Why Can’t I Log into Starbucks Wi-Fi?

Starbucks is a great place in between the office and home. Great service, great coffee and free Wi-Fi. Sady sometimes although Wi-Fi is available, connecting to it isn’t as straightforward as it should be. Sometimes the Starbucks Wi-Fi won’t pop up. The captive portal won’t appear with the login screen allowing you to log in and connect.

We’ll go over some things that you should keep in mind and potential fixes.

What Causes The Issue Where Sarbucks Wi-Fi Won’t Pop Up?

Before we can talk about why Starbucks Wi-Fi won’t pop up, we need to talk a bit about captive portals. A captive portal is a web page that the user needs to view and interact with before accessing the Internet.

So why won’t the Starbucks captive portal appear on your device? It’s hard to know unless you are the one running the captive portal. Sometimes there are breaks with the system but it could be a different reason for different networks. In other cases having your computer set to use a custom DNS server can cause problems.

Most often the problem is related to the network itself. There isn’t much you as a user can’t do about it. If you are using a VPN, chances are the VPN is causing the issue.

How Can I Connect to Wi-Fi at Starbucks If The Login Screen Won’t Pop Up?

That said, there are still things you could try:

Change your DNS servers – If you don’t know where to change your DNS settings, you’re probably fine. Your device by default picks up a DNS server from the Wi-Fi router. And that is what the public Wi-Fi expects you to use. That’s good, at least with public Wi-Fi. If you change your DNS settings you should try reverting them and the Wi-Fi login page should appear. In case you forgot where the DNS setting is – this article from HowToGeek should refresh your memory.

If the first step didn’t solve the issue, the problem could be with your browser cache. Your browser could still be using the previous DNS info. You can try to break this cycle by visiting something new. Clear your browser cache or better yet, open an incognito window and try visiting a non-HTTPS site. You may be wondering why a non-HTTPS site. Well, if you try to visit a secure site and your network tries to redirect your browser to a login screen, your browser will prevent that to keep your data secure. Make sure to use an incognito window!

And the last step, which should be first – restart.
- 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.

Starbucks Wi-Fi won’t pop up when using a VPN?

If you are even a little concerned about your online security and privacy, chances are you are already using a VPN. And if you’re not, you should be. Especially if you often connect to public Wi-Fi hotspots. A VPN encrypts your data and prevents any hackers from stealing your personal and sensitive information.

However, you may notice that Starbucks Wi-Fi wont pop up if you are connected to a VPN. You will have to disconnect the VPN in order to connect to the Wi-Fi which leaves you open for hacker attacks. Sometimes you will be able to connect to the VPN once you are already connected to the network. The network setup has specific rules. There are IP address ranges that are acceptable to log in. With a VPN you are masking your IP address and the login page will see a completely different IP than the one it’s expecting. So, you won’t be able to connect to the Internet at all.

But you will if you use Speedify bonding VPN.

This is How Speedify Bonding VPN Works on Captive Portals (Starbucks included)

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 you if you want to login.
It will keep you connected over cellular data so your other ongoing online activities (like Skype / Slack calls, streaming, gaming) will continue to work via the cellular connection. Protected by Speedify so you don’t have to worry about dropped calls or streams.
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 login successfully, Speedify will immediately start using the Wi-Fi connection. This allows you to seamlessly switch over from cellular to Wi-Fi.

Speedify uses channel bonding technology in order to bond multiple Internet connections at once. All that while encrypting your traffic and keeping your data secure.

Now you can finally connect to any hotspot and not worry about your data and privacy.

Download Speedify