I am wondering if there is a method by which I can designate a WLAN/WiFi connection as "mobile network" based on its SSID for the sake of data usage policies by apps or the Android system in general. Typically, when you have a data plan with your mobile provider, your phone's LTE (or 3G) modem will connect to the provider to enable you to have internet access. Now, if I am using a mobile LTE/WLAN router instead, my phone assumes that it's on an unmetered WiFi uplink and apps/the system will (mis)behave accordingly. Is there a way to tell the system that when it connects to a particular SSID, it should treat that as "mobile network" in regards to how apps may use data? Phone: Samsung Galaxy S9+ (SM-G965F), Android 9 NB: the settings from this answer don't exist on my phone.

My only internet connection at present is via a hotspot on Moto G7 (running Android Version 10) connecting via GiffGaff (which runs on the O2 network). I keep the phone data on 3G as 4G seems slower when the network strength is low. I have had a connectivity problem between my phone and my Asus laptop running Win 10 Home (build 19042.1348) for about the last year. Sometimes the connection is fine running at 1-3 Mbps download but frequently it disconnects. I can often get a reconnection by disconnecting and reconnecting my connection to the phone hotspot on my laptop and/or by running Windows' network Troubleshooter. This disconnection happens every 3-10 minutes so having to reconnect 10 times an hour is not unusual. I would be grateful for two things: Firstly if there is an obvious solution I would love to hear it; Secondly I am unfamiliar with this area and would be grateful for a recommendation of diagnostic tools. I emphasise this is a problem of connectivity between the laptop and the phone via wifi. This is not a problem of the network to the phone. Thanks for your time.

I'm using OnePlus 7T with dual SIM. SIM #1 is my default SIM, and SIM #2 is a data SIM which I'm using only for mobile data. Obviously, I've defined SIM #1 to be the default SIM for calls and SMS, and SIM #2 to be the default SIM for data. When I'm in an active call on SIM #1, SIM #2 is automatically blocked. However, instead of using SIM #1 for data, the phone is simply not getting any mobile data at all. Any ideas on tackling this problem? Thanks.

If you're using the internet on the phone, does Android auto-switch between SIMs on dual-SIM phones when one of the SIMs has poor reception? https://honestmobile.co.uk/ seem to think some phones do and they advise turning it off so as not to interfere with their own app that selects from the providers they MVNO on top of. It would be a handy alternative to Speedify VPN to bond separate mobiles, if the SIMs in those could be put in a dual SIM phone. (By the way, I don't have an financial interest or otherwise in Honest Mobile, nor Speedify). Thank you.

I see that most of the messaging apps that support video calls set the video quality automatically. WhatsApp, imo, Skype are the most famous examples. That is bad actually... I have a high-speed data connection. So the apps increase video quality to the best level. What is the result? Some hundred megabytes of data transfer during some 10 minutes and that means more money to pay. I don't want that. I prefer medium quality. What is the solution then? Any tweaks for the apps? Any other alternative messaging app?

Is there a way to set the phone to prefer cellular data over Wi-Fi so that it will use cellular if it's good but Wi-Fi if cellular is not? Similar to the "Switch to mobile data" setting but in reverse? The intent here is while using internet as a passenger in a car and driving through areas where coverage isn't great, I bought a cheap prepaid hotspot from another carrier (that's providing the "Wi-Fi" referenced here), but I want my primary cellular plan on my phone to be used first rather than that. Right now I manually switch between the two, but there are areas where which one is better changes quite frequently, so it'd be nice if this could happen automatically.

I wanted to ask whether on Android phones it is normal to access another phone who only uses data and no wifi from a phone that only uses wifi and no data, using an app such as WhatsApp to place a call. I am trying to debug in a phone setting where one or both phones may have network problems, and was thinking about whether anyone can help me with this. Both phones are running Android 12 and 11. Thanks.

I'm in the process of creating a "secure device" to store and process sensitive information. Using an Android device was the best course of action for me, since I can make a quick app, plus I can use the camera, finger print, and other goodies that comes with these. All development is going well, except that I want to have that device as isolated from any network activity as possible. For now I'm just turning off WIFI, making sure Mobile Data is off, and setting airplane mode on. But, and where is my question: Is it possible to do it on a OS level? in such a way that there is no obvious way to turn it back on? I spend more than 2 hours searching around but most results are how-tos, or things unrelated to what I want to do. Just to be clear, I do not want my app to do this, but instead, run a command or do something to the device that "physically" disables connectivity on the device. I would love if this does not require a custom android build. I would accept purchase recommendations for devices that comes without connectivity at all. Thanks!

Unfortunately my carrier charges €0.10 per MB of data -- and I've found out the hard way that Android is a data hog. As a result I keep my mobile data almost exclusively off. Is there a way, perhaps through an app, to *only allow **some** apps to use mobile data*? For example I'd like to be able to use Whatsapp and Opera Mini, but disable every other service. I've found that without wanting to, apps like eBuddy and (especially) Google Talk always want to re-connect, even when they haven't been directly run. I am aware that as from 2.2, Google tightened security on app capabilities (especially task managers and home screen selectors). For what it's worth, my device is rooted and running CyanogenMod7 RC4 (based on Gingerbread) so this might break compatibility with pre-2.2 apps.

I have Android 6.0.1, original Samsung version on my Galaxy S5 Neo. Since I'm not on any mobile data plan and have to pay every MB I use, I'd like to restrict background data - once and forever! However, it keeps turning itself off after a while. (I don't know after what time - I often only notice it a few hours later.) So quite often, I don't notice that it's disabled again, then go online, and tons of stuff are downloaded, every single bit of which I have to pay... What might be the cause of this? (It's not rebooting - it happens without any reboots in between.) How can I make sure background data is simply ***always*** disabled? *(I know there are some firewall apps that might help, but they either need the phone to be rooted, or they route your data through some VPN. I don't like either solution.)*

Every time i turn on my data network it deactivates itself within 5 mins ,any ideas anyone? i have a Samsung Galaxy ace.

Both can be used to share files, so how they are different?

I have an Alcatel One Touch. The data connection is turning on by itself in the past couple of months. I went to see Bell today, and the guy said it could be an app that's turning it on? How do I check this? I really do not want to delete my apps or loose all my important texts messages. Is there an app that I can check which is turning on my data connection?

My 1GB data pack (3G) was running out a bit faster than normal, so I started investigating using the Data Usage tool (Android 4.1.2 Nexus S). That's when I found out the Google+ app had used 300 MB in 3 days, and all of it was background data. Here's the graph: [](https://i.sstatic.net/aLDmw.png) Graph (click to enlarge) I don't remember using the app much at all, yet it almost burned through my data pack. I've set the Instant Upload settings to only upload when connected to Wi-fi, and roaming uploads are disabled too. I disabled background as soon as I figured it out, but I still don't know how and why it used up so much data. Any pointers?

When I try to turn on tethering/mobile hot spot it gives me the system message "Unable to connect, data connection not available." However it worked in the past with this carrier/phone and the internet still works. I can browse the web on my phone fine. Things I tried so far: - restarting my phone - Taking it in and out of airplane mode - turning wifi off and on - turning on and off power saving - turning sync on and off - turning off high performance mode. - resetting all network settings

I've got a new phone running Android 4.4.2 and whenever I close an app, it disconnects, i.e whenever I close Messenger, it stops being connected to my WiFi so I get no notifications until I open the app, when it reconnects and everything comes through. All apps are doing this, on WiFi and on data. I can't find anywhere to manage background internet usage and was just wondering if there's a (probably very simple) way to sort it out?

Firstly, I am running CyanogenMod 12.1 on my HTC One M8 , but this is an issue I also experienced running stock Android (e.g. Lollipop). The issue I am experiencing is that my device appears to be unable to reconnect or "get back" on the Sprint data network. For example, yesterday, I was in NYC (obviously somewhere that should and is covered), but I was unable to get a data connection anywhere in the city. I was only able to send SMS (*not* send/receive MMS) and make voice calls. In the past, when I had this issue on Sprint, being the helpful individuals they are, they told me to restore my phone and reinstall Android. I did that, which helped for a while, but it wasn't long before I ran into the same issue on stock Android. After a while, the issue seemed to "resolve" itself magically. I never found out why or how. More recently, I rooted my phone and installed CyanogenMod 12.1 on my M8, and I am running into the exact same issue I had before. Ideally, I don't want to have to restore my phone again, because not only do I not think this is the "fix-all", but it seemed like Sprint's lazy answer for not wanting to actually troubleshoot my device. This is becoming increasingly apparent when I travel as I am unable to get GPS directions, send MMS messages, or do anything over data like normal when I'm off of a WiFi network. Despite having "bars" on my screen, CM will display a small "!" over my data icon, which I assume is an indicator that it is unable to connect to the mobile network in some way. Is there anything I can do to better troubleshoot my mobile data connection?

I have a Samsung Galaxy Note 8 running Android 9 and One UI. Google Photos will not back up anything. All I am getting as a Getting ready to back up and 185 items left perpetual spinner at the top of the app. When I attempt to manually back up a single photo or a group of photos, I receive the message Will upload when connected to Wi-Fi. I have unlimited data and am perfectly happy with it backing up over my cellular data connection. However, going into Settings->Back up & sync->Cellular Data Back Up, I see that **both** Photos and Videos are enabled. So it **should** be backing up over cellular data. But it's not. What am I missing?

I have a Samsung Galaxy S10e SM-G970F that I'd like to use for phone calls and simultaneously as an hotspot (WiFi tethering) to browse from my laptop. The phone has 2 sim cards. I'm unable to make a phone call in one sim and simultaneously browse with the other. As soon as a phone call begins in SIM1, the data connection drops in SIM2. I tried many different combinations settings of: - VoLTE calls SIM 1/2 - Allow all SIMs to use data in calls - Dual SIM always on I also tried switching "Calls" and "Mobile data" between the 2 SIMs. So far no luck. Please, do you have any tips to achieve what I need?

Our local office provides free public WiFi for phones and tablets, but blocks access in ways that means that some applications (like WhatsApp) are unable to connect. Is there any way to configure Android so that a certain app (in this case WhatsApp, but could be others) will always use cellular data even though it is connected to a WiFi access point? Bonus points if it'll only do it for a specific access point, so we can configure it to use cellular data for the office, but at home it'll still go over WiFi. Currently the only alternative is to either keep WiFi off (which is much slower and eats into data caps) or keep toggling WiFi on and off (which is really quite annoying). (Free or paid solutions appreciated. Using Android 4.3. Would prefer solutions that don't require root, but if that is the only way, then so be it.)