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WP Tips & Tricks: Keep WiFi Running All The Time

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I was reading through a forum last night and picked up a tip that I think you will be interested in. I was skeptical at first, but after repeated tests I am convinced this works. There appears to be a bug (or feature) with the iHeartRadio app, or possibly other music type apps, where once the app has launched and music starts playing, even after stopping the music and exiting the app, your WiFi connection will persist. Put your phone to sleep and wake it after several minutes. Your WiFi connection will still be on. In fact, the only way to turn your WiFi connection off is to toggle it off or toggle Airplane Mode.

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My Surround has no SIM, so it is WiFi only. The first time I tried this it did activate the iHeartRadio Background Task. But even after turning the Background Task off, WiFi stayed on. Actually, subsequent launches of iHeartRadio did not even turn the Background Task on (after toggling WiFi off/on), although the app still played with the screen off and the WiFi remained on. To verify that I was not just looking at an awake WiFi icon, I put my Surround to sleep, waited several minutes (WiFi normally turns off after 30 seconds) and then sent myself an email from my L900. Within seconds, both phones tingled, announcing a new message. Did it twice just to be sure. Note that WiFi even persists after launching a video, or something else that will knock the paused song off the volume control. Again, the only way to turn off WiFi after iHeartRadio has turned it on is to toggle WiFi off, or turn Airplane Mode on. I have verified this on both my Surround and L900. I tested several other apps on my Surround with Background Agents, like; easyRing&music, Dailymotion, SkyMusic & SuperTube, but none of them reproduced this WiFi persistent on effect. Same no go for the Zune Music application.

Not sure yet if this is a blessing or a curse. It will definitely be my next battery test after completing my round of tests with Edge vs. LTE (that’s not going too well) in another day or two. Will be interesting to see what kind of hit this has on battery life. I also wonder if this may be the cause of some users commenting on terrible battery life, not realizing their WiFi is continuously running.

So if you “need” to have your WiFi running all the time, do the trick described above and let us know if it works for you. And if you find another app that works the same way (Skype is rumored, but not confirmed) be sure to share. Bet iHeartRadio will see an unusual amount of downloads today.

Oh, and thanks “thinkdan” for the tip. Well done.

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