Nokia G11 and Nokia G21 recently received the update to the Google security patch for February 2023. While the update was supposed to bring security fixes, it also came with its issues. Strangely, a significant bug crept in, affecting the device’s Wi-Fi connectivity.
The users who upgraded their devices to February 2023 security patch release had their Wi-Fi connection fully broken. The Wi-Fi does not turn on, and the toggle goes to the “Off” state after attempting for a few seconds. Thereby forcing the users to rely on mobile data for connectivity. The issue appears to be in some Wi-Fi drivers preventing proper communication between the software and hardware.
Nokia Mobile (HMD Global) appears to have paused the further rollout of the problematic update. However, a considerable user base of the devices might have been affected given that updates auto-install on Nokia phones. A non-working Wi-Fi connection may increase mobile data costs for people subscribed to a limited data plan. While it is disappointing that such a significant issue was not detected during their beta testing, we hope that Nokia Mobile releases a fix update soon.
Fix for the Wi-Fi not turning on in Nokia G11 and G21
Update 21/03/2023: Users have reported that restoring the phone to the default state, i.e., performing a factory reset, fixes the problem. So, you can hard reset your phone after taking a backup of your important data if you cannot wait for Nokia to release an OTA fix.
I do not think Nokia Mobile will be so fast to issue a fix in the current month (march). I expect that Nokia Mobile will bundle the fix with March security update, which will most likely arrive in April. We will update the post if and when we hear of a new fix update being rolled out. Until then, we recommend that you do not update to the Feb 2023 update yet in case the update still shows up on your device.
Sources: Nokia Community, Reddit
