Chromebook Keeps Disconnecting from Wi-Fi? Here’s the Fix

One minute you’re browsing, the next your Chromebook loses Wi-Fi and won’t reconnect without a restart. It’s one of the most common Chromebook complaints, and it’s usually fixable in just a few steps.

Work through these fixes from top to bottom. Most people solve the problem before reaching the end.

How to Fix a Chromebook That Keeps Dropping Wi-Fi

1. Restart your Chromebook and your router. Hold the power button, shut down completely, then turn both your Chromebook and router back on. This clears temporary glitches on both ends and fixes the issue more often than you’d expect.
2. Forget the network and reconnect. Click the clock in the bottom-right corner, then click the Wi-Fi icon. Select your network, click Forget, then reconnect by entering your password again. This rebuilds the connection from scratch.
3. Check for a ChromeOS update. Click the clock, then go to Settings. Click About ChromeOS, then Check for updates. Google often patches Wi-Fi bugs in regular updates. Restart after installing.
4. Turn off Wi-Fi power saving. Open Settings and type “Wi-Fi” in the search bar. Select your network, scroll to Advanced, and look for a power-saving or sleep option. Turn it off. Some Chromebooks drop Wi-Fi when the screen dims to save power.
5. Switch your router to a different band or channel. If your router broadcasts both 2.4GHz and 5GHz, try connecting to the other one. Go to Settings, click your network, and expand Advanced to see which frequency you’re on. You can also log into your router and change the Wi-Fi channel to reduce interference from nearby networks.
6. Assign a static IP address. Open Settings, click your Wi-Fi network, then expand Network. Turn off Configure IP address automatically and enter your current IP address manually. This stops IP conflicts where your router reassigns a different address and drops the connection.

If Nothing Works

Run the built-in connectivity test. Open a new tab, type chrome://diagnostics in the address bar, and run the network tests. It checks your Wi-Fi adapter, your connection to the router, and the connection from the router to the internet. The results will tell you exactly where the problem is.

If the diagnostics show a hardware fault, or if your Chromebook drops Wi-Fi on every network you try, contact the manufacturer’s support. It may be a hardware issue with the Wi-Fi adapter.

Good to Know

• If other devices also drop the same Wi-Fi, the problem is your router or ISP, not the Chromebook.
• Chromebooks on older ChromeOS versions sometimes have known Wi-Fi bugs. Keeping the OS updated is the best long-term fix.
• If the issue started after a ChromeOS update, check the Google Chromebook Help Community for reports of a known bug and a timeline for the fix.

Staying connected takes less than five minutes to fix in most cases. Start from the top, and you’ll likely have it sorted before you get halfway down the list.