Why Can’t I Log into Starbucks Wi-Fi?
To connect to Starbucks Wi-Fi, join the Starbucks network in your Wi-Fi settings and accept the terms on the login page that opens by itself. When that login page does not pop up, you get full Wi-Fi bars and no working connection.
Speedify is an app that combines Wi-Fi, 4G/5G cellular, Ethernet, Starlink and satellite internet connections into one faster, more reliable connection, and encrypts your traffic like a VPN. At Starbucks, Speedify keeps your 4G/5G cellular connection working next to the Wi-Fi, so you are online straight away, and Speedify offers to open the Starbucks login page in a window. The speed gain needs both connections; on the Starbucks Wi-Fi alone, Speedify works as an encrypted VPN and can be a little slower.
Read below why the login page fails to pop up, and how to connect when it will not.
What Stops the Starbucks Wi-Fi Login Page from Popping Up
To see why the Starbucks Wi-Fi login won’t pop up, you need to know what a captive portal is: a web page you have to view and interact with before the network lets you on the Internet.
The exact reason the Starbucks captive portal does not appear on your device is hard to know unless you run the network. Sometimes the system breaks, and the reason can differ from network to network. In other cases, a computer set to use a custom DNS server causes the problem.
Most often the problem is in the network itself, and there is not much you can do about that. If you are using a VPN, chances are the VPN is causing the issue.
Five Ways to Get the Starbucks Wi-Fi Login Screen to Pop Up
That said, there are still things you could try:
- Change your DNS servers back. If you don’t know where to change your DNS settings, you’re probably fine: your device picks up a DNS server from the Wi-Fi router by default, and that is what the public Wi-Fi expects you to use. If you did change your DNS settings, revert them and the Wi-Fi login page should appear. If you forgot where the DNS setting is, this article from HowToGeek should refresh your memory.
- If the first step didn’t solve the issue, your browser may still be using old DNS information from its cache. Clear your browser cache, or better, open an incognito or private window and visit a site that does not use HTTPS, such as http://neverssl.com. The network can redirect a plain http page to its login screen, while your browser blocks that redirect on a secure https site to keep your data safe.
- Restart, which is the step to try first:
- Turn the Wi-Fi on your device OFF and then back ON.
- Restart the device.
- Restart the router if you can or ask the barista to do it.
Why a VPN Stops the Starbucks Wi-Fi Login from Popping Up
If you care about your online security and privacy, you may already use a VPN, especially on public Wi-Fi hotspots. A VPN encrypts your data, so other people on the hotspot cannot read your personal and sensitive information.
However, you may notice that Starbucks Wi-Fi won’t pop up if you are connected to a VPN. The network shows its login page by redirecting your first web request, and a VPN sends that request through its encrypted tunnel, where the network cannot redirect it. The VPN cannot reach its own server until you have signed in either, so nothing loads. With most VPNs, you have to disconnect the VPN to log in, which leaves you unprotected until you reconnect the VPN.
Speedify, an app that combines internet connections and encrypts them like a VPN, does not have this problem.
How Speedify Handles the Starbucks Login Page and Other Captive Portals
If Starbucks Wi-Fi won’t pop up, you should try Speedify. When you join a Wi-Fi hotspot with a login page:
- Speedify will show you a notification asking if you want to log in.
- Speedify keeps you online over 4G/5G cellular in the meantime, so Slack or Teams calls, streaming and gaming keep working, encrypted by Speedify.
- If you click the notification prompting you to connect to the Wi-Fi hotspot, Speedify will pop up the login screen in a window.
- Once you log in, Speedify immediately starts using the Wi-Fi connection, without interrupting what you are doing online.
Speedify also treats captive portals differently from a standard VPN:
- when it detects a captive portal, it automatically moves the traffic to and from the captive portal login page outside of the encrypted VPN tunnel
- once you successfully log onto the network, Speedify moves that direct traffic back to the VPN tunnel
- you can always use the split tunneling feature (Bypass) for specific services, which sends their traffic outside the encrypted Speedify tunnel.
With its technology for combining internet connections, Speedify can combine multiple Internet connections at once, such as the Starbucks Wi-Fi and your phone’s 4G/5G cellular, while encrypting your traffic and keeping your data secure.
Starbucks Wi-Fi Speed: Get Faster Uploads and Downloads with Speedify
Everyone in the store shares the Starbucks Wi-Fi, so its speed usually drops when the café is busy. Speedify uses the Starbucks Wi-Fi and your phone’s 4G/5G cellular at the same time and splits your traffic across both, so downloads and uploads get the bandwidth of both internet connections. If the Wi-Fi drops, your traffic moves to cellular (failover) without dropping calls or streams.
With Speedify, you can sign in to Starbucks Wi-Fi and other hotspots and keep your data encrypted while you use them.
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