Network band selection no longer available

[Sabir1]

UPDATE (04/07/2022): This is the response Samsung gave about band selection being disabled. It won't be coming back it seems.

Ever since I had the Note 10+ 5g, I had been able to use the band selection app to open the hidden menu which would allow me to select which bands to connect to and which bands to avoid. This was particularly important as Band 3 (1800Mhz) would give me the worst speed (~0.5 - 4 Mbps) and is at the same time the band/frequency the phone connects to constantly since it has the strongest signal strength. Band 3 also prevents my phone from connecting to 5g in my weakly coveraged area which enabled me to fix my several year long issue with terrible speeds giving me speeds up to ~200+Mbps. 

I just received the May 2022 update for my phone and I decided to update due to the camera stability improvements. After completing the update I notice that my phone is no longer connected to 5g. I check the band the phone is connected to and notice it to be Band 3. Thinking I may have forgot to turn off the Band 3, I try opening the band selection app to which it gives and error that it can't find the hidden menu.

I've come to know that this issue is widespread on the latest updates for most if not all the galaxy phones.

I don't know why the menu has suddenly disappeared or been disabled, but it is a very important feature for me and many others. I see no reason as to why this feature would be made inaccessible on Samsung devices since it isn't destructive but rather a really useful feature for many users.

Could someone with a better understanding, or better yet Samsung themselves please explain what's going on?

PETITION:

https://www.change.org/p/make-network-band-selection-menu-available-again/sfs/copy/311609309?recruit...

[Sabir1]

That's not what I meant. I was asking what problem the steps in your original comment solved? Was it for those who were stuck on a single band, or is it to get the menu to work again?

[akmalsagor]

That does not help

[Cayne]

It's not stuck on one band... There was a hidden menu that you could access through the "Samsung Band Selection" app that would allow you to manually choose which band or bands you wanted to connect to. This allowed people like myself, who may have decent coverage but bad network speeds, to select a band that might not have the best signal, but much higher speed. 

I get decent coverage with band 12 where I live, but the speed is terrible. I can get 3 bars on band 2, 4, 14 and 1-2 bars in band 66, all of which provide much better speeds (over 100mbit/s in some cases.)

So your advice is not relevant to this conversation. Samsung removed the menu, so the app doesn't work anymore. I'm now forced to use band 12 simply because the signal is slightly better, and now my speeds are terrible.

I live where there is terrible landline internet, so this often saved me days or more on downloads or as a backup for when my internet goes down or is being used by others in the house.

Without it, I am now unable to do 90% of what I used to do from home.

[myfear]

Similar situation, changed to Vodafone broadband last Nov and still waiting to be connected (8 months no internet)

I bought an A22 purely to use as a router and unlimited smarty SIM, connect to the 5G band it never would normally connect to and 450mbps down constantly

It's annoying but a worthwhile investment, just don't update it. You then have a very powerful mobile router

[Cayne]

I had no choice. The update was forced on me by Samsung. At least the ATT variant of the Note 10 Plus in USA has no option to disable auto updates. It let's you stop it from installing automatically, but constantly bugs you about it before finally updating without any way of stopping it.

[osnix · Accepted solution]

Hey guys,

There is still possible to access the menus.

You need to install  Allinace Shild X from Play Store. Once you are registered and logged in:

 Open the App Manager.

Look for com.samsung.android.app.telephonyui and click on it.

Go-to Activities.

Scroll down to com.samsung.android.app.telephonyui.hiddennetworksettings.MainActivity.

Click on it and choose Open.

There is now everything you'll need.

NOTE: the app need Admin and Knox rights for this to work. 

I hope it helps you guys to temporarily fix your issues.

Best regards from Germany  

[Cos19]

This actually works! Thank you! 

[yanshugupta]

This is actually working, but it feels like loosing some security,

Thanks from India

[osnix]

Yes, but I don't know of any other App could do this without rooting your phone.

Maybe Samsung will listen to his customers, but until then this may be an compromise.

They'll have to change something in this area anyway, in Germany as an example 3G gone, but we don't have any setting to select 2G/4G or 2G/4G/5G..

[Sabir1]

Everyone should consider signing the petition: https://www.change.org/p/make-network-band-selection-menu-available-again/sfs/copy/311609309?recruit...