Forum Discussion
WIFI Calling Preferences Being Forced to Cellular Preferred
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.
- EnderWigginNewbie Caller
Same here (GS9+ from VZW, recent switch)
Thanks for the workaround, but T-Mobile needs to fix this from their side. I understand why they do this - i.e. for E-911, you should ideally always call from a cellular signal if available because then they can triangulate your position in an emergency - but I travel a lot (even with this ridiculous pandemic), and when I'm roaming that would be an extra cost.
The ideal workaround will be for T-Mobile to have any emergency call be forced over cellular regardless of this preference (and fall back to Wifi as a last resort), but all calls normally go over Wifi if that is preferred, and NOT MESS WITH THIS SETTING.
- JoePconeRoaming Rookie
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.
- manoteeRoaming Rookie
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.
- Switch_to_VerizRoaming Rookie
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!
- Jake_StarliteNewbie Caller
A year later, the problem persists! I am new to T-mobile. My galaxy S21 wiFi calling switches back from wifi-preferrerd to cellular-preferred after a few days. I think this happens when I leave the house and come back but it seems random.
T-mobile, this is more than annoying! I miss important calls when this happens because cell coverage is spotty in my house. Fix this!!
- StiofanNewbie Caller
So here's my problem. I've had poor cellular reception for over a decade at my home, so I had T Mobile send me a 4G LTE cellspot, which works great. But with my new 5G phone, it refuses to use 4G and keeps trying to use 5G towers, which no work in my neighborhood. They work very well elsewhere in my city/county, but not at home. So I've tried to use WiFi calling at home, the phone says it's using it, but it will not connect nor do I get any incoming calls. I have it set to use WiFi and not cellular preferred, it doesn't matter as it always tries using the cellular network. The phone keeps trying to use the 5G towers which suck. So my only solution is to turn WiFi calling off and manually change my cell service to 4GLTE while at home (so I'm using the cellspot), and then remember to change it back to 5G when I leave the house.
Setting the preferred cell network at home to Automatic (5G on/ 5G/LTE/3G/2G) won’t work either, it won’t use the full bars LTE instead of the nearly non-existent 5G.
- je3nnnNewbie Caller
So frustrating to find such an old thread, on a topic that has not been answered.
We live outside cell-signal range. Way back when, Wi-Fi calling was THE reason we had T-Mobile in the first place.
And we are still being frustrated by automatic resetting to "cellular preferred" MULTIPLE TIMES DAILY, disrupting our communications.
- garthhhNewbie Caller
I've been having this same issue on an S20 Ultra and an S21. The Tasker workaround doesn't seem to be effective anymore. I have 5G disabled on both phones which seems to improve the situation but it will still "optimize settings" and automatically switch back to "Cellular Preferred".
Like others I have poor service in my home (all carriers, not just TMo). I went with TMo because of wifi calling but now it is partially broken and I frequently miss calls/texts. This is not acceptable.
- SLANDECNewbie Caller
crackers8199 wrote:
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? ¿Tienes alguna idea?
- drepinNewbie Caller
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!
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