REPRODUCIBILITY: unpredictable
OS VERSION:Tampella 5.0.5.71
HARDWARE: Jolla C2
UI LANGUAGE: English
REGRESSION:
DESCRIPTION:
This happened a few hours after updating to Tampella 5.0.5.71. But it has been happening often since the C2 was returned to me in March (with build 5.0.0.55 installed).
Symptoms: the phone is well charged, and has connected to local wi-fi, either at home (today and previously) or at work (on earlier occasions). It shows WLAN with the local connection and all bars. But MeeCast shows āno dataā and doesnāt refresh.
I toggle WLAN off and back on.
MeeCast updates.
But the connection is lost again.
Within a few hours, the phone runs hot and the battery drops quickly, down to nothing if this happens overnight.
Each time this happens, I charge the phone to full. shut it down completely (power button then Off icon), wait, start it up, start the usual sailfishOS apps, wait several minutes, start AppSupport, wait, then start MeeCast and WhatSapp. Sometimes Iām lucky and it runs fine, connecting at home and at work, no issues for a week or more; sometimes the problem occurs within a day.
If I forget to check whether the phone is actually connected, then WhatsApp messages arenāt sent, and an SMS reports āproblem sendingā. At that point I might see that WLAN shows my home connection, but the phone and I are somewhere else.
If Iāve tried to send an SMS when WLAN appears to be on but isnāt, I canāt send any more texts even if I reconnect, or turn off WLAN to use cellular.But
PRECONDITIONS:
STEPS TO REPRODUCE:
Happens randomly
EXPECTED RESULT:
WLAN to show its actual current connected state.
Phone to maintain its connection to a known local WLAN thatās in range, and not lose the connection randomly.
Phone to use cellular when WLAN is not available.
ACTUAL RESULT:
WLAN shows connected when it isnāt.
Phone disconnects from WLAN for no obvious reason.
Phone doesnāt use cellular when WLAN appears to be on, but isnāt.
MODIFICATIONS:
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
After installing Tampella 5.0.5.71, I checked the new AppSupport settings but didn't change them.
Other relevant reports (before this release):
https://forum.sailfishos.org/t/c2-phone-falsely-claims-being-on-wifi/22266
(my symptoms match those patoll reported)
https://forum.sailfishos.org/t/c2-wifi-strange-issue/25032
https://forum.sailfishos.org/t/are-there-still-connectivity-issues-with-c2/25228
I don't think this relates to my router settings, since it's also happened when the phone has been connected to the work network, in the office.
I've wondered if there's a race condition at startup, since sometimes all is well for days and other times not. If logs would help, please give me instructions.
I do appreciate all the work that goes into SailfishOS. The release notes for 5.0.5.71 noted fixes for C2 connectivity and I really hoped it would make my phone reliable--so sad that we're not there yet.
I donāt know if this is related or not, but i found this this silent wifi failure happens most often if there is a big mesh or multiple bssid with same name. not sure, but it might think itās online when itās not? maybe a reconnect workaround when thereās packet errors and thereās another one with same name/bssid that has a threshold higher link quality, would be a good way? maybe the threshold error packets vs successfull packets is related?
I noticed the same WLAN behavior on my Sony XZ2 Compact (community port) just before I started daily-driving the Jolla C2 in November 2024, so I conclude an update to a WLAN Software component before SFOS 5.0 introduced this strange problem.
Iāve never been able to use wifi reliably on my C2. My mobile data plan is very generous so I just donāt bother with wifi.
It may work for a while, but the battery drains faster. And sometimes it sort of kills connectivity completely. Itās like if the device is routing all data packages through the broken wifi connection and nothing gets through. Iāve also experienced a really wierd issue where the phone suddenly starts to become sluggish until wifi is turned off. That one is extremely wierdā¦
Sadly, this is a continuing story. Since the upgrade to Tampella 5.0.0.72, Iāve had to restart my C2 six times because of sudden battery drain, which I believe relates to the connectivity issue.
Only two of these restarts have been good ones, letting the phone run normally for at least 5 days (Iāve had 10 days and 8 days, with some instances of WLAN not connecting or not switching to cellular, that I could fix without restarting.) My Xperia 10-II often ran 30 days or more without a restart, and I donāt think its battery ever discharged suddenly, with no activity.
CSD tool reports ābattery passā
I really like my C2, itās just the right size for me, has a good screen, runs apps my Xperia 10-II couldnāt (old Android). But it has these ongoing problems with basic functions, making me feel itās unreliable. I do hope the next software release has a solution.
Right now my C2 is having a good run, itās been up just over 7 days and itās still connecting, at home and when Iām out. But before that three times in a row it failed within two or three days. This is what Iāve observed, on many occasions since getting the C2 back from Zendesk in March 2025.
Sometimes, when Iām not using the phone:
it stops connecting; WLAN shows the name of the last wifi connection, home or work, but MeeCast hasnāt updated, WhatsApp messages have not been received; it hasnāt switched to cellular
the back of the phone, near the top, is hot
the battery runs down quickly, around 10% an hour.
If Iām not aware of this (for instance, itās overnight), the phone can run down completely.
The only fix is to turn the phone off, charge it, and start it fresh. I have āStart Android appSupport on bootupā turned off.
The worst part of this is that I can never be sure the phone will work all day. I might be out and not receive phone calls or be able to make a call; I might start the day with no working phone, and need to charge it up at work before I can use it.
Have I got a dud phone?
Or am I doing something that causes these problems?
When I use it for a while, the back gets warm near the bottom, and it cools off when I put the phone down. I now know that feeling heat at the top is a warning sign.
Maybe this set of symptoms might help developers track down the issue. Or perhaps a solution is already on the way in the next software releaseā¦I do hope so.
No, itās just a bug, a very, very annoying one but still just a bug. Although it would be interesting if you could run e.g. Crest to see which applications are at the top of the list when the battery is draining quickly. I havenāt noticed that battery drain, at least not in relation to the Wi-Fi bug, so perhaps an application is going crazy trying to update and not receiving anything.
Whatās the best source for Crest these days? Iāve had it installed on Xperia phones but Iām having trouble finding it for my C2. Perhaps thereās an alternative?
I run Lighthouse all the time. Next time I have the problem, Iāll try to see what itās reporting.
I donāt often have the hard fail where a reboot is necessary, but it does happens sometimes, like once a month?
However, i did have a suspicious battery drain at some point, where it was connected to a powerbank, and i just assumed the powerbank was bad, cause the phone was kinda hot and the powerback was drained dead.
Most of the time, i check the status of my family members with the XMPP, because that will go gray if the wifi is not working, but does report it working. So, i check this every couple of hours or so. (also works for the 1st issue), so if that fails, i turn off wifi and back on again, and verify with the XMPP in messages. and i reboot if that doesnāt work like 5 times.
I had also been experiencing battery drain & C2 warmth a couple of times, and suspected itād have something to do with Wifi issues. However, after your notes, I, too, installed Lighthouse. Every time since, when Iāve experienced the battery drain & device getting warm, Iāve opened Lighthouse and there has actually been a hanging Tooter process in the background. (It could be that Wifi getting stuck also causes such thing, but Iāve become quite quick to notice that & noticed that by turning it off for some time and then re-enabling, itās fixed)
Thanks for your comments, Mazoon. I havenāt got Tooter installed.
Next time the battery starts draining fast, Iāll try turning off wifi and waiting a bit before re-enabling it.
Right now my phone has been up for 6 days and still seems goodāthis is a good run for me.
unsure if related, but i started a new job and have had multiple issues, but it seems somehow less frequent in āknownā wifi environments? this seems ludicrous as an observation, so iām putting it into coincidence.
If you take a look in the conman gitub-repos of sailfishos, you can see there is some work done, which seems related to disconnection of wifi-connections. Iām not a dev and dont understand much of that what is happening on github but I hope its a sign that this bug could disappear with one of the following updates. At least its worked on.
yeah, but there is 2 issues, i suspect they are kernel driver related, and this disconnect stuff is more like a fallback behavior, which would help in usability, but that 2 kernel driver/firmware bugs should get fixed. like, it doesnāt let usermode know that the wifi is failing, etcā¦ and that other ones is like a hang where you actually need to reboot.
