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Help WiFi constantly downloading?

A

andy9l

Well-Known Member
Hey all,

Been getting used to my S3 and Android recently. Coming from 4 years of iPhones it was a big change. So far, loving it.

However, this evening I have noticed my WiFi has been downloading for hours and hours. Even after a few restarts and clearing memory of running processes. It's just always displaying the orange down arrow. No green, unless I do something which uses Internet. Strangely, if I turn WiFi off then my data connection is not doing the same. It's working as normal.

Any ideas as to what this constant stream of data is? We've got 60mb Internet so I'm struggling to believe it is some software update after this length of time...!

Thanks for any hints.
 
Hi Mine kept up dating its self for a couple of days .. just make sure its on ur wifi and not phones data as it will eat it up i have only had mine 3 weeks and had an text saying i was near limit.. which was due to the up dates
 
I've just downloaded a network monitoring app which is telling me that nothing is being downloaded.

My WiFi icon is stuck on orange... Basically.
 
I'm not sure either... I've been having the same issue with my phone.

Wifi down arrow seems to always be orange. I downloaded "AppTraffic" and rebooted the phone... A few apps instantly popped up on the list like Youtube, Play Store, and Maps, but with minimal data usage. However, when I opened Apptraffic 10 minutes later, the data values didnt change from when I previously looked at it. I even looked at the system data usage and it was the same as well.

This leads me to believe that maybe the phone isn't always downloading data when that orange indicator is on. I'm going to not use the phone for an hour or so and check again.
 
Yup, that's the same with me. It's just orange, always, even when not downloading.

I'm about to factory reset the phone - it's lasted 4 days...
 
Sorry to double-post but I've found a "fix"/workaround.

Looks to be an Android/ICS driver or firmware bug plaguing several devices. There's cases of this all over the web, specifically at XDA developers.

I came across no threads with solutions - but here's one which you can do in your home which has worked for me:

Switch your router onto a specific mode - ie. "g" or "n" mode. Using the compatibility mode on mine was causing problems. Who knows why.

I've set my router to 5GHz/300mbps - which is "N".
 
I had the same problem a while back

It was Google+

I shut off everything in the settings of Google+ and never seen it happened again
Best of luck
 
The problem is not with any app. It's a compatibility problem with certain routers. S3 doesn't play nicely with all 2.4GHz band routers. Just switch to 5GHz and all will be well.

It's not a Samsung specific issue - looks like an ICS bug judging by the number of identical reports on the net from other devices.

Annoying, but easily fixed. Also, since no data is actually being transferred - I doubt much battery will be being drained anyway.
 
I'll just add that I've got a Galaxy S2 with ICS and am seeing the exact same problem. And it absolutely DOES kill my battery. This only happens on my work wi-fi, not at home. So I turn off wi-fi while I'm at work or my battery wont last the day. Weekends at home, my wi-fi stays on with no trouble.

If this is an ICS bug, is there a patch planned (I'm guessing not likely)? In the mean time I guess I'll talk to our admin guys and see if they can adjust the router.
 
You can also set the phone to disconnect from WiFi when asleep and not plugged in. Settings > WiFi > Advanced. That setting seems to stop it happening for me - and the mobile data used isn't very much at all from what I've seen.
 
I have had this SG3 since Sept 1st and started seeing this a few days ago and tried to think of what I might have changed. I remembered about that time I went into the advanced wifi settigns and changed the "Keep Wifi on during sleep" to Never.

Last night I changed it to "Always" and did not see a change so I rebooted the phone and then the constant orange download arrow was no longer there.

Someone mentioned could be a router problem but my wife has the exact same phone as me and we obviously use the same router and she never had this issue.

Wasn't a huge issue but what I described above fixed it for me.
 
I've played with that option too, sometimes it works for a while but it always goes back to always orange. Strange that you say your wife's isn't experiencing the same...somewhat concerning actually.

Edit: I'm still not convinced it's draining battery - I'm on 1 day 18 hours right now at 7% battery left. ~3 hours screen time.
 
I just noticed this issue this morning and this is AFTER I did the latest update to Build ALI4 last night. I'm using an AT&T U-Verse Router. I imagine I can go into it and change a setting if necessary. Anyone have an idea which one? I don't want to affect all the other devices using it.
 
Changing to 5GHz corrects the problem for me. I'm in the UK using a Netgear router, with an i9300 (SIM-free).
 
andy9l said:
I've played with that option too, sometimes it works for a while but it always goes back to always orange. Strange that you say your wife's isn't experiencing the same...somewhat concerning actually.

Edit: I'm still not convinced it's draining battery - I'm on 1 day 18 hours right now at 7% battery left. ~3 hours screen time.
Click to expand...


I have nothing to indicate this issue darined my battery. My battery life seems pretty darn good actually..

I will keep an eye on it to see if this issue returns. If it does I will check what the router is set at even though again my wife is not having this issue with exact same phone/router as me.. /shrug
 
To add weirdness to this situation, it never happens in the morning. I'm now assuming it's linked with other devices connected to the same network...

Edit: Yes, it is directly linked to my iMac being connected to the same WiFi. I have Kies installed - might be the culprit. Going to do a complete uninstall of Kies and all the junk it comes with.

Edit 2: Happens with my MacBook Pro too, which has never had Kies. I think this is another compatibility issue with Macs.

Edit 3: False alarm...seems random again now. It's not permanently orange though, and I've changed nothing...
 
Well, I did a total factory reset of my phone and it didn't do squat. Still got the permanent orange arrow. Think I will call my carrier back again in case they found something out. Dont think it's affecting battery life but it certainly is annoying. :mad:
 
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