CODEWITHSUNDEEP
androidandroid-wifi
Carl Whalley
Carl Whalley

Reputation: 3103

Setting WiFi priority on Android Lollipop or later via Settings UI

KitKat had the Settings > WiFi > Advanced WiFi option to set the priority as shown.

This isn't present on my Nexus Lollipop and Marshmallow devices. I see there is an App available, but I'd like to know if there is some onboard way I missed to manage these, and if not, what the thinking was behind its removal.

enter image description here

Upvotes: 24

Views: 58580

Answers (4)

andocromn
andocromn

Reputation: 41

This is not exactly ordered prioritization, however I found I was able to give preference to one SSID over another by using the data usage setting. By setting HomeWiFi as Unmetered and FreeCableProviderWifi as Metered my phone effectively prioritizes my home network. This solved my problem so I hope this solution helps other even if it doesn't directly answer the question

Upvotes: 3

Lothar Mueller
Lothar Mueller

Reputation: 2528

I realize this is an old post, but looking for something else I stumbled upon this:

On a rooted device you can manually edit the wpa_supplicant.conf file, usually stored in data/misc/wifi. Use a standard text editor.

In this file all saved networks are described in structures like

network={
  ssid="network-name"
  other_key=other_value
  priority=priority-value
}

Higher values in priority mean higher priority. Priorities don't have to be unique. Only if you know that you have multiple stored networks for the same location you should consider giving them different priority values like 0 for the least wanted network and 9 for the most wanted one; you get the idea.

Tools:

There are also some tools available for rooted phones that can help you here. One that I use is GravityBox offering a busload of very helpful tweaks and tools for your phone. You need to have the XPosed framework (>> http://repo.xposed.info/) installed to use GravityBox (>> http://repo.xposed.info/module-overview, then search for GravityBox; be sure to pick the version suitable for your Android version)

There are other tools as well but I can't say anything about them. My opinion is: be careful with tools that are abler to fiddle with sensitive data; if they can change priorities they also can read the network passwords stored in wpa_supplicant.conf...

Upvotes: 1

fred
fred

Reputation: 1

I was trying to achieve this on stock Nougat 7.1.1 on a Nexus 5x. I edited the properties in the /data/misc/wi-fi/wpa_supplicant.conf file using a text editor. It worked perfectly. You need root access to edit this file however.

Upvotes: 0

Ecchi-Alex
Ecchi-Alex

Reputation: 320

This works on my CyanogenMOD 13 device, which I have come to believe should work on Lollipop and Marshmellow devices as well:

In your Wi-Fi settings, tap the overflow icon, select "Saved networks". Tap the overflow icon again, disable "Automatic priority". You can now re-order your networks by dragging the signal icon up or down.

Let me know how/if it works for L & M!

Upvotes: 3

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