So I just got two LTE galaxy watch 4's to use when I don't want to carry my phone with me (while exercising). After spending two hours at a T-Mobile store and another hour on the phone with a technician, they escalate and another tech comes on and advises me that the galaxy watch 4 cannot be used as a standalone on t mobile. It can only be used when connected and near the phone its paired with! WHY would T-Mobile sell an LTE watch that can only be used when connected to the phone? That is called a Bluetooth watch! Very frustrated with them wasting 3 hours of my time, when this could have been mentioned when the watches were ordered. And even then, why sell LTE watches instead of Bluetooth watches? Has anyone one had this issue?

UPDATE: Bottomline is they fixed it at the store. I never got a call back regarding the claim that was submitted, so I again drove to the T-Mobile store and signed in, waited about an hour and re-explained the whole situation. A technician did what I expected he would do, which is do a factory reset, eventually one of the associates that was working with me 6 days earlier got involved and told me that they have not yet received a response from the claim that was submitted, He did some research in their system and told me that what he just learned is that there are many complaints about Samsung Smart Watch 4 not being compatible with their system and they do not work with stand alone LTE plans. I expressed my disbelief and asked "Then why did you sell me one with a stand alone wearable plan for $10 per month if the company knows it wont work?" He agreed that it should not happen but that is the situation with this new watch. I said "then why does the same additional watch that I added to my wife's Samsung cell phone work on our same business plan, but mine does not?" He was perplexed by this and looked into the provisions and settings of each of our watch/phone settings in their system and found that my settings had 3 features included, that my wife's watch did not have. It took a few tries to copy and replicate the same settings as my wife's settings, and the whole process including the conversations and research took about 90 minutes, but he finally got it to work. I wish I could tell others here exactly what settings were changed, but it was on their commuter screen and I could not view it. I do remember him telling the manager in the process that he removed the "companion" feature in my settings, but that was only 1 of the three features that were taken out. I am happy that my new Smart Watch 4 now works stand alone, I can take walks, runs, bike rides and leave my phone at home, and still be able to make/receive calls, and texts and record my workout data that syncs to my account. I am now very satisfied.

I have the exact same issue. Just received two Galaxy 4 watches yesterday, have 2 separate lines but have been unable to make calls on the LTE network. A phone rep from T-Mobile told me the exact same thing, that the phones don't work as standalone devices. I find it unbelievable that we can purchase these devices through our carrier, which are made to be LTE capable, and not be able to use them that way. It doesn't make sense.

Thanks N2Wood you cracked the code! The key is to tell customer support to remove the companion feature from the account, On their end. Once they remove that just reboot the watch. If you see lte on the upper display your good to go. Big thanks to Thomas from tmobil customer service in Kentucky. Best CSR ever. Now my watch has a different number than my phone! No phone leash at all!P.S. worked on this for 5 hours and 6 CSR ugh hope this helps everyone to avoid that hell.

I have 2. Both work seamlessly without the phone. They both have their own #. But are synced to their respective phones. They need to check the settings for you to be used as a standalone. I am very happy with ours. Only issue the battery life is shortened when not hooked to phone. Absolutely love the freedom it gives us!

You can thank Samsung for that. That is how their watches are designed. It's a peripheral.

Anyone else having problem activating galaxy watch 4 as standalone?

drnewcomb
Fiber Fanatic
Hace 3 años
I bought a Galaxy Watch 4 with just BT and WiFi (no cellular). It works perfectly but I'd like to be able to communicate with the watch, when it's not connected to the phone but has access to WiFi. So far, I have not figured out a way to do this. None of the current VoIP apps work on the watch in stand-alone mode. I've read some stuff online about side-loading old versions of Google Voice, etc. but it sounds a bit dicey. I wonder why WearOS is so restrictive?
Jarods350z
Roaming Rookie
Hace 3 años
yoly507 wrote:

Led wrote:

I am very frustrated with t-mobile I spent 2 hrs on the phone to activate my 2 watches and my so called team can't help me #1 they put my pin in wrong then they transfer me to someone else who then transfer me to digit department then 1 hrs later the line goes dead how can I get my watches activated. Standalone with their own #s I have been trying for 2 days

So it can't be standalone with its own number it had to be paired with an existing phone. Ask to be transferred to digits they knew exactly what to do to fix it.

it can be just need to contact tech support to turn off companion mode then you need to turn on the lte feature on the watch itself
Jarods350z
Roaming Rookie
Hace 3 años
Sorry I was offline for a while the companion mode is a feature through them you have to have the phone operator turn it off. now with that being said without a phone you are limited because you need a phone to change the watch faces. so what I did was find an old android phone and used it for connection first then just put it in a drawer once the setup was complete.
still a few bugs to work out (like tracking the watch on google maps) but I am pretty happy with the results so far. I can get ahold of my 10 year old without her having access to a smartphone
yoly507
Network Novice
Hace 3 años
Led wrote:

I am very frustrated with t-mobile I spent 2 hrs on the phone to activate my 2 watches and my so called team can't help me #1 they put my pin in wrong then they transfer me to someone else who then transfer me to digit department then 1 hrs later the line goes dead how can I get my watches activated. Standalone with their own #s I have been trying for 2 days

So it can't be standalone with its own number it had to be paired with an existing phone. Ask to be transferred to digits they knew exactly what to do to fix it.
yoly507
Network Novice
Hace 3 años
Elflo wrote:

@Jarods350z y @N2wood what do you mean "companion" feature? I have another digits line that I want to keep, but I think I have to remove it or convert it to a voice line. Any tips?

See if your watch is actually registered. Mine wasn't that's why it wouldn't connect.
yoly507
Network Novice
Hace 3 años
So I got my watch Christmas day and it wasn't working without being connected to Bluetooth. So I kept using the term standalone as well. The Samsung watches are not meant to be standalone but needs to be paired to a phone line with digits. After back and forth for 3 days I got connected to the Digits department and he got it working. The issue with mine was simple. When my husband bought it he never registered the watch. We added the line but when you looked at out account it said unknown device. So he registered it I already had that line paired with my phone number. Restarted it and it worked. So just make sure that your watch is actually registered now when you look at the account it shows the watch. I hope this helps someone because I was so frustrated and I loved my active 2 watch and was happy to get this one.
Lampreia
Roaming Rookie
Hace 3 años
I am happy to update that the watch is finally working as a stand alone. Do not call Sprint's customer support. They will keep saying that the watch is not compatible to work as a stand alone device. Call T-Mobile Customer support instead. The tech support agent was able to get my watch working and I did not have to hear that my watch was not compatible. He told me to remove all the plans from my watch, then I synced a new plan with the wear app on my phone and the plan that he helped me sync was the correct one to have the watch work as a stand alone. The plan added to the watch is called T-Mobile-410F. I am not sure if it will be the same for every one, but it's the one that worked for me. At first It was giving me issues, because I was able to make a call, and then when I hung up, the watch would warn that it was overheating, and that I needed to let it cool off by pressing cool off. After doing that it went on airplane mode and you could not disable airplane mode, until the phone cooled off. Since I was messing with it for so long while on the call with the agent, I guess it overheated. I then turned it off, and actually put it on my freezer to make It cool off faster. After that, I turned it on, and placed a call to my daughter's phone and sent texts from the watch to her. I got the replies and after I hung up the phone, the watch did not go on airplane mode anymore. I then left my Phone at home, and went to Kohl's to return some amazon items. I called my wife from the store, and it worked flawlessly. So remember, call T-Mobile customer support, tell them know you have a watch with a sprint unlimited LTE plan and it's own number, and that you can't make stand alone calls. They will transfer it to the tech support and they will get it working.
Lampreia
Roaming Rookie
Hace 3 años
Led wrote:

I am very frustrated with t-mobile I spent 2 hrs on the phone to activate my 2 watches and my so called team can't help me #1 they put my pin in wrong then they transfer me to someone else who then transfer me to digit department then 1 hrs later the line goes dead how can I get my watches activated. Standalone with their own #s I have been trying for 2 days

Same here. Almost 2 weeks and watch only functions tethered to phone
Led
Newbie Caller
Hace 3 años
I am very frustrated with t-mobile I spent 2 hrs on the phone to activate my 2 watches and my so called team can't help me #1 they put my pin in wrong then they transfer me to someone else who then transfer me to digit department then 1 hrs later the line goes dead how can I get my watches activated. Standalone with their own #s I have been trying for 2 days
Lampreia
Roaming Rookie
Hace 3 años
Wacki wrote:

Do you have a phone synced to it? It may not work without a phone. But, it will work as an "extension " of your phone. I was gone all day today without my phone and was able to call and message...no problem. I cannot understand why tech is telling you that UNLESS you don't have a phone synced to it

Yes, it’s synced via the phone.