WIFI Calling Preferences Being Forced to Cellular Preferred

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

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.

Jim8046 wrote:

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.

AGREED!!! Not Tmobiles business weather we have that setting on or off. Why have the setting if we can't use it. Might as well be grayed out in the menu.

Hola,

I am having same issue with T mobile (wifi calling preferred) so I do not have any signal in my phone and literally cant use for call or internet. I ported from ATT to T mobile and it seems like a scam. T mobile centre people do not have any idea about this issue or they pretend to be and call it unique problem and asked me to buy new phone. I recently bought phone and cant buy again just for this.

Please let me know if any solution you guys have for this issue

Gracias

Same issue for a long time.  I grabbed a screen shot the last time of the notification which says "WiFi calling preferences were auto updated..."  The key word there is auto.  I believe they periodically and automatically push down the change.  There has to be an advantage for them.

  I've called many times always having to go up 2 levels.  They deny it is happening nor that they have ever heard of it.  One time I talked to a tech that was quitting and he said his own phone does it and he couldn't get it resolved.

This needs to go to a class action law suit.  TMo has no right to change your phone settings.

I expect I will be leaving them as well.  What are our choices? I need a reliable phone.

I was using an S21+ originally on the Verizon network and ported to TM.  This problem did no happen on that device.  I purchased a T-Mobile S22 Ultra and I immediately started getting this problem.

I have 1 - 2 bars cellular and 2 excellent Wi-Fi routers with a super high signal strength.  So, there is no possibility that anything is actually being "optimized".  '

I did call TM tech support.  They blamed Samsung.  It is very disconcerting that this problem has been going on for years!

I have no problem with the phone temporalmente switching to cellular if the phone sees a problem with wi-fi.  However, I have a major problem with them resetting the wi-fi preferred option I deliberately set.  That makes zero sense.  Suddenly a 30 second issue with Wi-Fi strength becomes a permanent preference for cellular???? 

This is a huge problem because all my calls are going from crystal clear wi-fi to very broken cellular.

At the very least if they "optimize" to cellular they should re-optimize back to wi-fi when wi-fi is better. Instead, it just goes in one direction.

Ken98045 wrote:

I was using an S21+ originally on the Verizon network and ported to TM.  This problem did no happen on that device.  I purchased a T-Mobile S22 Ultra and I immediately started getting this problem.

I have 1 - 2 bars cellular and 2 excellent Wi-Fi routers with a super high signal strength.  So, there is no possibility that anything is actually being "optimized".  '

I did call TM tech support.  They blamed Samsung.  It is very disconcerting that this problem has been going on for years!

I have no problem with the phone temporalmente switching to cellular if the phone sees a problem with wi-fi.  However, I have a major problem with them resetting the wi-fi preferred option I deliberately set.  That makes zero sense.  Suddenly a 30 second issue with Wi-Fi strength becomes a permanent preference for cellular???? 

This is a huge problem because all my calls are going from crystal clear wi-fi to very broken cellular.

At the very least if they "optimize" to cellular they should re-optimize back to wi-fi when wi-fi is better. Instead, it just goes in one direction.

 

 

I've been fighting this a LONG time.  I don't believe it to be a Samsung issue. They will tell you anything to get rid of you.  They DO know it is an issue for many.  Switching between WiFi calling and cell calling doesn't need to change the preferred method setting.  I've had inside sources tell me that it is TMo doing it.  They want you to use the cell system not WiFi which is why they keep pushing the change.  For those with good cell signal strength it doesn't matter, which is why they make the change.  For those with poor cell service it is a huge problem.  TMo needs to understand and stay out of your settings!

I too have a new S22U.  I did not automatically transfer across everything, but took the time to install new.  I purposely limited and avoided everything TMo related.  It has yet to happen to me on this phone.  I do not do auto updates and nothing TMo ever gets updated.  I am in the process of doing a debloat.  I will root this phone if I have to.

Well, I was actually surprised recently.  My phone preferences automatically "optimized" briefly to "prefer wifi" rather than the other way around.  That was the first time I've seen that.  Either way, the phone/T-Mobile should never change a user preference.  It can/should change which way it chooses to make/receive a particular call, just not a preference.

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 dos things going on.  First, wifi calling just didn’t work at all with the release date (factory) firmware.  That is, it was completamente 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.