If you are a Samsung TV owner like myself you’re definitely finding yourself in a situation where your Samsung Tv is not connecting to Wifi. This is a fairly common issue happening for all of us, but the good news is that you can debug this without requiring advanced technical knowledge by following this guide.
Connecting your Samsung tv to the internet has simplified the way you access online content that you will most definitely miss the capability when you cannot use it.
Luckily the solutions I will present next are proven to work for most Samsung TVs and have worked for me in the past whenever I encountered this issue.
When a Samsung TV is not connecting to wifi you can have issues with Samsung server errors or cannot stream content using other services like AirPlay so it’s important to fix this quickly.
Samsung TV not connecting to Wifi
If your Samsung TV is not connecting to WiFi you will need to reset it. To do this unplug your TV from the power supply and wait for at least 60 seconds before you plug it back in. While the TV is unplugged from the power you will want to keep the power button pressed to make sure any residual power is drained from it.
Make sure to hold the power button on the TV and not the one on the remote. After the 60 seconds are over you can plug it back in and see if the WiFi connection is back up automatically.
Unplug Samsung TV from the power outlet
One of the easiest ways of fixing any issue with electronic devices is to do a soft reset.
To do this simply remove the power cord from the power socket and keep the Samsung TV removed from power for at least 60 seconds.
While the power cable is removed from the power outlet press the power button on the TV and keep it pressed for at least 30 seconds to make sure any residual power is drained from the TV before you plug it back in.
After the 60 seconds are up you can plug the TV back in and see if the Samsung Tv not connecting to wifi issue is still present.
Power cycle the network equipment
If you’ve already power cycled the TV itself and the WiFi connectivity issue is still present you can try to do the same thing with all the internet equipment you use for the connection.
The first step is to remove all network devices (modem, router, Wifi range extenders) from power and wait for a few seconds for the residual power to drain from them.
After that is done you will want to plug everything back to power starting with the device closest to the internet entry point in your home, and then moving along with the devices closer to the TV.
This means you will start with the modem or router that is first linked to the wire coming to your house, you will wait until the connection is re-established, and then you will move on with the other devices one at a time to allow each one of them to connect to the previous until you reach the one used for connection to your TV.
After all of this is done you should check your Samsung TV again and see if the WiFi connection is working.
Reset network settings on Samsung TV
If your Samsung TV will not connect to WiFI you can try to do network settings reset to see if it fixes the issue.
To do a network settings reset on your Samsung TV follow these steps:
- Use the remote to open the Settings screen
- Go to the General category in the Settings menu
- Open Network Settings
- Select the Reset Network option in the menu
- Confirm the reset in the pop-up
Once the network settings reset is completed you will see a message confirming the changes. Once that is done you can check the network status and try to connect to WiFi again and see if the issue is fixed.
Connect other devices to the same network
Before you change any settings on your Samsung TV you should first check if the issue is coming from the TV itself, or if your network is the one causing the problems.
The easiest way of doing this is to connect another device to the same network you are using on your TV and then see if the internet works on this second device.
You can use any device that is capable of WiFi connections for this test, like your phone or tablet.
If the internet works OK on this second device then you at least know that the issue is not coming from your router connection and that it is something on the TV side that needs further investigation and troubleshooting.
Change the DNS server number
If you’ve verified your network connection with other devices and the connection is working ok you should try this step and change the DNS server on your Samsung TV.
DNS (or Domain Name System) is a database that links the name of a site you enter in your browser to a certain IP address.
To change the DNS server number just follow these steps:
- Navigate to Settings > General > Network > Network Status, and then select IP Settings.
- Navigate to and select DNS Setting > Enter Manually.
- Navigate to and select DNS Server.
- Enter 8.8.8.8 and then try connecting again.
If the connection is successful after you updated your Samsung TV’s DNS server number then you can stop with the fixes here.
Reduce the number of devices connected to your network
You might not be aware of this, but routers can only handle a certain amount of devices connected to them, based on the available bandwidth.
With so many home devices being capable of connecting to the internet recently you might not even notice that you connected 2-3 phones, tablets, computers, cameras, or even fridges or washing machines.
Each device connected to the network will most likely reduce the bandwidth available to the other devices, to the point where your devices will experience lagging and connectivity issues.
To see if the cause of your Samsung TV WiFi connection issue is a congested network you should disconnect as many devices from it as you can.
This can be done from the router settings by kicking the devices from the connection or by doing it from each device individually.
Once you reduced the number of devices connected to your network you should try to connect your Samsung TV back to WiFi.
The Samsung tv not connecting to wifi issue should be fixed after you’ve cleared some of the connected devices from your network.
Try connecting to a different network
If you have a lot of devices running on the same network this could cause congestion and increase latency.
In turn, your Samsung TV won’t connect to WiFi or it will throw all kinds of errors even if it is connected.
That means all your devices are “fighting” for the same bandwidth which in turn creates lagging or buffering issues.
A strong internet connection is necessary to have your Samsung TV connect to the internet.
These days almost all routers are dual-band, which means they transmit on two frequencies. The lower frequency at 2.4 GHz is required for legacy compatibility and has greater signal reach, but the 5.0 GHz one offers faster internet speeds and higher performance.
If you have a router that has both options available, or any other routers nearby you can try to switch your Samsung TV to one of these different available networks and see if the connection works.
Check network connection strength
While we’re verifying the available connections we will want to also make sure the connection strength is good enough for our Samsung TV.
To check the network connection strength follow these steps:
- Use your TV remote to navigate to Settings.
- Click on General > Network > Open Network Settings > Wireless.
- Check the number of wifi bars showing on your TV.
If you’re seeing full bars then you know the connection strength is good.
Otherwise, you will need to make sure the router is close enough to your Samsung TV, or that you don’t have something between them that is blocking the signal.
If you can’t move your current router closer you can always purchase a wireless range extender, these are fairly cheap and help you increase the signal strength in areas of your home the router will not reach.
Check WiFi password is correct
I know this advice might seem like the most basic thing you can hear, but you need to make sure you entered the right WiFi password on your Samsung TV when you’re trying to connect to your network.
These passwords are case-sensitive, so if you put a lowercase letter in place of an uppercase letter, or miss one single character you will not be able to connect to the network.
Double-check the password you typed on your Samsung TV, as typing on a TV is not easy considering you have to navigate through the keyboard displayed on the screen using the remote.
You can also check the password you have is correct by typing it on a phone or another device you can access easily and see if it works and you are able to connect.
Don’t skip this check, sometimes the most obvious and easy answers are the ones that will fix the problem.
Use an ethernet cable as a workaround
If you’re still not able to connect your Samsung TV to WiFi and your TV has an ethernet input you should be able to run a cable from your WiFi router to your TV and use a wired connection instead.
This could be a temporary solution until you figure out why your Samsung TV is not connecting to WiFi, or you can keep the cable in place for a longer period of time as it offers some advantages too and it is not just the inconvenience of having to run a cable through your house.
A wired connection can offer a more stable experience as this will not suffer from interferences with other devices as can happen with a wireless connection.
Factory reset the TV
If you’re still having issues with your Samsung smart TV not connecting to WiFi you should do a factory reset on your Samsung TV.
A factory reset will remove all the settings and configurations done on your TV since you purchased it and will remove any saved information like logged-in accounts or other app settings.
The Samsung TV will return to default factory settings after the factory resetting process is finished, so you should be prepared to configure it again if you will apply this method.
To factory reset your Samsung TV follow these steps:
- Press the source button on the remote, then move to the left to select the Settings gear icon
- Go to the General menu
- Select the Reset option in the menu
- input the security pin to perform the reset. If you’ve never set a pin code you can try the default one which is 0000 (4 zeros)
After this, your TV will factory reset and all the settings will be restored to the values they had when you first purchased it.
You will need to log back into your Samsung account once the reset process is finished.
Update Samsung TV software
Using an outdated firmware version of the Samsung Smart TVs software can cause these WiFi connectivity issues.
You should always make sure your Samsung TV is using the latest software version.
To do the update follow these steps:
- Click on the Home button on the remote
- Open the Settings menu
- Go to the Support section
- Select Software Update
- Select Update Now
After the update is complete you should check the TV and see if the WiFi connection is restored.
Contact Samsung support
If you are still unable to connect to the internet and none of these possible solutions have worked for you it is time to contact Samsung support.
You will need to provide your Samsung TV model number to the support staff and explain the issue, and then they will instruct you on what needs to happen further.
The bottom line
Samsung TV not connecting to wifi is a common issue happening for all of us Samsung TV owners, but we have presented you with some possible fixes for this issue.
Almost all are easy to try and will only take a few minutes of your time.
These are:
- Unplug Samsung TV from the power
- Power cycle the network equipment
- Reset network settings on your Samsung TV
- Connect other devices to the same network to make sure it’s not a network issue
- Change the DNS server number
- Reduce the number of devices connected to the same network
- Try connecting to a different network
- Check WiFi password is correct
- Use an ethernet cable as a workaround
- Software reset the Samsung TV
- Update Samsung TV software
- Contact Samsung support
If any of these fixes worked or you have further suggestions you can leave us a message using the contact page form. We are always happy to answer your questions and help in any way we can.