Note 7 not preferring to use Wi-Fi?

[NITRONEO]

When connected to Wi-Fi services, I catch the Note 7 using my cellular data plan all the time.  I can only get the device to prefer the Wi-Fi service by manually turning off the cellular data. 

I don't have any speed issues on the Wi-Fi as my averages are 80-100 Mbps download and 18-20 Mbps upload via fiber to the home.  Both download and upload speeds exceed averages available via the 4G service. 

I'm wondering if there may be a software glitch that VZW should investigate to identify if their Note 7 software, is preferring to use cellular data?  Perhaps to increase the VZW revenue?

[TAINO87]

I believe there are, especially with the marshmallow update. I recently noticed that you can not go online while on a phone call if advance calling is off, which is suppose to help making phone calls clearly, but in reality has made my phone calls drop and make people on the other line not hear me or sound mumbled.

Also, once on a phone call, and advance calling is on, you can not turn your mobile data on. So if you are trying to GPS, you are screwed. It seems they are pushing more and more for users to use their mobile data rather than Wi-Fi. Profits over customer service seems to be their new motto

[rgang50]

Try this and see if it works for you:

Settings > More (Wireless and Networks category) > Download booster (OFF)

[NITRONEO]

I've checked those settings, download booster was already off.

Any other ideas?

The only way I can get the Note 7 to consistently use Wi-Fi is to manually turn off mobile data.

[rgang50]

There are two more settings to examine for decoupling the cellular and Wi-Fi networks. Samsung has tried to intelligently couple the two for improved user experience with their Note 7. That aside, take a look at these settings and turn them OFF:

Settings > Wi-Fi > 3 dots > Advanced > turns OFF all sliders (specially Smart switch Network)

on this screen set : Keep Wi-Fi on during sleep > Always

Next,

Mobile Hotspot and Tethering > turn OFF all sliders

If these work for you, then you can go back turn ON some of the sliders for services you wish to retain. Do share your findings.

[pherson]

When you created this post, it no doubt pulled up a slew of other posts regarding the fact that the note 7 has been recalled, which makes it reasonable to conclude in addition the battery there can be other things amiss. It is highly unlikely that you will receive troubleshooting on a defective device.

[NITRONEO]

Not only should a 'fix' be investigated by this subject, but this is also an attempt to raise awareness to fellow users who may be surprised by with higher network data usage. 

With my old S5 my usage averaged less than 3GB per cycle.  With the Note 7 in only 2 weeks of use in my billing cycle usage jumped to over 6GB.  Thats a new plan for many and an increased cost that could pose problems for some users.  I also have Wi-Fi available at almost every location I use the phone except when driving between facilities.  Currently I'm less than 4 days into my new billing cycle and already over a gig of data usage. 

This is a huge difference, and potentially a big problem for Verizon Wireless if people discover Verizon has placed a preference to using their network over available Wi-Fi service in the devices packaged software.

[NITRONEO]

Thank you for the followup rgang50,

I've checked all the sliders in the advanced Wi-Fi settings, all were in the off position.

The Wi-Fi sleeping was set to Always

The Mobile Hotspot & Tethering was also turned to off.

Any other suggestions?

Thank you again!

[rgang50]

Now I will have to dig deep (chuckles). While I do that could you check to see if have any exotic apps that has permission to operate cellular only. in other words check for services running on Note7.

The best way to do this is to enable 'developer mode' on your phone.

Developer Mode:

settings > About phone > tap build number 7 times

You will now a new option under system labelled {} Developer options

select developer options, turn the slider OFF

on that screen select "Running services". Review and disable any non system App that should not be running.

Will post again if I find something that is relevant.

Do share.

[NITRONEO]

Dev mode activated and turned to off.

Did not find any non-system app that shouldn't be running.  Interesting that there really isn't a lot of apps running on the device.  FB & Messenger and Swype keyboard

Thank you again rgang50!

[rgang50]

Excellent. Now hopefully you are getting acquainted with maze of 'Settings'.

In case your cellular bandwidth is continuing to be tapped by ghost apps and you are not on 'the spookes' radar and bugged by them then there are a few relatively low demand services worth examining.

Settings > Notifications (Phone) > turn slider OFF

Settings > Backup and rest (Personal) > Back up my data slider OFF

(I never trust clouds for personal info storage...sorry off topic)

Settings > Location > slider ON

Settings > Location > Locating method > GPS only

Settings > Location > Improve accuracy > all sliders OFF

If after all this you still have a leak then it may be time for factory reset, but let us wait and review what you find.

[rgang50]

Add to the above - Verizon Wireless has embraced data mining in a big way. This done by profiling cell phone plan usage by customers. They have also been gracious enough to share individual profile with their clients. You will find this in their App 'My Verizon' > Data Hub > Details > Line Details.

This shows the categories of app and the data bandwith usage.

Should help you monitor what is happening. Hope all this helps you sort out your mystery. Incidentally, FB and Twitter are notorious in background data (cellular) use. Cannot help with these two as they are banned on my Cellular devices (by me).

[NITRONEO]

I've found the data use is with particular apps.  The easiest I've found for testing is the Facebook Messenger (while video chatting)

I've also found that if I begin using the apps (say for video chat) then turn off mobile data, the app functions as it should over Wi-Fi without any issued.  I can then turn Mobile Data back on and the applications will continue to use Wi-Fi.  However if I do not turn off the mobile data the applications will continue to use mobile data versus the available Wi-Fi.  Either the applications are ignoring the phone settings preferring mobile data, the applications are ignoring the availability of Wi-Fi, or the problem could be with VZW settings not telling the applications to use the availble Wi-Fi.

I would flat out blame Facebook application creators for poorly written software but I've found other software with similar behavior.

Thank you for helping with this issue.

[rgang50]

Kudos to you NitroNeo for your 'stick-with-it-ness' and getting down to nitty-gritty. No doubt this will alert and benefit all who are interested and seek an answer.

You should definitely share your observations with FB designers. They are a very good bunch and may have made a conscious decision to favor cellular over wi-fi at start-up as opposed to evaluating user preferred parameters or doing a least-cost alternative, each time. These additional tests add to the overhead-size of the app.

Way to go and thanks again for sharing.

[NITRONEO]

In addition to this chain... I can now claim that these problems are not being seen in the Google Pixel XL so this could have been strictly a Samsung problem as I can also verify that a similar problem exists with the Note 5.