When your phone won’t connect to a wi-fi network, it can be very frustrating. This is especially true if you’ve got no cellular data, and you really need to check your messages or calls for something important.
And the truth is that in many cases, you probably can’t even work out why your phone won’t connect to the wi-fi. It could be down to a number of different factors, from your wi-fi router all the way through to a connectivity issue on your phone itself.
But what exactly can you do won’t your phone connect to the wi-fi sometimes? Well, let’s look at a few reasons why this might happen, and what you might be able to do to solve the problem.
Why wont my phone connect to wi-fi?
There are many different reasons why your phone may be struggling to connect to the wi-fi. However, The main potential causes of this are your phone being in Airplane mode, having the wrong password, and issue with your settings or even parental controls.
In most cases, restarting your phone and router as well as completing any updates should be a fix to the problem. It’s the quickest way to get things sorted without having to call up your internet provider or any other lengthy processes.
But this is just a brief run down of the things that you can do to get your phone connected to your home wi-fi network. Let’s run through all the troubleshooting steps necessary so you can check them off one by one.
Being in Airplane Mode
A common reason why you might not be able to connect to the wi-fi is that your phone is in airplane mode, and this is not allowing you to connect properly.
Make sure that your phone isn’t in airplane mode if you’re trying to connect to wi-fi, as airplane mode will automatically turn your phones wi-fi connectivity off. It will also turn your Bluetooth off, but you can usually manually turn them back on pretty easily.
You can do this usually within the home screen of your phone, or you may need to go to settings depending on what model of phone you’re using.
Reconnect to Network
If you’ve already connected to this network before and you’re suddenly having problems, then you might want to forget the network, then reconnect to it. This can help you phone connect to the wi-fi, even if it was having trouble connecting beforehand.
The good thing about doing this is that it will basically erase all of your previous configuration. This means that even if you’ve been trying to connect for a while, it’ll be like connecting to a brand new device for your wi-fi network.
Make Sure You’ve Got the Right Password
Although this might be a simple one, it’s common that people might just have the wrong username or password to log into wi-fi. Make sure that you’re entering the password correctly, and remember that it’s case sensitive too.
You’d be surprised about the amount of issues that can be caused by forgetting your wi-fi password. Plus, your phone be automatically entering a password, so make sure to do this manually. If you can’t remember it, you may need to contact your internet service provider to reset it.
Reset your router
If you’re trying to connect to your home wi-fi, then there’s just as good of a chance that the problem is with your router as it is with your phone. The first thing you’ll want to do is reset your router, just to make sure that it isn’t causing the problem.
Do this by turning the router off, unplugging it and waiting a few minutes, and then proceed to plug it back in again. Then, hit the power button to switch your router back on.
You can also try to reset the network settings that your router is using as well. This could be a good idea if you have a long standing issue with the wi-fi network.
Try another device
Try connecting another device to the network and see if that works. If you’re out and you’re not alone, then you can ask a friend to try their device on the wi-fi network too.
Sometimes, if you’re trying to connect to public wi-fi, it could just be an issue with the wi-fi connection. Doing this can help to make sure it’s not your phone with the problem. You can also switch to using mobile data, which might help you figure out where the problem actually lies.
Check your settings
Depending on what phone your using, your settings may be restricting you from connecting to the Wi-fi. Head into General Settings, and go ahead and reset your phones Network Settings back to default.
This is another common problem that people have that is easily resolved by simply checking you’ve got the right setup in place.
Check Location Services
Another thing that I’ve seen cause issues with wi-fi connection is Location Services, which is just letting your phone know where you are. You can turn this off in the settings too, which might help you to regain your wi-fi connection.
This is most likely to start being a problem if you’ve moved house, and your phone is still used to connecting to your old address.
Parental Controls
Although you’d likely know if there was parental controls set up, sometimes this can be the reason why you cannot access wi-fi.
With good routers, you can set them to restrict access to wi-fi at certain hours, so it’s possible that this has been done too. If you’d like a router you can change the settings on, then check out our guide to the best wireless routers.
Update your settings
The more complex that our phones get, the more we have to do to maintain them. Modern smartphones need to be updated regularly to work with the hardware in our household.
If you can’t connect to your Wi-fi, then make sure that your phone is fully updated, as this could also cause the problem. You can also consider running a full software update here too.
If all else fails..
I say if all else fails, but sometimes it can be best to do this right at the start. If you’re having problems with your phones wi-fi, then one way that you can fix once and for all is performing a factory reset.
This will reset your phone, which often will fix whatever problem that you’re having. But as you’d expect, it’ll also completely wipe your phone of all the things that are stored on it too. So, make sure to back it up if you’re going to do this.
Conclusion
In conclusion, these are the simplest ways that you can make your phone connect to wi-fi when you’re having connection problems.
Sometimes, there simply is no solution as the wi-fi network might be too weak for you to connect to it, or it already has too many devices connected. If this is the case, then you’ll just have to find another wi-fi connection to use instead. But in most cases, you can fix any connectivity issues that you’re having.
