Help Wonky WiFi sleep issues

[NeilB514]

HTC One M8 (updated to latest Verizon approved version of Lollipop)

For the past few months, I've been having intermittent wifi connectivity issues. This occurs most often with my home wifi network (comcast) but does occasionally happen at work.

My wifi will be connected just fine, and when the phone is on I can navigate to websites, check email, read twitter, etc.

When the phone is asleep, however, it seems to lead to a significant lag in pulling any data via wifi. I notice this mostly through push notifications via twitter and gmail: I'll have emails arrive 15-20 minutes late, or i'll pick up the phone, wake the screen, and get a bunch of tweets and emails all at once.

I have tried resetting the router, forgetting the network connection and reloading it, etc, with no success. The HTC folks said try having the wifi connection on but the data connection turned off. I will have to see how that goes.

Has anyone else seen something like this? Other forum posts have referred to wifi sleep issues, but w/o an unambiguous solution.

 

[gg_man]

Hi NeilB514,

It seems that your M8 is disconnected to Wifi when it is asleep.
Have you check the followings:
1. Settings - Power - Sleep mode <--uncheck this
If it is checked, it allows turning off data connection during long periods of inactivity. I am not sure if it will also turn off Wifi connection.
2. Settings - Wifi - Three dots at the top right corner - Advanced - Keep Wi-fi on during sleep
Select Always.

By the way, could you also provide the software number (Settings - About - Software information - Software number) for other people to check if they have the issue or not?

 

[NeilB514]

Thanks gg_man fo responding

I think the power sleep is only for 3g/4g connections, but I'll keep it on and see what happens. The wifi sleep has always been on.

Here's the software info:
Android 5.0.1, software number 4.17.605.9

The strange thing about my problem is that it is only a serious issue while on my home wifi network. On work wifi, it doesn't seem to be a problem. I just don't know what kind of setting on the router itself would cause that. I've tried doing a simple reset and that doesn't seem to be a permanent fix.

I know people on Comcast fora have complained about ipv6 issues preventing their android devices from connecting. I can connect just fine, and when I'm actually using the phone the speeds seem reasonable. It is only when I put the phone down that this issue occurs.

 

[lunatic59]

I think @gg_man is on the right track here. The difference might be either the actual signal strength of the access points (the wireless component of what most people call their "router") or it could be that one is dual band and the other isn't.

Something else to look at is other WiFi networks in your area. Workplace wifi is usually pretty much isolated from signal overlap, but at home, especially if you have lots of neighbors, can have a great deal of interference. Install an app like WiFi Analyzer or WiFi Overview and check out if there are other WiFi networks broadcasting at a relatively strong signal on the same channel in your area. The solution there would be to assign your WiFi signal to use a clear channel .

 

[NeilB514]

Thanks @lunatic59 I can certainly look into it, but I am not sure if it is the wifi signal per se that is the issue (or at least the sole issue). As I said, when I am using the phone, or other devices on the wifi (laptop, iPad, my wife using her iPhone), there are no performance issues that would indicated signal strength or network bandwidth issues.

However, when the phone goes to sleep, for whatever reason there is a misconfiguration in data being sent from the modem/router to the phone that is causing it not to finish a sync cycle and push new emails, tweets, etc.

That problem would make sense if those options @gg_man identified were enabled, but they are not.

 

[lunatic59]

Even with the power options disabled, the wifi radio in your phone only uses a minimal power setting to periodically check network availability. It's not necessarily maintaining an active connection (which would suck your battery dry in a few hours).

To check this you can watch a 5 minute youtube video at home and one at work and then check battery usage for both. If the home connection required more power, that means the WiFi radio required a stronger signal to maintain the connection and therefore could easily have connectivity issues when in standby mode.

 

[NeilB514]

thanks @lunatic59 I can give that test a try. I suppose I should also make an attempt at talking to Comcast to see if they have anything other than the standard suggestions.

 

[lunatic59]

thanks @lunatic59 I can give that test a try. I suppose I should also make an attempt at talking to Comcast to see if they have anything other than the standard suggestions.

Switching the WiFi channel is easy as long as you have access to the settings. I don't know if Comcast sets that up for you or you do it yourself.

Good luck with talking to Comcast.

 

[gg_man]

Hi @NeilB514
I also have one more suggestion for your reference.
Are you in power saving mode or using 3rd party power saving apps?
If you are in power saving mode, you may try to disable it and see if the issue persisted or not.
If you use 3rd party apps, you may try safe mode to see if the issue persisted or not.
Hope the suggestion helps.

 

[NeilB514]

Thanks @gg_man

If you mean the extreme power saving mode on the HTC handset, no, that's disabled as well. I don't think I've ever used it. I'm also not using any 3rd party power saving apps. The only other power-related thing that is on is the wifi optimization one, which allegedly reduces battery usage while on wifi. That is still enabled; I can try disabling it to see what happens.

@lunatic59 - I did not have time to look at the wifi channels on the modem/router. I did do a quick speed test comparison - I get quicker upload/download on the wonky home wifi than work. I also did a test streaming spotify for 15 minutes on each. The power drain on the home wifi was very slight - maybe 1-2% more.

 

[lunatic59]

The speed is understandable. Workplace wifi (both for guests and regular users) tends to be shared and may be throttled to accommodate bandwidth requirements for critical data operations. At home you have no such restrictions and very few users. Throughput speeds really wouldn't effect the battery, though.

As for the spotify test, if you mean it was 2% more than at work, then that could be significant. If you mean it was overall a 2% drain to watch a 15 video, then that's pretty reasonable.

I'd still look at the Wifi channels at home. More than likely you'll see a whole bunch of overlapping networks using Channels 1, 6 or 12. If the signal strength on any of the Neighboring networks using the same channel as yours is close, then that could easily cause the connection to drop in a low(er) power mode and cause a higher battery drain to maintain an active connection while your using it.

 

[NeilB514]

Yeah, I meant that it was probably 2% overall at home and maybe 1% at work.

Your explanation seems to make sense. If it's dropping low while it's asleep, that would probably explain why it's not syncing properly. This is especially the case after it's been connected to the network for a while. For ex, when I first connected after getting home from work, the first couple of emails seem to come in fine. After an hour or so, it ran into issues. It would also explain why it seems to push things fine first thing in the morning (ie when people aren't on their wifi).

 

[NeilB514]

So based on @gg_man' s advice, I turned of the wifi optimization option and it seemed to make my phone's interaction with the wifi work a lot better. It was pulling email within a reasonable time frame after arriving in my inbox (i was using my laptop simultaneously). It continued when my wife was using her iPad and when I was on the Xbox One. I will still look into the channels @lunatic59 (the 5ghz wifi one im using is on channel 36, but I didn't get a chance to check the other networks in my building to see what other people are using)

I know that function is meant to save battery life, but i didn't notice a significant difference. In the roughly 3.5 hours I was paying attention to the phone, it went from 50% to 46% which seems about right for casual texting.

In any event, Im keeping the optimization option off for the time being to see how much battery life is affected during a normal day. I'll report back after the weekend to see if the wifi and the phone are still cooperating with that option turned off.

 

[NeilB514]

So the optimization translates to a battery loss of about 3% or so per hour with just fetching emails more or less in standby mode. I've turned it back on just for work and will turn it off at home.

 

[NeilB514]

One last update @gg_man. Using wifi analyzer, I can see 2-3 other networks on the same channel as my 5ghz wifi connection (one of them is the xfinity wifi that you can access as hotspot anywhere). That doesn't seem like quite that many to me. Wifi optimization switched off still seems to be making things work smoothly. i'm just imagining the comcast signal is weak as hell and my htc doesnt like it at all. luckily even with the optimization off the htc still gets amazing battery life.