Anyone else having problem activating galaxy watch 4 as standalone?

I'm sorry but that is a load of BS they gave you. I have had a smart watch sense 2015. Samsung themselves told myself and T-Mobile they are made to work on both standalone. you can make and receive phone calls on the watches own number and also ring when your phone rings. From 2015 - 2021 it worked that way with att and from 2021 till the end of May this year it worked that way with t-mobile. I'm dealing with the watch 3, on a stand alone plan, that does now ring when my phone rings but when I call my watches phone number, watch does not ring but on my phone it takes me to the watches voicemail. Everyone I have talked to in T-Mobile gives me a different answer. They still do not return phone calls.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4aXMJ_hlOI&ab_channel=ALLSTARSPACE

This guy seems to put it all in a nice video of the overheating. As the signal is there its not searching (low signal)

I had the gear s2 setup as a standalone with its own number and everything. Then upgraded to the s4 watch. Again a standalone that was around 2 years ago. It did take the people at the store along time to figure out what I wanted… the dude was a pain lol.

My only problem with the watch is that it keep saying sim card removed and that it overheats. What i learn from other’s is that T-Mobile has the watch listed as a “phone” and not as a watch. The problem with that is the amount of power from the cell towers that get sent to the watch. It makes it overheat.

So them telling you it isnt able to is BS. As i have been using the 2 and 4 as standalone for a few years now.

I just told TMobile to discontinue the services since they were unable to activate my watch as a standalone.  I would give it another shot though if I knew what I could tell them to help them activate it.  Any advice?

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.

I shouldn't have anything to do with Sprint anymore... 

Date: 2023 March

Problem: The Samsung Watch 4 LTE could not connect to the T-Mobile network as a standalone device with its own phone number, independent of a Samsung phone on a non T-Mobile phone network.

Solution: Previously the store assigned me the requested cheaper ($10) priced DIGITs plan but it turns out the watch could not function under this standalone plan unless I already had or would purchase a new T-Mobile phone plan. The correct solution for a standalone wearable plan without any existing or new T-Mobile phone plan is only the more expensive ($25) “Magenta Wearable Standalone” plan. 

Background / More Details: I don’t have T-Mobile on my Samsung phone but a competitor. The watch successfully paired to the phone (via Bluetooth) but when looking for a mobile network while paired thru the phone, it tries to use the phone’s mobile network. This is what the cheaper ($10) plan expects - a phone on the same network as the watch - so from the start, this path would never work for me. 

After I left the store with the incorrect plan and with everything untested (got places to be!), I attempted to connect the watch LTE later at home. After several attempts I called the national T-mobile support  number (ie somewhere offshore where English is spoken) for help. Two hours was wasted re-doing obvious checks where at the end they told me the watch could not be used standalone. The correct answer they should have told me is that the chosen cheaper ($10) plan would not allow the watch to be standalone unless the phone was on the T-Mobile network.

The store was revisited the next day and the more knowledgeable manager, after several attempts, correctly determined the chosen cheaper ($10) plan was the culprit, and the solution is to switch to the more expensive ($25) “Magenta Wearable Standalone” plan. Once the plan was switched, the phone was able to correctly find the T-Mobile network without issue or further delay. The watch was called to verify correct operation. 

DIGITs was not needed. I asked about a “Companion” setting mentioned in prior posts but they said this is not a term they heard of. (Maybe it was relevant a year ago but not now?) Apparently not many come to this particular store and perhaps even call into the national support (based on their unsuccessful attempt to help) trying to have the Watch 4 activated with a Samsung phone without T-Mobile as the phone’s network. About 4+ hours was spent to come to a solution. 

Hope this helps lessen the suffering in someone’s similar attempt. Good luck!

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 !

Pull sim card out of phone and your watch will work if its connected with digits. T-Mobile doesn't want the watch to be stand alone and will tell you its a glitch that your watch did

I got it fixed!  Chat just unpaired from my number and then put the watch on the $5 stand alone plan. 

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.

The LTE Samsung watch will work with its own line. You only need the android phone for the software upgrades and a few other things but you do not need a phone line activated for a phone Samsung Watch will work as a standalone phone/watch 

I was having the same issue and you don't need to go into a store to fix this. Some of the reps just aren't familiar with the device. Go to settings > connections>mobile networks> then scroll to the bottom to the last option (I don't remember what it said cause it changed when I connected it to a network). It will ask if you need to connect to a network and you need to open your phone to connect the watch to a network. The reason some of the reps will tell you they are unable to do this is because they need to activate which line on their end while you open this on your phone. If it stays stuck on a loading screen they just need to refresh the device on their end after you provide them with both numbers from the device imei.