Galaxy S8 Plus keeps showing exclamation mark on wifi, internet connection keeps dropping after an update

This article addresses four issues reported for the #GalaxyS8Plus, especially the connectivity aspect. If you have trouble with your internet connection or Bluetooth on this phone, this post might help.

Problem #1: Galaxy S8 Plus won’t connect to commercial drones

My phone S8 Plus has no problem connecting to large obvious networks located in homes and business. But when I try to connect to a lesser wifi network for my SJcam (action cam) or my Parrot Jumping drones and for the longest time my main drone the bebop 2, it just says “checking quality of your internet connection” then it will say something like “you may not be connected to the internet”or something to that effect. Trying to figure out what is the difference between the two. I reset it in safe mode to ensure it wasn’t an app messing me around. I reset the network. I did tons of other things too but directed by guys on internet and people at Samsung. I’m thinking that this has to be something easy. I’ve had the phone almost a year always thinking it was a parrot thing and then one day I went to set up my action cam and it did same thing. After my first jumping drone wouldn’t connect I called Parrot. Couple days later I tried it again and it worked. It worked until I bought the second which it would not work with. Then the first jumping drone refused to work. Please help me figure this out. I am not super computer savvy but I have already done a lot of intricate things to figure this out. I’m with fido in Canada. — Roy Durrschnabel

Solution: Hi Roy. Commercial drones like the ones you have uses the ubiquitous wifi protocol in order to establish a connection with phones. When a wifi connection is established between your phone and your drone, there will be no internet connection since both devices are not connected to a router that has internet. This is the reason why you are getting the message that you may not be connected to the internet or something along that line.

Now, if you have trouble connecting another drone to your S8 Plus, that’s a different story altogether. You may have simply missed a step in your configuration so be sure to double check. Or, you can consult your drone’s manual to see how to step the new drone up properly. If that won’t work either, contact the drone maker and ask them to walk you through the steps.

Keep in mind that commercial drones are designed to be used by non-tech savvy users so manufacturers strive to keep configuration as simple as possible. Based on our own experience with using different drones, configuration is usually easy to do and some are even are as convenient as creating a wifi and logging in to it. Again, make use of the documentation that comes with your devices to work things out.

Problem #2: Galaxy S8 Plus keeps showing exclamation point on wifi icon, internet connection keeps dropping after an update

We have a Verizon Galaxy S8 Plus, and 2 S7+’s in the family. All were recently updated to Oreo 8.0. Ever since, we keep getting the ! exclamation point next to the wireless signal icon on all phones. As a result, we appear to have wireless connectivity, but no Internet. Soft reset fixes for a short period, but all come back. We have tried to forget network, and then reconnect, and even switched between 5.0GHZ and 2.4GHZ on our home router. All to no avail. We had no such issues prior to Oreo 8.0. We could really use some help. — Thanks. — Anthony

Solution: Hi Anthony. We haven’t heard of this kind of issue about Android Oreo so you may have an isolated case here. If multiple phones are having the same issue just because they all updated to Android Oreo is not reason enough to put the blame to the new Android OS. We suspect that this has something to do with your wifi network. To troubleshoot your issue, follow our recommendations below.

Connect to another wifi

The best way to check if our suspicion is right is by connecting your device or devices to another known working wifi network. Once connected, use your phone normally and see if the issue appears. If your phone works fine on a different wifi network, that’s proof that our suspicion is right.

Reset your router

Once you’ve established that the issue only occurs when your phones are connected to your home wifi, make sure to fix the problem by resetting your router’s settings. If your router was provided by your Internet Service Provider, call them and tell them about the issue. Alternatively, you can reset your router yourself if you can by searching Google for the steps on how to do it.

Problem #3: Galaxy S8 Google Photos app keeps crashing after an update

Hi my name is Mark. I have a galaxy S8 active and just updated the software. Ever since i did that google photos crashes when i open it. I know you addressed some possible fixes in your previous article but nothing is working.. i did not do a full factory reset though.. i dont want to lose my phone setup and i do worry about losing dome data Im hoping that another way has been developed to combat this problem. When i go to google photos on my laptop everything is fine. This just seems to be a phone issue. Anything u can suggest to fix this problem would be greatly appreciated. Thanks very much. — Mark Mark

Solution: Hi Mark. Google Photos, just like any other app, can become problematic for a number of reasons. If it keeps crashing for no apparent reason at all, follow our suggestions below.

Back your data up

Creating a copy of your files should be the first thing that you want to do here. If you have no idea how to do that, we suggest that you use Samsung Smart Switch. By using Smart Switch, you can create an image of your device’s software and save it on your computer. Once you’ve fixed the bug later on, you can simply restore your data.

Clear data of Google Photos app

It’s possible that the issue is only isolated to the Google Photos app itself. To see if that’s the case, make sure to delete the app’s data. Here’s how:

Open Settings app.
Tap Apps.
Tap on More settings at the upper right (three-dot icon).
Select Show system apps.
Find and tap your app.
Tap Storage.
Tap Clear Data button.
Restart your S8 and check for the problem.

Sign in and out of your Google account

Sometimes, signing in and out of one’s Google account fixes bugs involving core Google apps and services. If you have multiple Google accounts signed in, be sure to sign out all of them.

Factory reset

If all of the suggestions above won’t work, restore all your phone’s software settings back to their defaults by doing a factory reset.

Turn off the device. This is important. If you can’t turn it off, you’ll never be able to boot to Recovery Mode. If you are not able to shut the device off regularly via the Power button, wait until the phone’s battery is drained. Then, charge the phone for 30 minutes before booting to Recovery Mode.
Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
When the green Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
Press the Volume down key several times to highlight ‘wipe data / factory reset’.
Press Power button to select.
Press the Volume down key until ‘Yes — delete all user data’ is highlighted.
Press Power button to select and start the master reset.
When the master reset is complete, ‘Reboot system now’ is highlighted.
Press the Power key to restart the device.
Check for the problem.

Problem #4: Galaxy S8 has missing volume controls for Bluetooth devices after an update

Since the new recent update it changed the way sound is controlled when connected to blue tooth devices which is very annoying. Before it would let me separately control the volume on both the phone and then the device letting me find the sweet spot. My blue tooth devices are UE Boom and Bose blue tooth headphones. Since the update if I adjust the volume on the bluetooth devices it then shows that on the phone. Essentially it went from 2 separate volume controls before the update to now being one synced volume control after the update. This is very annoying as I live in a studio apartment and I need to find the sweet spot for volume. Is there any way I can return to the 2 separate volume controls like it was before the recent update? I haven’t been able to find any information about this anywhere else. Thank you for your time and I hope to hear back from you. — Taylor D

Solution: Hi Taylor. Bluetooth issues usually happen when one of the devices is updated either because it stopped supporting the profiles on another device, or there’s an incompatibility issue. In your case, it’s most probably due to the former. New Android operating system version usually comes with more advanced Bluetooth capabilities. If the other device is not equipped or updated to handle the changes, a disconnect might occur, just like what’s going on right now. This is usually the main reason why older Bluetooth entertainment systems on cars suddenly become problematic when connecting to a newly updated Android or iOS phone. Unfortunately in such cases, the fix may not be readily available for a user, or there’s none at all. Try to consult the documentation of your Bluetooth devices to see if there’s a way for you to update them to hopefully make it compatible with your S8. Or, you can contact the maker of your devices to see if they can help you fix the trouble.