Weird Android glitch- anyone hear of this?

[Jeemie]

So a few days ago, data connectivity on my Galaxy S4 just ceased working properly, but it appears i am getting some data connectivity- just not a lot.

When I use the default Internet program, I get a "Server is not sending data" error.

When I use Chrome, I can do Google searches, but if I click on any links in the results, I get the "no data" error.

A lot of my apps with online connectivity seem to work, but certain apps like iFunny do not.

This seems extremely bizarre.

Anyone have any ideas?

One thing I do notice is that my indicator (which is always on and by the indicator appears to be sending data back and forth) is always on 4G LTE no matter where I am, so I thought it might be a network switching error (i.e. it is "stuck" on looking for 4G LTE). There have apparently been problems like that after KitKat upgrades that I have seen on the web.

But wouldn't all my data be out?

Very puzzling.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

[Jeemie]

Hmm..so T-Mobile said they are doing a major LTE upgrade in my area, and what they think was happening was my phone "believed" it was hooked into LTE towers that were sending out identifier signal but very limited data.

So that my phone would never switch to the lower bands.

Now- I don't know whether that's a load of hooey to cover throttling activities, but when I switched my settings to ignore signals from LTE, everything worked fine.

[ghostjmf]

Not happening in the Boston area. At least not yet. And my tablet has no way I can find to turn off 4G LTE, so I'd be cooked if this happens here. Except this tab is always connecting itself to available WiFI, even when not told to. So I'm using whatever that WiFi is using, which I can't check. And there's no way to turn this off either, via settings menus that web articles say in earlier tabs did have this option.
In areas where the available WiFis don't have available passwords, this is very annoying.


Gotta love both 4G LTE & T-Mobile.

[Jeemie]

Not happening in the Boston area. At least not yet. And my tablet has no way I can find to turn off 4G LTE, so I'd be cooked if this happens here. Except this tab is always connecting itself to available WiFI, even when not told to. So I'm using whatever that WiFi is using, which I can't check. And there's no way to turn this off either, via settings menus that web articles say in earlier tabs did have this option.
In areas where the available WiFis don't have available passwords, this is very annoying.


Gotta love both 4G LTE & T-Mobile.

The galaxy (and, I assume, other phones, has a "Network Mode" menu option under "Mobile Networks". . There I have four choices: LTE/WCDMA/GSM (auto-connect), WCDMA/GSM (auto-connect), WCDMA only, and GSM only.

It's on the same menu where I turn on my mobile data and also turn on/off roaming.

So I can control the "experience".

[Beebs52]

I'll blame the solar flare. My S3 battery was draining like crazy, so thought it was dying. Ordered a 3 pack replacement online. Now it's working sorta normally...

[ghostjmf]

My thing, an Alcatel One Touch Pop 7 tablet, not a phone, has under settings->data usage->more->Mobile Networks-> Network Mode-> 3 choices: WCDMA only, GSM only, GSM/WCDMA preferred


Either the store person who set me up set this up on the GSM/WCDMA preferred option, or the tablet came that way. Its switchable, if I dare to. I have to look up what I'd be doing to myself 1st.


Its interesting that this tablet is advertised as being available for 4G LTE, which T-Mobile brags about, but doesn't have LTE as one of its options. Dunno if that means what I would rationally deduce it means, which is that I don't actually have 4G LTE. I know that whenever I run down on my free measly 200GB/month, I get messages that my speeds are going to get slower if I don't buy connect-time. And the one time I was weasled into buying more connect-time, because the tablet has 2 gauges, the tablet's own gauge & T-Mobile's own site which you have to wait for data on, & the tablet's own gauge lies, I bought it as 4G LTE connect time. Says so right on the receipt. Hey, that must mean something. Or not.

Also, the one time I actually ran out of 200MB/month at supposedly 4G LTE speeds, I didn't go slower, I got cut completely off except when connected via WiFi. This message that "you'll slow down" is new; I didn't get it back then. When I complained to T-Mobile, they said "its because you are a pre-paid customer". (Pre-paids are pariahs in their book.)


I'll say one thing, everything on this tablet except T-Mobile's own site connects very fast.

[Jeemie]

Ghost...if you had LTE, I would assume you 4G indicator would change to read 4G LTE.

I could be mistaken, but all our phones indicate when it's LTE as opposed to just 4G.

[ghostjmf]

According to various things I've looked up (http://www.differencebetween.net/techno ... a-and-gsm/) WCDMA is for 3G stuff & GSM is for 2G stuff.

[ghostjmf]

jeemie says:

Ghost...if you had LTE, I would assume you 4G indicator would change to read 4G LTE.

I could be mistaken, but all our phones indicate when it's LTE as opposed to just 4G.

Right here in this very library, I saw my teeny (can't get it to enlarge, ever) indicator went from saying 2G to saying 4G. I don't think it ever says LTE.


Curse you, T-Mobile. You told me that by buying your latest tablet I would be buying your best connectivity. Among other things they said.


On the other hand, connectivity, when I've got it at all, is one thing about the Alcatel pop 7 I really can't complain about. I shoulda shelled out for the latest Nexus, though.