Wondering if anyone knows what's up here?
On my D1 I either had WiFi OR 3G symbol in the notification vary. But since getting the Bionic I ALWAYS have WiFi and either 4G-LTE or 3G also. Is this normal? And if so, is it just a wonky indication or is it really accurate? I guess it doesn't really matter except in terms of battery usage, which seems fine. Of course if I turn WiFi off I then only have the LTE-4G/3G symbol.
This is all true regardless of whether I am in CDMA/LTE or CDMA Only.
Any/all guidance is appreciated.
les017 said:
Wondering if anyone knows what's up here?
On my D1 I either had WiFi OR 3G symbol in the notification vary. But since getting the Bionic I ALWAYS have WiFi and either 4G-LTE or 3G also. Is this normal? And if so, is it just a wonky indication or is it really accurate? I guess it doesn't really matter except in terms of battery usage, which seems fine. Of course if I turn WiFi off I then only have the LTE-4G/3G symbol.
This is all true regardless of whether I am in CDMA/LTE or CDMA Only.
Any/all guidance is appreciated.
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Click to collapse
Yeah I noticed the same thing. LTE is on all the time with wifi, the is no handover whatsoever. It is killing the battery by cell standby. There is no way to change this in any of the settings except turning data completely off.
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk
Same here. I hope they fix that. Lol.
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using XDA App
Actually I think you two are mis understanding the icons. If you read the manual, the one that turns BLUE is the active data connection. Some things (like the Verizon app) can only go over the verizon network. Additionally, you will ALWAYS have power to the cell radio (how else do you recieve an incomming call or a SMS?)
That is why LTE takes up so much batter across devices.
One of the best battery saving options (in my opinion) is to only use cmda unless you need the LTE - you can change that under mobile network options.
I am willing to bet people wanted to know IF they had cell reception in an area with out having to disconnect from wifi to see a graphical representation.
It isnt as sinister as it seems Keep in mind too that in order to do both voice and data, your data goes over LTE and your voice uses CDMA (that is off memory, i may have the bands reversed) so you are using two radios at once... welcome to the world of LTE battery draid
azwildfire said:
If you read the manual, the one that turns BLUE is the active data connection.
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Click to collapse
You had me at "if you read the manual"
This sounds about right. I had previously glossed over this because of being so used only seeing WiFi or Cell data. Makes sense now, thank you.
azwildfire said:
Actually I think you two are mis understanding the icons. If you read the manual, the one that turns BLUE is the active data connection. Some things (like the Verizon app) can only go over the verizon network. Additionally, you will ALWAYS have power to the cell radio (how else do you recieve an incomming call or a SMS?)
That is why LTE takes up so much batter across devices.
One of the best battery saving options (in my opinion) is to only use cmda unless you need the LTE - you can change that under mobile network options.
I am willing to bet people wanted to know IF they had cell reception in an area with out having to disconnect from wifi to see a graphical representation.
It isnt as sinister as it seems Keep in mind too that in order to do both voice and data, your data goes over LTE and your voice uses CDMA (that is off memory, i may have the bands reversed) so you are using two radios at once... welcome to the world of LTE battery draid
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That's actually incorrect. There's a good amount of talk going around that the data radios (both 3G and 4G) aren't being turned off when switching to wifi, and causing even more battery drain. In GingerBread, the icons turning a different color (blue on Blur, green on basically everything else) doesn't mean it's got an active data connection, it means it's got an active connection to the Google services (for sync, etc). Every other phone shuts of the radios when connected to wifi, including the Charge, Thunderbolt and Revolution. And while you're connected to wifi, everything non-data related (text messages, calls, voicemail) is done over 1X, which is just the signal bars.
Interesting, so which radio keeps the 1x connection alive? how does it work when i am NOT on wifi and can browse the web and email while on a phone call? (Couldnt do that on my incredible)
And while comparing battery stats, cell stand by has a larger percentage on my T-bolt then it does on my Bionic (I checked them this morning, both were unplugged from the chargers when i went to bed)
They're separate radios, the 1X radio doesn't use nearly as much power so it can stay on all the time.
Are you implying the Bionic has 3 antenna? 1x - CDMA - LTE as all seperate antenna?
THe FCC filing shows only two. One that is a combined CDMA/LTE and one that is a combine WIFI and Blue tooth.
http://cdn.androidcentral.com/sites...w550h500/postimages/9274/droid_bionic_fcc.jpg
I am just curious as to your understanding. I think this is a healthy chat
And your previous mention of the icon color changing when they connect to Google services sort of affirms that it is the data connection (since I imagine they have to use the data connection to connect to google)
Interesting test. Wifi is connected, turned off mobile data under data settings and the 3g icon that looked to be connected disappeared... but I still had a data connection.
Is there an app that will allow you to write the logic- if wifi is on, turn off mobile data, and reset when wifi is turned off?
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using XDA App
I'm getting really bad battery life. Right now I am connected to wifi. I have 3 icons....wifi, 4g LTE, and signal bars. All are blue except the up/down arrows under 4G. What does this indicate?
There seems to be a bug where the phone doesn't shut off the radio when turning on WiFi, I've reported it to motorola.
bobreiter said:
Interesting test. Wifi is connected, turned off mobile data under data settings and the 3g icon that looked to be connected disappeared... but I still had a data connection.
Is there an app that will allow you to write the logic- if wifi is on, turn off mobile data, and reset when wifi is turned off?
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tasker is a great app that should let you do that
It is paid though, but I don't mind paid apps if they are good (no different than donating to the devs here in my opinion)
Related
Has anyone out thought of a switch for root users on 4g phones to disable 3g so you don't have 2 wireless radios for 3g and 4g running at the same time? If so, can someone name the app, or tell me where I can find the info on it?
Sent from DB using XDA
I think if you disable the 3g radio you would have no voice or text. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk
you're right. 4g is only for data.
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk
I'm not sure this is correct. On the Thunderbolt, you can switch it to LTE only, and it remains able to make calls and send/receive texts. Although perhaps that doesn't disable the 3G radio.
Radio Switch
Only reason this even came to my attention is because I had heard rumors about the Sprint users being able to disable their 3g radio and still receive texts and voicemails... So, I figured I would ask about it. I mean with dumbphones that weren't 3g how did those receive those functions without a 3g radio?
voice/text messages are on 1x while internet is on 3g/4g
ninjagonepostal said:
Only reason this even came to my attention is because I had heard rumors about the Sprint users being able to disable their 3g radio and still receive texts and voicemails... So, I figured I would ask about it. I mean with dumbphones that weren't 3g how did those receive those functions without a 3g radio?
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Click to collapse
Issue I see, is sometimes I'll lose 4g around here (GR area too), and if 3g was off, I wouldn't have data at all.
Killz86 said:
voice/text messages are on 1x while internet is on 3g/4g
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Click to collapse
Than why when I'm on 3g, in a non 4g zone, when I go to make a call, the phone disables 3g?
Radio Switch
@sheatyj - I would have use for this though because I travel the country for work... Most places I go are all 4g (or at least Verizon claims them to be) so if I can disable my 3g radio, I can make my phone last a little longer... Also It will help with me having issues with my phone jumping back into 3g when I just had 3 bars of 4g.
heard of a toggle on thunderbolt a widget
How about switch to turn off all but wifi?
A nice feature of my Blackberry was the ability to turn OFF the telephone and leave the WIFI turned ON. This was great for non-coverage areas and when I traveled internationally. Can this be done on the Bionic? tnx
pitcoken said:
A nice feature of my Blackberry was the ability to turn OFF the telephone and leave the WIFI turned ON. This was great for non-coverage areas and when I traveled internationally. Can this be done on the Bionic? tnx
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just enable Airplane Mode. That will turn everything off.
Once everything is off, just re-enable WiFi and/or Bluetooth if you want to use just that.
Hi All,
I have a weird issue. My phone seems to be permantently stuck at "H" (HDSPA), it never switches back to 3G. Does anyone know what the problem could be?
It's sucking up my battery real fast.
I'm currently using a Generic Northamerican R3 rom. My phone is the X1a model.
Help would be much appreciated, thanks.
EDIT: I should also add that "Bands" option is set to Auto (both of them). If i play around i can get it to use Edge only, but thats not what i want. Id like it to work as it should, 3G when data is not being used, otherwise H.
download WMlonglife.cab n setting it..i forget the link..u can googling...
to the OP:
here's some info to let you figure out if you actually have a problem at all or not:
H(SDPA) is a data-extension of UMTS = 3G, E(DGE) is an extension of GSM/GPRS (always data, voice is either GSM or 3G). with band-setting, you just choose between gsm or 3g, if you get edge or hdspa for data depends on what your provider is delivering in that area.
standard behaviour with hdspa is to show the icon only if there's actually data transfered, if not it should show the 3g-icon. but some providers break that standard and will always let the phone show H.
so either you have one of those providers and are just complaining about the higher power-consumption of 3G compared to GSM. then normal power-saving measures come into play, search for them, there's a thread for it.
OR you don't have one of those providers, the symbol should fall back to 3G. this would mean you have constant data-transfer going on, causing higher power-consumption. if that's the case, remember what you installed and set to autostart (skype, irc-client, webradio... - web-stuff running in background)
Can somebody be so kind and upload stock buid.prop for Bell AHD?
Wanna see differences between the AT&T and Bell setup - looking for way to enable network type switch in phone info
Thanks
here you go!
please extract it to get the build.prop for a bell AHD
Well, I tried replacing build.prop in hope that will enable band switch but it did not
I would really like to have option enabled in settings or trough phone info.
In phone info i can switch between LTE/GSM/WCDMA and LTE/CDMA/EvDO/GSM/WCDMA.
Any other choice reverts back to LTE/GSM/WCDMA. I have done EB40 battery mod and I am not worried about battery life as I can pull out 2.5 days on medium usage but 70% of my day I do not need LTE so I was hoping to extend battery life even more by switching to EDGE
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.mangelow.network
Try that app and see if it works for u... o used it on my atrix 2
Sent from my MB886 using xda app-developers app
I dont know what ATT did...
I followed instructions from here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1386383 and I got network switch enabled in settings but when I select GSM only setting does not stick...Reverts back to LTE.
I tried adding ATT 3g APN (wap.cingular) but it wont connect to the data network at all???
Really stuck now.
Generaly I always used 2g data connection when I am at work as I still can get my emails and mms and do some basic browsing and internet radio streaming. Then if I stream videos or download apps or upload large amount of pics I would switch to 3g (LTE in this case)
I wonder does it have anything to do with account provisoning for LTE???
I really would like to have that option enabled and working. I know ATT is in the process of phasing out 2G data on account of LTE but as long as it is available I would like to use it...
After completing the steps in that post and deleting the backups change the operator to maritime. Successfully dropped down to 2G /EDGE. Thanks for this thread. Was hoping someone would post a bit of information on it. Here's some screenshots.
Sent from my Motorola Atrix HD MAXX
Great - I did it too, bad thing it does not stick after reboot - reverts to auto select network but its better than before
I wonder what the heck is Maritime in network selection...
Anyhow will look more into keeping manual network selection after reboot.
h078 said:
Great - I did it too, bad thing it does not stick after reboot - reverts to auto select network but its better than before
I wonder what the heck is Maritime in network selection...
Anyhow will look more into keeping manual network selection after reboot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Would have never have guessed to search for networks and select Maritime. Thanks for the tips guys. I can now force 2g at work.
seh6183 said:
Would have never have guessed to search for networks and select Maritime. Thanks for the tips guys. I can now force 2g at work.
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Click to collapse
h078 said:
Great - I did it too, bad thing it does not stick after reboot - reverts to auto select network but its better than before
I wonder what the heck is Maritime in network selection...
Anyhow will look more into keeping manual network selection after reboot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maritime is another AT&T network. It was actually the default on my Atrix 4G. Sadly, the Atrix HD doesn't display the code for each maritime network. Shouldn't be to hard to switch the default to it if we knew which code it was. Setting the default to Maritime wouldn't help considering there's 3.
Sent from my Motorola Atrix HD MAXX
Very interesting. If set to 3G only on Maritime it displays the 4G without LTE. Through Phone Info, it shows that I'm connected through HSPA as well. Selecting Automatic sticks with HSPA unless I get better LTE service. Seems like 3G is a good balance between speed and battery life.
Sent from my Motorola Atrix HD MAXX
Neroga said:
Very interesting. If set to 3G only on Maritime it displays the 4G without LTE. Through Phone Info, it shows that I'm connected through HSPA as well. Selecting Automatic sticks with HSPA unless I get better LTE service. Seems like 3G is a good balance between speed and battery life.
Sent from my Motorola Atrix HD MAXX
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Click to collapse
Is there any proof that disabling LTE saves battery life? In older phones, disabling 3G would save battery life because there were separate chip-sets for 2G and 3G services. That isn't the case now, a single chipset handles all signaling. Thus, there are no chips that are powered down when 4G is disabled. I would expect battery savings to be minimal.
Additionally, because of the increase efficiency of the LTE network (combined with less network loading), your phone will have an open data connection for a much shorter time, when transmitting data.
I've got my AHD on the AT&T network using a StraightTalk AT&T sim. $45.00 unlimited everything. With the APN that straight talk uses, it never searches for LTE. Just on 4g all day long, with no LTE searching at all.
Sent from my A200 using xda premium
Guys you need this app
https://play.google.com/store/apps/...251bGwsMSwxLDEsIm15Yy5waG9uZS5QaG9uZUluZm8iXQ..
No need to edit build.prop or root.
mandrsn1 said:
Is there any proof that disabling LTE saves battery life? In older phones, disabling 3G would save battery life because there were separate chip-sets for 2G and 3G services. That isn't the case now, a single chipset handles all signaling. Thus, there are no chips that are powered down when 4G is disabled. I would expect battery savings to be minimal.
Additionally, because of the increase efficiency of the LTE network (combined with less network loading), your phone will have an open data connection for a much shorter time, when transmitting data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I'm going on 4 hours of screen on time, 13 hours of listening to music, etc and still holding 62%. That's from jumping between 2G and 3G on an as needed basis.
--edit--
Seems the jellybean leak comes with this already done? Able to switch to just about everything. Getting HSPAP instead of HASPS a well.
Sent from my Motorola Atrix HD MAXX
Nexus 6 running Cataclysm 1/4/16 Stable. But I have this behavior on any ROM I try.
Often, when exiting range of a Wi-Fi area (leaving work for example), the LTE antennas do not come online. I see full cellular signal strength, but no LTE icon (or data icon of any kind). I lose cellular data access.
A workaround I have found is to, when i notice it, put the phone into airplane mode and back again. The LTE Icon shows after the cell connects and everything continues normally.
This is super annoying, I have tried several Kernels and ROMs to see if its a software problem but no luck. Any thoughts?
Desjani said:
Nexus 6 running Cataclysm 1/4/16 Stable. But I have this behavior on any ROM I try.
Often, when exiting range of a Wi-Fi area (leaving work for example), the LTE antennas do not come online. I see full cellular signal strength, but no LTE icon (or data icon of any kind). I lose cellular data access.
A workaround I have found is to, when i notice it, put the phone into airplane mode and back again. The LTE Icon shows after the cell connects and everything continues normally.
This is super annoying, I have tried several Kernels and ROMs to see if its a software problem but no luck. Any thoughts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Go to developer options:
-Check: Cellular data always active
-ChecK: Aggressive Wi-fi to cellular handover
I toggled both options. Took me awhile to figure out why my signal was always being cut while on wifi
mikeprius said:
Go to developer options:
-Check: Cellular data always active
-ChecK: Aggressive Wi-fi to cellular handover
I toggled both options. Took me awhile to figure out why my signal was always being cut while on wifi
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I did that, will test later on when I leave work.
mikeprius said:
Go to developer options:
-Check: Cellular data always active
-ChecK: Aggressive Wi-fi to cellular handover
I toggled both options. Took me awhile to figure out why my signal was always being cut while on wifi
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Works great! thanks a lot!
Wonderful, tyvm for this fix.
Sent from my Nexus 6 using XDA Labs
I actually have an unlocked S8 on Verizon, but I think the question is generally applicable to all of the firmware versions.
I recently switched from AT&T to Verizon. While the switch has been great in general, it has lead to low signal in our basement where my office is located. While calls/texts seem to work in the basement, I'm noticing reduced battery life due to the reduced signal.
I picked up a (3G) Network Extender to try to improve the situation, but it seems to behave differently than I would have expected. I wasn't thrilled to have to disable VOLTE in order to use the extender at all (since it isn't the LTE version), but the bigger issue is that it *seems* like the device is still using the cell towers except when there is an actual incoming or outgoing call. Is that correct? What does that mean from a battery usage perspective?
In the end, I'm trying to figure out whether there is any real value in using the extender if it doesn't improve battery life? Can anyone comment?
Thanks,
Craig
csetera said:
I actually have an unlocked S8 on Verizon, but I think the question is generally applicable to all of the firmware versions.
I recently switched from AT&T to Verizon. While the switch has been great in general, it has lead to low signal in our basement where my office is located. While calls/texts seem to work in the basement, I'm noticing reduced battery life due to the reduced signal.
I picked up a (3G) Network Extender to try to improve the situation, but it seems to behave differently than I would have expected. I wasn't thrilled to have to disable VOLTE in order to use the extender at all (since it isn't the LTE version), but the bigger issue is that it *seems* like the device is still using the cell towers except when there is an actual incoming or outgoing call. Is that correct? What does that mean from a battery usage perspective?
In the end, I'm trying to figure out whether there is any real value in using the extender if it doesn't improve battery life? Can anyone comment?
Thanks,
Craig
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The 3G extender only routes when there is data going to or from your phone (phone calls). You should see a little icon indicating that you are connecting to the extender. I had 2 of the 3G extenders, neither did anything to help my cellphone battery. I also had continuing issues with losing the GPS sync signal almost daily, even with the external antenna connected and outside away from the house. Verizon has also said that they are "retiring " 3G at the end of 2019 in my area. I bought their new 4G extender, and it works like a miniature cell tower - phone is always connected to it when in range, and it does seem to help with the battery life. Data / messaging / VOLTE works *much* better. Best of all, GPS lock has been solid with no drops at all. If you bought the 3G extender from a Verizon store, take it back and get the 4G instead - works sooo much better!
rhricik447 said:
The 3G extender only routes when there is data going to or from your phone (phone calls). You should see a little icon indicating that you are connecting to the extender. I had 2 of the 3G extenders, neither did anything to help my cellphone battery. I also had continuing issues with losing the GPS sync signal almost daily, even with the external antenna connected and outside away from the house. Verizon has also said that they are "retiring " 3G at the end of 2019 in my area. I bought their new 4G extender, and it works like a miniature cell tower - phone is always connected to it when in range, and it does seem to help with the battery life. Data / messaging / VOLTE works *much* better. Best of all, GPS lock has been solid with no drops at all. If you bought the 3G extender from a Verizon store, take it back and get the 4G instead - works sooo much better!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is good to know. I actually bought this off of EBay for cheap, so I can't easily swap it out. At that point, I didn't understand the behavior of the device and phone.