Fix Android Wi-Fi Hotspot Connected But No Internet in Windows 10

There are situations when a mobile hotspot created on your Android Phone works fine on other devices but on your Windows PC it says: Connected, No Internet.

Recently I encountered a similar situation on a fresh install of Windows 10 Version 1809. Before this I was running Windows 7 SP1 and though I occasionally encountered some connectivity issues of this kind, it had never persisted to the extent I was experiencing in Windows 10.

So what had changed? Nothing apart from the OS as I was still using the same Android phone and cellular network as before.

Troubleshooting Connected, No Internet Error

Running the Network troubleshooter didn't help and only returned: the Wi-Fi doesn’t have a valid IP configuration Error.

A couple of thing suggested online that I tried to resolve the issue with include:

1. Reset your Wi-Fi adapter - this should be as simple as restarting your computer or replugging if you're using an external USB Wi-Fi Adapter.
2. Release and renew your IP Address: run ipconfig /release in command line
3. Reset TCP/IP settings - run netsh int ip reset in command line then restart your computer
4. Reinstall your Wi-Fi Adapter Drivers
5. Change your DNS settings - this is what eventually worked for me

Solution: Change your DNS Settings

Windows by default uses the DNS configuration settings from your Internet Service Provider (ISP). In our case that would be the network carrier whose internet connection is used to create the portable Wi-Fi hotspot.

The ISPs are required to provide this service however you can override them with different DNS services that are more reliable, faster or that provide enhanced security.

Two commonly used alternative DNS services include the free Google Public DNS and Open DNS.
Changing your configuration to use one of this or any other custom DNS servers will likely resolve this issue as it did for me.

To do this in Windows 10:

1. Right-click the Wi-Fi icon in the system tray and select Open Network & Internet Settings.

2. In the Settings window under the Change your network settings select Change adapter options.

Open Adapter Options

3. In the Network Connections window identify your mobile hotspot connection then right-click it and select Properties.

View Mobile Hotspot Properties

4. In the Wi-Fi Properties window select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) then click the Properties button.

Open TCP/IP Properties

5. Now just choose Use the following DNS server addresses then enter your preferred DNS Servers addresses:

• Google DNS: 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4
• Open DNS: 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220

Update DNS Server Addresses

6. Click OK then close. Now just connect to the hotspot again and see if the problem has been resolved.

How to Stop 'WhatsApp is using battery' Notification

WhatsApp for Android comes with different types of notifications. You can control the behaviour of these notifications in the app's settings however some notification types are not available there.

Such is the case of the 'You may have new messages' and 'Checking for new messages' notifications which appear in the notification panel in instances when WhatsApp is experiencing connectivity issues.

Fortunately, these two notifications can be disabled using the new category app notifications available from Android 8.0 (Oreo) without having to turn off the normal WhatsApp notifications.

You may however start noticing a new notification informing you that WhatsApp is using battery after disabling both of these notifications .

Disable the Apps Consuming Battery Notification

WhatsApp is using battery Notification

This notification is not from WhatsApp but from the Android System. Assuming you've not restricted WhatsApp from running in the background, this message is pretty obvious and quite annoying at the same time.

You can disable the notification in Android 8.0 and later using either one of the following methods:

In the Notification Panel

When the notification appears just long press it and you should get a toggle to disable the Android System notification as shown below

Turn off the toggle

In the App & Notification Settings

1. Go to Android's Settings > Apps & notifications > See all apps

2. Tap on the three dots on the top right and select Show system

3. In the list of apps select Android system > App notifications

4. Now just turn off the toggle for the App consuming battery notification

Disable Apps Consuming Battery Category

That should get rid of the notification however note this is a system wide and will therefore affect other apps that show this specific notification.

With that said, WhatsApp is the only app that I've noticed triggers this notification. So you can safely disable it.

How to Stop WhatsApp 'Checking for new messages' Notification

The "Checking for new messages" is a WhatsApp notification that appears in your Android's notification panel usually because you're on a slow network. Often, the notification appears for a few seconds and disappears on its own.

In some cases, however, the notification stays in the panel until you clear it manually. This happens when the internet connectivity issue has persisted for longer than usual.

At this point, the notification may even change to a different WhatsApp notification that you may noticed if you experience this issue often. This is the equally annoying "You may have new messages" notification which fortunately you can disable separately in much the same way as this one.

Disable the Notification Category in Android 8.0 and later

In Android 8.0 (Oreo) and later it's possible to turn on and off specific notifications for apps. This means therefore that you can turn off this particular WhatsApp notification without having to disable others.

To do that, try either of the following methods:

1. When the notification pop ups, just long press it and turn off the toggle for the Other notifications

2. Alternatively, you can go to the Settings and open App & notifications

3. Open WhatsApp then select the App notifications option

4. In the list of notifications, scroll down to the Other category and disable Other notifications

Disabling the Notification on Android 7.0 and below

On Android 7.0 (Nougat) and below you cannot disable notifications based on categories. You'll therefore be forced have to block all notifications for WhatsApp to disable this specific notification.

This will disable normal chat and group message notifications so it's not ideal if you wish to still get those notifications.

To do that, go to:

• On Android 7.0: Settings > Notifications > WhatsApp > Block All
• On Android 6.0: Settings > Sound & Notifications > App notifications > WhatsApp > Block All

As stated earlier, this notification typically degenerates to the "You may have new messages" notification if WhatsApp is unsuccessful in checking for new messages.

This particular notification however is not merely a symptom of a poor network and may also be as a result of activating data saver or restricting background data.

Fortunately, these two things are possible to turn off inolder versions of Android as I've explained here. Try disabling them if you have them activated and see if that gets rid of the notification.

How to Stop WhatsApp 'You may have new messages' Notification

WhatsApp uses push notifications to alert you of new messages. For this to work, it must only run in the background but also have access to background data.

When the internet connectivity on your Android phone is poor or down WhatsApp may not be able to check for new messages in the background. In other words, it senses that you may have new messages but due to the current network conditions cannot ascertain that fact.

To handle this failure on its part, it pushes the "You may have new messages" notification as a kind of "polite reminder" for you to bring the app in the foreground (i.e. open the app) and confirm manually if any new messages have arrived.

Usually before this, WhatsApp shows the other equally annoying "Checking for new messages" notification which often disappears on its own but may hang around if the network issue does not resolve before turning into this other notification.

This failure however is not necessarily due to an external network issue. It could also emanate from the Android OS when as users we either disable background data or activate the Data Saver option.

Background Data and Data Saver Can Cause the Notification

You may have new messages Notification

These two features actively stop background apps from using data in the background. As such, though WhatsApp is running and mobile data is turned on, it may not be able to access the internet.

It's only recourse is therefore to throw this notification as a guess since I suspect it can’t tell the difference when a poor network is to blame and when its network rights are being micromanaged by the OS.

Data Saver Function

Either way this is mighty annoying as the notification suggestion of there being new messages is often incorrect. Worse it may pop up a few moments later and is sure to do so on future occasions. The only way out here is to disable it for good or at least curtail where that's not possible.

Here a couple of different ways to do that.

1. Disable the Notification using WhatsApp Notification Categories

In Android 8.0 (Oreo) and later it's possible to turn on and off specific notifications for apps. In the case of WhatsApp, this means you can turn off this particular notification without affecting its normal notifications.

To do this, do the following:

1. Go to the Settings and open App & notifications

2. Open WhatsApp then select the App notifications option

3. In the list of notifications, scroll down to the Other category and disable Failure notifications

Turn off Failure Notifications

Alternatively, you can long press the notification when it pop ups then disable it right there in the notification panel.

Disable in the Notification Panel

On Android 7.0 (Nougat) and 6.0 (Marshmallow) you cannot disable notifications based on categories. You'll therefore be forced to block all notifications for WhatsApp to disable this specific notification.

To do that do the following:

• Android 7.0 go to: Settings > Notifications > WhatsApp > Block All
• Android 6.0 go to: Settings > Sound & Notifications > App notifications > WhatsApp > Block All

2. Disable the Notification by Changing Data Saver Settings

Your first option here is to just disable the Data Saver. However, it's obvious that you've turned on this setting purposefully to cut down on your mobile data usage and thus turning it off completely won't make sense.

Fortunately, you can adjust the Data Saver settings to give only WhatsApp access to background data while restricting other apps.

To do that, do the following:

1. Go to Network & Internet settings > Data Usage > Data Saver. You can also open the Data Saver settings by long pressing its toggle in the Quick settings panel then select Data Saver.

Long Press Data Saver Icon

2. Next open the Unrestricted data option

3. Now just turn on the toggle for WhatsApp

3. Disable the Notification by Enabling Background Data for WhatsApp

On Android 7.0 and later you can toggle background data for individual apps. Ensure that WhatsApp is not restricted to access background data by going to: Settings > App & notifications > WhatsApp > Data usage > Background data.

Enable Background Data for WhatsApp

Note: When disabled, this setting overrides Data Saver's Unrestricted data usage option.

On Android 6.0 and below the restrict background data setting is system wide and thus applies to all apps. You'll therefore have to turn it off if you want WhatsApp to access data in the background.

To do that go to: Settings > Data usage > tap on the three dots menu > Allow background data

Offline .NET Installation: Error 0x800f081f Due to Wrong Path

Windows 10 (and also 8.1) doesn't come with DotNet Framework 3.5/2.0 preinstalled. Running the .Net Framework 3.5 installer (dotnetfx35.exe) that used to work on Windows 7/Vista likewise doesn't work on Windows 10 instead it prompts one to install it via Windows Update.

Ironically Microsoft includes the install packages in the Windows 10 ISO for those that need to install the framework on demand. It's these packages that I've been using since Windows 8.1 to install the framework on my machine offline.

So it came as a surprise to me recently when I run into an error after trying to install the framework on a fresh install of Windows 10 build 1809. To me, nothing had changed. I was using the same command that had worked on past installations:

Dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:NetFX3 /All /Source:V:\source\sxs /LimitAccess

Instead every time I run the command I was greeted by the error: 0x800f081f. Apparently the source files could not be found yet the package was available in the mounted location.

Error 0x800f081f

So I tried installing the package from an older build of Windows (10240) and a Windows 8.1 ISO but the same error came up. I even tried using different cases and arrangements for the command but the error persisted.

Searching online, the error itself seemed prevalent but was not necessarily occurring only during the offline installation. It's only after this that I decided to take a closer look at my command and realized the source of the problem.

Turns out I was using an incorrect path. All this time I had been specifying \source\sxs as the path instead of \sources\sxs. The command should've been (where X is the mount point):

Dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:NetFX3 /All /Source:X:\sources\sxs /LimitAccess

Or even:

Dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:NetFX3 /All /LimitAccess /sources:X:\sources\sxs

Using upper or lower case had no effect in my case contrary to what I've seen mentioned in a certain forum. They all worked perfectly. Just make sure the path is correct.

Prevent BlackPlayer from Waking Screen on Track Change

BlackPlayer is a feature rich and customizable android music player. It's been my go to music player for the past 2 years. Within that period, I've been more or less using it on the same Android phone running Android 6.0.

I've never encountered any issues with the player until recently when I upgraded to a Redmi GO running Android Oreo (8.1.0). The small issue that surfaced is that the screen wakes up for a few seconds every time the players goes to the next playing track. This is happening on BlackPlayer version 2.53.

At first I hadn't realized this since my phone is usually in the pocket when playing music. When I initially saw it wake, my guess was that it was a notification from a different application as it's different from the normal BlackPlayer lock screen that was still accessible when I pressed the lock button.

This one on the other hand had just the clock and the playing track details on a black screen with text only controls. I cannot screenshot it since pressing the lock button hides it immediately.

Naturally the BlackPlayer settings were the first place I looked to disable this notification. As there was no explicit setting that mentioned this behaviour. I tried first testing different Lock screen options available in the Remote section of the app's settings.

This yielded no results prompting me to check the available notifications for BlackPlayer inside Android's App & notification settings.

It's here that I found only two notification categories for it:

• BlackPlayer
• Scanner

BlackPlayer Notification Categories

The first handles the lock screen and notification panel notifications. The Scanner is as the name suggests for the music scanner that discovers new music. I tried turning off all the notifications and as it turned out, the waking stopped but so had all the other BlackPlayer notifications.

BlackPlayer and Scanner Notifications

So next I turned on the BlackPlayer category notifications on and left the scanner one off. As expected the notifications came back but strangely the wake notification did not reappear again. On noticing I stopped all testing and assumed the Scanner notification was to blame.

I say assumed since days later as I write this that assumption got invalidated after I tried replicating the issue before posting this article. Turns out it's not the Scanner notification that is to blame but the BlackPlayer one.

What happens is that toggling the BlackPlayer category notification off stops the waking notification but doesn't reactivate it when toggled again.

Quite strange I might say. At this point I don't know what exactly is at fault here: the player, the Android OS or my Redmi GO.