Help Mobile data not working

[Lazzaro]

Hi,
I've had my Galaxy S3 for nearly 2 years without and major problems. Last week I was unable to send SMS messages, the phone just said sending failed. Then I noticed that my data connection wasn't working even though it was turned on. Since then, if I restart my phone, the data and texts work for about 1 minute before the data icon freezes and eventually disappears.
I've noticed that if I disable mobile data when it freezes, it takes about 3 minutes for it to turn off, and then doesn't come back if I turn it on again.
If I turn flight mode on, it again takes about 3 minutes to turn on, although for those 3 minutes you still can't do anything as the flight mode button is 'greyed out'. Then when the airplane icon is showing at the top of the screen, if you hold the power button so the menu appears, the button still says "flight mode is off". If I want to use data when I'm out and about I'm having to restart my phone, and so I'm having to do this 20+ times a day. As you can imagine, this is frustrating. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[funkylogik]

Welcome to the community :beer:
Did this start happening after the system update?

 

[Lazzaro]

Thank you for the welcome!
No, I haven't had a system update for a long time. Orange/EE always seem to be the last to release new updates, so I'm still on 4.1.2. I can't think of anything I'd done differently. One day it worked, the next it didn't.

 

[Tremault]

Hi,
considering you're with orange/EE and I am with T-mobile/EE then the fact my phone started doing EXACTLY THE SAME THING over the past week can't be a coincidence.
I read your post and the symptoms are identical.
Fortunately for me, this only occurs in a specific area. If I am at home, my data connection works ok. If I am at my friends it does all the things you described. I always had a problem getting a good signal at his house but it never behaved like this! I used to just have to move around a bit to try and raise the signal. Now, like you, I have to restart my phone every time I want to use the data connection.
I'm glad this is not just my phone because I was afraid my phones modem might be faulty. It seems clear to me now that it is a network issue.
I also, have not performed any system updates etc. It just suddenly started doing this in the middle of last week after I walked out of Tesco.

 

[nigsy]

I'm on EE and rooted - I think EE may be having issues as I keep loosing my data connection as well. Usually after after I have used wireless then lost the phone signal; when the signal returns (normal 2g) the data connection isn't reconnecting and only a reboot will fix.

 

[Lazzaro]

It's reassuring in a way that it's not just my phone. But still very annoying as even if it is a network issue, why is it doing this to my phone? If I didn't have a signal previously, I just didn't have a signal! Not all of this drama! Plus if it is the signal, why do I get mobile data for a few seconds after a restart before it goes off again? Other people around me on Orange don't have this problem, so is it an S3 on EE problem?
Either way it seems to be that accessing mobile data is the catalyst for things going wrong. If I'm at home and just use wifi, everything is fine.
Yesterday at work, I tried my phone in a few areas with the following results:
The data worked absolutely fine when I was out in an area I'd never used it before. I s able to access the Internet and play streaming videos brilliantly!
Then, I went to an area that used to be fine, and couldn't access the wifi. I believe this to be because just before I was in range of the wifi, it tried to access 3G. I got the error "failed to connect to wifi". I had to restart my phone. Then I got back to my office, no mobile data at all. Restarted my phone, worked for 30 seconds and went off again.
Got home, no issues when on wifi, but went off when I accessed 3G.
So why is this happening in places I used to have no issues with? If it's a network issue then that means I'm paying for a service that I can't use in the areas I want, and it's messing up my phone.
Has anyone got any updates on their issues?

 

[nigsy]

I haven't got a proper solution yet but a theory.

I work in London; so a lot of the time I am using free wireless hotspots in Coffee Houses; hotels etc. I leave my WiFi switched on; go out of range and 3g takes over..all good. I get on the underground; loose all connectivity for 10 minutes come up in a different part of town and suddenly no data connection; only a reboot will force it to use 3g; but I did notice my wireless trying to connect to random places that sometime in the past I may have used. So I have wiped all the unnecessary wireless connections; and for now that seems to have fixed it.

 

[Tremault]

I don't use wifi at all so I don't think that is the issue.
I do think though, that when you guys are connecting and disconnecting the wifi, it is perhaps triggering a behaviour in the phone's modem that is the true cause of the problem.
it is possible that the masts have changed to use a different kind of frequency or protocol that the modem is struggling with. it may put the modem into an unresponsive state. it's almost like EE is sending us a jamming signal.
of course when you switch to wifi you won't have a problem because wifi doesn't connect to a mobile mast. I'm actually pretty sure the wifi receiver is not the same piece of hardware as the modem, since i could receive mobile data and transmit wifi at the same time when I had a wifi hotspot set up.

 

[SteveDuk]

I'm on EE and rooted - I think EE may be having issues as I keep loosing my data connection as well. Usually after after I have used wireless then lost the phone signal; when the signal returns (normal 2g) the data connection isn't reconnecting and only a reboot will fix.

Mines the same.

It can't just be coincidence we are all on EE

 

[Lazzaro]

My connections seems to be nearly back to normal now. I know someone who works at EE (don't know why I didn't think of this before), and they said all the networks are having issues and it's to do with the weather we're having.

 

[Muilisx]

You could dl network booster. I used this all the time on my Motion when my phone showed 1x or no signal coming from underground too. It simply refreshes your network completely without rebooting.

 

[Caseygarnerpdx]

Same issue. Anyone figure it out? I dont know what EE is but this is pissing me off so much.

 

[Solabound]

Just been trying to solve this with my mums, found if you press and hold power button there is a data option in that menu, which seems to override all other data settings. It was set to off and when I changed it hey presto! It works now...