User guide

What the app is for

Guest Wi-Fi almost never lets you straight onto the internet. It puts a sign-in page in the way first — accept the terms, or type a name and an email, or enter a username and password. That page is called a captive portal, and you meet them in hotels, airports, cafes, shops, buses and trains, universities, hospitals and offices.

Android will not fill those in for you, so you do it by hand, on every network, every visit. WiFi Web Login does it instead: it notices the portal the moment you connect, enters what you have taught it, and gets you online, without you opening anything.

First-time setup

You do this once per network. After that, joining that Wi-Fi is enough.

1. Allow location access

Android will not tell an app which Wi-Fi network you are on unless it holds location permission. The app needs the network name because that is how it keeps your details separate — your hotel login is not used at the airport, and a recording made on one network is never replayed on another.

Grant it when asked, or from Android's Settings › Apps › WiFi Web Login › Permissions. Your location is never collected or sent anywhere; it is a rule of the Android permission system, not something the app wants.

2. Enter your sign-in details

Connect to the Wi-Fi, open the app and tap Preferences. Under the login information section there are four fields, and they map onto the portal's form in order:

• Username / E-Mail (1st Field) — the first box the portal asks for. If the form only has one box, this is the one to fill.
• Password (2nd Field) — the second box.
• 3rdLine and 4thLine — only if the portal asks for more, such as a room number or a surname.

For the great majority of networks that is the whole setup. If you later change your password, come back and update it here.

3. Let it work in the background

Turn on Background Login in Preferences, then set the app's battery usage to Unrestricted in Android's own settings. Skipping the second half is the single most common reason people think the app has stopped working.

Full instructions: Android Doze and battery optimisation ›

When the portal wants more than a password

Some portals ask for a full name, an email address, a postal code, a dropdown choice and a couple of checkboxes. The four fields above cannot express that, so you show the app instead.

Recording a login

From then on that network replays your recording instead of guessing. If the portal offers choices — a free 30-minute session versus a paid one, say — whichever you picked while recording is what gets picked each time.

Reviewing and editing what you recorded

Recordings are saved per network and written out as plain sentences, so you can check them rather than trust them:

Type "sam@example.com" into Email address · Choose "United States" in Country · Tick Yes, I agree · Click "Connect to Wi-Fi"

• All recorded logins in the menu lists every network you have taught, with its step count and when you last edited it. Open any of them — including networks you are not currently connected to, so you can fix the airport's sign-in from home.
• Tap a step to change its value. Swipe a network to delete its recording.
• Delete a recording and that network simply returns to normal automatic sign-in.

Two things are deliberately never stored in a recording. Your saved username and password are referenced, not copied, so changing them in Preferences updates every recording that uses them. And hidden or session fields are skipped, because the portal issues fresh ones on each visit and replaying stale ones would fail.

If a recording stops working

Portals get redesigned. After a few visits where the recording runs but does not get you online, the app removes it and returns that network to automatic sign-in, so you are never stuck with a recording that cannot work. Record it again next time you are there.

The menu, item by item

• Preferences — everything below.
• All recorded logins — every network you have taught, editable from anywhere.
• (Automatic) Switch to Manual Mode — turns automatic sign-in off for the current network only. Useful for a network you would rather handle yourself.
• Edit Recorded Script — opens the recording for the network you are on right now.
• View Saved List / Backup / Restore — your per-network settings, with backup and restore.

Settings reference

Most people never open these. They exist for the one network that behaves badly.

Login information

• Username / E-Mail, Password, 3rdLine, 4thLine — the four form fields described above.
• Password Setting — whether the password is masked while you type it.

General

• Background Login — sign in automatically on connect, without opening the app. Needs the battery setting too.
• Launch app on phone startup — so background login works after a reboot.
• Ignore SSL Certificate error — many portals use self-signed or expired certificates. If the app shows a blank screen on a portal, turn this on.

Advanced

• Setting Varies By WIFI/BSSID — treats each individual access point as its own network. Leave it off if a venue has several access points sharing one name and one login, which is the usual case.
• Notification Switch #1 / #2 — whether you are told when a login starts and when it finishes.
• Restart Switch — reconnects the Wi-Fi after signing in, which nudges Android into noticing you are online.
• Daily password rotation — for networks that issue a new password every day.
• Unstable WiFi — more patient retry behaviour on networks that drop.

If no luck, try these

• Request Desktop Site — some portals serve a broken mobile page and a working desktop one.
• Internet Check — which method is used to decide whether you are really online.
• Smart Internet Detection — adapts the check to the network.
• Clear Cookies — clears cookies before each attempt, so a stale session cannot confuse the portal.
• Wait time for slow portals and maximum attempts — raise these for a portal that takes a long time to appear.

Troubleshooting

It does not sign in automatically

Battery optimisation, nearly every time. Set the app to Unrestricted, confirm Background Login is on, and check the network is not in Manual mode.

The app shows a blank or black screen on the portal

Usually a certificate problem — the portal's certificate is self-signed or has expired. Turn on Ignore SSL Certificate error in Preferences and try again.

A VPN or ad blocker is in the way

A portal has to see your traffic to know you have signed in. VPNs stop that, and so do ad blockers and firewalls that work by running a local VPN — Adguard, NetGuard, AFWall+ and similar. The app will tell you when it detects this. Turn it off, reconnect, sign in, turn it back on.

Nothing loads at all

The app signs in through Android's own WebView, so Android System WebView must be enabled and up to date. If it has been disabled, re-enable it in Settings › Apps.

One venue, several networks with almost the same name

Turn Setting Varies By WIFI/BSSID off so they are treated as one network sharing one login.

Getting help

If a portal is beating the app, send a report from the network that is failing — it captures the actual sign-in page, which is worth far more than a description.

Open Preferences, scroll to MISC and tap Send Debug Info. Do it while you are still connected to the problem network. Or write to support@wifiweblogin.com with the network name, your phone model and your Android version.

What changed since the old guide. Loading credentials from a Dropbox file has been removed from the app. The old "Use Default Mode to Replay or Record Login Manually" toggle has been replaced by the Record the login button on the main screen and the All recorded logins screen, which can edit any network rather than only the one you are on. The old advice about rooting your phone to disable Android's captive portal detection is obsolete and should not be followed.