Android 5.0 Lollipop and 4.4 KitKat ignores my WiFi network, enableNetwork() is useless

Question

My app connect directly to a hardware device that act as an access point (with no access to internet).

I can't connect because Android 5.0 automaticcaly switch to a valid internet connection, so if I have data connection (3G, 4G, ...) or a pre-configured network I can't connect to my device because it ignores the WiFi.

So how can I force Android to use the network I activated programatically?

I'm simply using:

wifiManager.enableNetwork(id, true))

where id is the network of my device I want to connect to. The true parameter is useless.

The suggested solution that use ConnectivityManager.requestNetwork() has no effect.

Answer 1

I found a workaround to enable the desidered network on Lollipop:

WifiConfiguration enable network in Lollipop

Now this is my code after calling wifiManager.enableNetwork(id, true):

if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.LOLLIPOP) {
    WifiManager wm = (WifiManager) context.getSystemService(Context.WIFI_SERVICE);
    List<WifiConfiguration> networks = wm.getConfiguredNetworks();
    Iterator<WifiConfiguration> iterator = networks.iterator();
    while (iterator.hasNext()) {
        WifiConfiguration wifiConfig = iterator.next();
        if (wifiConfig.SSID.replace("\"", "").equals(wc.SSID.replace("\"", "")))
            wm.enableNetwork(wifiConfig.networkId, true);
        else
            wm.disableNetwork(wifiConfig.networkId);
    }
    wm.reconnect();
}

maybe the secret is the call to reconnect(), I don't know at this time.

UPDATE Unfortunately, this workaround only works if a valid WiFi connection is active before executing the code. Does not works if you're connect by 3G only.

UPDATE 19 Jan 2015

This code actually works for me on Android 5/6.0.x:

//bind to current thread
if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.LOLLIPOP) {
    ConnectivityManager connManager = (ConnectivityManager) context.getSystemService(Context.CONNECTIVITY_SERVICE);
    NetworkRequest.Builder request = new NetworkRequest.Builder();
    request.addTransportType(NetworkCapabilities.TRANSPORT_WIFI);
    connManager.registerNetworkCallback(request.build(), new ConnectivityManager.NetworkCallback() {
        @Override
        public void onAvailable(Network network) {
            ConnectivityManager.setProcessDefaultNetwork(network);
            //...
        }
    });
}