Data and WIFI

[joojy3]

In the upper right hand corner is the blue signal for data and wifi.  for the past 2 weeks, these 2 icons have been gray.  no matter what i do, i can not get them to change back to blue.  i can turn the wifi off and the data will still not go to blue.  i can go home and trun wifi on, it will not go blue, i can open the browser, but the wifi signal is gray. my data is getting pretty high because of this.  i am not sure what is going on, but data went blue on monday, i got like 30 messages all at the same time.  now with it being gray, i have gotten no mail. not many texts and i can never get any apps to work properly.  can someone give me clue to what might be going on?  please!!!

[Snn5]

What model of phone is this, is it a Galaxy Nexus by chance?  Anyway, Gray means you are not connected to Google Servers.  Blue means you are.  Tell us the model of phone you have and the version of Android operating system you have.

[joojy3]

i have a motorola razr max.  it is about 3 years old.  i thought gray meant not connected.  no one will believe me that it is not working correctly because the browser will open.

[Snn5]

Blue connected, Gray not connected.

The browser will open and sometime you can browse, but you cannot sync anything from your google account.  I remember that from my Razr Maxx days as well.

It was a strange issue that eventually worked out after the final update to the phone which was 4.1.2 Jelly Bean.  I no longer had issues after that update.  I really was bugged by that issue myself because I'd be connected to my wifi, but nothing was happening.

Have you thought about a factory reset of the phone?  Perhaps an upgrade or replacing the phone with another model?  Also might have something to do with your router.  Have you replaced it recently?  Might be new and different technologies involved between the 2 devices.  Does this gray bar failure to connect to wifi happen on any other router or wifi network?  Do you always have blue bars when using network data?

[Snn5]

In hindsight I remember doing everything from "forgetting" the network, making sure the router had a password, changing the router from n to b/g only and reinstalling each google app after either uninstalling them, uninstalling the updates for each, or clearing out each g apps data.  I did a lot of things at one time to get mine to work instead of checking each step after I changed something.

[joojy3]

I have tried to connect to my kids school wifi, it didn't work this morning.  my data bars are never blue anymore.  i turn wifi off to kick up the data, and they still are in gray.  i turn the data off then back on, doesn't kick in. i have done a soft reset to the phone and that doesn't work.  my husband said that maybe the router did an upgrade with COX.  but since the browser opens he doesn't see the same thing i do.  He thinks it works fine.  i keep telling him it is not fine.  i don't know any of the passwords for the wifi, so i can't fix it myself.

i am also very bothered by this because the data is going crazy and it isn't even working correctly.  UGH!!!  

[Snn5]

Only other thing I know to do is to leave phone on, remove the SIM card, power down, and reinsert SIM, then power on.  Bet the husband pays attention when the bill comes in regarding the data use.  If your router has a WPS button on the front you might try to go to your Network settings on the phone and tap menu and Advanced WiFi then look for WPS Push Button and push the routers button then the phones.  The router may have the WPS PIN underneath it or on the side if you can't use the push button method.  I know your menu wont look just the same, not the bottom row of buttons but this is as close as I can remember it looking.