Unable to connect to WiFi

[giskard]

I've had my CX-5 less than a week now and decided to try out the network connectivity so dived into the settings, chose Networking, then WiFi, could see my home WiFi name with sufficient signal strength, clicked on it to enter the password, then tried to connect and after watching the "Connecting..." message for about 60 secs, the car displays a "Cannot connect" error.

I tried the same with my iPhone as a hotspot so signal strength is 100% but still the same issue. I can't think what I'm doing wrong, the WiFi password is definitely correct so I'm at a loss as to why  my CX-5 won't connect.

[Gel]

Mine connected 1st time.
Why not temporarily disable security on your router,
and see if car connects. If so, reinstate router security, and try again.

[giskard]

Mine connected 1st time.
Why not temporarily disable security on your router,
and see if car connects. If so, reinstate router security, and try again.

I'll mostly be using it with my iPhone so I'll probably enable a WiFi hotspot on my phone and connect to that with little or no security..

[p38cyq]

I've had my CX-5 less than a week now and decided to try out the network connectivity so dived into the settings, chose Networking, then WiFi, could see my home WiFi name with sufficient signal strength, clicked on it to enter the password, then tried to connect and after watching the "Connecting..." message for about 60 secs, the car displays a "Cannot connect" error.

I tried the same with my iPhone as a hotspot so signal strength is 100% but still the same issue. I can't think what I'm doing wrong, the WiFi password is definitely correct so I'm at a loss as to why  my CX-5 won't connect.

That behaviour is not correct.
Your car should be able, if it "sees" the SSID of your home network, to connect to it.
The same is valid for the several "homespots, WiFiFree etc.", provided by your operator: you scan the SSID's in your neighborhood and you connect using the credentials of your ISP.
This said, the Mazda MZD system (working only on 2.5 GHz) is quite "deaf", that means you will need a signal of about (at least) -60 dBm.
FYI : I never saw more than 2 "bars" on the signal strenght indicator. (and there are 4 or 5 of them….)
If you still cannot connect I would advise your dealer.
   

[giskard]

I've had my CX-5 less than a week now and decided to try out the network connectivity so dived into the settings, chose Networking, then WiFi, could see my home WiFi name with sufficient signal strength, clicked on it to enter the password, then tried to connect and after watching the "Connecting..." message for about 60 secs, the car displays a "Cannot connect" error.

I tried the same with my iPhone as a hotspot so signal strength is 100% but still the same issue. I can't think what I'm doing wrong, the WiFi password is definitely correct so I'm at a loss as to why  my CX-5 won't connect.

That behaviour is not correct.
Your car should be able, if it "sees" the SSID of your home network, to connect to it.
The same is valid for the several "homespots, WiFiFree etc.", provided by your operator: you scan the SSID's in your neighborhood and you connect using the credentials of your ISP.
This said, the Mazda MZD system (working only on 2.5 GHz) is quite "deaf", that means you will need a signal of about (at least) -60 dBm.
FYI : I never saw more than 2 "bars" on the signal strenght indicator. (and there are 4 or 5 of them….)
If you still cannot connect I would advise your dealer.

I’ve found the cause of the problem - crap software design.

When first entering the password entry screen, the first character typed is always uppercase, but you can’t see that because the password characters appear as dots to keep the password from prying eyes. I only noticed because the virtual keyboard initially shows all characters as uppercase.

So the fix is the delete the first character that you type in for the password and then type your password. Alternatively, change your WiFi password to have an uppercase first character.

[Gel]

Password entering:

I have fed this into Mazda UK: their response.

"I can confirm this is something we have already raised to our colleagues in at Mazda Motors Europe. This does show on the left as the ‘shift’ (caps) arrow is highlighted in white although I also believe this needs to be clearer".

[BigAl]

I've been raising issues like this on the MZD system with Mazda UK since 2015, which have "been passed to Mazda Europe". Don't hold your breath...

Alan

[Barry]

Thank you for the solution giskard, just got our CX-5 and was about to rip the satnav out and jump up & down on it in frustration!