[Verizon] Gray 4G Signal Bars?

[mobgob]

Guys a quick question here.

I have been flashing different roms and noticed on some of them the 4G signal bars will be gray but I still have a data connection. Like everyone else's phones they are blue but then I can do a reboot and they will stay gray but I can still have a 4G connection.

Just wondered if anyone else has had this issue. It's not a big deal but I guess I'm kind of anal and it bothers me.

 

[esmith818]

I've seen that for 3G on my old Droid X2 as well as on the Nexus. I thought perhaps that indicated that I had a 4G connection for voice only, but your post seems to contradict that. I also thought it only happened when it is first "locking" to signal, but I'm not sure about that either. I've learned to ignore the color for now, but if anyone else has a better theory, I'd love to hear it as well.

 

[cabraswell]

I might be way off here but it seems that I read somewhere a long time ago that the color change (from gray to blue or green) (blue for ICS and green for GB) means you have a connection to Google's servers. So if you're gray you'll have a data connection but you're Google server sync is off for the time being.

Just what I seem to remember reading somewhere in the past. Again, I may be way off.

 

[fed123]

Just noticed tonight in a local restaurant I had grey 3G bars on my Verizon GNex and my daughter had blue bars on her Verizon Droid 3. I could make calls but had not data - she could make calls and had data.

When I got home, 15 minutes later I switched to 4G and got blue bars back and data. So you may be on to something.

 

[ez12a]

yeah, i'm not rooted or anything but i think grey means it has a connection to a tower but hasnt received the handshake from the provider if you will. Once it's blue the phone has authenticated with the network.

It's like connecting to wifi and waiting for authentication before being able to send/receive data.

 

[jbdan]

I might be way off here but it seems that I read somewhere a long time ago that the color change (from gray to blue or green) (blue for ICS and green for GB) means you have a connection to Google's servers. So if you're gray you'll have a data connection but you're Google server sync is off for the time being.

Just what I seem to remember reading somewhere in the past. Again, I may be way off.

This ^^

 

[edhgreatone]

I might be way off here but it seems that I read somewhere a long time ago that the color change (from gray to blue or green) (blue for ICS and green for GB) means you have a connection to Google's servers. So if you're gray you'll have a data connection but you're Google server sync is off for the time being.

Just what I seem to remember reading somewhere in the past. Again, I may be way off.

Hmm... are we sure this is true... if I have 4g gray only (no blue) that means I'm in a 4g connection but my Google sync is disabled till blue bars come in?

I was under the impression the blue bars were the strength of the signal

 

[jbdan]

Hmm... are we sure this is true... if I have 4g gray only (no blue) that means I'm in a 4g connection but my Google sync is disabled till blue bars come in?

I was under the impression the blue bars were the strength of the signal

I am 100% sure this was the case with gingerbread. I'd like to think it means the same with ICS, but I can't say for 100% sure it is.

 

[edhgreatone]

Interesting sounds probably right ... I just noticed I had fulls bars but they were grayed out so the fluctuation between the bars is obviously the signal strength while the color is the Google sync coverage...

Good to know this, ty

 

[jbdan]

Interesting sounds probably right ... I just noticed I had fulls bars but they were grayed out so the fluctuation between the bars is obviously the signal strength while the color is the Google sync coverage...

Good to know this, ty

Next time you have the all gray signal bars try and open up gmail, or gvoice, market, or something google related (browser stock) and see what happens. If you can do this and they actively stay gray then we know it's not the same as it was for ginger.

 

[fed123]

My experience is that with the gray bars I have voice and can make calls but get no data or email. With the blue bars I get data and can make calls.

 

[edhgreatone]

Ill have to give that a try... What's the little up and down triangle arrows in the wifi mean?

Does anyone know that one?

 

[Yeahha]

Ill have to give that a try... What's the little up and down triangle arrows in the wifi mean?

Does anyone know that one?

The triangle in the wifi would be data sending or receiving

 

[edhgreatone]

Weird... I've been online browsing for past hour with grey 4g sign... took a couple screen shots but can't figure out how to load them

 

[jbdan]

Weird... I've been online browsing for past hour with grey 4g sign... took a couple screen shots but can't figure out how to load them

The 4G sign is always gray. We're talking about the signal bars just underneath the gray 4G

 

[Yeahha]

Weird... I've been online browsing for past hour with grey 4g sign... took a couple screen shots but can't figure out how to load them

If you use the advanced editor to post you can press this button

to load them from your CPU. From the phone browser or from within the app I am not sure. I usually just host anything I want to post then use the tags with the URL to put it in a post.

I believe the grey vs blue notification is a difference between if you are connected to the network or if you are fully connected. If you get the blue bars and icon you are fully connected so you should have little to no issue sending/receiving data. If you are getting grey in your notification bar you are connected but the phone can not fully connect so you may or may be able to send/receive data.

Also when not fully connected the connection may be more unstable so if you can send/receive data some data packets may be lost and need to be resent which can cause greater data use.

 

[jbdan]

If you use the advanced editor to post you can press this button

to load them from your CPU. From the phone browser or from within the app I am not sure. I usually just host anything I want to post then use the tags with the URL to put it in a post.

I believe the grey vs blue notification is a difference between if you are connected to the network or if you are fully connected. If you get the blue bars and icon you are fully connected so you should have little to no issue sending/receiving data. If you are getting grey in your notification bar you are connected but the phone can not fully connect so you may or may be able to send/receive data.

Also when not fully connected the connection may be more unstable so if you can send/receive data some data packets may be lost and need to be resent which can cause greater data use.[/QUOTE]

Cabraswell pointed it out above ^ as this holds true for Gingerbread, and while I don't have conclusive evidence myself, I believe this is the case for ICS and blue signal/wifi bars as well. [COLOR="MediumTurquoise"][B]Blue[/B][/COLOR] = connection to your Google account services :)

 

[Yeahha]

Cabraswell pointed it out above ^ as this holds true for Gingerbread, and while I don't have conclusive evidence myself, I believe this is the case for ICS and blue signal/wifi bars as well. Blue = connection to your Google account services

Easy test of this would be trying to access the market with a grey signal. If you can access anything then that would break the theory, if you can't but can access the internet it would confirm it.

FWIW the icons aren't named any different in the systemUI.apk compared to GB

 

[jbdan]

Easy test of this would be trying to access the market with a grey signal. If you can access anything then that would break the theory, if you can't but can access the internet it would confirm it.

FWIW the icons aren't named any different in the systemUI.apk compared to GB

Exactly. I posted this above as well ^

And they turn blue as soon as I open market/google+/maps/etc...

 

[strykes]

Mine were grey for several days, and the only problem I had was that I wasn't getting push notifications from GMail. I had to go in and hit refresh every time to get my mail. Otherwise, everything else worked. I got all of my calls, texts, and web browsing worked perfectly. I've been getting blue bars these days since flashing Axiom 2.1 and now push works again. Very strange.

 

[jbdan]

Mine were grey for several days, and the only problem I had was that I wasn't getting push notifications from GMail. I had to go in and hit refresh every time to get my mail. Otherwise, everything else worked. I got all of my calls, texts, and web browsing worked perfectly. I've been getting blue bars these days since flashing Axiom 2.1 and now push works again. Very strange.

That is odd. So with only gray bars, you could do google+, maps and nav, market, anything Google related, but getting no gmail push noti's? Maybe the blue is just gmail specific although mine turn blue on any access to Google services.... or maybe even ROM specific

 

[mobgob]

Ok. I was having this problem so I did a little testing. I would have connections to everything except my gmail would not push. So I wiped and reinstalled the same rom and did not restore system data with Titanium Backup and I have now had NO grey bars for 2 days. After doing this and thinking about it my problem would only come up after a reboot and installing my apps and system data with Titanium Backup. So I would suggest to anyone else with this problem to just install your apps and not system data when doing a restore in Titanium.

Hope this helps!