Fixing Wi-Fi that drops when Galaxy S4 sleeps

A woman with a Samsung Galaxy S4 enters the shop today complaining she cannot finish downloading a file from the internet because every time the screen turns off, her Wi-Fi will also get cut off.

She asked if it's a normal operation of the phone. I said yes, of course, because it is. However, there is an easy way to keep Wi-Fi connection going even if the phone goes to sleep. She was delighted upon hearing it and was excited to her problem resolved.

Here's what I did:

1. Go to Settings.
2. Tap Connections.
3. Tap Wi-Fi.
4. Tap the Menu key.
5. There's an option that says "Keep Wi-Fi on during sleep," choose "Always."

I tried downloading something off the net and waited until the screen turned off. I woke it up and found out the download was interrupted and the phone was re-connecting to the network. Usually, this problem never happens. I've tried it with other devices a lot of times but it was the first time I experienced it.

I rebooted the phone, downloaded the file and waited for the S4 to fall asleep. When I woke it up, this time the Wi-Fi stayed connected. Basically, there are times when you really need to reboot the phone so new settings will take effect.

If the reboot didn't work, the next thing I would have done was to disable Wi-Fi power saving mode.