Question

Good signal/bars but no network connection many times daily


Userlevel 3
Badge

Ok here's what is going on... I have pretty good signal almost full 5g bars most of the time down to where it drops to 4g lte at full bars. From time to time every couple hours I lose connection to the network where I can't text no apps work etc but usually I can still make calls just fine while this is happening. It only lasts 1-2 minutes sometimes or it may be out 15-20 then all of the sudden it's back to normal like nothing ever happened. It may go right back out again in 2 minutes or it may not happen for hours. Also it only happens on my new galaxy a32 not on our old galaxy j7 or prime whatever it was or on the older LG phone both of which are still being used on this account and same house at same time but they have no issues with connection ever. They aren't 5g either so I figure 5g has something to do with it. It just really gets old when you can't finish a conversation or get directions because internet/network connection just stopped. What can I do? All my connection settings are set how tmobile and other people have said they should be. I don't have Wi-Fi so I'm set to always use mobile data. What now? Or will I just have to suffer through. It's prob just some tmobile network problem that's with the new 5g. I guess that's what I get buying a new phone. Any ideas?


77 replies

Userlevel 1

I also experience this issue randomly throughout the day. Hopefully there is an explanation and solution to this.

Userlevel 1

Did anyone ever get this figured out?  Has been happening to me for a long time on multiple iPhones, including my brand new iPhone 13 Pro (and my iPhone 12 Pro before that). It doesn’t happen to other family members, and it’s bad enough that I’m starting to look at what options I have with other mobile providers (not a threat, I’m just at my wits end…)

Userlevel 1
Badge

I’m having the same issue with my S21 Ultra. I can be sitting in my living room and have 5G w/full bars and it will not allow me to use any apps or internet through chrome. States, Offline. Place it in Airplane mode and back off and it works again. What gives? OP were you able to figure out the issue?

Userlevel 2

This is quite frankly the only issue keeping our switch from Verizon to T-Mobile from being great. I’ve been impressed otherwise by not seeing any drastic reduction in coverage vs Verizon. T-Mo also has. better UWV presence in our area than the competitors and it’s pretty fast - when it works.  However, all that said, I am about to lose my sanity and jump to another carrier.

 

I spoke with support last week only to be told that I should consider turning off the 5g on my iPhone to fix the issue. I didn’t switch carriers to the “nations best 5g coverage” to turn off my 5g. 

 

Userlevel 1

This is happening to me constantly on an iPhone 12 Pro running iOS 15.1. It happens when I leave my home wifi. It happens when I’m driving and need to access Google Maps, among many other situations where I need data. Google Maps will say “poor connection” or not even appear to have a connection at all, yet my phone has full blown 5G service. Toggling airplane mode usually fixes it, albeit temporarily. Sometimes it only fixes it for a couple minutes. When it manages to fix itself I get a slew of notifications that are finally able to be pushed through. 
 

It’s extremely frustrating. I have 5G in most areas, most recently 5G UC. I live and work in a major city and I almost never get a signal below 5G. I switched to T Mobile and initially loved their service, but this is frustrating to no end. Resetting my Network Settings is becoming annoying at this point and is not an acceptable solution anymore. 

Userlevel 1

Happens to me all the time … shows it have bars and LTE but no data connection… dealt with this for a while now … switching to Verizon seems it might fix the problem 

I wish I had something different to add but, I’m just confirming that I have the same issue and am thinking about switching back to Verizon. I wanted to love t-mobile but just isn’t usable. Like all of you, great signal but no ability to use data.

Exact same issue as all others have described. S21 Ultra. 

TMobile wtf? 

How bout an explanation by now?

Userlevel 2

I landed here while googling for help on the same issue. Nothing to add other than happens to my wife and I daily on our new iPhone 13’s with T-Mobile. Stinks, because otherwise, our decision switch to this carrier has been been okay and the network is definitely fast when it works.  The issue seems worse when leaving wifi going to cellular data but it also happens randomly when out and about. In all situations, full signal, no data.

 

Userlevel 6
Badge +15

I have a couple ideas about this. If you’re in a lower level room or basement, you can have some issues with the connection cutting in and out due to line of site. I’d head to a higher level of the house/building if possible. Restarting the phone on a daily basis can help make sure you maintain a solid connection. If this is happening in the same area and even around the same time of day, this could be something our engineering team can look into after our Tech Care team files a Service Complaint for you.

My family and I have been having this issue since October 2022! T-Mobile worked great for us until then. We live in an area that shows full 5G coverage. I've made multiple calls over the months. I was told we can get refunded for the number of days the service hasn't worked, but only one time. Being that it happens for a few days to weeks at a time, then shapes up, then acts up again, I'm hesitant because I'm up to over 100 days of not being able to use our phones. Live in Central Texas, everyone I know with AT&T and Verizon always has working service. T-Mobile only keeps us right now because I can't afford to pay off 3 of the lines that are getting paid through a monthly credit promotional. Funny how the "uncarrier" with "no contracts" does their discounts and promotions in such a way that it's essentially the same thing as a contract. Was camping this past weekend out near Ft Hood, and sure enough, only the T-Mobile members had no signal. The world's leading carrier isn't doing a great job right now.

Good to see this has been a known issue for over a year and we're still having the same problems.

 

Full 5G UC and .12Mbps

 

Bravo T-Mo. Bravo 

I had this issue for a year with my iPhone 12 Pro (I simply dealt with it, switching airplane mode on and off to reset the connection) and now with my iPhone 13 Pro. This morning I took my dog out and found I had no connection the moment I left my house’s wifi. And I can tell you for a fact that there is literally a T-Mobile 5G microcell within 300 feet of where I was standing, basking in solid full signal, and no data connection whatsoever. This happens nearly daily to me, or at least seems to when I manage to catch it. 

Userlevel 7
Badge +11

In your case, if you want a ‘real’ notification/fix, file a complaint through the BBB.  Since T-Mobile has outsourced almost all of its US based support, you’ll be getting standard troubleshooting and generic responses.

Userlevel 7
Badge +11

That's pretty much a nice way of stating iPhone 12/13 doesn't always work well with 5g NSA

Userlevel 7
Badge +11

I can say for the iPhones, but in my experience with Android, and Samsung/Oneplus and LG, 5G “extended range" can sometimes make service worse.  I've actually gone and disabled n71 on 5g as it becomes the weakest link in a chain, especially when 5g is coming from one tower, and LTE is from another.  Depending on your area, you might not have 5g “ultra capacity” for use, which would give you LTE only.

Userlevel 5
Badge +5

It looks like most of the folks having this issue (phone and/or home internet) are describing when the cell towers are overloaded with more connections then it can manage. The symptoms are:

  • Strong signal but low or no data
  • Strong signal but dropped calls
  • Restarting your device gives you a brief moment when data works again only to lose it. This is caused by your restart putting your device back to top of the data queue momentarily.

I experience this a lot in both dense cities and remote areas. A good example is a vacation spot. Go during the week and no problems. Go during the weekends and your same phone from the same spot gets little to no data even though the signal strengths is the same as the week.

Unfortunately, the “fix” is for TMO to upgrade such towers and they are. However, they can only upgrade so many on a given day and nobody can tell you when your area will be upgraded. TMO want’s to add more capacity so they can bring in more customers. I’m sure the TMO exec is accurately aware that continued overloading will drive customers to other carriers.

Badge

 @formercanuck THIS was a life saver for me. I can use the phone at home now… Thanks for posting the n71 trick.  

I just got the new Moto G100 and I am having this exact issue. Maxed out 5G signal, but it's running like it's dial up. Slow if it works, with repeated dropped signal. Irritating is an underwhelming statement.

I have been experiencing this same thing off and on for quite some time. In my case though calls don’t always go through. So I will have full 5G bars but the internet goes out. When this happens, I try to call my voicemail and it looks like it connects but I don’t hear anything. Then it all works again. I have called tech support a few times. The solution is to reset the network settings and reboot. While that helps, the issue reemerges. It is not a fix. I broke down and called tech support again last night… It certainly illuminated things for me.

 

The rep I spoke with last, I believe Kiel (outsourced most likely), must have thought that I am stupid. He “fixed” the issue by having me set the phone to 4G/3G/2G (essentially prevent the phone from using 5G). THEN this individual tried to tell me that when I go to an area with good 5G connectivity that my phone would connect - nevermind the fact that he had me turn 5G off. Add that -LIE- to the fact that I AM within 5G signal and I was one p-o’d customer. All in all, T-Mobile support is next to absolutely useless (and infuriating). Also, this issue is CLEARLY a 5G issue. The only reason I went out and bought a new phone that supports 5G was due to T-mobile’s “push” for 5G.

 

I have been a customer for just shy of 16 years. That will end soon.

I have the same problem with s20 5g.  I just keep holding on thinking evetually an update or something would fix itself but no. I tried everything with settings and what not, I restart it works for 5-10 minutes and back out with full bars. I’ve been with tmobile for 15 years and I’m just done with it same time every day no internet not working anymore.  time to switch

i’ll preface this by saying i have a less than year old iphone 13. made an entire account just so i could post my frustrating experience.

TL;DR: this is exactly what i tried. open settings > cellular > cellular data options > voice and data > switch to LTE. then i went back to voice and data > data mode > switch to standard. then restart phone. my phone is finally loading things without wifi, and im not having the “no internet connection” problem anymore. maybe this could help someone so i decided to leave my experience.

the issue at hand has been following me from phone to phone ever since i got my first iphone in like 2014 or 2015. even if i had full bars of service and my 4g or 5g was on, if i was not connected to wifi, nothing would load. social media would not load, my texts would take forever to go through or sometimes not even go through, dropped calls, etc and no one else in my fam ever had this problem except me. ive been so fed up to the point where i took my phone in, and tmobile ppl tell me try resetting network settings when that happens. of course as im standing in front of the tmobile person, in the tmobile store, their suggestion works exactly as they thought it would but as soon as i left the problem came back and i would try the suggestion again and it would not work anymore. i have read on this problem SO many times trying to fix it and i think i finally did something right this time. this is exactly what i tried. open settings > cellular > cellular data options > voice and data > switch to LTE. then i went back to voice and data > data mode > switch to standard. then restart phone. my phone is finally loading things without wifi, and im not having the “no internet connection” and "could not connect/secure network" problem anymore. maybe this could help someone so i decided to leave my experience.

Having the same problem. I just switched from Verizon to T-Mobile last month because I was eligible for an upgrade at work, but Verizon did not have the Galaxy S21 in stock. I never had this problem with my S10 on Verizon. If I leave the house and I assume am jumping from tower to tower or 4G to 5G, I pretty much always have to go into and out of airplane mode at least once to get a connection back. This is when I am showing 4 or 5 bars. I’ve even seen it act weird showing 5G and no bars (gray x), but have a connection. Pretty annoying to be sure. I just turned off 5G in the settings to see what happens, but a fix would be a lot nicer.

I am also experiencing this issue; it started around September 20. I even did a Factory Reset on my Z Fold3, but it didn’t make a difference. 

My co-worker also has T-Mobile, we sit in the same area, but he doesn’t have this issue.

Has T-Mobile find a solution yet?

I have been having the same problem on and off for a few months and it is about to make me switch carriers. I finally found someone who understands what I'm going through and describes it well! I have an LG velvet that I've had for 1.5 years and I had no problems until the last few months. But my problem happens whenever I leave Wi-Fi and go to mobile data, or when I'm on 5G and then I go out of 5G and try to go to 4G. Everything shuts down. It shows me I'm still connected so I've been unaware, only to find out that there's a bunch of texts people didn't get from me that I thought went through, and there are texts that I'm not receiving. And on occasion I've tried to make a call during this time and it won't call out. When I restart my phone it's fine. But it happens frequently and I need this fixed! I have five other people on my phone line but none of them have 5G except me. None of them have problems. So are we pretty convinced that it's a T Mobile 5G problem? I've been with T-Mobile since 2006 but I run my business from my phone and I can't function like this. Even when I leave my phone on LTE all the time it still happens. Have to constantly restart my phone or turn airplane mode on and off. I'm never really sure what's working to fix it. Does T-Mobile text see this thread?

Reply