"Sign in to network" notification with Legacy Pay As You Go

[andyk88]

I feel bad that I wasted T-Mobile's time for this notification. I hope this posting will help if you see this notification with Legacy Pay As You Go.

With Legacy Pay As You Go:

• When there is no Wi-Fi, with mobile data enabled, an Android phone is expected to show the "Sign in to network" notification. This is normal. To remove the notification, disable mobile data.
• When there is Wi-Fi, the phone should not show the notification when "Mobile data always active" is turned off in Developer options.

The "Sign in to network" notification is shown when Android cannot access the data network.

Normally, when there should be data service, the "Sign in to network" notification is resolved by re-provisioning for data. In particular, make sure there is Data SOC on the line.
https://www.reddit.com/r/tmobile/com...mment/i2hcypr/
https://www.reddit.com/r/tmobile/com...mment/i2gj16b/
https://www.reddit.com/r/tmobile/com...mment/igiswsp/
https://www.reddit.com/r/tmobile/com...mment/iglbhes/

However, there is no Data SOC for Legacy Pay As You Go. Normally when on Wi-Fi, the notification is not shown, because Android does not even try to access the data network.


What happened

I had one phone A that I accidentally turned on "Mobile data always active" in Developer options (and I was unaware). As a result, Android always tried to access the data network even when on Wi-Fi, and kept showing the notification.

Because other phones, such as B, had "Mobile data always active" off, there was no notification. Information on Reddit such as the above led me to think incorrectly that provisioning for the line on A was wrong (that maybe there is Data SOC for Legacy Pay As You Go, just with 0 MB allotment).

Unfortunately the first T-Mobile agent I chatted with did not know how it should work, and created/escalated a ticket. (Apparently 72 hours after creating a ticket, the ticket can be escalated, then escalated again after another week.) There was no resolution after three weeks. While solving another problem, I asked another agent in passing about this, and he clearly stated that there is no Data SOC for Legacy Pay As You Go.

I decided to swap SIM cards between phones A and B, and the "Sign in to network" notification would only appear on phone A. On phone B, I turned off Wi-Fi so only Mobile data was on, and the notification also appeared. This convinced me that there was indeed no provisioning for data for Legacy Pay As You Go. I then compared everything to find out about the "Mobile data always active".

[andyk88]

At some point last year, OnePlus introduced a bug at least in the Nord N200.

"Mobile data always active" is randomly turned On after a Restart or Power off, then on.

I tested two phones. Each line below is what happened to "Mobile data always active" after setting it to Off, then a Restart:

• Off Off
• Off On
• On Off
• On Off
• Off Off
• On On

So I guess people with Legacy Pay As You Go running on a Nord N200 will just have to live with "Sign in to network".

I also tried to turn Developer options Off, then enable it (About device > keep tapping Software version [seven times]) -- no help, same bug.

On the bright side, it just updated to Android security update: November 5, 2023

Also, "Animator duration scale" can now be off without affecting Power off or Restart.

[AudiGuyCar]

That’s too funny… I’ve been dealing with this problem too. My mom has a “flip phone” TCL Flip Go phone, that keeps coming up with the same message about signing into the TMobile network. I tried turning off the data, but the phone reverts from VoLTE to 2G voice when I do… not sure if that will be an issue.

[sillyette]

I'm not on TMo, but back when Sprint was around, I remember getting this "sign into network" notification - my roommate and I had a Sprint hotspot through the Calyx Institute, and when the signal strength got bad, this notification would pop up on the phones that were connected to the hotspot.