How To: Fix “Obtaining IP Address” error on Android

Ever came across the “Obtaining IP address” issue while connecting to the WiFi network? Well, I recently came across the particular issue and it drove me crazy. When connecting to a network, the device shows ‘obtaining IP address but doesn’t connect and display ‘Disconnected/Disabled’ instead. Let us go through few tricks I tried, to solve this issue.

Before diving into the solution, let’s see what caused the Android device fail to connect to the Wi-Fi network. Usually, the main cause of this issue may be a typo while entering the password. Yes, that’s right. You might have mixed up the upper and lower cases.

Those seeking a version specific solutions, you can solve here at “how to fix obtaining IP address error“.

However, the issue can also be a result of the dynamic IP address of the device. A mobile device has DHCP by default, thus, until an IP address is assigned, the process doesn’t stop. However, some of the common causes that creates the issue are enlisted as:

Here’s what you can do.

#1. Reconnect to Wi-Fi network

Usually, the problem goes away when you reconnect to the network. This is because when you reconnect to a network, the router kills the previous attempt to gain the IP address and simply starts a new process. Also, one of the common mistakes we tend to do is turn the Wi-Fi off and on. Sometimes, this may solve the issue but it would be beneficial if you:

• Go to Settings >> WiFi/WLAN
• Select your WiFi SSID
• Go to it’s Menu >> Forget Network and reconnect to the WIFI

#2. Modify some Settings

Don’t panic if the above network didn’t work for you. Here’s another fix, that worked with me. Since, your mobile device has dynamic IP address, one way to solve the issue is to assign static IP address to your device.For this:

• Go to Settings >> WiFi/WLAN >> Turn WiFi on
• Long press your WiFi name or go to your WiFi’s option menu
• Scroll to find IP Settings (For some devices, it may be hidden under Modify Settings)
• Switch from DHCP to Static
• Assign IP address. Note that you need to assign a unique IP address. Also, leave others unchanged