How to fix slow wifi connection issue on your Galaxy S8 [troubleshooting guide]

Wifi is often a preferred way for many people to get internet connection on their devices and while in most cases the experience is reliable, there are times when this type of connection can become a source of problems. One of these problems is the slow wifi connection. Today’s troubleshooting guide will walk you through how to handle wifi slowdown on the #GalaxyS8. We hope you’ll find this post helpful.

Solution #1: Soft reset

Before doing anything drastic on your phone or your router, you want to ensure that you’ve done a basic troubleshooting step first and that is to reboot your S8. Some connectivity bugs can only run when the current operating system session is up. Once the system is restarted, these bugs may also cease to exist. That’s why, at times, doing the simplest things when troubleshooting work. If you haven’t yet, make sure that you simulate a “battery pull” on your S8 to clear the system and RAM properly. Here’s how to do it:

1. Press and hold the volume down button and don’t release it.
2. Then, press and hold the power key while holding down the volume button.
3. Keep both keys held down for 10 seconds or more.
4. Let the phone restart.
5. Check for the problem.

Solution #2: Verify how slow your connection speed is

Should restarting your S8 won’t work, the next troubleshooting step is to check whether or not you have a slow internet connection problem, or if the issue lies on the phone itself. To do that, you want to conduct a speed connection check. If you don’t have an app Speedtest by Ookla installed to check your internet  speed, you need to get one from the Play Store first. Then, once you have it, run a speed test three times. If the test results are more or less the same and they are way too low for your subscribed speed, that means there’s a problem with your router or Internet Service Provider side. On the other hand, if the speed test results are good, that is, it is within acceptable speed as far as your internet subscription plan is concerned, then you may have an issue with your phone. To fix it, continue with our suggested solutions below.

Another way to check if the issue lies on the router or your ISP is to check with other devices. If they also get slow connection problems when using your wifi, that’s a tell tale sign of an issue with your router or ISP side.

Solution #3: Forget wifi connection

One of the most common yet sometimes effective solution options that you can do in your case is to force the device to disconnect from the network, also known as forgetting network. This troubleshooting step disconnects your device from the router so if a bug has developed to occur only when the connection is up and running, this might help. To forget your S8 from your wifi network is easy. Here’s how:

1. Pull down the status bar from the top.
2. Press and hold on wifi.
3. Press and hold on the wifi network you’re connected to right now.
4. Select Forget network.

Now that your S8 has been disconnected from the wifi network, restart the device before reconnecting.

Solution #4: Reboot your networking device

One of the easiest ways to fix connection slow downs in wifi is to reboot the router and other networking equipment. Most of today’s Internet Service Providers or ISPs no longer provide a modem and a router but if you still have both, make sure that do a sequential powercycle. Here’s how to do that:

1. Turn off the modem.
2. Turn off the router.
3. Turn off devices affected by slow connection issue.
4. Wait for at least 30 seconds.
5. Afterwards, turn the modem first and wait until it has fully initialized.
6. Then, turn the router back on and wait until it too has full initialized.
7. Finally, restart the affected gadgets and see if the connection speed has improved.

If you are only using a router, then simply ignore the step with the modem.

Solution #5: Try static IP

If you’ve been using dynamic IP or DHCP all along, we also suggest that you try using static IP to see if there’s a difference. This troubleshooting step presumes that you know how to configure and play around with your router configuration. If you have no idea how to configure your router, then simply ignore this step.

If you want to give static IP a try though, here’s how to do it:

1. Pull down the status bar from the top.
2. Press and hold on wifi.
3. Press and hold on the wifi network you’re connected to right now.
4. Select Manage network settings.
5. Make sure that Show advanced options is checked.
6. Under IP settings, select Static.
7. Once you’ve done that, other fields below will become available so you can configure them. These fields include the IP address, Gateway, Network prefix length, DNS 1, and DNS 2.
8. Make sure to enter a valid IP address and Gateway IP.

Solution #6: Use third party DNS

Sometimes, your router may actually be working fine and internet connection speed may be fast but apps or web browsers may still load pages so slowly. Sometimes, this kind of problem is due to an issue with the DNS server your ISP is using. DNS is short for Domain Name Server and is a basic Internet component. It’s a type of server that converts the URL you’re typing in the address bar into IP addresses that computers in the web can understand. For example, if you type in Google.com in the address bar, this is not really understandable for computers or servers. It’s the job of DNS to convert the letters into an IP address so that your request will be interpreted as wanting to reach Google.com website. At times, the DNS your ISP uses may encounter an issue causing slow browsing issue. To check if you have a DNS problem, you can try to change the DNS 1 and DNS 2 of your device’s wifi settings, just like when you change from DHCP to static.

To change the DNS servers:

1. Pull down the status bar from the top.
2. Press and hold on wifi.
3. Press and hold on the wifi network you’re connected to right now.
4. Select Manage network settings.
5. Make sure that Show advanced options is checked.
6. Under IP settings, select Static.
7. Once you’ve done that, other fields below will become available so you can configure them. These fields include the IP address, Gateway, Network prefix length, DNS 1, and DNS 2.
8. Enter the new DNS servers you want. We suggest that you use Google’s own DNS servers as they more reliable and faster than any other DNS servers out there. For DNS 1, enter 8.8.8.8 while for DNS 2, use 8.8.4.4.

Solution #7: Reset network settings

Resetting your device’s network settings is part of any network troubleshooting package. So, if the suggestions above has not worked in your favor yet at this time, be sure to reset all network settings with these steps:

1. Open Settings app.
2. Tap General management.
3. Tap Reset.
4. Tap Reset network settings.
5. Tap RESET SETTINGS button.
6. Restart your S8 and check for the problem.

Solution #8: Clear cache partition

Performance issues on Android devices are sometimes caused by a corrupted system cache. To check if your S8 is having trouble due to its system cache, make sure that you clear the cache partition. This partition stores the system cache so clearing it effectively deletes the said cache. Don’t worry as your device will eventually rebuild this cache over time.

To clear the cache partition on your S8:

1. Turn off the device.
2. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
3. 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).
4. Press the Volume down key several times to highlight ‘wipe cache partition’.
5. Press Power button to select.
6. Press the Volume down key until ‘yes’ is highlighted and press the Power button.
7. When the wipe cache partition is complete, “Reboot system now” is highlighted.
8. Press the Power key to restart the device.

Solution #9: Check for rogue apps

As long as you install third party apps, you can never totally eliminate the possibility of a bug being caused by an app. To see if you’ve added an app that causes this problem, you need to boot your S8 to safe mode. Here’s how:

1. Turn the device off.
2. Press and hold the Power key past the model name screen.
3. When “SAMSUNG” appears on the screen, release the Power key.
4. Immediately after releasing the Power key, press and hold the Volume down key.
5. Continue to hold the Volume down key until the device finishes restarting.
6. Safe mode will display in the bottom left corner of the screen.
7. Release the Volume down key when you see Safe Mode.
8. Check for the problem.

Don’t forget that restarting to safe mode is not technically a solution. Instead, it’s a tool that should help you determine whether or not the issue is being caused by an app. If you won’t experience slow wifi connection when on safe mode only, that means one of the apps is causing a problem. In that case, you want to uninstall apps until you’ve identified the culprit. Here’s what you need to do exactly:

1. Boot to safe mode.
2. Check for the problem. If wifi is not slow at all, proceed to the next steps below.
3. Uninstall an app. Start with the most recent ones you installed or updated.
4. After uninstalling an app, restart the phone to normal mode.
5. Check for the problem. If the issue remains, repeat steps 1-4.

Do the cycle until you’ve identified which of the apps is problematic.

Solution #10: Factory reset

In most cases similar to yours, there’s no need to do a factory reset at all. But, if the problem still exists at this time, you must be one of the unlucky few who has a more severe form of slow connection issue. Remember, the suggestions above already covered a lot of possible angles, so if nothing has worked so far, then you need to address the chance of a possible operating system problem.

To factory reset your S8, follow these steps:

1. Create a backup of your personal data.
2. Turn off the device.
3. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
4. 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).
5. Press the Volume down key several times to highlight ‘wipe data / factory reset’.
6. Press Power button to select.
7. Press the Volume down key until ‘Yes — delete all user data’ is highlighted.
8. Press Power button to select and start the master reset.
9. When the master reset is complete, ‘Reboot system now’ is highlighted.
10. Press the Power key to restart the device.

Solution #11:  Check your router

Almost all the recommendations up to this point so far dealt with the possible issues with your phone. Ideally, the issue should have already been fixed by now if the issue is due to a phone problem. If nothing worked at all, even after a factory reset, the next step for you must be to see if it’s a router problem or not. Some of the common issues that might affect the speed of your home wifi are the following:

• a new setting/s on the router’s bandwidth
• incorrect  broadcast channel of the router
• wrong router security setup like firewall.

There are other possible factors depending on your router setup and type. If you are not familiar on how to troubleshoot the router, refer to your router documentation or contact its manufacturer.

Solution #12: Contact your ISP

If you can’t still resolve the issue at this time, especially if you are positive that it’s router problem, the most ideal thing to do is to contact your ISP. Unless you purchased your own router separately, you should let your ISP handle the router troubleshooting to prevent causing more issues.

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