[StarPole]

I'm on Nov 1st update and I can't connect to WiFi either. Roll on January 2021 OTA (I know, I'm living in false hope).

I have it on good authority that the next OTA update will be here last week of January (at least for the US).

 

[jupiterorbit]

Me too, but since I’ve now lost 4G and WiFi I don’t imagine OTA will work so it’ll be a trip back to Volvo

So you have a home charger? If yes, try this.

1. Turn off data in the settings screen
2. Disable wifi
3. Plug in the car and start charger
4. Hold down home button (short white line at bottom of screen) for 30s and system will reboot
5. Enable data and WiFi in settings

Does your 4G set restored? I doubt it'll work but it worked for me twice at public chargers when I have lost 4G. Something about plugging in and charging seems to kick the 4G back in action but it's not 100% reliable as I've found.

 

[whiteco3]

Something about plugging in and charging seems to kick the 4G back in action but it's not 100% reliable as I've found.

Sadly I think that may be purely coincidental

 

[springfall2008]

My wifi works fine connecting to my iPhone hotspot. It doesn't see our home wifi but it's not suprising as the signal is really bad on the driveway.

 

[polerad]

So you have a home charger? If yes, try this.

1. Turn off data in the settings screen
2. Disable wifi
3. Plug in the car and start charger
4. Hold down home button (short white line at bottom of screen) for 30s and system will reboot
5. Enable data and WiFi in settings

Does your 4G set restored? I doubt it'll work but it worked for me twice at public chargers when I have lost 4G. Something about plugging in and charging seems to kick the 4G back in action but it's not 100% reliable as I've found.

before starting this you need to offer a sacrifice of tofu to an Ingenlath idol.

but seriously I think it’s essentially random when it starts, stops, and restarts. Sorry for those whose problems are more persistent.

 

[Irf]

I'm going to try connecting to my wi-fi again today. It's never once worked for me. Luckily I generally have good 4G connectivity.

I have installed a wi-fi repeater specifically for the car about 4m from it but inside the house. So there is a brick wall in the way I guess. Anyone know where the car's antenna is?

I'll report back later...

 

[rgledhill]

Likely to be in the shark fin in the roof, together with the 4G antenna. Maybe! Mine doesn't see any mobile or home networks at all, other than bizarrely my dashcam in the car :-/

 

[MarkG47]

My car is booked in for the constant bluetooth crap out and no wifi. Apparently there is an update for the communication module.

 

[Steve The Techy]

I'm going to try connecting to my wi-fi again today. It's never once worked for me. Luckily I generally have good 4G connectivity.

I have installed a wi-fi repeater specifically for the car about 4m from it but inside the house. So there is a brick wall in the way I guess. Anyone know where the car's antenna is?

I'll report back later...

There used to be many issues with 2.4 and 5, and also something to do with WPA. Search the forum. One suggestion was to set up a 2.4 network on the router that did not support WPA. Unfortunately my garage is insulated from my network, sees the neighbours.

 

[rgledhill]

WPS (one-button pairing), not WPA (type of security encryption key), but otherwise that's correct. I think the "splitting the network into separate 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks" might have been a red herring.

 

[Kerbs]

It was, and it’s not WPA either, nor is it SSID length, hidden or visable, nor is it authentication types.

WiFi worked for about 30mins after a trip to Volvo, so is definitely power related.
4G (with a cross) is an ISP bottle neck.

WiFi and 4G are separate problems / issues the later can be fixed by the ISP without any updates to the car.

WiFI needs an OTA fix.

 

[rgledhill]

That's a bit of a jump to state those as facts, but that's the way it's looking, yes. Agree that they're separate items, certainly.

 

[stevelup]

When it first became apparent that many people could not connect to the WiFi, a number of suggestions were flying around as to the cause. It became folklore that the cause was mixed 2.4 / 5 GHz networks but without any real effort to confirm this. Partially, this got traction because people discovered that if they created a guest network, it would then work. But I believe this worked for a different reason...

I didn't have my car at this point but I suggested in a couple of places disabling WPS (I believe I was the first person to suggest this). The reason I suggested this was because earlier in the year I had exactly the same problem with some M2M WiFi modules we were using on a project. Where WPS was enabled they simply did not see the networks at all. What don't guest networks have enabled... WPS. That's why that other 'fix' appeared to work in my opinion. I still don't know why WPS would cause this - there's not much logic to it.

This was demonstrated to work widely. Almost everyone who had a problem connecting found they could then connect with WPS disabled.

I then got my car, and the thing that was immediately apparent was that I had no problems connecting whatsoever. I didn't change anything on my network - it just worked. This was at a time when virtually no-one could get the WiFi working without fiddling, so I set about trying to figure out what the root cause was.

I run Ubiquiti UniFi access points, not normal domestic stuff, and there is no WPS. So that certainly helps confirm that theory.

I have three networks in my house - my generic one which the vast majority of devices are connected to. This is a dual band 2.4 / 5 GHz network. The car connected to this without any problem. I have a 2.4GHz only network which I use to connect some flaky IoT stuff to. The car connected to this without any problem. Finally, I have a dedicated network for a couple of game consoles which isn't NATted - a fully routable public IP is used. The car connected and worked fine on this one was well.

So the next test was to rummage through my box of old stuff to do some more testing.

1) Technicolor TG582n router - this is a single band 2.4GHz only router. Car did not see the network at all with WPS enabled. Car did see (and successfully connect) as soon as WPS was disabled.

2) Netgear WNDR3300 running dd-wrt - this is a dual band router, there is no WPS functionality in dd-wrt firmware. Car saw it and connected fine regardless as to whether or not both SSIDs had the same name.

3) Netgear WNDR3300 after full factory reset and running the original Netgear firmware. This re-enabled WPS. Car did not see this with or without split 2.4 / 5GHz networks. Disabled WPS and it then worked normally.

Now I appreciate this isn't exhaustive or scientific, but I'm personally satisfied to state with an extremely high probability, that it's WPS that causes the issue, and WPS alone.

 

[rgledhill]

That's a very impressive set of tests Steve, good work! I shall make sure there's no mention of splitting networks in the FAQ.

 

[KonaKen]

Great test @stevelup So would this mean WPS needs to be permanently off in order for the car to see the SSID? Or does it need to connect once, then you can re-enable WPS. I don't use WPS much at home, but sometimes there are devices that are virtually impossible to add to the network without it.
I suppose enabling WPS when required isn't a massive issue and tbh is probably a lot more secure being how insecure WPS is 🙂

 

[smithers197]

I'll try mine later today, as I use Google Mesh network and that doesn't support WPS so WPS should not be an issue I don't think

 

[Irf]

I have been trying to connect to wifi without success. I am using a wifi extender because the car is too far from my router I think. Or maybe it's invisible because WPS isn't switched off? Having had a look at the router settings it doesn't seem possible to switch off WPS! However I have just switched it off in the wifi extender, so I'll see if that's now visible. I'm assuming that I am just to go into Settings>Network and so on...?

Thanks for all the great discussion guys!

 

[stevelup]

Great test @stevelup So would this mean WPS needs to be permanently off in order for the car to see the SSID? Or does it need to connect once, then you can re-enable WPS. I don't use WPS much at home, but sometimes there are devices that are virtually impossible to add to the network without it.
I suppose enabling WPS when required isn't a massive issue and tbh is probably a lot more secure being how insecure WPS is 🙂

Any device that -needs- WPS should be thrown in the bin IMO... It's a dreadful standard and no surprise that it's not supported on any decent kit!

You could do as you suggest though and just enable it when needed. Not a bad move anyway from a security point of view.

 

[stevelup]

Those of you who can't connect even without WPS, do remember that they seem to have totally borked WiFi on the Nov 1 update anyway... So regardless as to whether or not you have your ducks in order, it might still not work!

 

[Irf]

Those of you who can't connect even without WPS, do remember that they seem to have totally borked WiFi on the Nov 1 update anyway... So regardless as to whether or not you have your ducks in order, it might still not work!

Ah... that will be me then possibly 🙄