In the days before Android, buried deep in the network settings of my old phone were two options called Preferred Networks and Forbidden Networks was an option called Preferred Networks, and I have also heard of Forbidden Networks. These were used for roaming: when the home network was not available, the phone would not simply grab the first available network but compare the list of currently available networks to the Preferred & Forbidden Networks: it would never try to roam into a forbidden network, and if one of the visible networks was on the Preferred Networks list, it would try that network first. The lists were stored on the SIM. Note that this has nothing to do with APNs or network types – this setting is entirely about network operators. Does Android still use these lists? If so, is there a way to view/edit these lists on Android?

I've recently moved to the Geneva area on the border between France and Switzerland. I live in France where I have a French mobile (and home) phone contract, but work just over the border (within a mile of it!) in Switzerland. The Swiss networks are stronger near my work than French ones, but I can usually get a French signal. I can use several French networks without incurring roaming charges for phone/SMS/internet use, but any of the Swiss ones will cost me a small fortune. In Android (actually Cyanogenmod versions based on Gingerbread and ICS is what I've tried so far so far) I seem to have two options: **a)** *Only* allow to join my home network and ignore all others, both French and Swiss. In this case I often have no connection at all. **b)** Connect to *any* network, in which case the phone will often choose to connect to a Swiss network and hence incur costs. (And in practice will render me unable to use the mobile data connection since I've disabled data roaming). Is there a way that I can rank networks in order of preference so that French networks (if joinable) will be preferred to Swiss ones, even if there are Swiss networks with a stronger signal? I've looked for settings and apps to do this, but without success... other than some rather dangerous looking stuff with the Preferred Roaming List (PRL), which doesn't seem to be exposed to the normal UI. I guess most people don't live/work on borders so this feature hasn't been that much in demand -- but the network operators unfortunately don't have any cross-country deals to help frontier-dwellers either, so a technological solution is probably needed!

My phone is a Huawei Ascend Mate7. I get the following notification whenever I turn on my 4G connection: > **Data lost** > > You have lost data connectivity because you left your home network with data roaming turned off The problem is my SIM card is from the same country I live in now. This problem somehow remained since I moved from my old SIM card, and now I can't seem to get rid of it. I also see an "R" next to the connection indicator. How to solve this?

Does Android support the 802.11 specifications that allow fast roaming, i.e. prevent dropouts as you move between access points? If so, on what hardware and in what version? **802.11k** assists the device in its search for nearby APs that are available as roaming targets by creating an optimised list of channels. When the signal strength of the current AP weakens, device will scan for target APs from this list. **802.11r** authenticates more quickly through Fast Basic Service Set Transition (FT). **802.11v** allows the network’s control layer to influence client roaming behaviour by providing it the load information of nearby access points. Device takes this "BSS transition management" information into account when deciding among the possible roam targets. Apple's iOS does, as documented here and here . Windows 10 does if the WiFi adapter supports it as documented here and here (suspect latter is currently out of date with respect to PSK & open networks). Some Samsung models do, as documented here . But I can't find anything on stock Android (Google Pixel).

I live in country A and work in country B. I have a mobile phone contract from country A. A and B are both in the EU so there are no roaming fees at all. During the day I have no network problem, the phone uses the network of the country it's currently in and everything is fine. Problems arises when I cross the border: it seems to me that the phone tries to stay connected to the network it was previously connected to. So for 10 minutes or so after I cross the border, the network signal is weaker and weaker until previous country is too far away. How can I force the phone to connect to a country's mobile phone network as soon as it enters in said country? NB: situation is exactly the same when traveling from A to B or from B to A. What I tried: switching to plane mode just after crossing the border, waiting 5 seconds and switching back. It doesn't work.

I noticed, whenever I am in foreign country (i.e. DATA ROAMING) I can connect other devices to my android phones via its hotspot, but they (devices) have restricted access to internet.. In other words: My phone, where I would like to share internet via operator's data in foreing country roaming DOES have internet access, but devices connected to it via WiFi hot spot do NOT. As soon as I return to home country, the problem disapears and tethering works normally. This I've noticed on 2 Android phones I owned and tried: Nokia 6.1 and Motorola G10. Vendors claim they do not have a fix for it, operator also claims he is innocent. Does it look more like a problem of Andorid OS, foreign operators, or my home operator ? **Edit:** (based on Robert's suggestion) **My home country:** Slovakia (Not to be confused with Slovenia) **My home operator:** 4ka **Foreing countries traveled:** Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Netherland, Belgium, France, Luxemburg **Foreign operators:** Any one I encountered. Really do not know their names. Can anyone help to identify the source of the problem, please ?

I am planning a trip to abroad and need to use my Android phone while roaming. But i couldn't disable all data roaming because i need my company emails. So i want to disable WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Play Store and etc; except Exchange. Is there any way to achieve this? My device is rooted.

I need a way to block my phone from connecting to AT&T since my service provider in Canada only has a roaming plan in the US that uses T-mobile's network. I can force my phone to lock onto T-mobile while I'm roaming in the US, but then I need to change this back to my Canadian provider when i cross back into Canada. I cross daily, so this is a royal PIA. It's a 50/50 chance which provider it decides to connect to when I cross into the US. Would be great if a developer could write a script that allows the user to exclude certain networks to be connected to in Automatic mode.

Here is the situation: I live close to a border between to countries, one being under EU laws, the other being neutral, except when it comes to economical wars. I have a phone contract in the EU, but I get billed high prices when roaming in the other country. However, in most places where I use my phone, I have access to the EU network where I should not be billed extra at all. I **know** how to select manually the **Operator's Network** GSM network I want from the settings (*Select a Network Operator*), and this is the degraded solution I normally use. Problem is this takes too much time when it detects a bunch of useless operators networks around. --- So I would like to know if there is a way (app, probably), that would make this easy, like "try to use the **Operator's Network** I know is provided in his very location". Making it a "quick setting" would be a must, but probably already addressed somewhere else here. --- ### edit: My phone is not "rooted", so I may not use Xposed features. Using a Macro looks cool, but it would be enough if there was a known shell command to do this. Then I just have to map the command to the macro. Maybe an answer to [this](https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/200862/record-setting-changes-as-script) ?

When I boot android device having a SIM on roaming it took around 2-10 minutes to get cellular reception. I've tested this on multiple devices, similar behavior. One interesting thing is, if device is already booted and then I inserted the SIM, it instantly gets cellular reception. For a non-roaming SIM it works instantly even after boot. Edit: The SIM provider told us it's an eSIM, though it looks like a regular SIM card. If you've any explanation on this, could you please share?

I have a data roaming pop up every 5 mins on my S23 Ultra with T mobile service, I live Across Lake Erie From Canada, PLEASE!!! does anyone know how to get rid of it

I turned Airplane Mode on, yet someone was still able to call me. How was this possible when Airplane Mode supposedly shuts off all airwaves?

I have a (rooted) smartphone running Android 7.1.2 and need to prove that over a certain period of time in the recent past (period of a few weeks within the last month), mobile data was disabled and roaming was disabled. If I could extract from the phone a log of exactly when mobile data / roaming were enabled and when they were disabled, this would already be sufficient proof. Is such a log available anywhere and is there any way to retrieve it?

I have Android and I see that I can enable International Roaming (Connections >> Mobile Networks >> Data Roaming >> On/Off), and disable Data usage (Connections >> Data Saver >> On/Off). However I´m not sure if this will be useful for what I need, which is BEING ABLE TO RECEIVE CALLS, BUT AVOIDING DATA USAGE since I will be connected to Wifi and I don't want expensive charging for data usage. Is this the way to do it?

I have a moto g(7) power with an international T-Mobile plan that is supposed to allow me to use my phone in most countries around the world without needing to get new SIM cards. This works most of the time, but I've noticed a few countries not behaving correctly. What normally happens is that I'll get a text message from T-Mobile saying "Welcome to X country" and explaining that I have 5 gigs of high-speed data per month for that country. Then once the high-speed data runs out, I can still use unlimited low-speed data for the rest of the 30-day cycle. But for the countries where this doesn't work, I'll still get the text message that confirms the country is covered by my plan and I'll see that I have cell signal but when I open a browser or try to use messaging apps it says there's no Internet. Here is how it worked in Australia and New Zealand for example: - ✅ I get a text confirming that I have coverage in the country - ✅ The cell signal icon indicates a strong connection - ✅ I am able to use mobile data Here is how it's working in Fiji: - ✅ I get a text confirming that I have coverage in the country - ✅ The cell signal icon indicates a strong connection - ❌ I am not able to use mobile data Curiously, it seems that I am able to make phone calls and use SMS in Fiji, and I guess that's because those things are considered by phone plans to be different from mobile data. At first I thought maybe the problem was related to the 5 gigs of high-speed data being expired, but the problem still wasn't solved when the cycle ended and my high-speed data was renewed. I've tried using mobile data in Fiji both with and without high-speed data available and the problem is the same in both cases. T-Mobile customer support didn't seem to understand the problem unfortunately. Here are the troubleshooting steps they ran me through: 1. I reset the phone's network settings multiple times 1. I restarted the phone multiple times 1. I enabled international roaming None of that worked, of course. What is causing this problem, and is there anything I can do to fix it?

I bought new Samsung Galaxy Note 2, Last week I went to a different state ( roaming). During roaming my office outlook mail is not syncing. Whole purpose of having Email on phone is gone. I don't think it's problem with the device/service provider. Gmail ,yahoo or internet is working without any issues. I was able to read emails on my other phone (iphone 3g) without issues (when roaming). Can someone help me on this?

I am currently in India, and I'm not able to get roaming data with my HTC One M8 Sprint. I have tried several settings and several carriers but to no avail. I have called Sprint but their solutions haven't helped. I have registered for roaming and I verified this on the website. I can connect to carriers to make calls, but I cannot get roaming data. Is there any way I can fix this without having to call Sprint Customer Support again? **EDIT** * Available network operators: Aircel, IND Airtel, Vodafone IN, CellOne * Network Modes: CDMA Only, LTE/CDMA, GSM/UMTS Only, Automatic * All roaming guards are disabled. * Access Point is default Sprint World. * CDMA roaming mode is set to Automatic * Domestic Voice, Domestic Data, International Voice, International Data, and GSM Data is all enabled.

There is a well documented phenomena of Android users getting charged for data roaming abroad when data roaming is explicitly disabled on their phone. `So-called ghost-roaming (Geister-Roaming). In our case, Android 6.0.1 (Samsung S5) we got billed 4 bucks on multiple days each for 60KB (yes, kilobytes) even though data roaming was off. Apparently 4 bucks is the minimum charge per day. The fact that it's always exactly 60 KB shows it's some sort of system/systematic data download ignoring the setting. The network companies refuse to budge because they say it's a bug with the phone. IMO it's a scandal. What can we do to utterly shut down any data roaming?

I am living on the border between two countries and consequently I often have to manually select a network, either from one country or from the other country. My issue is that searching for the network is an extremely slow process, that can take up to ten minutes. Why is this such a slow process? Are there any ways of speeding it up? Why do I need to wait for the search to finish completely before I am allowed to choose a network? I would imagine that the phone finds most networks quickly, but then perhaps struggles on a few where the reception is bad, which then increases the time. However, I do not care about finding all the possible networks, just the two main ones that are the ones that I frequently use. Could I perhaps manually set a timeout for the search of, say, 30 seconds? I am using a Motorola G7 power with Android 10, but this issue has been with me for several different phones and android versions.

I am an EU citizen visiting a different country now (but still in EU), in the country's capital. For my travels I have bought a data pack from my provider (I don't have/use data otherwise). Now whenever I turn mobile data on, I only get EDGE connection. My provider's helpline assured me that the data pack I bought is supposed to be 4G. It is a major provider in my country and on the helpline they claimed that 4G should be available in the area I am visiting right now. They have advised me to manually select a different local cellular network. I tried to go to the Settings, Mobile Network and choose the network manually -- I saw that there were several 3G and 4G networks from various local providers around me with a good signal strength. However, whenever I choose a network to connect to, the connection fails (it says Unable to connect under the network name) and I get a system notification from Phone Services *(or is it Cellular Services? Sorry, my phone is not in English)* which claims: No signal. The chosen network ( (xxxxx)) is not available (where the x's are always a different number, depending on the chosen network). The only way I can connect to a cellular network is to choose an automatic connection in the Settings but it always connects me to EDGE. I have also verified that my preferred type of cellular network is set to 4G/3G/2G. My phone: Xiaomi Mi A3, Android 11 (Android One). The SIM supports LTE. Do you know what could be the problem and how to solve it?