swiping down from the top of the screen), the icon will turn green instantly but it will take upto a minute (if not longer) for the menu screen of all available SSIDs to be shown/selectable?

have any of you guys had this before?

The phone is old I know and it is not rooted. I have dropped it a few times and is now starting to overheat on the rare occasion. The GPS orientation is out also, which may or may not be related, but the satnav/google maps navigation works fine.

This starting happening about 3 months ago. It also forgets many recent passwords for SSIDS that i regularly connect to. I have 'forgotten' many old SSIDs to try to erase its cache/database to help store new passwords but this doesn't appear to have helped.

 

[lvt]

As long as it works it's ok.

You can't force an old device to perform like a new one.

 

[svim]

Normally I wouldn't suggest this but taking into consideration you appear to be experiencing multiple problems with different features, maybe a Factory Reset might help. Note that there's no real way to determine if a Reset will actually help until you do it. A Factory Reset is itself a relatively quick and simple process, it's all the prep work beforehand and the restoration of your data afterwards that can involve a lot of work.

And it's really, really important to note beforehand you need to back up all your personal data first (with a side note that it's important to have a backup solution in place no matter what anyway). Make sure to go into Settings >> Accounts and in the Backup section make sure you're backing up to your online Google account. This only covers the settings and things for Google services however. You still need to make sure your email, contacts, and calendar are safe in your online email service. Log into your account using a web browser on a PC to confirm all your stuff is there.
A good automatic backup service for your photo library is a part of the Google Photos app. It will backup and sync your photos to your Google account.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.photos&hl=en
To back up your text messages, if you're using a third-party app it may already have its own backup function. Otherwise this SMS Backup & Restore app is quite good:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mdroidapps.smsbackuprestore&hl=en
As for all the apps you've installed, to restore them after a Reset all of them should be in your Google Play account. Go to the Play Store app, click on the hamburger menu (three vertical lines) in the upper left corner, select 'My apps & games' to confirm all your apps are listed there.
If you're backing things up to a microSD card, check and then double-check the data you're writing to the card is actually there. Better yet, copy all the data to a computer or to an online storage account so you have at least two backups of your phone.

Once you've confirmed all your data is secured, reboot your phone into its Recovery Mode (restart it holding down the Power button, the Volume Up button, and the Home button) and do two things. Wipe the system cache partition and then do the Factory Reset. When it's all done, before you go through the arduous process of restoring all your data check things like your WiFi and GPS are working OK. Hopefully things will be better after all this.

One last thing that's more for posterity. You mentioned the phone has been dropped a couple of times over the years. This isn't directly related to anything of things you listed but power your S4 off, take a fingernail and pry the back cover off. There are nine screws holding the body of your phone in place, using an appropriate screwdriver (Philips #00 head) check that they're all tight.

And since the back is off, reseat your microSD card and SIM card (if you have one) a couple of times just to make sure the little metal contacts are actually in contact with each other.