Ubuntu: How to disable WiFi power saving

By default, power save is enabled for WiFi connections in Ubuntu.
This can lead to high latency and choppy video calls. Here is how to disable it.

Disabling power save for all WiFi connections

You can change NetworkManager defaults by adding a config file like so:

sudo tee /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/wifi-powersave-off.conf <<'EOF'
[connection]
wifi.powersave = 2
EOF

Then restart it to apply those changes.

sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager

To confirm its setting, you can use iw (might need a sudo apt install iw first).

for dev in $(iw dev | awk '$1=="Interface"{print $2}'); do
  echo -n "$dev: "
  iw dev "$dev" get power_save
done

It worked if your output looks like wlp0s20f3: Power save: off.

Disabling power save for a single WiFi connection

If you don't want to change your global default, you can disable it for a single profile/SSID.

nmcli connection modify "Your WiFi Name" 802-11-wireless.powersave 2

Afterwards, reconnect to have it take effect.

Note that this applies only to a single connection. If you want to set it for other networks, you'd need to run the command again -- or use the global setting from above.