Android Stuck on Obtaining IP Address? 7 Fixes That Work

The Wi-Fi password is right, the network is there, and Android sits on “Obtaining IP address” forever before quietly giving up and moving to the next network. It is one of the more maddening Wi-Fi faults because nothing appears to be wrong.

The quick answer: “Obtaining IP address” means your phone connected to the router successfully but the router never handed it an IP address, so the connection cannot complete. The password is not the problem, because a wrong password fails earlier with an authentication error. The usual causes are a full or stuck DHCP pool on the router, MAC address randomisation clashing with a MAC filter or a stale lease, or a corrupted saved network on the phone. The two fixes that resolve most cases are forgetting the network and rejoining it, and turning off randomised MAC for that specific network. Restarting the router clears most of the rest.

What is actually happening

Joining a Wi-Fi network happens in two stages. First the phone authenticates with the password. Then it asks the router for an IP address using DHCP, which is what identifies it on the network.

Getting stuck here means stage one succeeded and stage two failed. That single fact rules out a surprising amount:

• Your password is correct, or you would see “Authentication error” instead.
• The router is in range and responding.
• The fault is in address assignment, not the connection itself.

Fix it in order

#	Fix	Where	Works when
1	Forget the network and rejoin	Phone	Saved network is corrupted
2	Turn off randomised MAC	Phone	MAC filtering or stale lease
3	Restart the router	Router	DHCP pool stuck
4	Toggle airplane mode	Phone	Radio state stuck
5	Assign a static IP	Phone	DHCP genuinely full or broken
6	Reset network settings	Phone	Everything else failed
7	Widen the DHCP pool	Router	Many devices on the network

1. Forget the network and rejoin

Tap the network, choose Forget, then reconnect and re-enter the password. This clears the phone’s stored configuration for that network, including a stale lease it may be trying to reuse. It is the single most effective fix and takes twenty seconds.

2. Turn off randomised MAC for that network

This is the modern cause, and it is the one most older guides do not mention.

Android now generates a random MAC address per network for privacy. That is a good default, but it breaks two things: routers with MAC address filtering will not recognise the new address, and some routers hand out a lease tied to the old one and refuse a second.

Tap the network, then the gear or Advanced, find Privacy or MAC address type, and change Use randomised MAC to Use device MAC. Forget and rejoin afterwards.

If the network has MAC filtering enabled, you will also need to add the phone’s real MAC to the router’s allow list.

3. Restart the router

Unplug it for thirty seconds. DHCP servers on consumer routers get stuck more often than they should, particularly after weeks of uptime with devices coming and going. Thirty seconds matters: a quick power cycle sometimes preserves the stuck state.

4. Toggle airplane mode

On for fifteen seconds, then off. This resets the phone’s radios and forces a fresh association attempt.

5. Assign a static IP on the phone

This bypasses DHCP entirely, which is why it works when DHCP is the broken part.

1. Tap the network, then Advanced, then IP settings, and change DHCP to Static.
2. Set an IP in your router’s range but outside its DHCP pool, for example 192.168.1.201 if the router is 192.168.1.1.
3. Gateway: your router’s address, usually 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1.
4. DNS: 8.8.8.8 and 1.1.1.1 are fine.

Treat this as a diagnostic as much as a fix. If a static IP works, the problem is definitely DHCP on the router, and you can then fix it properly at the router rather than leaving every device statically configured.

6. Reset network settings

Settings, then System, then Reset options, then Reset Wi-Fi, mobile and Bluetooth. Apps and files are untouched, but every saved Wi-Fi password and Bluetooth pairing is cleared, so have those to hand.

7. Widen the DHCP pool

If this happens in a house or office with many devices, the router may simply have run out of addresses. Log into the router, find the DHCP settings, and widen the range, for example from 192.168.1.100-149 to 192.168.1.100-200. Shortening the lease time also helps, because addresses from devices that have left get recycled sooner.

Narrowing it down quickly

Symptom	Most likely cause
Only this phone fails, others are fine	Saved network or MAC randomisation on the phone
Every device suddenly fails	Router DHCP, restart it
Works at home, fails at the office	MAC filtering or a captive portal
Started after an Android update	MAC randomisation default changed
Only on a guest or public network	Captive portal waiting for sign-in

The captive portal case is worth knowing: hotel, cafe and airport networks often hold the IP assignment until you accept terms in a browser. If the sign-in page does not appear on its own, open a browser and go to any plain HTTP address, which usually forces it.

Frequently asked questions

Does this mean my Wi-Fi password is wrong?

No. A wrong password produces “Authentication error” at an earlier stage. Reaching “Obtaining IP address” proves the password was accepted.

Why did it start after an Android update?

Updates commonly reset the per-network MAC setting back to randomised. If your router uses MAC filtering, or issued a lease to the previous address, that alone causes this.

Is a static IP a permanent solution?

It works, but it is a workaround. If DHCP on the router is broken you will hit this on every device eventually, so fixing the router is better than statically configuring each phone.

Other devices connect fine, so why not my phone?

Almost always the phone’s saved configuration or its randomised MAC. Forget the network, switch to the device MAC, and rejoin.

Changelog

• 2 August 2026: Page created.