C2 silently loses wi-fi connection

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 ‘no data’ and doesn’t 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 I’m 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 aren’t sent, and an SMS reports ‘problem sending’. At that point I might see that WLAN shows my home connection, but the phone and I are somewhere else.
If I’ve tried to send an SMS when WLAN appears to be on but isn’t, I can’t send any more texts even if I reconnect, or turn off WLAN to use cellular.But

PRECONDITIONS:

STEPS TO REPRODUCE:

  1. Happens randomly

EXPECTED RESULT:

WLAN to show its actual current connected state.
Phone to maintain its connection to a known local WLAN that’s in range, and not lose the connection randomly.
Phone to use cellular when WLAN is not available.

ACTUAL RESULT:

WLAN shows connected when it isn’t.
Phone disconnects from WLAN for no obvious reason.
Phone doesn’t use cellular when WLAN appears to be on, but isn’t.

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.
2 Likes

Unfortunately this is indeed a big problem with the C2 at the moment. If you look for, you will find other threads about this bug

Can confirm this. The bug was there before, but with 5.0.0.71 it is worse, now.

in my case it is the other way round.
It is better since .71

I don’t 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 it’s online when it’s not? maybe a reconnect workaround when there’s packet errors and there’s 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 am sitting in front of my only AVM fritz.box with no mesh and I have this error almost day-by-day…

I wonder if Jolla/sailors are aware of this problem which is really a pain.

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.

I’ve never been able to use wifi reliably on my C2. My mobile data plan is very generous so I just don’t bother with wifi.

It may work for a while, but the battery drains faster. And sometimes it sort of kills connectivity completely. It’s like if the device is routing all data packages through the broken wifi connection and nothing gets through. I’ve also experienced a really wierd issue where the phone suddenly starts to become sluggish until wifi is turned off. That one is extremely wierd…