Unable to connect to wifi: Auth Expired and Association Expired

ESPHome
1

Hi, all.

I have a problem that I see others are having, but the posts don’t have any comments, so I’m hoping mine will get one.

I have an ESP32 device that has been running perfectly for weeks (months?). Today I unplugged it and went to move it to another location in the house, and suddenly it is now unable to connect to wifi. Connecting to its AP and looking at its logs, I see:

[I][wifi:300]: WiFi Connecting to 'redacted'...
[W][wifi_esp32:458]: Event: Disconnected ssid='redacted' bssid=[redacted] reason='Auth Expired'
[W][wifi:618]: Error while connecting to network.
[I][wifi:300]: WiFi Connecting to 'redacted'...
[W][wifi_esp32:458]: Event: Disconnected ssid='redacted' bssid=[redacted] reason='Association Expired'
[W][wifi:639]: WiFi Unknown connection status 0

It keeps doing this forever, sometimes showing Auth Expired and sometimes showing Association Expired.

I have several WLANs, and I have tried them all, and the device just won’t connect to any of them. As I said, this device worked perfectly until a couple hours ago.

Any idea how I can fix this?

I have tried downloading the latest bin file for it and reinstalling it directly with Web ESPHome, and that didn’t help.

My next attempt will be to delete the device (saving its yaml file of course), then starting fresh and recreating it.

Edited to add:

I used Web ESPHome to start over with one of the devices, and I can’t even get past the main “connect to wifi” screen – it just says “Unable to connect” after I give the credentials and press “Connect.”

As I said, this is a brand new problem today, and I did not make any changes to the network. Any ideas what I should look at?

Edited to add:

I have completely rebooted my network (Ubiqiti USG, 3 UI switches, 2 UI APs), and I have reflashed the device again using Web ESPHome, and still no success connecting the device to my network.

I’m completely dead here - anybody have any ideas?

I did update ESPHome and the ESPHome firmware on these devices today. Did that maybe cause this issue?

1 Like
2

Old thread but I had the same issue and managed to figure it out, I think.

Mine was partially not working (WiFi sometimes connected) but then completely WiFi-busted Wemos ESP32C3 board - Wifi not connected to the esp32 module. · Issue #2144 · espressif/arduino-esp32 · GitHub was the ticket for me, lowering the WiFi power from the default (docs):

wifi:
  output_power: 8.5dB

Other threads I went through, in case they’re helpful for anyone else.

Those seem to point to interference, though I kind of suspect a power issue since, thinking back - it might have only worked when plugged directly into my computer with USB-C vs USB-A.

3 Likes
3

I just ran into this problem today and your “output_power: 8.5db” made it work perfectly. Thank you for solving this for me!

1 Like
4

I am having this issue on some of my devices but the solution posted did not help me. not sure how to deal with with this issue.

[23:52:22][W][wifi_esp32:482][arduino_events]: Event: Disconnected ssid=‘’ bssid=xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx[redacted] reason=‘Association Expired’ [23:52:22][W][wifi:654]: WiFi Unknown connection status 0 [23:52:22][I][wifi:303]: WiFi Connecting to ‘’’… [23:52:22][W][wifi_esp32:482][arduino_events]: Event: Disconnected ssid=‘’*************’ bssid=xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx[redacted] reason=‘Association Expired’ [23:52:22][W][wifi:654]: WiFi Unknown connection status 0

5

I’m seeing it too, I have a little esp32 and it works fine on the second and third floors but not on the first floor. Here’s a clue:

I built it on the third floor which has an access point that broadcasts a unique SSID on the 5ghz channel and a ssid (let’s call it “foo”) on the 2.4ghz. On the bottom floor is my main wireless router which has the same SSID (foo) as well. Most devices connect to the best one, but I wonder if the ESP32 can’t.

Thus if it’s in range of the top floor one it hooks up, but when it’s on the bottom floor it tries to associate with the lower level SSID of the same name and goes bonkers. Something people may want to look into…

Minor update: I tried turning the top floor SSID off, then reconfiguring the lower floor router’s configuration with allow TKIP+AES (normally I only support AES), and even allowing WPA/PSK as well as WPA2-PSK. Still no connection. Weird.

Final update: Yep, it works fine back here on the top floor associating to a Netgear PLW1000 hub. It will not associate to the Netgear NightHawk running DD-WRT downstairs. One of these days I will figure out why, but for the moment I have other stuff to do. If you find this helpful let me know :slight_smile: