[Q] Nexus 4 Straighttalk- New Att sim data and sync problem

dbarajas1401 · Feb 6, 2014

I want to know if there is anyone else with the same problem as myself to try and troubleshoot, identify, and hopefully fix the following problem:

History:
I had an unlocked Nexus 4 on Straighttalk (on ATT's network by swapping out the sim from the nokia e5) from Feb. 2013- Dec. 2013 and had no problems with data or sync. In late December of 2013 I saw that Straighttalk was selling ATT micro sims again with 4G LTE compatibility so I decided to buy one (even though 4G LTE is not on the Nexus 4 without root) just in case I ever decided to upgrade phones. I activated the sim, updated the APN settings, and all data, mms, sms, and phone calls were working.

Problem:
Data was working (tested by using the browser and Facebook), but there were sync issues with all my google apps: gmail, keep, calendar, browser, etc. After a month of troublshooting, I've figured out that I get intermittent data signals, which is causing my google services to not sync properly. I have narrowed it down to a couple of things that are possibly causing the intermittent data:

1) The new APN from Straighttalk is not working properly for non-4G LTE phones
2) The new APN settings don't allow background data
3) The new sim card doesn't work properly with my phone

Solutions That I've Already Tried, and They Didn't Work:

- Tried every possible APN setting on the XDA Developers forums and the internet
- Tried using the "old" apn settings
- Tried using ATT's apn settings
- Factory reset
- Flashed .48 radio
- Tried to CM11 with the newest radios, older radios, and hybrid radios that enable 4G LTE
- Unroot, locked bootloader, and flashed factory image downloaded from the Google developer's website

A couple of other notes:

- I tried activating a Tmobile micro sim to test if it were my phone, but everything worked perfectly with Tmobile so I know it isn't the phone (I wish I had tried this before factory resetting, rooting, and going back). If I switched to the Tmobile sim, all my problems would be fixed, but my biggest problem is that the reception for phone calls was horrible so I want to stay on ATT's network

- When I turn airplane mode on and then off, all my data syncs properly. But who wants to manually sync every time they unlock their phone? At my job replying to emails in a timely manner is extremely important so my data not syncing properly is not ideal.

- Sometimes when I unlock my phone, the data tile in the swipe down menu is orange. Indicating a bad connection

- All my phone calls, sms, and mms work fine

- When I unlock my phone and open the web browser, it sometimes takes a while to start loading the web page. Similarly, when I manually load my email (in the gmail app by swiping down) it takes longer than normal.

- When I send an email, it takes a while to actually send

- With this new ATT micro sim, the network is no longer called "Home" (like it was with the other sim), it now has "AT&T". I'm guessing this has something to do with me not being able to switch back to the old APN settings.

My current APN Settings are:

Name: Straighttalk ATT
apn: tfdata
Port: 80
MMSC: (insert new straighttalk mmsc, I'm not allowed to post urls and this is a url I guess)
MMS proxy: 66.209.11.33
MMS Port: 80
APN Type: default,supl,mms,admin,internet,hipri

I'm running android 4.4.2 with the .98 radio, or in other words simply stock android.

Ookla Speedtest: 5.25/1.13 mbps and 160ms ping. It does lag when doing the upload portion of the test (i don't know if that's significant)

And everything else is left on default. If there is anyone else with the same problem let me know and I'd be glad to troubleshoot and if there is anyone that would like to help me with troubleshooting it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Motoxtremist · Mar 1, 2014

dbarajas1401 said:
I want to know if there is anyone else with the same problem as myself to try and troubleshoot, identify, and hopefully fix the following problem:

History:
I had an unlocked Nexus 4 on Straighttalk (on ATT's network by swapping out the sim from the nokia e5) from Feb. 2013- Dec. 2013 and had no problems with data or sync. In late December of 2013 I saw that Straighttalk was selling ATT micro sims again with 4G LTE compatibility so I decided to buy one (even though 4G LTE is not on the Nexus 4 without root) just in case I ever decided to upgrade phones. I activated the sim, updated the APN settings, and all data, mms, sms, and phone calls were working.

Problem:
Data was working (tested by using the browser and Facebook), but there were sync issues with all my google apps: gmail, keep, calendar, browser, etc. After a month of troublshooting, I've figured out that I get intermittent data signals, which is causing my google services to not sync properly. I have narrowed it down to a couple of things that are possibly causing the intermittent data:

1) The new APN from Straighttalk is not working properly for non-4G LTE phones
2) The new APN settings don't allow background data
3) The new sim card doesn't work properly with my phone

Solutions That I've Already Tried, and They Didn't Work:

- Tried every possible APN setting on the XDA Developers forums and the internet
- Tried using the "old" apn settings
- Tried using ATT's apn settings
- Factory reset
- Flashed .48 radio
- Tried to CM11 with the newest radios, older radios, and hybrid radios that enable 4G LTE
- Unroot, locked bootloader, and flashed factory image downloaded from the Google developer's website

A couple of other notes:

- I tried activating a Tmobile micro sim to test if it were my phone, but everything worked perfectly with Tmobile so I know it isn't the phone (I wish I had tried this before factory resetting, rooting, and going back). If I switched to the Tmobile sim, all my problems would be fixed, but my biggest problem is that the reception for phone calls was horrible so I want to stay on ATT's network

- When I turn airplane mode on and then off, all my data syncs properly. But who wants to manually sync every time they unlock their phone? At my job replying to emails in a timely manner is extremely important so my data not syncing properly is not ideal.

- Sometimes when I unlock my phone, the data tile in the swipe down menu is orange. Indicating a bad connection

- All my phone calls, sms, and mms work fine

- When I unlock my phone and open the web browser, it sometimes takes a while to start loading the web page. Similarly, when I manually load my email (in the gmail app by swiping down) it takes longer than normal.

- When I send an email, it takes a while to actually send

- With this new ATT micro sim, the network is no longer called "Home" (like it was with the other sim), it now has "AT&T". I'm guessing this has something to do with me not being able to switch back to the old APN settings.

My current APN Settings are:

Name: Straighttalk ATT
apn: tfdata
Port: 80
MMSC: (insert new straighttalk mmsc, I'm not allowed to post urls and this is a url I guess)
MMS proxy: 66.209.11.33
MMS Port: 80
APN Type: default,supl,mms,admin,internet,hipri

I'm running android 4.4.2 with the .98 radio, or in other words simply stock android.

Ookla Speedtest: 5.25/1.13 mbps and 160ms ping. It does lag when doing the upload portion of the test (i don't know if that's significant)

And everything else is left on default. If there is anyone else with the same problem let me know and I'd be glad to troubleshoot and if there is anyone that would like to help me with troubleshooting it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

I have the exact same issue as you, only on a Nexus 5. I had a 2 year old StraightTalk Sim in my Nexus 5 with no sync issues at all. I ordered a new Sim card from Straight talk to get LTE on AT&T. Since using popping in the new Sim Card I experience sync issues with Gmail when the phone screen goes into sleep mode. If the phone screen is on and I send myself an email from a secondary account, it appears immediatly on my phone. As soon as my screen goes to sleep, sync stops working.

On my old StraightTalk Sim, I used att.mvno for APN settings. On the new StraightTalk SIM I use tfdata for APN Setting. My new StraightTalk APN settings are similar to yours except for APN Type. I'm using default,mms,supl,agps,fota,dun,hipri,entitle as instructed on Android Central in these screenshots - forums.androidcentral.com/google-nexus-5/334715-straight-talk-lte-t-sim-nexus-5-sweet-2.html

Called straighttalk customer service and they told me if I swapped Sims I needed to delete the old StraightTalk APN and re-add it back. Didn't fix my problem.

Deleted member 1349438 · Mar 3, 2014

dbarajas1401 said:
I want to know if there is anyone else with the same problem as myself to try and troubleshoot, identify, and hopefully fix the following problem:

History:
I had an unlocked Nexus 4 on Straighttalk (on ATT's network by swapping out the sim from the nokia e5) from Feb. 2013- Dec. 2013 and had no problems with data or sync. In late December of 2013 I saw that Straighttalk was selling ATT micro sims again with 4G LTE compatibility so I decided to buy one (even though 4G LTE is not on the Nexus 4 without root) just in case I ever decided to upgrade phones. I activated the sim, updated the APN settings, and all data, mms, sms, and phone calls were working.

Problem:
Data was working (tested by using the browser and Facebook), but there were sync issues with all my google apps: gmail, keep, calendar, browser, etc. After a month of troublshooting, I've figured out that I get intermittent data signals, which is causing my google services to not sync properly. I have narrowed it down to a couple of things that are possibly causing the intermittent data:

1) The new APN from Straighttalk is not working properly for non-4G LTE phones
2) The new APN settings don't allow background data
3) The new sim card doesn't work properly with my phone

Solutions That I've Already Tried, and They Didn't Work:

- Tried every possible APN setting on the XDA Developers forums and the internet
- Tried using the "old" apn settings
- Tried using ATT's apn settings
- Factory reset
- Flashed .48 radio
- Tried to CM11 with the newest radios, older radios, and hybrid radios that enable 4G LTE
- Unroot, locked bootloader, and flashed factory image downloaded from the Google developer's website

A couple of other notes:

- I tried activating a Tmobile micro sim to test if it were my phone, but everything worked perfectly with Tmobile so I know it isn't the phone (I wish I had tried this before factory resetting, rooting, and going back). If I switched to the Tmobile sim, all my problems would be fixed, but my biggest problem is that the reception for phone calls was horrible so I want to stay on ATT's network

- When I turn airplane mode on and then off, all my data syncs properly. But who wants to manually sync every time they unlock their phone? At my job replying to emails in a timely manner is extremely important so my data not syncing properly is not ideal.

- Sometimes when I unlock my phone, the data tile in the swipe down menu is orange. Indicating a bad connection

- All my phone calls, sms, and mms work fine

- When I unlock my phone and open the web browser, it sometimes takes a while to start loading the web page. Similarly, when I manually load my email (in the gmail app by swiping down) it takes longer than normal.

- When I send an email, it takes a while to actually send

- With this new ATT micro sim, the network is no longer called "Home" (like it was with the other sim), it now has "AT&T". I'm guessing this has something to do with me not being able to switch back to the old APN settings.

My current APN Settings are:

Name: Straighttalk ATT
apn: tfdata
Port: 80
MMSC: (insert new straighttalk mmsc, I'm not allowed to post urls and this is a url I guess)
MMS proxy: 66.209.11.33
MMS Port: 80
APN Type: default,supl,mms,admin,internet,hipri

I'm running android 4.4.2 with the .98 radio, or in other words simply stock android.

Ookla Speedtest: 5.25/1.13 mbps and 160ms ping. It does lag when doing the upload portion of the test (i don't know if that's significant)

And everything else is left on default. If there is anyone else with the same problem let me know and I'd be glad to troubleshoot and if there is anyone that would like to help me with troubleshooting it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

I experience and observe the same situation. I too tried to go back to a ST ATT sim w/ an att.mvno APN. I had an old sim card I hadn't used that had instructions saying use att.mvno for data. I transferred my number to it online but the final instructions said to use tfdata. I guess all AT&T sims going forward now activate under tfdata for data.

When u tested the T-Mobile sim, was it a straight talk sim, a postpaid sim, or a T-Mobile mvno sim?

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

Motoxtremist · Mar 3, 2014

After days of research it seems it is Fast Dormancy that is the culprit. Some carriers support it and others do not. Some phones have it enabled by default and some do not. It looks like the Nexus 5 has it enabled by default without a way to disable it...unless you root. These posts outline the issue and seems to offer a solution if you're willing to root and change build.prop.

http://ianmarmour.com/2014/02/02/google-nexus-5-fixing-modemcellular-issues-on-34g-networks/
Post #27 here: http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php/1789708-Reception-quality-on-Nexus-4/page2

dbarajas1401 · Mar 3, 2014

cdigga101 said:
I experience and observe the same situation. I too tried to go back to a ST ATT sim w/ an att.mvno APN. I had an old sim card I hadn't used that had instructions saying use att.mvno for data. I transferred my number to it online but the final instructions said to use tfdata. I guess all AT&T sims going forward now activate under tfdata for data.

When u tested the T-Mobile sim, was it a straight talk sim, a postpaid sim, or a T-Mobile mvno sim?

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

A straight talk sim (using T-mobile's network) worked perfectly fine for me. In the end I switched away from ST and I got added to a friend's tmobile plan and saved a ton of money and I haven't had a problem with syncing since then. It is obvious an APN issue from Straighttalk, unfortunately.

Deleted member 1349438 · Mar 15, 2014

I kinda want to avoid T-Mobile coverage so I did some back to basics tinkering and got my phones notification delay down to 3 minutes. I deleted all the pre-set APNs and created a new one using STs websites recommendation. The only difference from the previous APNs was I left the APN type field blank. No default,supl,mms. Surprisingly data worked, as well as MMS. Then I installed push notification fixer and changed the poll time. I put mobile heartbeat to 2 mins, and WiFi heartbeat to 1 min. I restarted the phone and for the past couple of days my notifications have been coming in w/in 3 mins. It's not the most instantaneous but it works for me.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

Motoxtremist · Mar 22, 2014

cdigga101 said:
I experience and observe the same situation. I too tried to go back to a ST ATT sim w/ an att.mvno APN. I had an old sim card I hadn't used that had instructions saying use att.mvno for data. I transferred my number to it online but the final instructions said to use tfdata. I guess all AT&T sims going forward now activate under tfdata for data.

When u tested the T-Mobile sim, was it a straight talk sim, a postpaid sim, or a T-Mobile mvno sim?

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

I wanted to report back since I was experiencing this same issue on a Nexus 5 on Straight Talk AT&T compatible 4G SIM. I originally had a non-4G AT&T compaitible SIM from Straight Talk (for the past 2 years) using APN type: att.mvno in the APN settings (other settings were exactly what Straight Talk suggested on their website). This original sim was a full-sized sim used in a Galaxy S (original model) with no data issues whatsoever. I purchased a Nexus 5, cut this sim into a micro sim and expererienced NO data issues on the Nexus 5.

After my current minutes ran out on this sim, I ordered a new Straight Talk AT&T sim card because the new ones support 4G. When I popped the Straight Talk AT&T 4g Sim into my Nexus 5 I had to change the APN type from att.mvno to tfdata to get data to work. I INSTANTLY started having issues for the entire month of service noticing that my signal bars were orange 90% of the time I checked my signal. I tried numerous suggestions (factory reset, delete/readd APN, installed Push Notification Fix and Data Connection Fix apps and chose 3G instead of LTE in data settings - which seemed to work but only for a day before reverting back to data issues).

I'm now at the end of the month on my 4G ATT Straight Talk sim and with 1 week to go I decided to add 1 month of service to my original Straight Talk ATT sim (which is 2 years old and using att.mvno for APN type). As soon as I popped the old non-4G ATT Straight Talk sim card into my Nexus all data issues were resolved. I removed all the "data fix" apps and changed my APN type to att.mvno. I've been using the non 4G ATT Straightalk Sim card for 3 days in my Nexus 5 with no issues at all. Signal bars are always white and my google services sync instantly when a new email, Google Voice text, calendar event come in. Of course, I do not have 4G but at least I have pretty fast hspa speeds - which are faster and more prevalent in my area than T-mobile.

I can only speculate but there was a short span of time that ATT stopped allowing STraight talk to seel their sims. When they started allowing stratight talk to sell their sims again this is when STratight talk started switching everyone to tfdata for apn type. I suspect that ATT has increased the TCP idle time for MVNO's so they dont hammer the ATT network and affect direct ATT customers - but like I said that's just this guys opinion. I hope straight talk fixes this issue for those folks using ATT 4G sims but in the meantime, if you have an older sim, smoke em while you got em.

JediDru · Mar 23, 2014

Op said he tried all apns on xda. I suggest this, keep the tfdata apn the same as straight talk recommends, but make the apn tfdata 1. All else the same. The only time I get delayed notifications is on Miui on wifi. Hope it helps.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

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