I've been experiencing the same 4G issues like everyone else, so for the past two days, I've been doing tests of my own to figure out what's going on, and here are my findings.
I noticed I have 3G issues after having 4G on and it switches to 3G. So, for the past two days, I've been only running 3G and I've been getting excellent 3G coverage, signal, and speeds.
To get and keep good 3G signal and speeds, turn 4G off, and let it switch to 3G. Then do a battery pull, leave the battery out for a minute or two, then put the battery back in and don't turn 4G back on at all.
I'm getting great 3G signal and speeds everywhere I was getting great signal and speeds with my DX.
Now, yesterday, I turned 4G on just to see what would happen, and I had two bars of 4G, then it switched to 3G for a few seconds, then to 1X and stayed on 1X for a few before I turned 4G off and did a battery pull. I never get 1X here, not even on my DX.
The above test tells me that there is a problem when the device switches from 4G to 3G. But, leaving the phone on 3G works perfectly, just like it's supposed to.
I will also report my findings to Verizon in hopes that it may help them track down the problem.
Until then, I'll stick with using 3G only which works perfectly on this sexy device.
I am on T-Mobile but Engadget had an article about VZW being aware and working on a patch...
Skickat från min ASUS Eee Pad TF101
It will eventually hit 3G but doesn't authenticate as quickly as it should. I just leave LTE off until I, for some strange reason, need 20mbps.
-Galaxy Nexus
-Asus Transformer
That interesting. I had a couple connection issues when I first got mine. Was still on 4.0.1 and rooted/unlocked right out of the box. So when the time came to update to 4.0.2, I couldn't.
I had terrible service but never seemed to slow the 3g speeds down. What was weird was, when at home on wifi(my connection is 18mbps), my OG Droid was loading Youtube faster than my Gnex. Gnex kept buffering and loading. Once I updated to 4.0.2 that was resolved. I almost returned the Gnex. Glad I waited.
Also, I do not have 4g here where I live so I keep it turned off. I just returned back from Nashville TN where they do have 4g and switching back and forth was not a problem for me.
Phone rarely shows more than 3 bars regardless of connection.
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I've noticed this over the past month and thought I'd share and see if anyone has been having the same experience with 4G data.
I'm in Miami Lakes, which is a suburb of Miami, and while Miami officially has 4G now, my suburb isn't listed in Sprint's coverage map as being covered by 4G yet. However, I've been getting a 4G signal at home for over a month now.
I have noticed, though, that I can't download/received MMS messages while on 4G but as soon as I switch to 3G, they download just fine.
Another thing I noticed is, it takes a second or two for 4G data to actually wake up. What I mean is, when my phone locks (screen turns off) and I turn it back on and go into an app that needs a data connection (i.e. Facebook), about 50% of the time I'll get a message from the app saying that there is no data connection (eve though the 4G icon shows I am connected to 4G) but if I back out, give it a second, and go back in, all of the sudden everything is fine. Just like my MMS issue, that doesn't happen with 3G either.
I think it's safe to assume that these issues are due to the fact that 4G isn't officially implemented in my area yet and they are still configuring and installing these towers I'm getting signal from.
I thought it'd be interesting to see if anyone else is having these issues in their "unofficially" 4G-covered areas or even if some people with 4G officially have experienced these issues.
I should also note, I've experienced these issues with both my EVO and my Epic.
Hey all,
I'm curious to how your reception is on the VZ GNex. I still have my Rezound here and it seems like I'm getting about -20db worse on the GNex compared to the Rezound. I'm curious - has anyone else experienced this?
Thanks,
Super
yeah, and it is killing me. In the same spot in my room I had my rezound, I had MUCH MUCH better signal strengh. I could keep 4G all day, which is why I switched from sprint to verizon. Thunderbolt, Droid Bionic, Rezound, all worked fine. The GN looses 4G consistantly. This might be a deal breaker for me. I am going to try a custom rom in a min when it finishes downloading, but I doubt that will help. Also am on 4.0.2.
on the thunderbolt there was a setting that allowed us to change when it "lost" 4G signal. I.E. it would allow the phone to pick up a weak signal. Does anyone know if there is a setting like this? I know the signal isn't weak in my house from the previous phones, so it is either a setting like this, or the GN has a really crappy radio...
The 3g and 4g on my Nexus is very bad and not even usable. It is either dropped or barely working. Without wi-fi my phone would have been useless today.
If this isn't correct quickly I will have no choice but to go back to my Thunderbolt which was great!
Service at my apartment just sucks but it's getting the same reception as my OG Droid
I had a rezound and was certainly getting a better signal, 2 things I noticed on the rezound was the battery door actually had antenna relays in it, and also there was 3 settings on the rezound for network performance (performance, normal, and battery saver)
I get horrible signal strength in spots, like on my way home from work there are several short distances where it just drops the signal all together.
At home, my phone seems to just drop connection completely and it's having a hard time picking it up again. Noticed this morning it had been without network access all night. Rebooted it and everything was OK (strong signal) in the exact same physical location.
does any body know how to update roaming with this phone I tried *228 but that didn't work
I am having similar issues in regards to network dropping out. I can understand why 4g would -being limited coverage and all- but 3g should seamlessly pick up where it drops off, plus my voice signal is much lower -100dBmw vs -85/-90dBm which I got with my OG Droid.
jnyce87 said:
does any body know how to update roaming with this phone I tried *228 but that didn't work
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Click to collapse
You can't update roaming on LTE devices, as the sim card automatically does it. What you can do is a "sim reset" type thing.
Power off, and leave your sim card out for like 5 minutes. Put it back in and turn on the phone. According to multiple sources, this will cause the sim to have to re-register on the network, thus refreshing/updating your privs.
Rezound is way better reception wise. Matter of fact, the Rezound is better at a lot of key things! Ima give this a chance but I gotta say I miss my Rezzy!!
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
WOW.... my Nexus data was very bad and almost unusable, but now it is fixed!
I didn't want to, but I did a factory data reset and it resolved the data issues. Everything is solid connections now and holding steady. Before the signal was bouncing all over the place.
Give the factory data reset a try if you are having issues. Yes you have to start over but it's better than having a phone that doesn't work.
Phew... now I am happy again! I really thought I was going to have to go back to my Thunderbolt.
OK. I did some digging. I recommend all users download an app called sensorly. It would appear that the reported signal strength by default is 4G. Currently, my 4G is is teetering at -100dBm to no signal and that shows on my phone as no bars. However, I discovered that my 3G is at -90 dBm (excellent coverage). From what I have researched it would appear that the phone has issues handshaking between 3G and 4G which I am sure will be corrected in an OTA update.
If I go to Settings-Wireless & Networks-More-Mobile Networks-Network Mode-CDMA/LTE and switch to CDMA only my bars come up and my dBm appears normal in settings.
I am pretty confident this is a LTE/3G handshake issue. Just like when you leave your home and you are still barely connected to wifi and the phone doesn't know what to use, so all of your apps fail trying to connect. I think it is just the same.
Anyway, I hope this helps others. It has made me less neurotic finding this out.
I had the rezound and returned it because of the headphone noise. Got the nexus and it gets terrible signal and speeds where the rezound was great. Called Verizon and they are sending me another Rezound and told me it shouldn't have the audio problems. We shall see. I just know that the nexus is unusable in my house due to reception.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
Like the title states. When I was doing the initial setup with the phone I actually had to connect it to wifi since the 3G connection hadn't been established. Roughly 3-4 minutes before it connected. Same issue across roms and even the leaked radio. This happens during android os startup and airplane mode.
Maybe I'm spoiled but my OG droid data connection was usually established within 30 seconds. The Droid Razr I was "renting" was the same way.
Is anyone else's LTE nexus this way? Is this another quirk of the phone. Or do I have a defective radio?
Mine takes maybe 30 or 40 seconds for a 3g connection. Way way longer than my Sprint phone does.
Try changing to cdma only, instead of cdma/lte, see if that helps. its possible the phone is looking for a 4g signal first, or if its too weak to connect, then reverts to 3g
I've found personally, that initially, turning off/on data, both 3g and 4g take longer to connect, but if left on and running, it switches back and forth as necessary & quickly
When I switch to cdma only, it takes a long time to connect . Same when I switch back to lte.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
I live in a strong LTE region running the leaked 4.03 radio. Where the signals are strong, eg in the middle of a street, the radios are great. But surprisingly, this combo experiences 3G+4G holes where my Sprint phone works fine on 4G.
Switching WiFi to strong 4G signal seems to take 20-30 secs.
Switching from no signal reception to good 4G signal seems to take well over a minute.
Btw, not sure how long it takes to switch to 3G. It does happen when I enter buildings but I am not watching the signal indicator change.
dynamicpda said:
But surprisingly, this combo experiences 3G+4G holes where my Sprint phone works fine on 4G.
Switching WiFi to strong 4G signal seems to take 20-30 secs.
Switching from no signal reception to good 4G signal seems to take well over a minute.
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Click to collapse
i've been using the leaked radios for a bit, and have had significantly faster switching wifi->4g, its almost instant now, and even for 2-3 bars. No signal->4g does take me a bit too tho.
As for Sprint, they have different antennas, and could be covering different areas, and on different towers than verizon
I've noticed the slow switch on both 3g and 4g. This includes switching from 3g to 4g and vice versa. Inside buildings or in the streets, it doesn't seem to matter.
The city I live in was one of the test markets for 4g, and I can get a 4g connection pretty much everywhere but the outskirts. 4g speed tests aren't in the wow factor like the Droid Razr, I mostly manage 10-12mbps down and 1-6mbps up.
I think I'm going to take a little trip around my local Verizon wireless and hit their test units to see if the same thing happens.
Hey everyone!
I was wondering if anyone else is having the problem where if you toggled your 4g to turn it off, you would lose all data entirely? I currently running winner's kang-cm9 and when I try to turn off 4g through the toggle or through the settings, I only get gray signal bars. I'm assuming I should still have 3g after turning off 4g. Is this someone that everyone is experience or is it my phone?
I'm having a similar issue (stock ROM). I notice it every morning when I leave for work. I leave my place and wifi disconnects (lack of signal). Since I don't have LTE outside, it seems like it try's over and over to obtain LTE signal. LTE is spotty in my area, so it will go in and out. However, 3G sometimes fails to connect and I sit there without any signal. It's incredibly frustrating...
Last night I just flashed to Apex ROM/Kernel. This morning I waited for my car to warm up a little bit and by the time i plugged in my phone, it had a 3g connection. I will be continuing to look out for this, but I have been able to replicate the issue in my first paragraph over and over again... something is definitely wrong with the radio on our phone (CDMA).
Oh that happens to me a lot too because I get bad 4g in my area so a lot of times when its switching back and forth I lose data for a while.
The problem I'm having is that I would try to disable LTE/4g to save battery but would end up losing all data (Only calls and text work). On my friends thunderbolt he was able to disable 4g and retain his 3g data. As for me, I lose all data and I have to restart to regain data again when I try to disable 4g data
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
Shooshi said:
Oh that happens to me a lot too because I get bad 4g in my area so a lot of times when its switching back and forth I lose data for a while.
The problem I'm having is that I would try to disable LTE/4g to save battery but would end up losing all data (Only calls and text work). On my friends thunderbolt he was able to disable 4g and retain his 3g data. As for me, I lose all data and I have to restart to regain data again when I try to disable 4g data
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
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That's an interesting point. I was wondering how the other LTE VZ phones handled this situation... I think VZ/Google needs to address this in a fix ASAP.
I work in a largish company in Seattle area. We have ~5000 engineers working in the area and I posted the same question since my Verizon GNexus would completely lose all mobile data for hours at a time every 3-4 days. From what the results I got, they said that in our area they are all seeing those problems and they had different devices. I got responses from OG Droid, Droid Charge, GNexus, DroidX2, Thunderbolt.
I've been seriously considering returning my phone since this is clearly a verizon data network issue which is not limited to LTE as their press releases would have you believe.
caslca said:
I work in a largish company in Seattle area. We have ~5000 engineers working in the area and I posted the same question since my Verizon GNexus would completely lose all mobile data for hours at a time every 3-4 days. From what the results I got, they said that in our area they are all seeing those problems and they had different devices. I got responses from OG Droid, Droid Charge, GNexus, DroidX2, Thunderbolt.
I've been seriously considering returning my phone since this is clearly a verizon data network issue which is not limited to LTE as their press releases would have you believe.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well see, i can get data if i toggle airplane mode or cdma to cdma/LTE. it takes me forcing the phone to start looking for 3g instead of LTE.
Very serious issue. Slow reconnects on a toggle that should be unobtrusive between 4g-3g. I suffer from the same issue.
What's worse. The reception in general is terrible. And dropping from 4g to 3g ..the phone either never reestablishes 4g or take.....a. VERY long time. Like, 10-15 minutes. Unbelievable
I'm trying desperately to get google to be aware of this and I'm PRAYYYIINNGG this is a software issue.
P.s this is my third nexus... so I believe this is everyone
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Yep... I have two other friends with this issue as well. I just got off the phone with Verizon, and they acknowledged the data connectivity issues... they said an update is in the works and is tentatively sometime Jan/February.... for the record, i'm on 4.0.3 (axi0m rom); not that it should matter ...
What I'm seeing is similar but sounds like it might be slightly different. I have a thread on it here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=21352288
I'm not sure if what I'm describing there is "normal" and the thing they are working on an update to address or if I have a bad radio/phone. Any thoughts?
In my case, it will go: 4G->no_data->4G in the span of about 30 seconds or so. The 4G indicator will still show for a few seconds but I'll get "no connection" kind of messages. Then I get just a solid gray triangle. About 30 seconds later, I see the bars, then the 4G indicator, then the bars turn blue.
Anyone else seeing this? This happened to the phone before this which I swapped due to this problem. What are the chances I got 2 bad ones in a row? Or is it just a similar issue to what you all are describing?
Hello,
I have a Verizon edition of the Galaxy Nexus, and both my initial phone and my warranty replacement have had the same issue: specifically, they both will occasionally drop all data, be it 3G, 4G, or EDGE. Occasionally they will even drop voice signal altogether. (I've also had the second phone reboot randomly - not often, but it did when I tried to use Wifi Tether, for instance).
This does not happen everywhere, but since my job takes me all over town it happens a reasonable amount, (and notably, not with the Sprint EVO 4G work phone I have). I am based in Sacramento, CA.
My phone is rooted. I have heard that the phone may have issues with switching towers? It is able to reclaim a signal reasonably quickly once it drops, (10-15 seconds) although sometimes I have to do nonsense like switch in and out of airplane mode to force it to grab a 4G signal.
I'm coming up on my return and refund period within a day or so and would like to know if I should dump this phone for an HTC Rezound, or if this is something I can fix by installing the 4.0.3 leaked software.
Thanks in advance for your help.
I know that there is a newer base band you could try flashing, and 4.03 might also fix some of your issues, but be aware that you are pretty much beta testing new technology.
I've never had voice drop on my GNex, but I will occasionally have a drop of data. I believe in my case it is because I am on the cusp of 4g coverage at home, so sometimes it will (barely) connect to the 4g tower, and then disconnect and go back on 3g. When I'm at work and I have solid 4g coverage this issue doesn't present itself.
To remedy the situation temporarily I just switch to CDMA when I'm at home, and if I am in an area where there is 4g and I want faster connection speed I'll re-enable LTE. I know this sounds like a ridiculous solution, but I love my GN too much to return it...again, we are early adopters of new technology.
Only 0.6% of android users are even on ICS - all of this technology is very new.
I believe as Verizon rolls out 4g to more areas that currently only have 3g coverage we will see less and less drops in data (greyed out bars). Hopefully Google/Verizon/Samsung will improve on the radios, etc and make things more smooth for us.
As far as wifi tether goes, I know they JUST got it working on Galaxy Nexus recently, and it is still in beta phase, so I wouldn't count on it being bug free...I had a reboot once when using the beta 10 version, so I don't think what you are experiencing is all that uncommon.
I had a similar issue but only when I was in 4G coverage. I would randomly completely lose signal for about 30 seconds and then it would come back. Usually happened quite often..about 4-5 times an hour. I ended up taking it back for a new one and a new SIM card and haven't had that issue since.
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