Bionic 4g/3g compatibility issues

West24l
Enthusiast - Level 1

I upgraded to the new Droid Bionic on Wednesday, and I am continually having issues with the 4g/3g compatibility. When I bought the phone at the store, everything seemed to be working great. However, when I returned home with my new phone, I noticed that I was able to receive phone calls and text messaging, but I could not connect to the web or access my email and social networking sites. I immediately took the phone back up to the verizon store, and everything seemed to be working great. After speaking to a verizon wireless associate, he informed me that a lot of the Bionic owners are having issues with their phone's being backwards compatible with 3g. When the phone is in a 4g network, everything works great and smoothe. However, when you leave the 4g network and enter into a 3g network the phone automatically loses data connection. I have tried several times shutting the phone off and rebooting when in the 3g network, but I still cannot get it to work. Does anyone have any solutions? Also, the customer service department mentioned something about an upgrade that is supposed to fix this problem.....does anyone know when this upgrade is supposed to happen? This issue is really ticking me off because I love my phone but with no data network it is useless to me (I live AND work outside of the 4g network).

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1 Solution
ChristinaB_VZW
Verizon Employee

Hello and thank you to the community for the helpful information. 

 

I have some steps for Bionic users to assist with data connection. Please try the steps below for a fix.

 

Menu

Settings

Battery & Data Manager

Data Delivery

 

Please make sure that "Background Data" and "Data Delivery" are checked.

 

Thank you!

View solution in original post

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57 Replies
dankbionic
Newbie

Not sure how long it will be until they fix this.  I have had my Bionic for a week, and it has trouble with 4G as well.  It will be in 4G at my house or work with a nice strong signal then will suddenly drop to 3G.  If I toggle airplane mode, it will not go back to 4g, however if I reboot the phone it comes back up in 4G and will stay that way until I lock the screen.  (Then it goes back to 3G)  I have tried all the tricks in the discussion boards including turning on the Data Roaming and reseating the SIM card to no avail.  By the looks of other internet discussion boards this is an issue that other Bionic iusers are having.  Any suggestions Verizon?  *228 doesn't work with sim cards.

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mgoblue2003
Newbie
I'm having the same issue. Once I go to 3g, I can't get back to 4g unless I reboot my phone. Is there a fix coming?
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mgoblue2003
Newbie
I should've started, I also have the Bionic
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crweaks23
Newbie

Just adding my experience to the mix... I live in a 4G area but sometimes lose the 4g... then I don't get ANY data connection for a period of time.

 

Does this happen on other LTE phones?

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Not applicable

Thank you everyone for sharing your experiences. Our product team and Motorola are aware of this issue and investigating a resolution. A fix is expected in the first maintenance release for the device. We don't have a date for the resolution at this time. If you are still within your 14 day worry free guarantee, I encourage you to try exchanging the device as this does not seem to affect every Bionic to the same magnitude. I appreciate your patience as we work to resolve this issue. 

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MobileMoghul
Newbie

I am using a BIONIC which i got after returning my CHARGE as it was hanging, not responsive and restarting oftern after a months use. Now with the BIONIC i am having a lot of signal issue in all the places(My Home) that had a solid 4G network with my CHARGE. Now I am missing calls and the phone toggles between 4G and 3G all the time. This BIONIC is only 2 days old and I am not sure if i should return it or is there a fix to it. Is it even possible to fix this issue without a Hardware update?

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tommyguz
Newbie

My wife and I just bought Droid Bionic's today. We bought them in an area where 4G service is available and all was good...except when we got home about a half hour south of there.....and where only 3G is available....now our phones won't connect to the network. We called tech support and had them take out the sim card, battery, all that nonsense and still nothing. They told me it should be working by the end of day today but I have not heard back from them. Anyone know what I should do before I return these useless things tomorrow...If they can't work in 3G then what good are they??

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jsr7
Newbie

Had my bionic since release date, had no issues and the last few days no connection. I'm in a strong 4G area and I can't get a connection period.  So dissapointed I'm paying for something I can't use.....what a waste of $.

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Not applicable

jsr7 wrote:

Had my bionic since release date, had no issues and the last few days no connection. I'm in a strong 4G area and I can't get a connection period.  So dissapointed I'm paying for something I can't use.....what a waste of $.


Jsr, I can definitely understand that not having a data connection at all would be a frustrating issue. Have you tried removing the battery and SIM card for this issue? I also suggest toggling the Network Mode setting. If you are still getting no data after this, we would need to narrow this down to a network issue or a device issue. Is this only happening in one location? If you travel a few miles to a different location do you pick up data on your phone? If not working anywhere, I would suggest doing a factory reset on your device. 

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SeaJohn
Newbie

@MarquiaF_VZW :  I've done all of this on my Thunderbolt: Toggling network mode, using LTE on/off, Turning the radio on/off, toggling airplane mode, using *#*#4636etc., power cycling, pulling battery, pulling sim, replacing sim, and factory resets!  Nothing helps consistently.  Sometimes after doing one of these things the phone will pop back into 4g but will lose it shortly afterwards.  

 

The phone randomly drops out of 4g into 3g, 1x or nothing for random amounts of time.  I'm in a solid 4g area (OKC).  This happens at work and home (25 miles apart) and various other locations around the city.  

 

I know 3 other people with TBs and one with a Charge, and they all also randomly lose 4g.  When mine has lost 4g, a friend's TB will be locked solidly to 4g with both phones next to each other, and vice-versa.  I've taken it into a Verizon store while it was stuck in 3G mode, and all the 4G displays in the store were locked on to 4G.  They 'fixed' it by taking my phone into the back and rebooting it multiple times.  A little while after I left the store it dropped back to 3G.

 

Sometimes I'll go for days without losing 4G (that I know of); somedays I'll not have 4G for several hours during the day.

 

I really hope Verizon can get a fix for this soon; this is becoming a bigger issue by the day, and Verizon is starting to get some really bad press about it on the blogosphere.  However, I get the feeling that Verizon doesn't know what's causing the problem, and is just hoping that new phone models won't have the problem so that the issue will 'go away'.  Knowing what I know now, I wouldn't have spent the money to buy 2 Thunderbolts.  

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fadyc
Newbie

I have the same issues. Picked up Bionic day of release. finally got a repalcement last week, first couple hours was fine then same all over again. I locked to 3G mode cdma only it is helping some but not much, still loosing network connection  so I have to toggle between airplain mode on and off, this is getting old. I asked tech support to switch sim card i got the answer it is a motorolla issue now and working on fix.

 

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pfeinber
Newbie

This is not an isolated issue... many other Bionic owners like myself are experiencing 4G/3G/no data signal issues.  Changing to CDMA-only data signal actually doesn't solve the problem for me - just means when data does work, it's slower than I paid for.  Looking forward to a fix from the Bionic/VZW team soon.

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thagrrrl79
Newbie

I've had the Bionic for just over a week & have had connectivity issues from day one. It's not so much switching from 4G to 3G or vice versa as it is just randomly loosing signal period. It frequently happens after I've been on the phone; I get off the phone & go to check Twitter or send a text message & I have no connection. Some days are better than others, but I'm having to restart it as much if not more than the Droid it replaced. It's frustrating because I'm really loving the phone, except for that. Oh, and the fact that if I move apps to the SD card the phone thinks it's not installed any more, but that's another forum post.

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AntonioC_VZW
Verizon Employee

West24l wrote:

I upgraded to the new Droid Bionic on Wednesday, and I am continually having issues with the 4g/3g compatibility. When I bought the phone at the store, everything seemed to be working great. However, when I returned home with my new phone, I noticed that I was able to receive phone calls and text messaging, but I could not connect to the web or access my email and social networking sites. I immediately took the phone back up to the verizon store, and everything seemed to be working great. After speaking to a verizon wireless associate, he informed me that a lot of the Bionic owners are having issues with their phone's being backwards compatible with 3g. When the phone is in a 4g network, everything works great and smoothe. However, when you leave the 4g network and enter into a 3g network the phone automatically loses data connection. I have tried several times shutting the phone off and rebooting when in the 3g network, but I still cannot get it to work. Does anyone have any solutions? Also, the customer service department mentioned something about an upgrade that is supposed to fix this problem.....does anyone know when this upgrade is supposed to happen? This issue is really ticking me off because I love my phone but with no data network it is useless to me (I live AND work outside of the 4g network).



Hi West24l,

 

I am sorry to learn of the 4G/3G connectivity issues you are experiencing. Since you don't live in a 4G area (as per your post) I would recommend to change your phone settings to connect to 3G only and only change it to 4G when you visit a 4G area. Doing this should resolve your connectivity concerns. You can set data connection to 3G only by following the path below:

 

Menu>Settings>Wireless&Networks>MobileNetworks.NetworkMode then select CDMA only. For online instructions please click on this LINK

 

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jason2302
Newbie

That has NOTHING to do with it.

 

The REAL problem is that Motorola shipped many Bionic devices with faulty radios, as if they weren't already bad enough. My advice is to return the phone and wait for either the HTC Rezound or the Galaxy Nexus, both of which will have 720p screens and better CPUs, instead of the Bionic's cheap screen and old processor.

 

But if you MUST keep the Bionic, exchange it for a new one and hopefully it will be fine. But still, the radios on most of Verizon's phones are complete crap. You will constantly find yourself losing signal strength/signal alltogether.

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Fatdog1028
Enthusiast - Level 2
Good luck to everyone. I have the HTC Thunderbolt and live in a 3g area at home but in 4g area at work. If you are within your 14 day return period, TAKE IT BACK. After your 14 days is up, they will want to constantly return your new full price phone for a refurbished hunk of junk.
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undeadrat
Newbie

I experienced this issue tonight; my Droid Bionic was going into the 3G mode (from 4G LTE) and then it lost connection to the network altogether. I restarted the phone, and this seemed have reset the conenct (at least for now). But this is very disapointing; why do they release these very expensive devices when they have such fundamental problems? At this point, I think I will return the phone and go back to my very reliable Krazor (which has worked flawlessly for the last five years or so). I am also very disapointed that no mention was made of this at the store -- Perhaps the salesperson didn't know about the issues with the Bionic, or he wanted to make a sale. It seems like a very nice phone, and would be quite useful to me. But if it has an issue of losing conenction then it is rather useless to me (a "dumb" phone works without internet quite nicely after all without the data charges). If I'm paying $30.00 / month for data then I expect it to work.

 

I will talk to the people at the Verizon store and probably return it later today.

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archie21
Newbie

im severely regretting buying the droid bionic. it worked very well for about 2 days and it has been downhill since then. my iphone (att)  had great 3g and rarely had any type of connection issues. so far ive had 4g for about 1 hour total in the past month. and that was directly downtown in grand rapids, MI. 3g had worked sporadically and has completely vanished for the last 2 days.  i just tried to open pandora on the bionic and instead of hearing music it called my boss 7 times in rapid succession at 11:58p.m. im really hoping verizon is going to fix this problem or at least do something to live up to the reputation they supposedly have, because so far im not impressed.

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JohnB_VZW
Verizon Employee

I understand everyone's frustration and apologize for the inconvenience this is causing.

 

The loss of data connectivity when transitioning from 4G to 3G is a known issue and under investigation. A fix will be included in the first post launch maintenance release software for the Bionic.

 

As a temporary fix you can power cycle the device or enable/disable Airplane Mode when you experience any data connection loss. 

 

Again I apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience.

 

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angela3763
Newbie

this happened to me the first day I got it, but a simple fix was an unchecked box! i couldnt go back n forth from 3G to 4G. look and see if this helps !  Settings>Battery Data Manager> Data Delivery>Data Roaming - checked.  My box was not checked. didnt allow me to go back n forth.

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