Why Your Samsung TV Keeps Disconnecting From Wi-Fi (And How To Fix It)
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No matter how much technology progresses, there will always be some sort of bug or technical glitch that pops up to annoy you. They may be trivial, but in the moment, issues can get under your skin because you can't explain why it happened. This could be something as simple as logging into a website or using a device that you rely on every single day.
Another example of this annoyance is when a device of yours disconnects from your Wi-Fi. This could be a smartphone, a laptop, or a television, and you cannot figure out why it isn't working. Take, for instance, the Samsung smart television. Samsung has been around for decades, is one of the leaders in high-quality televisions, and leads the pack when it comes to customer satisfaction, yet sometimes, even these devices may disconnect from your Wi-Fi.
Commonly, this is due to outdated firmware on your television that prevents the connection to your Wi-Fi from being maintained. Of course, it could end up being something far more complicated, but for most people, following one of these methods will surely get you all connected.
How to soft reset your Samsung TV and internet
Sometimes, the best solution to a technological problem is one of the oldest tricks in the book that we have been doing for so many years that it is honestly rather second nature at this point. This is what is known as the soft reset or — to put it in its simplest terms — unplugging it and plugging it back in again. Now, your first instinct may just be to unplug your television and plug that back in, but that really isn't the best way to get this done, though that maybe will fix your issue. Here's what you should really do:
- Unplug your television.
- Unplug your router.
- Wait for at least 30 seconds.
- Plug your router back in.
- Plug your television back in.
- Wait for your router to connect back to your modem and the Internet.
- Wait to see if your Wi-Fi reconnects to your television.
If you've done all that and the Internet is reestablished on your television, that is great, but you may not be out of the woods yet. This could just be a temporary fix, and the next day or a week later, you might be in the same predicament. If that occurs or the soft reset didn't initially fix the problem, then you need to move on to other options to resolve this issue.
Try a hard connection
If doing the above soft reset did not work, what you need to do now is to double-check your connections. This is where you need to move over to your router. After your soft reset, did your router reestablish the connection between your modem and the Internet? Are you able to surf the web on other devices using that Wi-Fi connection? If you are unable to visit a website on your smartphone and your router hasn't connected back to the Internet, then something is wrong with your router and not your Samsung television.
Let's say your router and the Internet are working fine. The next step you should take would be to directly connect your Samsung TV with your router or modem using an ethernet cable. In general, a wired connection will be more stable than a wireless one. Using an ethernet cable to directly connect the two could also clear up any firmware issues present, as sometimes the TV will update when connected. This will require you to take your router or modem and bring it relatively close to your television so that your ethernet cable can reach both devices.
This does sound like it defeats the purpose of having a Wi-Fi option available, but if it is working soundly with every other device in your home, then you know that the problem likely has something to do with the wireless hardware in the TV itself. In this case, you may need to take it for repair or to check whether it's still under warranty, but before doing that, you can try a few more things.
How to reset your Samsung TV network
So, we have determined that the problem with the Wi-Fi connection with your television is, indeed, your television and not your router. The best course of action for you to take at this point is to reset the network on your television. Unfortunately, it isn't as simple as unplugging and plugging back in your TV, but that doesn't mean that it's a particularly complicated process to reset your network. Here's how you can do this.
- Press the Home button on your Samsung remote control.
- Toggle over to the Settings option and select it.
- Select the All Settings option.
- Toggle down to Network and select it.
- Select on the Reset Network option.
- Confirm that you want to do this by choosing Reset.
- After resetting, select the Network Settings option.
- Find your Wi-Fi router and reconnect to it.
This should fix your Wi-Fi connectivity issues with your television, and you can use all the smart features on your Samsung TV as normal. Like soft resetting, this may end up being a temporary solution to an issue that once again crops back up in some amount of time. If it doesn't, that's great, but if you encounter the Wi-Fi connectivity problem again, you can try a full factory reset of your TV.
How to factory reset your Samsung TV
If you have gotten to this point in your troubleshooting to fix the Wi-Fi connection issues with your Samsung TV, you are probably quite frustrated. Unfortunately, as a last resort, the best chance you have to fix this problem is to factory reset your television. Doing this will wipe everything from your TV as if you just pulled it out of the box from the store. Your Samsung TV picture settings will restore to their defaults, and any apps you have downloaded will be removed. Plus, any apps already built into the TV will require you to sign in again. It's a hassle to go through, but it's your best shot. Here's how you factory reset your TV.
- Hit the Menu button on your Samsung remote control.
- Toggle over to the Settings option and select it.
- Select the All Settings option.
- Select the General & Privacy option.
- Toggle all the way down to the bottom of the menu and select Reset.
- If you have created a PIN for your TV, you will enter that now. If you have not, the default PIN number is 0000.
- Press the Reset button.
- Select OK, and your TV will factory reset everything.
Depending on what model of Samsung TV you have, you may have to go a different route to get to this, in which case, do this:
- Open Settings.
- Choose the Support option.
- Select Self Diagnosis.
- Select the Reset button.
Once you have done that, you will connect to your router just as you did when you first bought the TV.
Contact a professional
After you have completely factory reset your Samsung television, you would hope that it will solve all of your Wi-Fi connectivity problems. However, it might not. Every option you have attempted could frustratingly fail. If it comes to this point, all you can really do is contact a professional to help you out with this, as it may be an issue that the average person won't be able to handle on their own, particularly if it is a hardware problem.
If you want to go straight to the source, you can call or text Samsung Support. In your discussions with Samsung, they may determine that a repair is necessary, and you can also set that up through Samsung Support as well. If you don't want to go through Samsung, you can also contact a local tech repair shop or something like Best Buy's Geek Squad to see if they can diagnose the issue with your Samsung television. Hopefully, these support systems will be able to tackle whatever problem your television is having and can fix it.