Question

WIFI Calling Preferences Being Forced to Cellular Preferred

  • 10 October 2020
  • 83 replies
  • 31265 views
J
Userlevel 3
Badge

I am experiencing my WIFI Calling Preferences always being forced to “cellular preferred”, as are others.   I live in an area with poor T-mobile mobile data signal and this recent behavior makes my phone unable to make and receive calls and text messages.   I believe the problem only started happening after the next to last T-Mobile software update.  Everything was fine for my first 5 months of ownership.  A Google search shows posts of other users experiencing the same issue, but no options other than a tedious workaround of manually switching the phone to Airplane mode and changing the WIFI calling preferences back to “WIFI preferred”.  I have to do this kind of process each time I enter and leave my home, and sometimes have to reboot my phone as well.   The times I’ve forgotten, I’ve missed package deliveries and went to a doctor appointment when the doctor had left a message that he was out sick.  This appears to be a carrier specific issue as far as I can see.   I even tried replacing my rock solid Netgear R6400 router with an ASUS AX3000 router with no resulting changes.   I’m in a small apartment only 10 feet from the router, with a very strong WIFI signal.  I have two Samsung Galaxy S20 phones (March 2020) which both exhibit the exact same behavior.   I spoke with T-Mobile Tech support which appeared to be clueless about this issue other than to send me two new S20 phones under warranty to my T-Mobile store.   I do not have high confidence in this approach but will try the new phones and report back. 

Does anyone know anything more?   I am not aware of T-Mobile publicly acknowledging this issue.

83 replies

D
Userlevel 1

Having the same problem. Frustrating that Tmobile is not acknowledging their customer issues. This is a big one for ppl with bad service areas. 

S

as of the one UI 3.0 / android 11 update, there is now a solution for this that seems to work 100% of the time via tasker without any further interaction from the user. one profile and one task and it will keep you on wifi preferred...i've had this running for over a week now and it has worked perfectly.

 

https://www.grecobon.com/2021/01/unlocked-galaxy-s20-wifi-calling-issues/

 

tldr - since the android 11 update, there's now a custom system setting that controls this that we can monitor and change via tasker. the custom setting you're looking for is wifi_calling_preferred1. create a tasker profile that will automatically set it back to wifi preferred as soon as it changes to cellular preferred. my tasker profile and action are at the link above, as well as on taskernet (link in the blog post).

Thank you for this. I tried using this method, but still find my settings switching back to cellular preferred. I've set it up in Tasker several times, turned off battery optimizations, etc. But the change never seems to hold? Any ideas?

B
Userlevel 2
Badge

The fact that T-Mobile has not resolved this issue is horrible.

 

But - what is WORSE - is that if any customer WHO calls about this happening on their phone, technical support CLAIMS to know nothing about it. Like the customer calling is the first one to experience this.

 

They sent me to Samsung, and when I told the technician about the issue at Samsung, she started laughing and said T-Mobile should be able to fix the problem...

 

Perhaps T-Mobile higher ups dont’t know anything about it, which even reflects even more badly on T-Mobile. How could they not know with all these postings??

 

How can this company that spends zillions of dollars on advertising for new customers not spent some on IT to correct this problem?

 

Is this wi-fi issue only on the Samsung phones? I have an S9. If not corrected soon, I am moving to another carrier. T-Mobile does not deserve anyone’s business with such incredibly obnoxious and stupid technical support and their being unresponsive to a legitimate issue which troubles many of us for the very same reason.  I have read all the messages back and forth -- WHY HAS THIS NOT BEEN FIXED?????

J

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.

S
Userlevel 2

Same issue here. The problem seemed to first appear about 6 0r 8 months ago or so after an update. I then starting missing many texts and calls both coming and going…..very frustrating! My wife was having the same problem with her Note 8. As with others here, the T-Mobile coverage here is marginal and we depend on the WiFi calling for the majority of our communication…...not anymore! We were actually due for new phones anyway so I thought, rather than try to fix the problem, well, it must be our old phones. We upgraded to an S21 Ultra and a Note20 Ultra…..$2300 worth of new phones! Things seemed good for a week or so….then we seemed to be missing texts and calls! Our phones were again swapping to “cellular preferred”! This is completely unsatisfactory!!!!  8 years ago I swapped from Verizon to T-Mobile (even though the Verizon coverage was better) because I believed in the T-Mobile customer service and extra perks. But if the phones can’t perform their basic functions, and, T-Mobile refuses to resolve this issue, it may very well be time to go back to Verizon! 

D
Userlevel 2

Solved! ! ! Not certain how may people are still having this issue since Android Pie update but I think I have found my solid working fix for WiFi calling continually flipping to cellular preferred, I am on TMO Samsung S8 Active but from the sounds of things this should do the trick for many other carriers or devices if any others could please followup with further testing. After trying numerous other discussed attempts and further digging I found out all I needed was a simple tool I already had from battery saving mods, no ROOT is needed at all but can be accomplished just the same if you are. First step coming closer to making this work, I turned off WiFi scanning by searching for it in the general settings menu of android, this is to help avoid any extra unneeded wifi signal interuptions, not certain how well thia plays with any "companion device" users but may, I have no purpose for these. I use Greenify and Island to debloat/disable unneeded apps from my user interface that application manager fails in ability to do, a computer with ADB installed and options enabled for such in Developer Options, search XDA for setting these up, most of this was just for battery savings essentially and is unneeded but good help. The app I installed which I found fixes our issue is App Ops - Permission Manager from play store, using a computer loaded with ADB and dos/command prompt terminal to send commands to grant needed permisions. Once in App Ops, make sure system app options are checked and scroll down almost all the way to the bottom to find your systems WiFi calling app and set "coarse location" option to "ignore" to prevent network scans from triggering this hated event and then also set the "modify system settings" option also to ignore blocking changes from occurring. I also have coarse location on my Phone app set the same too but I don't think it matters on that app, I had set the phone app previously as such with no effect until tweaking the permissions on the WiFi Calling app itself. Using App Ops I find you must reboot also for permissions to take effect. I have multiple wifi routers setup and hotspots from work I used to try to force a change-over to happen as WIFIs change or diminish out of range(as this function is implied with its label), my WiFi Preferred calling method is now finally under control. If you choose to use App Ops to resolve this issue or expirement with the others, only use the suggested options for the WiFi Calling app, all other options I tried on it either crashed the app or breaks IMS Registration otherwise which is needed for Video/VoLTE/WIFI Calling features. Tweak/debloat any other apps you wish to save battery/data at your own risk one by one, especially any other features in App Ops, very easy to break functionality of any of these or other functions if you tweak too much all at once like I did to try to fish through what messed up something else(good thing theres a select all/restore to defaults option) tweak little by little if you do, I was one of those standing at the store and on tech support for endless hours set on it being my out dated sim card then 2 new sim cards doing the same before finding out I tweaked to many settings same day I had got my new sim card

 

D
Userlevel 2

EDIT: Noticed it still flipped once in the middle of a meeting. I now made one last adjustment in App Ops for Wi-Fi Calling app setting the “Change Wi-Fi state” option to ignore, and another reboot. Will see what happens but I have verified while connected to an active wifi router, I unplugged the modem, Android status bar showed internet connection not available, bounced between this and my hotspot a few times back and forth, “Wi-Fi Preferred” selection is holding through all without any other intervention or pesky notifications, also while connected to dead wi-fi calls went through no issue from cell data while my meeting disconnected looking for wifi, also stretched out my hotspot to minimal signal detecting 2Mbps wifi speed with my meeting lagging out and full cell tower bars, now this actually fits the definition of WiFi Preferred, status in call settings now only changes to “Currently unavailable” occasionally if when travelling to outskirts of actual wifi signal and re-connects persistently as Wi-Fi Preferred once in adequate wifi range, partnered with a proper mesh wifi setup seems to be working properly smoothly for once

 

S
Userlevel 2

Wow! That’s quite the “fix”. This is far more than I’d like to take on. This problem shouldn’t have to be fixed by adding some questionable app that controls all your permissions and then essentially hacking into the controls and experimenting your way to a solution….that, in the end, might just improve things (or not….or make them worse). I think it would be easier for me to just switch to Verizon! I think it’s up to T-Mobile to come up with a fix….a legitimate fix….not a hack! It seems an update they did caused the problem, why not come up with a fix update? It’s funny that my wife and I both had this issue starting about 5-6 months ago and now, thinking we could fix it with new phones (and sims)…...NOT….we had the exact same issue with the new phones and sims. Why OUR phones? Isn’t everyone having this issue? if not, why not? Who is affected and why? This should be at the top of T-Mobile’s diagnostics….and quickly! I can’t wait much longer and I’m certainly not hearing anything from them. Hmmmm…..why not? I thought they had excellent service! Well, they used to anyway. I’m not happy!

D
Userlevel 2

As others have said elsewhere, this is kinda almost a global developing thing between "consolidation" of networks between massive amounts of cell service carriers further developing as they merge, anything running Android 9 or newer unless its a custom firmware/rom or maybe some early Android 9 rollouts. Been happening for years depending what you're running. Check out Verizon's status here:

https://community.verizon.com/t5/Google-Pixel/How-do-I-force-wifi-preferred-for-wifi-calling/td-p/1086338/page/5

If you have an old phone and sim thats active prior to these issues you may be in luck foe the time being but just as I find with tmo you have to start with a new sim card or when you "upgrade" with a replacement, newest are 5g compatible but features get locked out in phases in this process of which a carrier determines is no longer supported as with whats happening to 2g/3g type devices currently. People been battling it for years between em all. You can fix it yourself with the help of a pc with less a tenth of the characters in the command prompt that it took you to respond or continue to wait with the others as they have for years. Only part i get on the Verizon thing is overall coverage area, each has their dead spots so i roll with a Verizon Jetpack from work for that matter. Everything I did a factory reset clears all, my point I never reset my phone once since the day I bought it. In the long run i have a fully functioning phone with everything working, multiple work accounts syncing smoothly with all nonsense silenced, the apps I use are thouroulghly developer tested, widely used, and google play store certified. Do you really think its usefull like Microsoft and Google both branched together to do and upload every sigle device's user data to "their" cloud"? Using my phone as a PC as an IT tech pretty constantly all day, I'm satisfied with less than 25% total battery use for a usual day, probably will be a bit better than that now that I won't be redialing calls constantly and fighting between menus or missing important calls from my hospitals or schools while working at them. Yes there are bad apps out there, do your research for what you choose, Im a tech who doesn't take care in time to wait on industry and gave up on any companies status on customer support decades ago, i fix what i need to fix with proper research where needed. 

S
Userlevel 2

Wow, unbelievable! It’s hard to believe that this is a problem with all the carriers and there isn’t some kind of uprising. I am impressed that you’ve found a work around, but it is just too complicated for the average person (and maybe me too). Why can’t the carriers come up with a solution? Of course I suppose they like for you to use cellular using chargeable data….though using wifi would reduce congestion…..I just don’t get it. But, what used to be a reliable phone & service has become practically unusable! Is this progress? I would be very happy to go back to where my service was a year ago….it worked great then. Strange that they appear unmotivated to fix this. Surely they will have to come up with a fix…..and soon! …..or not!?!?

But, reading the Verizon community forum that you provided was quite interesting….what was most revealing was that apparently this isn’t a problem with iPhones. I’ve always been an android user, but now maybe it’s time to make a switch. It would be nice to see more confirmation on the iPhone not having this problem. Have you heard any more about that? I just spent $2500 on new phones (partly to correct this issue), but I need reliability! I might have to spend more (iPhones)….I just need to know my options and you seem to be the only source. Thanks for that!!!

M

I just got off of chat with support and have a solution that works so far. I had to have an e911 address set to keep it in WiFi preferred mode. If I had to guess, I'd say it's a safety precaution so that in the event you call an emergency number when not connected to a tower, they know where to send responders. The agent set the address for me, but I also see the option to set it yourself in the wifi calling options.

D
Userlevel 2

Having an E911 address set in the first place is the first essential part for Voice over LTE, video calling, and WiFi calling features to become active and usable at all in the first place, otherwise yours was functionally disabled without it, even though the toggle is there, with no E911 it causes IMS registration to fail, dis-allowing these functions entirely from the cell tower on device bootup. Testing with Airplane mode on then wifi, calls will drop regardless if E911 address is not in place, IMS Registration status is verified in SIM card status will tell you if Voice over LTE, video calling, and WiFi calling features are active and functioning Now that you have it, it WILL be a matter of time until you find this setting changing to cellular preferred constantly occurring throughout use as most ALL other carriers included Android 9+ Google software bundled phones go. Tracing through logs in App Ops I have identified this change over issue down to a combination of all softwares, implemented first by Google through most any Play Store apps eventually brought into standard Android OS development and also infused into vendor/carrier installed apps just the same is the ongoingly largest battery draining issue - randomly occurring wifi scanning also mixed in with Geo Location/NFC triggers which are all binded directly with GPS Location Services function. Bottom line primary trigger causing “Cellular Preferred” changes is limited consistent Wi-Fi internet data throughput or bandwidth, this by absolutely no means is wifi signal strength at the router but combination of all specifically between the modem itself and the wifi calling app itself on your device, home modem internet signals are rarely consistent although your wifi might be bad ass at hiding it for other types of devices; this can all drastically be affected also by excessive Google/games/apps limiting bandwidth to wifi calling app also multiplying the issue also having wifi scanning built into everything.  Wifi scanning basically momentarily pauses or severely limits your current wifi connection while the radio adjusts between wifi channels trying to locate other networks to meter yours against, causing the wifi calling app to disconnect unexpectedly and flip to cellular. This in turn blows for us all because it is implemented into almost all newly developed/updated apps to be allowed in the Google Play Store, even the built in Android app that senses input from a simple touch of your touch screen and keyboard apps cause wifi scanning to momentarily take place, had mine changing it seemed 50% of the time swiping my screen to unlock. The standard Android settings menu allows you turn off wifi scanning so they make it seem but this toggle only disables wifi scanning features at user level installed apps, not wifi and GPS scanning for system based ones provided by Android/vendor/Google. Only time when wifi scanning ideally should be occuring is when you are in your list of connections making a choice to connect to. Appops is implemented into all versions of Android already at the command line level as DOS is to windows so it works as a one-time direct command adjusting permissions/settings directly and instantly, not like other apps which run receivers to trigger scripts continually draining battery/hindering function. Play Store App Ops gives you the graphical interface to utilize it easily(internally utilizing ADB at boot sequence to apply changes all at once or all can be disabled just the same if issue were to arise tweaking without research), allowing you to directly set system app and user app permissions to ignore these requests with blank data(rather than blocking and crashing app). The only select few apps I set to allow location access to is Google Maps cloned along with google play services, isolated in my cloned Island work profile for when needed , then two I set to “allow only while using the app which are both needed for IMS registration to successfully complete at boot: DiagMonAgent and IMS Service. Since IMS registration takes place only once on devices at bootup, if I have wifi left on before rebooting it may trip to Cellular Preferred only once just at this moment depending how fast wifi connects vs completion of IMS registation. So as long as I don’t restart with wifi on my issue is now 100% resolved and now completely entirely non-existent, “WiFi Preferred” calling mode is now holding persistently, only now accurately displaying unavailable currently when wifi diminishes before dropping or as changing WiFi to another connection, IMS re-establishes and maintains “WiFi Preferred” option through every transition. The other guy can above can run back to Verizon if so he chooses but either way we ALL live in this Google/Microsoft driven world whom both want to know every last detail of none other than you, good luck getting them to change their ways or to get your new carrier to sell you a device that has neither but works on their network, otherwise mod your own device you personally own how you like the way, we in the free/open-source Linux community, always have. Windows 95 does still function also if you so choose to use it for something or like demonstrating how things USED to work in days of ol, but if you want to use it with today’s world of software and hardware both, you won’t have much luck.  If you merely buy a device from any standard Cell Phone Carrier you are in fact buying into their whole entire knowledgeably ignorant scheme to hand them hundreds of dollars only because their service is somehow unexplainably “better” than their identical competition with identical devices and consolidated shared Cell towers, sales are not developers are not technicians, continue the endless loop. Open source already fixed the problem, Google and Microsoft never will because it is 100% strictly marketing based and profiting them, if a product doesn’t work well or no longer does after being updated to “latest improved software” you’ll come shovel out hundreds for another new one to replace a 6 month old new one….right??? There are other forums for those carriers too once you find yourself in the exact same current situation once your new device updates itself. Also good preventative to avoid vendor forced OS updates that some have found their devices booting up to regardless of disabling automatic system updates (vendor/carriers do have the ability to and do force system updates occasionally in waves to all devices reporting not being updated after a set time duration expires pushed through SMS/GMS code in the System Update app) if using Island then freeze (disabled until YOU open it)the update app and only update once you know updates are stable, most vendors wait months after security updates are released before they push them to available for your device to see in the first place so a little extra time on your end to actually verify stability between other actual users will keep this and any other unexpected downgraded updates from disrupting life

S
Userlevel 2

Thanks for jumping in with this….but, unfortunately this doesn’t solve the problem. I’ve had all my phones properly set up with e911 and still have the same problem. I certainly wish it was that simple!

Today I was on the phone with tech support for over two hours. I was not impressed with their level of knowledge (on anything!). Surprisingly (or maybe not) the first level support person I spoke with had never heard of this problem (it didn’t help that she was so heavily accented I couldn’t understand her half the time …..why do they use those folks for tech support???). I assured her that it was all over the internet. Ultimately I explained in detail the situation and she consulted other support folks and came up with a workaround. Not a great one certainly, but something that should help….at least at my house. The workaround? A cell phone signal booster. They’ve agreed to send me one (a loaner w’ a $25 deposit). In theory, this will amplify the 4G LTE signal enough that, if, by chance, my phone randomly switches from WiFi preferred to Cellular preferred at least the cellular signal will be strong enough that I can still send and receive calls/texts. This does not change the annoying fact that the phone won’t stay on WiFi preferred. Annoying also because, not only am I unable to get texts or make calls when it swaps, but if it does swap to cellular and still works, I unknowingly use cellular data rather than Wifi data so it can end up costing more. And I will still have the issue at my vacation home where the problem is far worse (they’ll only give me one of these boosters!). At this date there is no proposed fix for the random swapping to cellular preferred….unless you use “DazedandConfused” method which I’m not quite up to tackling at this point (his method would likely leave me dazed and confused!). They did suggest to turn on airplane mode and then turn WiFi on…..this would keep it from going to cellular….but, as I pointed out to them, then if you wonder away from your wifi (you might forget) you get absolutely nothing. That’s even worse! Apparently all android phones...especially Samsung ...have been plagued by this after an update about 6 months ago. In hindsight, this would have been the time to swap to an iPhone. Certainly the android folks will come up with a real fix….right???   Although I guess I can’t really blame T-Mobile for all of this, I’m still very disappointed in their tech support…..they should have had this all figured out with all possible workarounds….it shouldn’t take two hours! 

D
Userlevel 2

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

D
Userlevel 2

The only select few apps I set to allow location access to is Google Maps cloned along with google play services, isolated in my cloned Island work profile for when needed , then two I set to “allow only while using the app which are both needed for IMS registration to successfully complete at boot: DiagMonAgent and IMS Service. Since IMS registration takes place only once on devices at bootup, if I have wifi left on before rebooting it may trip to Cellular Preferred only once just at this moment depending how fast wifi connects vs completion of IMS registation. So as long as I don’t restart with wifi on my issue is now 100% resolved and now completely entirely non-existent, “WiFi Preferred” calling mode is now holding persistently, only now accurately displaying unavailable currently when wifi diminishes before dropping or as changing WiFi to another connection, IMS re-establishes and maintains “WiFi Preferred” option through every transition. The other guy can above can run back to Verizon if so he chooses but either way we ALL live in this Google/Microsoft driven world whom both want to know every last detail of none other than you, good luck getting them to change their ways or to get your new carrier to sell you a device that has neither but works on their network, otherwise mod your own device you personally own how you like the way, we in the free/open-source Linux community, always have. Windows 95 does still function also if you so choose to use it for something or like demonstrating how things USED to work in days of ol, but if you want to use it with today’s world of software and hardware both, you won’t have much luck.  If you merely buy a device from any standard Cell Phone Carrier you are in fact buying into their whole entire knowledgeably ignorant scheme to hand them hundreds of dollars only because their service is somehow unexplainably “better” than their identical competition with identical devices and consolidated shared Cell towers, sales are not developers are not technicians, continue the endless loop. Open source already fixed the problem, Google and Microsoft never will because it is 100% strictly marketing based and profiting them, if a product doesn’t work well or no longer does after being updated to “latest improved software” you’ll come shovel out hundreds for another new one to replace a 6 month old new one….right??? There are other forums for those carriers too once you find yourself in the exact same current situation once your new device updates itself. Also good preventative to avoid vendor forced OS updates that some have found their devices booting up to regardless of disabling automatic system updates (vendor/carriers do have the ability to and do force system updates occasionally in waves to all devices reporting not being updated after a set time duration expires pushed through SMS/GMS code in the System Update app) if using Island then freeze (disabled until YOU open it)the update app and only update once you know updates are stable, most vendors wait months after security updates are released before they push them to available for your device to see in the first place so a little extra time on your end to actually verify stability between other actual users will keep this and any other unexpected downgraded updates from disrupting life

D
Userlevel 2

Getting an E911 address set in the first place is the first essential part for Voice over LTE, video calling, and WiFi calling features to become active and usable at all in the first place, otherwise yours was functionally disabled without it, even though the toggle is there, with no E911 it causes IMS registration to fail, dis-allowing these functions entirely from the cell tower on device bootup. Testing with Airplane mode on then wifi, calls will drop regardless if E911 address is not in place, IMS Registration status is verified in SIM card status will tell you if Voice over LTE, video calling, and WiFi calling features are active and functioning Now that you have it, it WILL be a matter of time until you find this setting changing to cellular preferred constantly occurring throughout use as most ALL other carriers included Android 9+ Google software bundled phones go. Tracing through logs in App Ops I have identified this change over issue down to a combination of all softwares, implemented first by Google through most any Play Store apps eventually brought into standard Android OS development and also infused into vendor/carrier installed apps just the same is the ongoingly largest battery draining issue - randomly occurring wifi scanning also mixed in with Geo Location/NFC triggers which are all binded directly with GPS Location Services function. Bottom line primary trigger causing “Cellular Preferred” changes is limited consistent Wi-Fi internet data throughput or bandwidth, this by absolutely no means is wifi signal strength at the router but combination of all specifically between the modem itself and the wifi calling app itself on your device, home modem internet signals are rarely consistent although your wifi might be bad ass at hiding it for other types of devices; this can all drastically be affected also by excessive Google/games/apps limiting bandwidth to wifi calling app also multiplying the issue also having wifi scanning built into everything. 

D
Userlevel 2

Bottom line primary trigger causing “Cellular Preferred” changes is limited consistent Wi-Fi internet data throughput or bandwidth, this by absolutely no means is wifi signal strength at the router but combination of all specifically between the modem itself and the wifi calling app itself on your device, home modem internet signals are rarely consistent although your wifi might be bad ass at hiding it for other types of devices; this can all drastically be affected also by excessive Google/games/apps limiting bandwidth to wifi calling app also multiplying the issue also having wifi scanning built into everything.  Wifi scanning basically momentarily pauses or severely limits your current wifi connection while the radio adjusts between wifi channels trying to locate other networks to meter yours against, causing the wifi calling app to disconnect unexpectedly and flip to cellular. This in turn blows for us all because it is implemented into almost all newly developed/updated apps to be allowed in the Google Play Store, even the built in Android app that senses input from a simple touch of your touch screen and keyboard apps cause wifi scanning to momentarily take place, had mine changing it seemed 50% of the time swiping my screen to unlock. The standard Android settings menu allows you turn off wifi scanning so they make it seem but this toggle only disables wifi scanning features at user level installed apps, not wifi and GPS scanning for system based ones provided by Android/vendor/Google.

D
Userlevel 2

Bottom line primary trigger causing “Cellular Preferred” changes is limited consistent Wi-Fi internet data throughput or bandwidth, this by absolutely no means is wifi signal strength at the router but combination of all specifically between the modem itself and the wifi calling app itself on your device, home modem internet signals are rarely consistent although your wifi might be bad ass at hiding it for other types of devices; this can all drastically be affected also by excessive Google/games/apps limiting bandwidth to wifi calling app also multiplying the issue also having wifi scanning built into everything.  Wifi scanning basically momentarily pauses or severely limits your current wifi connection while the radio adjusts between wifi channels trying to locate other networks to meter yours against, causing the wifi calling app to disconnect unexpectedly and flip to cellular. 

J

Can't believe I have to switch to verizon because of this

J

IT looks like this has been fixed.  The latest update for My S21 leaves WiFi preferred, locked in. 

M
Userlevel 2

I continue to have the “Wi F calling preferences updated to optimize network experience” message appear on my Galaxy S9 constantly. It is changed from Wi-Fi to cellular, even though I have only one bar on cellular service and am 5 feet away from my ASUS RT-AC86U router. It seems like I miss calls when it is reset to cellular preferred.

I have many issues with this unwanted “service”. If I set a preference, it is what I want and I expect my preference to be honored. Is this reset only on my phone, or is it also recognized by T-Mobile so if I get a call T-Mobile will only use cellular and not work if I don’t have sufficient coverage?

T-Mobile has replaced my SIM card, but that didn;t help. There was a suggestion to clear the cache partition and reset network connection. I have done this repeatedly and it doesn’t work.

It looks like I have three solutions: Take my Galaxy S9 to AT&T, stay with T-Mobile and replace my Samsung with a different manufacturer’s cell phone, or go to Spectrum/Verizon and get a new phone.

Note to T-Mobile: If you are monitoring this issue, please respond.

D

I have the same issue as reported by many other users: on Samsung A32 5G (SM-A326U) the WiFi calling preference is constantly being reset from WiFi-preferred to cellular preferred.

T-MOBILE needs to work with Samsung to address the issue!

S
Userlevel 2

It is disturbing that nothing is being done to remedy this problem….and that T-Mobile will not even acknowledge it. There is an obvious issue here that needs immediate resolution. Perhaps public awareness is low because it mainly affects folks who don’t have the best cellular connection and even then, most folks would likely be unaware of why the were missing texts and calls. It really does seem to be from our phones spontaneously switching to “Cellular Preferred”. Wait, whose preference is that? Mine?….or the phone’s? Can’t I lock in MY preferences? What’s that setting for? Who’s it for? If it’s on “Cellular Preferred” and there is poor cellular service at that location (although there may be good wifi) you will miss calls and texts. Such has been my situation for the last 6 months or so. 

As much as I’ve loved T-Mobile for the last 8 years, they seem to have gone downhill. This is truly unacceptable and I am ready to change carriers. If I see no real changes, or at least an explanation and attempt to fix this, I will make it my mission to make this issue, and their lack of response, as public as possible and get the word out nationwide…..there’s a big problem and T-Mobile refuses to not only fix it, but to even acknowledge it!

B
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It seems to me that many are having this identical problem… those of us who depend on wi-fi connectivity because we live in a hi-rise building or in an area with poor cell coverage. These wi-fi connectivity issues began with a system update in mid-2020. If you select “wi-fi preferred” within a short period of time your phone will revert to “cellular preferred”. T-mobile has given me different phones and the same thing happens on all of them.  Worse yet, I have had multiple instances of an incoming call -- when on a wi-fi system -- going directly to voice mail and my cell phone never rings. I have observed this issue myself by calling my cell phone from a landline phone. I have tried temporarily deleting various apps from my phone -- but the same issue persists. This is not, I think, from my phone, my apps, or the wi-fi network I am on. It seems to be a software issue. Complaints are coming from Android and Apple users which are similar. Should not T-Mobile get this technically resolved? And would it not be honest to send out a blanket announcement to T-Mobile customers that “wi-fi is not working properly and we are working on it” or something like that? It seems to me that it is not fair or honest to advertise a service which is not properly working. Or openly solicit any problems we are having with T-Mobile wi-fi connectivity. I really love T-Mobile availability most places in the world -- buy the wi-fi connectivity is a big issue for me.

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The issue appears to be: how can you advertise a feature that clearly does not work? The old “truth in advertising” problem. I think that correcting this issue should be a technical priority for T-Mobile.

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