WiFiReconnect

About WiFiReconnect Android App

If you noticed that your phone stops automatically re-connecting to your WiFi, while it is still in range, this app is for you!

Some people have noticed that their phones will appear to loose or stop reconnecting to their WiFi automatically. This app sits dormant until it notices that your WiFi disconnects. At that point it retries to establish the previously held WiFi connection. It can also help if you stray to the edge of your WiFi limits, by reattempting to establish the connection if Android momentarily drops the connection. You may even noticed that this app will appear to give you more reliable WiFi at the edge of your reception range.

This app does NOT improve the actual signal of your router or mobile. It just attempts to reconnect in cases where Android "gives up".

This app simply needs to be started once, and will then automatically start on every re-boot. It should also restart itself if Android tries to close it. So start it sup straight after installing. It will automatically close (i.e. there is no user interface), but will be sleeping, waiting for a WiFi issue.

The app will display a sticky notification to show it is running. It also uses this technique to make it more difficult for Android to shut it down unexpectedly and thereby inadvertently disabling the features. Clicking on this notification will take you to the settings app management, from which the "force close" button can be used to disable / turn off the app. But don't forget to restart the app to have it active. You do not have to manually start it after a reboot.


If you find that when you are away from your WiFi range for a long period of time, if it does not reconnect, check that your settings for "Network Notification" are turned on. This setting is normally found within Settings / WiFi, select "Advanced" from the menu (the three dots on the top right), and it should be near the top if not the first option. Ensure it is turned on, if you want it to automatically reconnect after some time away from your network.

*** DEVELOPER OPTIONS ***
If you are a highly technical user, the app can be configured in the following ways

Create the following file to specify a list of WiFi SSID's (hotspots) to try
/sdcard/Android/data/sickpenguin.utility.wifireconnect/files/config.ssid.list

The file is simply a text file listing the SSID's you want to try to connect to in priority order, when the WiFi connection is lost. It is a single SSID per line. Delete the above file to simply connect to the first connect SSID from startup/reboot. After the list has been exhausted, it will attempt to connect to the previously connected SSID. Creating this file, can make the biggest improvement to the apps performance.

Create the following file to turn off the sticky notification NB: this may hinder this apps ability to stay working, but not too significantly. You would be best to keep the sticky notification, but disable notifications from the app (a feature of Android Marshmallow and Nougat), as it only disables the visual aspect.
/sdcard/Android/data/sickpenguin.utility.wifireconnect/files/config.foregroundservice.off

Delete the above file or create the following file to turn the sticky notification back on.
/sdcard/Android/data/sickpenguin.utility.wifireconnect/files/config.foregroundservice.on

NB: the "off" file will take precedence over the "on" file if both are present.


Create the following file to enable logging. NB: THERE IS NO AUTO CLEARING OF LOG FILES. YOU WILL HAVE TO MANUALLY MANAGE THEIR DELETION IF LOGGING IS ON.
/sdcard/Android/data/sickpenguin.utility.wifireconnect/files/config.logging.on

Delete the above file or create the following file to turn logging back off (the default state)
/sdcard/Android/data/sickpenguin.utility.wifireconnect/files/config.logging.off

NB: the "off" file will take precedence over the "on" file if both are present.