So I just got two LTE galaxy watch 4's to use when I don't want to carry my phone with me (while exercising). After spending two hours at a T-Mobile store and another hour on the phone with a technician, they escalate and another tech comes on and advises me that the galaxy watch 4 cannot be used as a standalone on t mobile. It can only be used when connected and near the phone its paired with! WHY would T-Mobile sell an LTE watch that can only be used when connected to the phone? That is called a Bluetooth watch! Very frustrated with them wasting 3 hours of my time, when this could have been mentioned when the watches were ordered. And even then, why sell LTE watches instead of Bluetooth watches? Has anyone one had this issue?
Anyone else having problem activating galaxy watch 4 as standalone?
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Hi everyone. I am having the same problem. I told the CSR the information I got here. They set the account to standalone. I rebooted the watch and still doesn’t work. Did you guys have to reinstall the wearable apps and do the setup again? Were you able to go to the watch setting, manage mobile plan and open it up? The watch is not able to call, or text but only can do emergency call. I just need to know if there is anything else need to be done after they set the account to standalone because it is not working for me. and i have been bounce from tmobile, to samsung to tmobile again.
the watch is not activated to the phone number that i signed up for.
Thanks.
I also got the same issue. I ordered 2 different watches on 2 different months via T-Mobile chat with the standalone feature. I specifically asked T-Mobile agents to confirm that I wanted to use the watch independently with its own separate number without having the phone around before I asked them to process each of my purchases.
1. The first watch arrived, setting up was a breeze and I was able to use it as a standalone (had it own number, I could make a call/text when I didn’t have the phone with me). I was happy with it so I decided to get another one and handed the 1st one to a family member after 2 weeks used. However, because that person used the iphone and the galaxy watch 4 cannot be used with iphone, I contacted T-Mobile to setup that Samsung standalone line on her apple watch and agreed to pay an additional $5/month (because they said the plan for apple watch is different and more expensive). We kept the 1st Samsung watch as a Bluetooth only to play around.
The 2nd one came and I can never be able to activate the mobile plan. The screen keep getting stucked at the stage “Connecting to your service provider” (see picture below). Yesterday I spent 10 hours with T-Mobile from text to call, was being sent from departments to departments and back to the square one. 2 different Tech Supports, 2 customer supports, and 1 supervisor told me that T-Mobile does not offer standalone, independently plan for Galaxy Watch 4??? I asked them then why even right now in T-Mobile website, it still shows 2 plans for you to select (see attached picture as well)? They straightforwardly told me that the standalone only works on older generation of Samsung watch??? Then I asked them why I was able to use the 1st watch (now showed the apple watch in my account) as a standalone before? They told me it’s a mystery that the 1st watch worked because T-Mobile never offer a standalone for it and it will never work as a standalone. I told them to check the usages on the date range before I changed to apple watch and they told me just focus on the 2nd ones??? Unbelievable! What kind of business is that? 10 straight hours wasted for nothing with total 5 different agents and 2 supervisors. 2 of them even told me to use it as a Bluetooth version or change to Digit plan. Standalone was the only reason why I bought the watch, and they told me to use it as Bluetooth or force me to change to Digit plan?
Seeing that many of users here are having the exact same situation as me, it makes me think that T-Mobile is lying to the consumers. They lured the customers to buy their products butT-Mobile does not provide the service that they promised. I will not stay silent for this kind of business. I have everything in written from before I made the purchase to asking for support. I also recorded the conversation with the customer service and Tech support agents. I will fight for my customer rights.
So I just got two LTE galaxy watch 4's to use when I don't want to carry my phone with me (while exercising). After spending two hours at a T-Mobile store and another hour on the phone with a technician, they escalate and another tech comes on and advises me that the galaxy watch 4 cannot be used as a standalone on t mobile. It can only be used when connected and near the phone its paired with! WHY would T-Mobile sell an LTE watch that can only be used when connected to the phone? That is called a Bluetooth watch! Very frustrated with them wasting 3 hours of my time, when this could have been mentioned when the watches were ordered. And even then, why sell LTE watches instead of Bluetooth watches? Has anyone one had this issue?
I was with Verizon and got the galaxy watch 4 lte . It was 100% stand alone for a week! I could call my phone from the watch . I could call my watch from my cell phone too ! Everything was amazing! But then they tied the phone number together without asking me. 🙄 it totally was NOT worth it anymore. I tried to unhook it from the phone numbers. But all their technicians only messed up the eSim cards . It was also force locked out ! It is a carrier thing to save money, but charge you extra ! They allow watch 3 , and others to be true stand alone, but not watch 4, and 5/ pro. It's not worth buying lte anymore 😕 !! Save your money and buy real stand alone watch. It is so much better/ worth it ! Don't ever let them tie the numbers together in numbers share , they also don't give you a choice!! This is also Samsung's fault! The battery wears out fast in stand alone. But we should get a choice as the consumer!! They are trying to save face on an inferior battery . I got rid of my watch 4 . It's just not worth it !
Update - so after working a full day with T-Mobile, we find that the ICCID is not writing from the T-Mobile back end to my Samsung Galaxy Watch.
For the novices out there, that is what I understand to be the esim (electronic sim) identifier that the watch needs to get lte service.
So - Tmobile finally did a ticket to their back office (where the average customer has no chance of talking to) to find out why their system will not write the ICCID to the watch.
In the mean time, I have just gotten tired of the run around. Being a 20 year (yes since 2003 of Sprint) I finally lost my patience and went over to the V Store (you will have to figure it out). They set me up with an account, their system wrote the ICCID to the watch and in an hour I had a new account, with two phone numbers and a stand alone Samsung Watch 4.
It is absolutely great!!!! When the watch gets out of range of my phone’s bluetooth and wifi, it automatically switches to the carrier lte service.
All the BS about this not being a stand alone watch preached by half the tech department at T-Mobile is total hogwash.
The watch now does exactly what I needed - it is never off line (unless it runs out of battery). I will be purchasing a watch for my Mother with Alzheimer's and will be tracking her with the Google Find My Device App. Contacted Life360 and trying to find out if they will port the app to Wear OS.
Again - for all the people who are believing the stories being told by T-Mobile. The Samsung Watch 4 is capable of stand alone. THE ISSUE IS WITH THE CARRIER PROGRAMMING AT T-MOBILE. The issue is definitely that their system will not identify the account and send out the ICCID to the watch, therefore the watch will never be able to connect to their network.
Just a side note for those of you naysayers. Turn off your bluetooth and wifi on your phone. The Samsung watch will convert to emergency calls only. Dial 911 and apologize for the test call. What happens, the watch goes to emergency stand alone mode and by default becomes a STAND ALONE unidentified watch device on the lte network. Because it is emergency, the phone will connect to 911 on the lte network (but of course it doesn’t have ICCID so can’t be identified to connect to the back end of T-mobile).
To bad - so sad T-mobile - you are losing great customers that are trying to help you get it straightened out.
FYI!!!
Don't let anyone tell you, you can't use the Samsung Galaxy Watches as stand alone watches. I recently purchased the Samsung Watch 6 Classic ( which is the LTE) version. I contacted tmobile via chat because it wasn't allowing me to make or receive calls independently. After 2 hours of chat, I was transferred to technical support. She basically did the same as the chat representative and I even had to reset my watch! She kept asking me was it the LTE version, I said yes. After being on the phone for about an hour and a half, she placed me on hold. She came back to the line and advised Tmobile no longer offers stand alone plans for Samsung watches, only Apple watches. I asked why then is Tmobile selling stand alone watches if it can't operate as its own line? She couldn't answer the question and insisted the only way the watch will work is if it's paired with my fold 5 and tied to digits. I gave up and she paired it with digits. The next day, I called back and another person advised only Samsung version 4 watches are compatible as stand alone and I can only pair my new watch with my phone. I knew the information was wrong, so I called back again and got another agent (Rell) she was able to get my watch set up the correct way ( as a stand alone), she unpaired it from digits,she confirmed that I could make calls, receive calls and text. It took a total of 5 minutes!!!!! I asked to speak to her supervisor to give her kudos and to let her know to please educate the previous reps who misinformed me and who knows else. There are all kinds of posts about this, some people were successful at getting their watches properly connected and working as stand alone and some were not. Again, your Samsung Galaxy Watch (LTE version) can work independently/ operate as a stand alone.
Update - I can’t believe how confused T-Mobile/Sprint tech support has become.
No one has called me back on my ticket supposedly to the back office to work on the Galaxy Watch 4 stand alone issue. Was promised a 48-72 hour turn around time on ticket SD7783155. from last week.
So - decided to give it one more shot today. Waited 50 minutes with customer support to transfer me to tech support. I transferred to tech support to find the ticket still open, but now the ticket says it is to send me a booster. Lte service signal is not the issue. I have tried multiple locations with 4 bars including in a tmobile store sitting at their table for an afternoon. (Also see the last post with emergency call testing).
Again to show how messed up everything is - when asking for a supervisor after finding the tech support person wanted to factory reset my watch and start from scratch (which I have done maybe 20 times) I asked for supervisor. My call was disconnected with a recorded message that there were system errors that couldn’t complete the call.
Thankfully, supervisor by the name of Annie called me back. She went back through the notes and couldn’t figure out anything. She offered to work on this off line (with really no plan) so I asked why we couldn’t escalate further.
She said her boss was at lunch. I asked her to find someone who could help. No one is available. She said she would call me back in an hour. The call ticket is I2226600550. Will wait for a call, but I guess I am beyond holding my breath.
It seems at this point, T-Mobile is totally beyond help...
We switched from Verizon and I've been regretting it little by little. We had absolutely ZERO issues using our galaxy and apple watches, independent of Bluetooth and our phones, on Verizon's network. We paid for a line, and we were able to use the LTE capability for unlimited calls/texts/data. It worked better when near my phone, but the point is it worked!
I don't understand T-Mobile's DIGITS app and it's not available for the Galaxy watch OS anyway. We're also paying for 3 watch lines, and on T-Mobile's network my watch is only working when paired with Bluetooth. We just ordered a brand new phone for my dad but I have half a mind to send it back while I still have my old phone. I have had one issue after another with T-Mobile from porting our numbers to placing orders to now paying for a service that apparently T-Mobile does not have the technology capacity to support??? All our devices are owned and purchased from OEM, so T-Mobile better get right or I'm gone.
it is a simbiosis cell plan provider likes two montly bills for you to pay sams-dung engine gets to sell two of its turds to you but never allow you to use one device [standalone] ….
answer is simple [get you ham radio license for 15.00] and a 150.00 handheld HAM … never need the cellphone again.
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