UPDATE Potential work arounds for folks having problem in sleep policies not working correctly have been put in version 1.2.0 onwards. Please redownload to test and let me know. Read below for more details.

Latest Version: 1.4.4 (See below for change log history)

Are you frustrated by your downloads getting broken or worse, switching over to slow and expensive mobile data connections like GPRS/Edge/3G when your wi-fi connection gets dropped by your Android phone when the screen goes off? If yes, then look no further. Here is my app that allows you to choose your desired Wi-Fi Sleep policy. You can choose from the following options:

  1. Default -> This means that wi-fi will turn off whenever the screen goes off.

  2. Wi-Fi On on sleep if plugged -> This means that if your phone is plugged into a USB slot or wall charger, then wi-fi will not turn off even when the screen goes off.

  3. Wi-Fi Never goes off -> This means that your wi-fi will not shut down whenever screen turns off, even if you are not plugged into USB/charger.

Please note that this app just changes the sleep policy and does not change the wi-fi state by itself. You can still control wi-fi turning on/off manually.

Few folks were having issues with their devices that the inbuilt handling of this wi-fi sleep policy in their phones wasn’t being done properly by Android. To take care of this, there are a few workarounds added to the app now which can be accessed by clicking on “Advanced Options” on the configuration screen (This configuration screen can be accessed by launching the app or it will also show up whenever you add a widget). Enable any one or all of the workarounds mentioned in advanced settings depending on what works best on your device as there are lot of variants due to different manufacturers and different Android versions on different phones. Please also note that you should enable these workarounds only if the app is not working fully well for you without enabling them as some of them can cause your battery to drain a bit faster.

Another thing to note is that I’ve added a widget for it. So, you can install the app and instead of having to open the app and change the setting every time, you can just add its widget to your home screen (Long press on home screen. Then choose Widgets->Wi-Fi Keep Alive). Now, you can just touch it whenever you want to change your setting and it will automatically cycle through the options listed above.

Dark/Sepia Widget Icon -> Default setting

Purple Widget Icon -> Wi-Fi On on sleep if plugged

Green Widget -> Wi-Fi never goes off

Please try it out and let me know if you face any issues or have any suggestions :)

Known Issues:

1) Known issue with “on when plugged in” policy is that if you are already plugged in while changing anything in the app, workarounds don’t take place until you plug out and plug in again

**2) **This is not a known issue with the app but with wi-fi on some devices itself that it stops working on leaving it idle even if the phone is not sleeping. This is not the purview of this particular app and it might not solve it, although few folks say that this app helps in this scenario as well.

**3) **Some routers/settings are also known to cause issues with wi-fi in sleep. The correct pattern has not been identified yet but many people report that they can stay connected to wi-fi in sleep with some routers but with other routers, it fails. (Work Around 3 might help in such cases but not always)

**4) **While adding widget, the main app screen will pop-up for widget configuration. You need to choose any one policy (even if desired one already selected) otherwise widget will not be added

Notes:

**1) **Please press Menu key in the app and select “Help” to see details about policy and workaround options.

**2) **Please report any bugs here along with these details so that i can fix the issues:

i) Device/Phone Name and Rom version

ii) What is the app version that you have? (latest is 1.2.1)

iii) Did you try turning on all combinations of workarounds in advanced options?

iv) Can you please enable logging in the advanced options and send me logcat dump for this duration, preferably with all workarounds enabled.

Changelog:

16-August-2010 -> 1.4.4

  • Fix widget icon colors (**Note: **If the new icons don’t appear on existing widget, please delete the widget and add it again)

13-August-2010 -> 1.4.3

  • Fix widget icon resolutions to make them look sharper on home screen (**Note: **If the new icons don’t appear on existing widget, please delete the widget and add it again)

02-August-2010 -> 1.4.2

  • Better looking & smaller icons (including widget). Thanks a lot to “rori” from xda-developers to design the icons :) (**Note: ** If the new icons don’t appear on existing widget, please delete the widget and add it again)

  • Space optimization so that the app takes lesser space on phone.

22-July-2010 -> 1.4.1

  • Fixed a bug that can cause wi-fi to keep reconnecting in quick succession in certain situations.

22-July-2010 -> 1.4.0

  • Added workaround 4 (Re-associate automatically with access point if all else fails. Needs workaround 3 to be enabled)

  • Support for small screens (e.g. XPeria X10 mini)

  • Widget/Icons size optimizations for older Android versions

  • Resource optimizations for lesser space and faster loading

  • Misc. under-the-hood UI tweaks for better/consistent layouts across different screen sizes/densities/android versions.

11-July-2010 -> 1.3.0

  • Added workaround 3 (Ping the router gateway regularly)

  • Lot of optimizations for battery savings.

  • Apply workarounds without needing to select the policy again

06-July-2010 -> 1.2.1

  • Bug Fix for a Force Close

  • More Optimizations

  • Help and Info Menus

  • Option to disable/enable debug logging

04-July-2010 -> 1.2.0

  • Added workarounds to take care of sleep policies not working on some phones

  • Optimized the code a bit for faster operations

  • Added Configuration screens to widgets (pops up whenever widget is added)

28-June-2010 -> 1.1.0

  • Added Widget

**27-June-2010 -> 1.0.0 **

  • Initial Version

Screenshots

Download:

Search for “Wi-Fi Keep Alive” in Android marketplace or simply scan the below QR code: