Develop Bugs

Note 2 very poor reception

First of all, I hope I am posting in the right place this time. I couldn't find anything for Note II Canada.
So I just bought a BNIB Note II a few days ago. It's the i317m (from Rogers/Canada) but had it unlocked and modified (or whatever that is called) to get it to work with AWS network (Wind mobile). It worked but the reception on the phone where I live is horrible. Basically the phone will only work if it's stuck next to one wall in my place (where the signal is 1-2 bars). Once I move the phone to any other place I lose all connection, and the phone is rendered useless, which really sucks. I have an older Blackberry that I'm borrowing and it constantly shows 2 bars anywhere in my place. I also had an LG Optimus and as much as it sucked at reception it was still better than the Note. Wind signal is generally good in my area except for a couple of blocks but still, I was expecting the Note II to have better reception than other phones.
So, I'm wondering if this has something to do with this particular phone or is this a known issue with all Notes? Anything I can do? The phone will show full bars once I'm out of those couple of blocks where I live but is it possible that the Note II has worse reception than cheaper and older phones?
Thanks.

I think Samsung are known for weak radios
Electroman365 said:
First of all, I hope I am posting in the right place this time. I couldn't find anything for Note II Canada.
So I just bought a BNIB Note II a few days ago. It's the i317m (from Rogers/Canada) but had it unlocked and modified (or whatever that is called) to get it to work with AWS network (Wind mobile). It worked but the reception on the phone where I live is horrible. Basically the phone will only work if it's stuck next to one wall in my place (where the signal is 1-2 bars). Once I move the phone to any other place I lose all connection, and the phone is rendered useless, which really sucks. I have an older Blackberry that I'm borrowing and it constantly shows 2 bars anywhere in my place. I also had an LG Optimus and as much as it sucked at reception it was still better than the Note. Wind signal is generally good in my area except for a couple of blocks but still, I was expecting the Note II to have better reception than other phones.
So, I'm wondering if this has something to do with this particular phone or is this a known issue with all Notes? Anything I can do? The phone will show full bars once I'm out of those couple of blocks where I live but is it possible that the Note II has worse reception than cheaper and older phones?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm having the same issue with my Note II on Mobilicity. After researching I've concluded that Samsung devices have weaker radio's that most other devices. I can wander around my home with my Note II in one hand and my wifes HTC Panache in the other and the Note II's signal is always 7-10 dBM lower than the Panache. The Panache never loses connection in my house and always has at least 1 bar while the Note II will drop in many places. Every time I call Mobi they say they'll make changes redirect an antenna by a few degrees or boost the signal but nothing ever changes.
I wish the phone would auto connect to the CDN Roaming network whenever I drop. I think it sort of does but just doesn't Register on the network because I do have a indication I can make Emergency Calls Only and shows I have 2-3 bars.

Senator949 said:
I'm having the same issue with my Note II on Mobilicity. After researching I've concluded that Samsung devices have weaker radio's that most other devices. I can wander around my home with my Note II in one hand and my wifes HTC Panache in the other and the Note II's signal is always 7-10 dBM lower than the Panache. The Panache never loses connection in my house and always has at least 1 bar while the Note II will drop in many places. Every time I call Mobi they say they'll make changes redirect an antenna by a few degrees or boost the signal but nothing ever changes.
I wish the phone would auto connect to the CDN Roaming network whenever I drop. I think it sort of does but just doesn't Register on the network because I do have a indication I can make Emergency Calls Only and shows I have 2-3 bars.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've noticed that my Note2 has poor LTE reception, 1 bar and 1Mbps down. If I switch to WCDMA only I get 4 bars and 7MBps and 1up. I just thought that it was my area. 2 weeks ago I got an S4 and the signal difference is a amazing. The S4 has 4 bars of LTE and I get 20Mbps down and 10up, the Note 2 on the same sim still gets 1 to 2 bars and very slow data.

Senator949 said:
I'm having the same issue with my Note II on Mobilicity. After researching I've concluded that Samsung devices have weaker radio's that most other devices. I can wander around my home with my Note II in one hand and my wifes HTC Panache in the other and the Note II's signal is always 7-10 dBM lower than the Panache. The Panache never loses connection in my house and always has at least 1 bar while the Note II will drop in many places. Every time I call Mobi they say they'll make changes redirect an antenna by a few degrees or boost the signal but nothing ever changes.
I wish the phone would auto connect to the CDN Roaming network whenever I drop. I think it sort of does but just doesn't Register on the network because I do have a indication I can make Emergency Calls Only and shows I have 2-3 bars.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Samsungs have always lacked in the radio department always....
I remember how horrible the s2 was and the epic and vibrant.
Its one issue they have yet to fix.
Motorola #1 then htc then lg then Samsung then iphone dead last.
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda premium

Call Dropping

Hi All,
Loving this phone so far, but one that that really bothered me is the call drops and the signal reception on this phone. Coming from a S4, I had no problem making calls in the house, but after I switched to ONE, I get drop calls all the time. Anyone else running into this issue with call dropping and low reception? Thanks!

I can chime in on this a little with some different insight. I fly small planes (172's etc) and I have a Bose bluetooth headset that allows me to take calls. With my rezound it was amazing where I could get coverage. Sometimes 5000 feet above the ground.
Yesterday I flew a normal flight path and was without data for most of the flight and without cell at times too. I was only 1500 feet above the ground. Verizon's bubbles are much larger than sprints. I can tell you that my phone with sprint was useless in the air at all. That was the number one reason I ended up on vzw.
I am hoping a radio update fixes some of these issues. For now, they are definitely flaky at best.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4

There are a few threads already about reception issues. It seems... Sporadic. Some people have issues, some don't. Me personally, my One has just as good of reception as any other phone I have had. No issues at all here.
Sent from my HTC One.

Call Dropping Issue on unlocked AT&T Samsung S3(SGH I747)
Hi There,
I am using This unlocked mobile in India. This has the problem of Call dropping issues most of the time. If every one wants to reach me, it just give the message of not reachable.
I put a app called USSD/MMi code fix from App store. But , it only shows the network provider and the signal level. But yet this issue was not solved.
Give some more fixes for this issue.

How good is your signal?

I just moved and have been notice a lack in signal on my Note 3 and plan on trading a friend Friday for his G3 and was curious how everyone's signal has been affected switching to the G3.
Service isn't horrible but there are certain rooms I drop calls. Yet my family members with their iPhone 4 have no problems making calls everywhere I struggle.
Of course I have Verizon and different carriers may see different results. But just want to get an idea if I should worry about having worse service and not being able to use my G3 at my new house.
Thanks for your help!!
Sent from my SM-N900V using XDA Free mobile app

Kuchar09 said:
I just moved and have been notice a lack in signal on my Note 3 and plan on trading a friend Friday for his G3 and was curious how everyone's signal has been affected switching to the G3.
Service isn't horrible but there are certain rooms I drop calls. Yet my family members with their iPhone 4 have no problems making calls everywhere I struggle.
Of course I have Verizon and different carriers may see different results. But just want to get an idea if I should worry about having worse service and not being able to use my G3 at my new house.
Thanks for your help!!
Sent from my SM-N900V using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have Sprint, and just switched from a note 3 to the g3. My office is a fringe service area and the G3 is more reliable and seems to grab a signal better than the note 3.
The note 3 would sometimes error out sending texts and occasionally not ring on inbound calls (I have my office phone twinned to my cell) The g3 is relaible enough where I don't even enable wifi calling at work. $.02

I came from the Galaxy S4 and the cell reception with the Verizon G3 is slightly worse.
I have also found that in mountain areas (where the phone can see numerous towers but only the closest one works) it bounces between cell towers constantly and will never stay locked on the cell tower that works. Quite frustrating actually.

terrible on tmobile. but im pretty sure it's just tmobile.

Well thanks for the info guys! I actually ended up trading and thought I should make an update with my results.
So far this phone hasn't had any issues with phone calls in my house which is all I wanted. As far as I can tell the signal in dBm is the same or maybe a little words but only by 1-3 dBm.
I know there was some kinda issues with the last update for the note 3 that broke something in the phone that hurt the service and the only way to fix it was to get it replaced. So not sure if that was my issue or what.
Ran into a little issue when we traded our phones at the Verizon store. I was on my way home and my phone was downloading all my apps and started getting alerts that I hit 50%, 70% n 90% of my data usage when I previously had unlimited data. Looked on my Verizon and some how I went from unlimited data to .723 GB.
So after being on the phone with Verizon for 30 minutes the gentleman said there was nothing he, or his supervisor, or even his supervisors supervisor could do. But there seemed to be some glitch in the system and I shouldn't have lost unlimited data and they have to fill out a form and I should have my unlimited data back in 1-3 days.
Overall I'm loving this phone wayyyy more than my note and really want to root it but figure I should wait till my data issue gets resolved incase Verizon can somehow check stuff out on my phone Just really hope everything works out with my data.
Sent from my VS985 4G using XDA Free mobile app

Verizon Note 4 Dropping Service

Starting a week ago (that's the earliest I noticed it, at least), my phone has been occasionally losing 4G, going to 3G, and all the way down to 1x.
It seems to figure itself out after a minute or two but, during this time, I've noticed texts don't send.
A reboot will get the phone back on 4G.
After doing some searching, I found a thread on Verizon's "support" site but there's no solution provided (surprise).
Anyone have any thoughts or have been experiencing similar issues?
Verizon Note 4
5.0.1
Stock - Unrooted

Yes I have the same issues only my 4g hasn't came back in the last 24 hours I did everything factory resets ,switched SIM cards network resets reboot battery pulls use to get me a 4g signal on start up but not anymore ..I even Odin back to kit Kat to run into the same issue no 4g when I had it fine on there before the update wth is going on here
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

To add to this oddity, I've only noticed this happening when I'm at my house.
That said, I'm not on my phone much when at work. I'll try to keep a better eye on it. Even though you wouldn't think my location would be relevant considering this is happening to others.
Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

I had the same issue on 5.0.1 all three times I upgraded to it, 4G then 3G then 1x, back to 3G, back to 1x, then 4G, back to 3G. So annoying, back to KK which has a solid and steady radio.

I figured it had something to do with the radio but waco2hot33's post stating it still occurred when rolled back to KK made me wonder.
Let's hope root for the retail editions is achieved soon. Or, you know, at least a decent update from Verizon and Samsung. So... Yeah, let's hope for root.
Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

Trees
I have been having the same issues and Verizon told me that due to spring time being here there is more interference with the trees! But I had not a single issue with the phone until I took the update. So now I am stuck...I love my Note 4 and I am committed to the Samsung ecosystem but some days these bugs are so bad and annoying that it is leaving bad taste in my mouth. Was considering switching to the Nexus 6 because I just don't think I can deal with this until the Note 5 comes out in November.

I will say that it seems to only happen when I'm at my home and not really anywhere else. That said, this never happened before the Lollipop update.

Its made me wonder if they change the PRL after the phone gets older. I have noticed most of my new phones get great signal and close to a year later or after a major update, the signal goes down significantly. This is my personal speculation.

I can chime in here. I have a dev edition. I've had the dreaded Samsung radio bug from the beginning. If I drop from 4g or 3g I must reboot to regain data. It's a pain. There's a spot on way home from work that always kills it.
Since upgrading to lollipop though my data would pretty much stay on all the time. I installed the xposed radio bug fix as apparently it's a known bug. Within the last week though I've noticed extra drops. Verizon is likely restructuring frequencies on towers.

RocknSteve said:
Starting a week ago (that's the earliest I noticed it, at least), my phone has been occasionally losing 4G, going to 3G, and all the way down to 1x.
It seems to figure itself out after a minute or two but, during this time, I've noticed texts don't send.
A reboot will get the phone back on 4G.
After doing some searching, I found a thread on Verizon's "support" site but there's no solution provided (surprise).
Anyone have any thoughts or have been experiencing similar issues?
Verizon Note 4
5.0.1
Stock - Unrooted
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm glad I found this post. I'm having the same exact problem only when I'm at home. It is frustrating because I live in the middle of the city where there should be no issues. Verizon response is for me to buy a $300 dollar signal extender which actually runs off of my xfin it Internet. But get this, they will still charge me data and minutes. For right now I have to step outside next to the curb to get a signal. Ironically while standing in the middle of the street, my phone dropped the call 4 times while on the line with customer service where they had to keep calling me back[emoji35] I didn't have this issue pretty Lollipop.
Sent from my SM-P600 using Tapatalk
---------- Post added at 07:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:07 PM ----------
Houser788 said:
I have been having the same issues and Verizon told me that due to spring time being here there is more interference with the trees! But I had not a single issue with the phone until I took the update. So now I am stuck...I love my Note 4 and I am committed to the Samsung ecosystem but some days these bugs are so bad and annoying that it is leaving bad taste in my mouth. Was considering switching to the Nexus 6 because I just don't think I can deal with this until the Note 5 comes out in November.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ditto!
Sent from my SM-P600 using Tapatalk

Note 5 & microcell

For 2.5 months I've been going round and round with AT&T with connectivity issues with my note 5 and my microcell. It happens about 50-75% of the time I will go to text or call someone it will disconnect from the Microcell. I have had 6 different techs say it isn't a known issue and one that says it is. My note 4 had no problems. The latest tech told me to give him until Tuesday to work this out one way or the other. Anyone else having the same issues?

Not the same but my phone will make a call but acts like it's on mute. On speaker, BT, or the phones built speaker.
Sent from my SM-N920T using Tapatalk

I'm trying to figure out if this is a Samsung as a whole thing or just the Note 5 as my Note 4 was fine.

Microcell seems be playing move here. Seems there setting in Microcell y that takes hand offs, are something like it. But I sure u checked it all ready.
From space using SM-N920A.

So not sure if this helps but here is my experience. I went from a note 4 a note 5 and the white microcell didn't work at all. My wife's S5 worked fine as did my note 4. Att replaced the microcell with the newer black version. This did allow my note 5 to recognize the microcell and work. However, it does sometimes drop calls when I am on the phone for a while. Also, I notice in the morning the microcell has one or zero bars of service but still shows its connected. A power cycle of the phone works or the microcell does start to get service as I use the phone more. It's been good so far but not perfect.

Escobar27 said:
So not sure if this helps but here is my experience. I went from a note 4 a note 5 and the white microcell didn't work at all. My wife's S5 worked fine as did my note 4. Att replaced the microcell with the newer black version. This did allow my note 5 to recognize the microcell and work. However, it does sometimes drop calls when I am on the phone for a while. Also, I notice in the morning the microcell has one or zero bars of service but still shows its connected. A power cycle of the phone works or the microcell does start to get service as I use the phone more. It's been good so far but not perfect.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I have the black microcell and I have tried all that. My microcell has all bars always as dose my note 5 until I go to text or call then it boots me off the Microcell I lose all bars on the phone except one. Then I reconnect to the Microcell sometimes it takes 3-4 times to work.

k5mitch said:
Thanks, I have the black microcell and I have tried all that. My microcell has all bars always as dose my note 5 until I go to text or call then it boots me off the Microcell I lose all bars on the phone except one. Then I reconnect to the Microcell sometimes it takes 3-4 times to work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hello, hey i had the same issue with my note 5 and my wifes s6. They had to re register my cell a few times, and do some other of their black magic to get my note 5 to work. My wife s6 still did not work till they disabled something called hand off or something of that nature. Sorry i forget what its called been a few months since i had to deal with them. I had the white tower, then they sent me the black tower. I still have issues with dropped calls once and a while and some times have to restart phone to get it to connect to tower but. works better now then it did. Its not you and yeah they should know about it i called them to cancel my plan if they did not get it fixed.

I upgraded from a note 4 and had trouble with my N5 and my microcell. It never connected and the other three phones in the house did just fine. I went through a few steps with online chat. What finally worked was to remove the microcell from my account settings and then add it back. This forces a reinstall and complete set-up from scratch. the unit did a software update as part of the process. the whole process took 30-50 minutes. My N5 connected immediately upon completion and has been rock solid since.

I have the black microcell and the note 5. Only issue I have is sending MMS with it, but that is likely due to a configuration issue with my wifi. No voice or texting issues otherwise.

I have a newer black microcell and a Note 5... If i am connected to the Microcell while in a poor HD Voice (Voice over LTE) area... If my phone connects to the Microcell AND is on WiFi... half the time my calls go right to voicemail and I don't get my texts. It is even worse if someone sends a MMS photo, it seems like everything stops then and doesn't even attempt to connect. Funny thing is, if I turn off WiFi everything seems to work fine.... I just unplugged the microcell and am dealing with the less than stellar signal in my area... Where is the WiFi calling already? :-/

I was thinking about getting a micro cell. If there a deal? T mobile gives them.out for free now. Also, any health issues in having a cellntower in your home?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N920A using XDA Free mobile app

I have absolutely ZERO issues using my old (pre=4G LTE) microcell with my Note 5.

I have a black micro cell tower and a note 5 and I have turned off the micro cell tower until I want to waste some more time with AT&T on the issues.
If you look outside the forum you will find a lot of complaints about the micro cell tower.
All my lights are on the micro cell tower have always been on since initial setup and a couple of service tries.
During one service call with a rep the phone call disconnected when all bars were on phone with micro cell connection indicated. That was the last time. I may try again sometime but for now it is unplugged. To many dropped calls and no connection or bars on phone. When I restart the phone it usually reconnects but it is still subject to dropped calls and unsent text messages.
I will comment back if it ever works correctly when I feel like trying tech support again.

Having issues as well. Note 5 on my old white/orange microcell worked perfectly, except of course no outgoing MMS. I got upgraded to the black newer microcell, $75 credit brought it down to $75, and there is a current rebate for that so it was free. Now my N5 drops calls, and at times doesn't show it as connected. Nothing comes up on troubleshooting with a rep, and they even had me change m SIM. Kind of funny, but I'll probably go back to the white/orange older microcell.

Microcell Note 5&4 issues
I've been having connecting issues with my microcell both white and black for sometime and recently discovered a remedy that baffles me. I have the Note 5 and my wife has the Note 4 and we both would go minutes to hours before the microcell would connect to our phones. AT&T was prettty much useless and time consuming at best. With both my wife and I home I got the idea to call her cell and not have her answer. As soon as I hung up the microcell connected. I've done this 2 more days consecutively and it continues to work! Any ideas and can someone else try this?
DJ

Well my white microcell went out. Since then they sent me a black one. @ first I couldn't get it to connect but for few seconds. Then I deactivate then reactivate the device. Set device for "Automatically Hand Out" . Now it seems to be playing nice with Note 5.
Sent from Samsung-SM N920A using MultiCam Black Tapatalk.

I have the exact same issue with Note 5. The phone says ATT Micro Cell, and the bar is full, but as soon as I send a text, the bar goes down to single bar, and take a while to sent a simple text...my S4 has no problem whatsoever...

I have same issues for past few month and for past few weeks it has become more noticeable. I'm getting a replacement for my white one so I'm hoping its fixes teh issues, but looking at comments here and also over internet looks like its a widespread issues hitting Notes 5.

I've the same issue with samsung note 5. My gf's iphone 6s works great with the at&t microcell and samsung note 5 sucks. It acts so bizarre . As soon as you text sometimes, the signal quickly drops from 5 bars to 1 or almost 0 bars and then the text message says it's trying to send. And then fails. But the receiver 50% of the time receives it ansd 50% not. You think it failed and you try to resend again and your recipient receives duplicates. I've been facing way too many issues with samsung note 5. I'm now seriously rethinking every buying a samsung again. I had and still have issues with regular cell reception, regardless of everything off on the wifi, it keeps searching and reconnecting back to wifi even if it's off (yes yes, i turned off all smart connect, at&t auto connect, everything else on it). Drives me crazy. Now this micro cell issue. the iphone works like a charm.

i picked up a used old style 3g microcell (white nd orange) on ebay for $8 (YES EIGHT DOLLARS) shipped. It came without a power adapter but who doesn't have a drawer full of them? Fired it up registered it and within 30 mins I am up and running. No issues so far in my basement apartment using my Note5 latest ATT firmware stock. MMS txt and calling are far superior than what it was like without this!