WiFi Works on Phone But Not Laptop: Quick Fix Checklist (2025)
One of the most frustrating scenarios is when your WiFi works perfectly on your phone, tablet, and other devices—but your laptop refuses to connect. Your phone streams video without buffering, but your laptop can't load a single webpage. This disconnect is maddening because it's clearly not a WiFi outage.
The good news? This is almost always fixable, and it's almost never a hardware failure.
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Why Does This Happen?
Your laptop is experiencing selective WiFi rejection. This can stem from driver issues, conflicting IP configurations, forgotten network passwords, or security settings that block your laptop specifically while allowing other devices.
Quick Fixes (Try These First)
1. Restart Your Laptop
The oldest fix is often the best. A full restart clears temporary network configurations and resets the WiFi driver.
2. Forget and Reconnect to the Network
On your laptop:
- Open WiFi settings
- Select your network from the list
- Click Forget
- Reconnect and enter the password
3. Restart Your Router
Unplug your router for 30 seconds, then plug it back in. Wait 2-3 minutes for it to fully restart.
Deeper Troubleshooting
Check Your IP Configuration
Open Command Prompt (Windows) or Terminal (Mac):
ipconfig (Windows)
ifconfig (Mac)
Look for your WiFi adapter. If it shows 169.x.x.x, you have an IP conflict.
Update WiFi Drivers
Old or corrupted drivers cause selective connection failures.
Related WiFi Troubleshooting Guides
Having a different WiFi issue? Check these guides:
- WiFi Connected But No Internet - Connected but nothing loads
- WiFi Keeps Disconnecting - Random drops and reconnections
- Laptop Won't Connect to WiFi - Complete laptop WiFi troubleshooting
- WiFi Slow on One Device Only - Device-specific speed issues
- WiFi Not Showing Up on Laptop - Missing network detection
- How to Fix Problems with WiFi Connection - Complete WiFi troubleshooting pillar
Wrapping Up
If your WiFi works on every device except your laptop, the issue is almost always something software-based that's easily fixable. Start with the quick fixes, and if those don't work, the deeper troubleshooting will identify the exact problem.
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