Cell Phone Question: My son needs Wi-Fi to go on the Web with his phone. I've never had that problem with any phone, but he's had that with his last two

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

My son needs Wi-Fi to go on the Web with his phone. I've never had that problem with any phone, but he's had that with his last two - Samsung and Motorola. I've looked at his phone, and I don't see a setting I can change to let his phone receive data. All he can do with his phone is make phone calls, but that seems like an odd complaint to make about a phone. 😊

Any ideas?

Walkabout08

Who’d his carrier?

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Walkabout08 wrote:

Who’d his carrier?

Verizon through TracFone. I have the same plan.

DickC Loc: NE Washington state

I wish I had an old rotary phone...no problems, etc.

BigMo

In settings there should be cellular open up and you can go down the list and choose what items you want for data or wifi only. Thats where it’s at on my iPhone..

BebuLamar

DickC wrote:

I wish I had an old rotary phone...no problems, etc.

I can't use it now. All I have is VOIP and it doesn't work with the rotary.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

On my Samsung S21 (and S3) there is a "switch" (button/icon) in the device control to allow "Mobile (cellular) Data", is that on?

This is also disabled in Airplane Mode I believe. Not sure if when Airplane mode is turned off if Mobile Data is turned back on or not. This happened to me once, I had to manually turn Mobile Data back on.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Is data enabled both on the phone and by his carrier, and does he have the problem only when roaming outside your immediate area? Had that issue with Consumer Cellular (who uses the Verizon network) once we left or city, because at that moment in time, Verizon would not support data roaming.

GeneinChi Loc: Chicago, IL

If nothing suggested here works, You could call your carrier but that may lead to wait times of weeks and months. I usually start by googling exactly what the problem is. Something helpful usually comes up. It’s probably something simple.

chrissybabe Loc: New Zealand

My Samsung (an S22 although 2 earlier models also did it) allows you to setup a wifi connection ie it will connect to your internal household wifi system. This is turned on all the time (although it can be turned off). Whenever I receive a video call over whatsapp it defaults to connection over the wifi rather than use expensive and slow cell data.

RicknJude Loc: Quebec, Canada

Does he pay for a data plan?

RicknJude Loc: Quebec, Canada

jerryc41 wrote:

My son needs Wi-Fi to go on the Web with his phone. I've never had that problem with any phone, but he's had that with his last two - Samsung and Motorola. I've looked at his phone, and I don't see a setting I can change to let his phone receive data. All he can do with his phone is make phone calls, but that seems like an odd complaint to make about a phone. 😊

Any ideas?

Does he pay for a data plan?

Morry Loc: Palm Springs, CA

Etc.

nimbushopper Loc: Tampa, FL

Longshadow wrote:

On my Samsung S21 (and S3) there is a "switch" (button/icon) in the device control to allow "Mobile (cellular) Data", is that on?

This is also disabled in Airplane Mode I believe. Not sure if when Airplane mode is turned off if Mobile Data is turned back on or not. This happened to me once, I had to manually turn Mobile Data back on.

Guyserman Loc: Benton, AR

My kids and grandkids all have smartphones and all connect to my wifi when they visit. No data plan involved.