FDR'd my S6 last night

[IIGood]

It's only been about a month since I received my S6 and last night I decided to do a Factory Reset on the device. Some little annoying things just kept adding up and really started getting to me...the handoff to mobile data from wifi, WiFi calling not always kicking in, poor service in general at my house, VM notifications not coming through in a timely manner, fingerprint sensor not always registering, etc.

The big thing was the service at my house. I have one of VZW's network extenders in place there and lately something really hasn't been right. I might receive a call and I'll answer it, but the other end can't hear me talking and the call drops. I'll go to call back and instantly get dropped before it even starts dialing. I've rebooted the extender more times in the past couple weeks than ever before and that hasn't helped the situation. Just last night my girlfriend called me and asked where I was...I told her I was at home and she said she tried calling 20 minutes earlier and left a VM. My phone never rang and I never got a VM notification.

Upon hearing that, I was about to call VZW and complain yet again about the signal in my neighborhood. But, before doing that, I figured I'd cover my bases first and just FDR the phone. A bit of the "scorched earth" method but what the heck...I'll give it a couple days and see how it acts overall with a fresh install of Lollipop.

I know Marshmallow's supposed to be around the corner for this device too so hopefully I don't have to go through this again. The big thing for me is the lack of Verizon service at home...they acknowledge it's a problematic area too which is even worse because it's not like I'm in the middle of nowhere. So much for me thinking this S6 might help...

 

[Jonny Kansas]

Hope the FDR works for you, but I'm interested to see. The thing about a signal extender is that it can only boost the signal it receives, so if it's a crappy/spotty signal to begin with, that extender is only amplifying a bad signal.

If you've got neighbors that you're on decent terms with, I'd ask them what service they have. If it's Verizon, getting some of them to get extenders as well may help. The best would be if you can figure out where the closest tower is to your house and try to get some folks you know between your house and that tower to get extenders. That'd improve your signal greatly.

Still, hopefully it was just some kinks in the phone software and this works out for you. I'm assuming your last phone didn't have such a hard time?

 

[Mustang02]

Hope the FDR works for you, but I'm interested to see. The thing about a signal extender is that it can only boost the signal it receives, so if it's a crappy/spotty signal to begin with, that extender is only amplifying a bad signal.

If you've got neighbors that you're on decent terms with, I'd ask them what service they have. If it's Verizon, getting some of them to get extenders as well may help. The best would be if you can figure out where the closest tower is to your house and try to get some folks you know between your house and that tower to get extenders. That'd improve your signal greatly.

Still, hopefully it was just some kinks in the phone software and this works out for you. I'm assuming your last phone didn't have such a hard time?

What kind of network extender are you talking about? The Verizon one plugs into your broadband connection to create a new mini-cell tower in your house. We have one in the condos, works great for concrete confined spaces.

 

[Jonny Kansas]

What kind of network extender are you talking about? The Verizon one plugs into your broadband connection to create a new mini-cell tower in your house. We have one in the condos, works great for concrete confined spaces.

I was assuming it was a signal booster. Never had or needed one, so I didn't realize they worked that way. Does VZW help pay your broadband bill then? Or at least not charge you for data you use on this connector that's connected to you broadband?

Sounds like that kind of extender would suck if you're on an ISP that has a data cap.

 

[Mustang02]

I was assuming it was a signal booster. Never had or needed one, so I didn't realize they worked that way. Does VZW help pay your broadband bill then? Or at least not charge you for data you use on this connector that's connected to you broadband?

Sounds like that kind of extender would suck if you're on an ISP that has a data cap.

No, they charge you for the device. Vzw doesn't give you anything even though their service is horrible in that spot of Cleveland.

 

[Jonny Kansas]

That sucks. Sorry to hear it. Would that really be the way to go if you've got wifi calling enabled? OP says they have it, but it's not working. Seems like that'd be the better way to go since you're basically using your broadband for all of that stuff with the extender.

Sad that you have to pay more because there's less service.

 

[Mustang02]

If you can use wifi calling, I'd drop the Network extender and use my wifi router. It's more powerful than the extender would ever be.

 

[IIGood]

I do have the Verizon one and I was one of the fools that actually paid for it. I've read if you "ask the right way" (i.e., complain...LOL) to Verizon Wireless, they'll provide one at no charge.

My brother lives across the street and he's got the same issues...he's on an iPhone. He has a network extender too but I don't think he's having quite the same issues now. My previous phone, a Moto X, was having connection issues but not quite to this degree.

Another one of my neighbors on the street has one of the extenders too...when I called VZW one time they saw my phone was connected to "another nearby extender." Though my brother is across the street, his is too far out of range for me to lock on to.

I'd love to get one of the real signal boosters but those are too expensive for my wallet. I'm sure they'd make a world of difference but just too pricey for me ($500+).

I hope the FDR works as well, just gonna play the wait and see game now.

 

[IIGood]

If you can use wifi calling, I'd drop the Network extender and use my wifi router. It's more powerful than the extender would ever be.

I would absolutely love to do that and I wish there was a way to force the phone over to wifi calling whenever it's connected to wifi. As it stands, wifi calling doesn't kick in until there is practically zero signal available. Even when I've had the extender disconnected, there's just enough signal from Verizon's voice network to prevent wifi from taking over. It's low and still drops out, but it's apparently enough. It would definitely be nice to force the wifi calls.

But, that still wouldn't help anyone else on VZW that doesn't have a wifi-calling device who visits my house like my GF or my family.

 

[jplemt]

If you place your phone in airplane mode, turn on Wi-Fi, your phone will use the Wi-Fi calling instead of trying to find a network.

Sent from my VS990 using Tapatalk

 

[Jonny Kansas]

With WiFi calling, do you get texts & MMS over WiFi as well?

Sent from my Nexus 6P

 

[jplemt]

It worked for sms and mms when I had my S6.

Sent from my VS990 using Tapatalk

 

[IIGood]

If you place your phone in airplane mode, turn on Wi-Fi, your phone will use the Wi-Fi calling instead of trying to find a network.

I can't believe I forgot about this. DUH!! Thanks for the reminder!

So I saw this message at the last minute while at work and tried it there. I was unable to get a call out or receive a call. I thought this would be a fruitless effort. When I tried to place a call it would say "Out of Service Area" and immediately drop the call attempt.

Thinking back, I either didn't allow enough time for the Airplane Mode/WiFi only to register, or the corporate wireless is blocking that sort of traffic. I wouldn't be surprised if it were the latter as they probably see it as a form of streaming data which could clog up the network. If that is the case, completely understandable and I won't even attempt it.

But I got home this evening, turned on Airplane Mode, fired up wifi, attempted a call and it immediately went through! Woo hoo! Small victory! Sure, it's a couple minor hoops to jump through but given what I was dealing with before, I'll take it. I just gotta remember to shut off Airplane mode when I leave the house now.

With WiFi calling, do you get texts & MMS over WiFi as well?

I have been able to send and receive individual SMS. I tried to send a group message and it did not send. However, I think if I switch my messaging app (Google Messenger) to send out a group message as individual messages, that might work. I just fear that I won't receive any group messages.

Also, I was unable to send a picture message out. That's kind of expected but I would figure that wifi would be a reasonable means of sending MMS. Ah well. Small sacrifice I suppose.

The wifi to 4G handoff is still problematic though. Again, may not be much of an issue now if I end up toggling Airplane Mode.

 

[jackiescivic]

I've been contemplating a reset myself lately. Had my Edge for about 2 months maybe? I am suddenly finding that when I make phone calls it will occasionally take a very long time to connect the call (like more than 10 seconds). And then just recently my phone stopped vibrating when receiving text messages. I keep my phone on power saving because I can't stand the touch key light feedback and timeout. Switched texting apps and it is still happening. Took it out of power saving and it began working. Just weird.

Sent from my SM-G925V using Tapatalk

 

[IIGood]

I've been contemplating a reset myself lately.

When all else fails, reset! I'm thinking maybe all my gremlins were a result of the L update right over top of K. Maybe a fresh install of L took care of it and sorted things out. At least that's what I'm telling myself.

MMS still doesn't work over wifi for me but at least I'll receive a message saying I have an MMS waiting to download. So I would have to toggle back onto the mobile network to get the MMS. SMS with an emoji works although one time I had to download one message that had an emoji. Don't understand that one.