RE: nRF7002 Wi-Fi Random Disconnect After Long Runtime - Unable to Reconnect Until Power Cycle (Zephyr NCS v2.6.2)

Marte Myrvold — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 12:41:53 GMT

Hi,

The symptoms you describe are consistent with the nRF70 RPI (radio processing unit) entering a hung/unrecoverable state after extended runtime.

The v2.6.2 release notes specifically include the following Wi-Fi driver additions that address related problems:

RPU watchdog recovery: "A new recovery feature through a watchdog timer with Kconfig-based timeout configuration to recover the nRF70 Series chip in case of any lockups."
Interface de-init stabilization: "Wi-Fi interface de-initialization path clean-up and stabilization."

So this is a known issue.

The watchdog can be enabled by setting CONFIG_NRF_WIFI_RPU_RECOVERY=y.

If this does not solve your issue, you can try resetting the Wi-Fi interface without rebooting:

net_if_down(iface);   // puts nRF70 into Shutdown state
// optionally k_sleep a short delay
net_if_up(iface);     // triggers RPU cold boot + re-init

There are many improvements to the Wi-Fi stack in later versions of the SDK, including further fixes to interface state transitions and connection reliability. I recommend upgrading if possible.

Best regards,
Marte