WHY WON’T MY TV CONNECT TO WIFI?
Most WiFi connection issues are caused by software issues within your TV, but often the cause is with the 2.4GHz/5GHz WiFi frequencies, IP lease expiration, or MAC address filtering.

You can stop Sony Bravia Android TVs from constantly dropping WiFi by turning on Simple IP Control in Home Network settings.

You should start by trying to localize the problem to either your TV or your router and then you can follow the appropriate troubleshooting steps for each, which are detailed below, which apply to all models of Sony Bravia TVs.

An important point to check is if other devices can connect to the Internet through your router, even if your TV cannot.

You can jump to the relevant steps in this guide, but I would recommend running through the steps in order to cover every base.

Is The Problem With Your TV or Router?

To help localize the problem to either your TV or your router, try setting up a hotspot on your phone and then connecting your TV to it.

Hotspots can be set up on iPhones from Personal Hotspot, and on Android from Settings -> Network and Internet -> Hotspot and Tethering.

• If your TV connects to your phone hotspot and can access the Internet through your phone, then you can assume that you have a problem with your router.
• If your TV will not connect to your hotspot, you have either a software issue with your TV or a hardware problem with the Wi-Fi card in your TV.

Depending on the results of the above test, you can then follow the router troubleshooting steps or TV troubleshooting steps as below. Check out the overview and then the detailed steps follow this.

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Router Troubleshooting Steps Overview

Cause	Explanation
Incorrect Password	Double-check that the password for your router has been entered correctly on your TV and/or it hasn’t recently been changed by other members of your household.
MAC Address Filtering	Every router can filter which devices are allowed to connect to the Internet through their MAC addresses. If you have MAC address filtering on, your TV will connect to your router but will not get an active Internet connection.
Poor Signal	RF interference or too many devices on your WiFi network can prevent a solid connection.
Router Software Glitch	Try soft resetting your router and if that doesn’t help, then hard reset it.

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TV Troubleshooting Steps Overview

Cause	Explanation
Software Glitch	If you have a newer model of TV, then WiFi connection problems can potentially be resolved by power cycling, or by turning on Simple IP Control in Home Network settings.
IP/DNS Conflict	If your TV is set to pull a manual IP/DNS, it can fail to be assigned an IP depending if the address range is outside one that your router provides. In this case, your TV may or may not connect to your phone’s hotspot.
Old Firmware	Constant disconnection problems might be resolved by updating firmware, if available.
2.4GHz/5GHz Bandwidth Issues	Even relatively recent TVs (2018 models) might not be able to connect to 5GHz WiFi and/or the bandwidth you are broadcasting on might have high levels of interference.
Incorrect Time/Date	IP addresses acquired by DHCP typically expire 24 hours – 1 week after assigning. If your TV’s date is outside this range, it can cause it to reject the IP address offered by your router/your router allow the connection.
WiFi Module Failure	If you have ruled out all software issues and potential router problems, then you are left with a WiFi module failure. Open up your TV and checks its connections are firmly seated first, then replace if necessary.

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What To Do If Your Sony TV Won’t Connect to WiFi

For a quick overview of the steps needed to fix your TV/router, you can take a look at my video below, with the full details for each step following this.

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How to Fix Router WiFi Problems

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1. Make Sure Your WiFi Password is Correct

If your WiFi will not connect at all on your TV, this could be a sign that the password you are entering is incorrect, or the WPS setup failed.

If you used WPS, try entering your password manually, and vice versa.

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2. Check Your Router is Not Set for MAC Address Filtering

MAC address filtering allows you to specify which devices are allowed to connect to the Internet using their unique MAC addresses, which every Internet-capable device has.

If you, or someone in your family, has switched on MAC filtering at the router level, your TV will not connect to the Internet but it will still connect to your router.

So if you do have a connection to your router from your TV, but your TV has no Internet connection, then login to your router by typing the Admin IP address into your phone’s or computer’s browser. This is listed on a label on your router (usually 192.168.1.1 or similar), along with the admin login info.

Go to Advanced or Expert Settings and find MAC Filtering. Make sure this is turned off.

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3. Change Router Authentication to WPA

If your Sony TV is around ten years old, then it may not support the latest protection algorithms that your router uses to secure its WiFi connection.

Log in to your router through its admin page (on the label beneath your router, and usually something similar to 192.168.0.1), and go to General WiFi Settings or similar.

Look for the Protection Mode, which will most likely show WPA2. Change this to WPA or WPA + WPA2 and try to reconnect your TV to your WiFi.

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4. Possible WiFi Interference / Too Many Devices

If your Sony TV is not detecting your home WiFi signal at all, then you need to make sure that your router is switched on and working properly, and that there is no interference or blocking of the WiFi signal between your router and TV.

If your TV won’t connect to the Internet but other devices will from the SAME location, then you can assume your router’s WiFi signal is good, and the problem is likely within your TV.

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5. Sony TV Not Picking Up 5GHz WiFi

Check the user manual for your specific TV to see which bandwidths it supports, but as an example, even some TVs from as late as 2018 only support 2.4GHz, meaning that if your router is only broadcasting a 5GHz signal, your TV cannot connect to it.

Older TVs might only accept 2.4GHz WiFi frequencies.

Login to your router’s landing page, usually found by typing 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.1.0 into a browser on your phone or computer (the exact IP will be on a label on your router).

Find the login info on your router’s label, and take a look at the overview page to see whether your TV is connecting on 2.4GHz or 5GHz.

If it is connecting on the 5GHz channel, try changing the settings in your TV’s Network Status page to connect only on 2.4GHz.

You can also update the channel frequencies in the router itself, usually found under Expert Settings or Advanced Settings, changing these values and retesting your TV’s Wi-Fi connection to see if they make any difference.

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6. Reset Your Router

You can first try a soft reset of your router – unplugging it for 30 seconds – to see if that fixes your issue.

If not, try a hard reset of your router by pressing a paperclip or similar into the small reset hole usually found on the back of your router.

You will need to hold the paperclip on the reset button for at least ten seconds to be sure your router is fully reset.

Make sure you still have your WiFi default password before hard resetting.

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How to Fix Sony TV WiFi Problems

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1. Power Cycle Your Sony TV

Although this might seem a basic step, power cycling your TV is often the best way to fix your Sony TV not connecting to the Internet.

About 30% of people who contact me either through email, YouTube, or who leave comments here, fix their problem with a power cycle.

To soft reset a Sony TV:

1. Unplug your Sony TV and hold down the physical power button beneath the IR receiver on the TV for at least 15 seconds.
2. Wait for at least 30 minutes for any residual power to drain.
3. Plug your TV back in and try switching it on. You should see a red light if you have been successful.
4. It’s a good idea to try this a couple more times if it doesn’t work at first, as this can sometimes take a few goes to kick in.

If power cycling your TV does get it to connect again, but it then loses WiFi connection which can only be restored with a restart, try switching on Simple IP Control as below.

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2. Enable Simple IP Control

Simple IP Control is a setting that recent Sony Android TVs have to allow remote devices to connect to your TV and control it, useful if you want to set up home automations, for example.

Turn on Simple IP Control from Settings -> Network and Internet -> Home network setup -> IP Control -> Simple IP Control -> Enable.

This will increase energy consumption as it prevents your TV from going to sleep when on standby, and therefore stops your TV from dropping its IP address when in sleep mode, which seems to be common with recent Sony Android TV models.

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3. Sony TV Not Connecting to WiFi Automatically

If your TV WiFi is not working, but it is working on other devices, then check for an issue with your TV’s IP and DNS addresses.

In most cases, your TV should be set up to automatically select an IP address from your router, and usually also automatically pulls a DNS address, which is used to resolve IP addresses that your TV connects to, creating the URL that you see in the address bar.

But it’s possible that IP address lookup might have been set to Manual, and your DNS settings might be conflicting between your TV and WiFi router.

To check this, go to Settings -> Network -> Network Set-up -> View Network setting and status and check that your IP Address Setting is Auto.

If it is not Auto, then go back to the previous screen and choose Set up network connection, and change the IP Address Setting to Auto.

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4. Update Your TV’s Firmware

If your Sony TV keeps disconnecting from WiFi, then updating the firmware is your best option.

To update firmware on most Sony TVs:

1. Press Settings on your remote control.

2. Go to Customer Support, Product Support, or Setup.
3. If available, select Automatic Software Update or Automatic Software Download and check that this is switched on. (Note that you must agree to the Privacy Policy to receive automatic updates – go to Help -> Privacy Policy to find it).
4. Otherwise, select Software Update.
5. Choose your Network, then press Yes or OK to start the update process.

For Sony Android TVs:

1. Press Home on your remote.
2. Go to Help.
3. Choose Status & Diagnostics.
4. Then System software update.
5. You can check that Automatically check for updates is switched on, and manually check for updates using the Software Update button.

Sony Android and Google TVs will automatically update firmware if connected to the Internet. If your WiFi has been broken for some time, then your Sony TV may not have the latest firmware, which you will have to install manually via USB.

1. Go to the Sony support site on your computer.
2. In the Search box, enter your TV’s model name. (Take a look at Sony’s help page if you can’t find it).

3. Go to the Downloads tab and click the most recent Firmware update and download it to your computer.

4. The update process varies depending on your TV, but full instructions for each model are provided on the firmware update screen. Follow these to complete the update process.

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5. Check Your TV’s Time and Date

IP addresses assigned automatically over DHCP have a lease expiration time attached, and this is the most common cause if your Sony TV shows a “Not connected to Internet” error message.

This time is typically 24 hours – 1 week, and after this time is up, the router reclaims the IP address and either assigns a new one to your TV or re-leases the old one.

If your TV’s time and date are wrong, it can cause the IP address to “expire” at the moment of assigning and prevent connection to the router.

Go to Settings -> Date & Time -> Automatic Date & Time and choose Use network time, then restart your TV.

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6. Factory Reset Your Sony TV

If the problem is with your TV and no other fix has worked, try factory resetting as a final step before looking at hardware fixes.

To factory reset a non-Android Sony TV:

1. Unplug the TV.
2. Wait for 1 minute, then plug your TV back in.
3. If it doesn’t switch on automatically, press the Power button on the remote or the TV itself.
4. Once switched on and fully loaded, hold the Up arrow on the remote and at the same time, hold the Power button on the TV until “Reset” appears on-screen.

5. Once you see “Reset” on-screen, or after a count of ten, release the Up arrow and then the TV’s Power button.
6. Your TV will now reset itself and return to the initial setup screen.

You can see these steps in the video from Sony below.

To factory reset an Android Sony TV and if your Sony TV remote is working:

1. Press Settings on your remote.
2. Go to System.
3. Then About.
4. And Reset.
5. Choose Factory data reset.
6. And Erase everything, and confirm you want to do this. If asked for a PIN, use 9999.

You can see details for how to reset other models of Sony Android TV in the video below.

If you don’t have the remote, then you can factory reset your Sony TV using the guides for TVs that have either one or three buttons or four or more buttons.

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7. Use an Ethernet Cable

Finally, if you are still unable to get the WiFi working on your TV, you might have to resort to using an Ethernet cable.

A temporary Ethernet connection can help to ensure that firmware is up to date.

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8. Replace the WiFi Module

If none of the previous steps have worked, then you are most likely suffering from a failed WiFi module which is pretty easy to replace yourself.

Take a look at the video below for a step-by-step guide to do this. You will need to open up your TV which will invalidate its warranty, so this is really only a solution for TVs that are over one year old.

Sony TV Support and Warranty

It goes without saying that if your TV is under one year old, then you should contact Sony customer support to get it replaced under warranty.

You can call Sony directly at:

• 239-245-6354 (Mon – Fri, 9am – 9pm ET, Sat – Sun, 10am – 8pm ET)

Or text them at 239-245-6354, or ask for a callback.

Even if Sony won’t fix your TV, they might still offer you a discount on a future model if you pester them hard enough! This is always worth a try in my experience.

Sony WiFi Troubleshooting Quick Tips

• Use your phone’s hotspot to localize the WiFi connection problem to either your TV or router.
• If your Sony TV won’t connect to WiFi, then check the DHCP IP address is set to obtain automatically and that your TV’s date and time are correct.
• If the problem is with your router, check MAC address filtering is off and that it is broadcasting an appropriate 2.4GHz/5GHz signal.
• The most common cause of WiFi connection problems on Sony TVs are software-related, or failures of the WiFi module.

Hopefully, you’ve now got your TV’s WiFi back up and running. If not, leave me a comment and I’ll see what more I can do to help.

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