Hi All,
I was experiencing issues with Android devices connected via WiFi not roaming when a stronger SSID is available and having found a fix for my issue thought I'd share it on the community.
Problem: Basically Android stays connected to an SSID for as long as it can, even if the signal is very weak and a stronger connection is available, it will not migrate.
This is documented on the following (closed) Android issue pages:
Workarounds: Either enabling an experimental feature added to Android Lollipop:
- Enable "Developer options" : http://www.androidcentral.com/android-50-lollipop-basics-how-turn-developer-settings
- Go to "Developer options" and one of the options under the section marked "Debugging" is "Always allow Wi-Fi Roam Scans", enable it.
This I believe works by modifying the WPA Supplicant configuration file to encourage it to scan even when connected.
.. or downloading a third-party product (less favourable as it will probably be more resource intensive):
- WiFi Switcher : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.sarvaria.wifiswitcher
- Wifi Roaming Fix (formerly "Wifi strongest signal") : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.heleron.wifiroamingfix
Side Effects:
- This will cause a side-effect where even if a transfer is still taking place, should the device spot an access-point of the same name with a stronger signal, it will jump to that new access-point instead.
- It will also cause a slight decrease in battery life as the device will poll for the SSID more.
Hope this helps someone else too :-)
Regards,
Matthew
