WIFI Calling Preferences Being Forced to Cellular Preferred

Sane issue with me, having poor signal in my house, my s21 won't stay on wifi preferred.  My pixel 2xl didn't have this issue.  I'll be switching to Verizon ASAP.

I am working with T-Mobile corporate to try to resolve/mitigate my issues. Like most here, I have the Wi-Fi optimization issue, switching from Wi-Fi to cellular, even though I am just feet away from a very good ASUS router. My cellular signal strength varies from 2-3 in the best location to 1 or none in other areas. I want to be able to take my phone anywhere in my house and not lose a call. This originally worked great with Ethernet connected CellSpot routers, but died after a software update. Many updates later and still doesn’t work reliably. I since upgraded to ASUS RT-AC86U routers, hoping to have better connectivity and reducing the impact of leaving T-Mobile. Didn’t help my Wi-Fi optimization problem, but my kids notice the faster speed when they visit.

Call support was no help. Every suggestion failed.

I have an additional issue that I haven’t seen explicitly addressed. I frequently have incoming calls routed directly to voicemail after what seems to be a futile attempt by the T-Mobile network to locate my phone. It takes about 30 seconds for this to happen. The voicemail notification may be quick, or it may take a while to appear. This can happen when in cellular or Wi-Fi mode. It might be after a phone directed optimization takes place, but no way to know for certain.

Being old, I don’t game or watch videos (other than news or weather), so my phone is primarily for communication. Since it often fails to communicate, I consider it defective and subject to replacement under my T-Mobile warranty. The problem is getting a replacement phone that doesn’t have the problem.

To be certain to remedy this issue on T-Mobile, that means an iPhone.

Since this problem seems to be exclusive to T-Mobile, it is actually cheaper for me to switch to Spectrum Mobile using the $14 per Gig plan. 

If T-Mobile doesn’t have a solution soon, I may have to switch.  

I've been having this same issue on an S20 Ultra and an S21. The Tasker workaround doesn't seem to be effective anymore. I have 5G disabled on both phones which seems to improve the situation but it will still "optimize settings" and automatically switch back to "Cellular Preferred".

Like others I have poor service in my home (all carriers, not just TMo). I went with TMo because of wifi calling but now it is partially broken and I frequently miss calls/texts. This is not acceptable.

I set my Galaxy S9 to airplane mode, then turned on Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi calling last night. It should never switch to cellular and always be active on the internet. This afternoon, I called my cell from my home phone and got the message ‘This phone is not accepting calls, try again later’. Five minutes later I tried again and my phone rang almost immediately. Five minutes later I tried again and after about 30 seconds I was sent to my voicemail. This has to be a phone and T-Mobile Wi-Fi calling network issue.

There is no workaround for this problem, and T-Mobile and Samsung seem unable to fix it. If you need to use Wi-Fi calling when you have poor cellular service, expect to miss a lot of calls.

The only fix on T-Mobile is to switch from a Samsung phone to another cellular phone company product. This probably means a phone upgrade at regular price to fix a problem caused by T-Mobile and Samsung. 

If you like Samsung phones, like I do, the solution is to switch to another cellular provider. I have Spectrum Mobile in my area and their price for a senior citizen not using much high speed data is much cheaper than my T-Mobile plan. The problem is it uses the Verizon network and my S9 is not supported. I will have to get a new phone, but even then if I use less than 1 Gig per month the Spectrum plan cost will still be less than my current T-Mobile plan, even paying for a new phone.

The secondary issue I have is with customer support. My problem was forwarded to Technical Support and I was told to expect a callback. A week later, after no callback, I called in again and eventually was connected to Technical Support. They had me try a few things, but nothing corrected the problem.

I am in contact (I thought) with corporate customer support, but after first contact they seem to be ignoring me as well.

I get the feeling they want customers with problems they can’t fix to go away.

They will soon get their wish.

This will be my last post on the Wi-Fi preferences changed issue. Once I switch carriers, I will have no reason to say anything else.

I have three issues

1. My Calling preference for Wi-Fi calling being changed to Cellular against my wishes. No, my preference didn't change, it was changed without my permission.
2. While using Wi-Fi calling, some incoming calls are missed. This has no relation to #1, since it happens when I am in Airplane mode with Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi calling turned on. My preference for Wi-Fi calling isn't changed.
3. T-Mobile customer support does not have the practices and procedures to support their customers with this issue. T-Mobile and Samsung seem to not have the competence or desire to fix this issue.

I switched to T-Mobile specifically to get Wi-Fi calling. We traveled to Sedona on vacation and stayed in a resort in the Oak Creek Canyon wilderness area. The resort offered Wi-Fi, but there is no cellular service in this area. To use my cell phone, I would need Wi-Fi calling. My T-Mobile phone worked without problems on this trip. In future trips we have stayed in remote accommodations not offing cellular service but with Wi-Fi. My Wi-Fi calling has worked flawlessly.

But with what I have heard called as the Pie update, Wi-Fi calling has been an issue. For a couple of years T-Mobile customers needing Wi-Fi calling due to no or inconsistent cellular service, Wi-Fi calling has been unreliable. No suggested settings, no workarounds, no updates fix or mitigate the problem.

More disappointing is the incompetence I have seen in customer support. T-Mobile practices and procedures, as well as the technology used to support contacting the customer have exacerbated the issue. Customer support does not get back to the customer when a response is promised. Customer support seems to not understand the serious of the issue to the customer.

I have used and worked in IBM customer support. Their system is oriented in getting solutions and keeping the customer informed of the progress of the solution. The support system keeps a knowledge base of known problems and solutions, and reminds customer support when a response is due to the customer. The T-Mobile system seems to offer none of these important features.

I was employed at IBM when Lou Gertsner was hired to do its turn-around. He told us anyone dealing directly with a customer was in sales. I was skeptical, but came to understand what he was saying. It is especially true today when most of our interaction with companies is through the internet. Unless we visit a T-Mobile store, our dealings are with customer support. They don't sell us things, but they can definitely make us ex-customers. Poor customer support and inability to fix or understand the customer's problem makes the customer to look for solutions elsewhere.

I was at such frustration with phone customer support I wrote a letter to corporate customer support and heard back from a corporate rep. I was in negotiations for a solution when the rep seems to have disappeared. No rep, no solution. Only silence.

Although my cellular service is still weak, and very weak or nonexistent in parts of my house, I have turned off Wi-Fi calling for now. I spend most of my time at home in my man cave, and the T-Mobile signal is strongest (usually 1-2 bars) in this room. I leave Wi-Fi on for other functions to work in weak signal areas. This works at home, but I will need reliable Wi-Fi calling on vacations, so I need to find a cellular service that supports reliable Wi-Fi calling.

I don't use 5G now, and probably won't need it for a while. I don't game or stream. But since it is available, I will get a 5G capable phone when I switch. What makes this decision sad is T-Mobile is poised to offer the best 5G C-Band service, as Sprint owned a good number of the C-Band frequencies.

I am looking at 3 Verizon network options

• CREDO - good but not lowest price for my usage, but among the best customer support. Online only.
• Spectrum Mobile - best pricing, but very new at the customer support business for cellular service. Does have a local office.
• Verizon - Owns and controls the network. Not best pricing. As a previous customer, the support was good.

Alas, after several days, my phone spontaneously changed my wifi calling setting back to cellular preferred, so turning off the “intelligent wifi” setting was not a permanent solution after all. I am left to conclude that this “feature” must be baked into the software, and immune from deactivation by the user. Oh well, it was funwhile it lasted.

I have the same problem. I do not have good service at my home so this is a big pain.  I tried the solutions on here and I don't want to pay for an app so the solution I came up with is to put my phone in airplane mode and then enable my wifi. Cellular preferred is no longer an issue. Only down side is I have to remember to take my phone off airplane mode when I leave the house. Oh and my phone is a OnePlus. If that doesn't prove the issue is TMobile, IDK what does

Still an issue and could be an easy fix if T-Mobile actually addressed it. A simple added feature to select preferred networks based on location. I need Wi-Fi calling at home. Is it really that difficult to have a home location set with an option to specify a network preference based on that location? Home -> use cellular, use wifi, use strongest network.

Duh T-Mobile. Let's actually do a little engineering and not let issues founder for years. 

I know this is an old issue, and I have also been seeking a solution for a LONG time, but I have cautious optimism that I may have discovered a solution. Samsung includes a “feature” called “Intelligent Wi-Fi” through its “Knox Ecosystem” that, apparently, attempts to adjust its phones to optimize data usage through the application of artificial intelligence to monitor user behavior over a period of time after which settings are automatically modified, including the prioritization of either wifi or cellular data for handling calls and/or texts. I recently noticed a notification on my handset informing me that it had automatically switched my wifi calling setting from wifi preferred to cellular preferred. For some reason, this prompted me to go to my actual wifi settings rather than my wifi calling settings, after which I tapped the 3-dots icon in the upper right corner and selected “Advanced” Wi-Fi settings. There I discovered a category called “Intelligent Wi-Fi” with a setting called “Switch to mobile data” turned ON, and that contained an explanation saying “Use mobile data whenever your Wi-Fi internet connection is slow or unstable.” A little research revealed this article on Samsung’s website: https://docs.samsungknox.com/admin/knox-platform-for-enterprise/kbas/kba-360034073174.htm, where I learned that Samsung had experienced problems in the past with users having their phones switched to cellular data against their wishes, causing them to update the software in the manner described in the article. This inspired me to turn the “Switch to mobile data” setting OFF, after which I have now gone several days without experiencing the dreaded automatic switching back to “Cellular preferred” on my Wi-Fi Calling feature. Not enough time has gone by for me to feel completely confident that this issue is resolved, but I am cautiously optimistic. We shall see.

It is definitely worth a try.  I’ll give it a shot.

There is a big “however” involved here though.  The phone (or maybe T-Mobile One UI) has no business changing a setting that I have deliberately made.  That is not to say that on a case-by-case basis the phone/T-Mobile shouldn’t opt to use cellular or wifi.    In this case I would interpret that to say: “Unless there is a reason not to, I very strongly suggest that you use ….”.

I do have to say that I may have been incorrect on what was going on with specific reference to the S22 with the release date firmware.   I assumed that the phone was changing to cellular preferred, and that cellular (4G in my area) just didn’t work well.  I now believe that there were two things going on.  First, wifi calling just didn’t work at all with the release date (factory) firmware.  That is, it was completely non-functional   That would explain why the phone was constantly reset to “cellular preferred”.  Second, 4G calling had major problems that resulted in at least partially unusable calling (the first 5-30 seconds of 50% of the calls) was the problem.

Starting with the first (around 3/20/22??) firmware upgrade, wifi calling suddenly (apparently) started working.  When I had wifi calling turned on voice call were now 100% clear.  Suddenly I no longer had my preferences reset to “cellular preferred” except when I left home.  When leaving home it will sometimes change to “cellular preferred”, but when reaching home to would revert back to “wifi preferred”.  I still say it shouldn’t do that ever though.

One of the reason I misinterpreted the major cause of the problem was that the phone UI does not clearly state the status of the call -- wifi vs. cellular”.  That is still the case.  It really wouldn’t hurt the to note that in that screen.  There is plenty of room.

So, at least for the S22 there is good news!  Still, T-Mobile needs the fix the “preference” problem.  T-Mobile also needs to train their support people better.  There was apparently at least a month where the S22 wifi calling didn’t work.  Support should have know that.  They didn’t.

You’ll get no argument from me that this fiasco should never have been allowed to happen. Assuming that changing this setting finally puts a stop to the problem, it is clear that the tech support people at T-Mobile know nothing about Samsung’s efforts to “improve” its products’ network performance by overriding user-applied settings. I would have left T-Mobile long ago over this single issue if I could have found a better deal with a different service provider, but I couldn’t, so here we are. I have often wondered what other user settings might be getting altered without my knowledge, but I’ve never caught one in the act. All of that aside, I now believe that Samsung was the “villain” all along, but I blame T-Mobile for not understanding what Samsung has been doing to its customers in a misguided effort to make its products look better.

Welcome to customer support and sales experience. Thats precisely why I am a technician now, I see no point in ignorantly lying aimlessly to people just to make more sales. Pretty disgracing of a customer service team though altogether, never in my life, let alone on multiple recent hour plus long calls to these “let play stupid and clueless” antic assholes, if you have noise cancellation off on your sound you can here the agent and the group of thieves surrounding them in a hopeless lonely cubicle literally laughing along while saying they have never heard of this in all their years in prepaid/postpaid support, it has to be your phone, come into our store and we’ll explain it all for you with a new $1800, all glass cased device with new 5G technology which is slower and less storage capacity than your outdated IP68 military grade rating that runs smoother and faster than new, only functioning thing accounting for this $1400 price difference is an updated over-rated high mega-pixel camera that actually takes the same 1080p picture edited with software rendering, also of which comes standard on $100 price range models today