[Guide] [Discussion] (Possible) battery savings by disabling unused network bands.

MasterFURQAN

Senior Member
Dec 12, 2013
802
178
73
25
Srinagar
WARNING: I DON'T TAKE ANY RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY DAMAGES THAT MAY OCCUR TO YOUR PHONE/ SIMS/SD CARDS OR ANY OTHER ACCESSORIES OR DEVICES. DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK.


As the title suggests this is a guide to disable certain network bands (GSM/WCDMA/CDMA/LTE) that are not supported by your carrier. Theoretically it should help save battery as the phone won't search for those bands anymore. I'm currently testing this myself and will provide feedback too. The more users try this the better as more feedback will provide better insight to how much battery saving we can get by doing this (if any).

Pre-requisites:
1. The phone needs to be rooted.
2. A free app called Network signal Guru from play store. Link below :

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.qtrun.QuickTest

3. The bands that your carrier supports. Use Google/ wiki to search for your carrier and all the bands it supports.

Here it goes :
1. Install network signal guru and give it SU permissions.
2. The app will check for compatibility and download some "online configurations".
3. After the app opens click on the menu and select lock bands.
4. Click on the corresponding network and and UNTICK the bands that you found are NOT supported by your carrier. You might get a message saying that this might force the phone into a power cycle. Ignore it or just stop if you're "not interested now". ?
5. Do this for all the network types.
6. The phone might reconnect to the carrier (you'll notice by network icon in the status bar )
7. Exit the app if you want as these settings still stick if the app is not running.
That's it. You've successfully disabled the bands that you found are not supported by your carrier.

Currently I've tested it on MIUI 9.4.18 and should work on any ROM/ kernel as long as you do it right.

Notes:
1. The settings are removed after a reboot.
2. You might have extra options in the bands if you're using two carriers i.e dual SIM . The secondary carrier is marked by "extended" and the primary by "primary". Select the bands accordingly.
3. The LTE bands look to be "shared" by both the SIMs. So just select the bands of both the carriers if you're using LTE on both.
4. Try to give as much feedback as possible.
 

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Last edited:

Darklouis

Senior Member
Jun 17, 2017
381
122
0
Davao City
Kinda risky cause we have different network band usage and maybe "I'm in Philippines" I might screw something up but hey, I can restore it back. Worth a try I guess, thanks for the info.
 

MasterFURQAN

Senior Member
Dec 12, 2013
802
178
73
25
Srinagar
Kinda risky cause we have different network band usage and maybe "I'm in Philippines" I might screw something up but hey, I can restore it back. Worth a try I guess, thanks for the info.
It isn't risky at all. I've been doing this on many phones since a long time and never had any problem (unless you're really really unlucky ?.
If you're worried about "power cycle", it just means that the phone will restart and nothing else.

Edited.
 
Last edited:

Darklouis

Senior Member
Jun 17, 2017
381
122
0
Davao City
It isn't risky at all. I've been doing this on many phones since a long time and never had any problem (unless you're really really unlucky ?.
If you're worried about "power cycle", it just means that the phone will restart and nothing else.

Edited.
Could you post a maybe timelime of your battery usage? Are you still using it on stock ROM?
 

bravo2526

Senior Member
Feb 27, 2015
204
30
28
Faisaabad
while we are on this topic can any body tell me is there any way of prefring 5ghz wifi over 2.4 ghz wifi... no i cant do it on router side it broadcast both with same ssid.
 

MasterFURQAN

Senior Member
Dec 12, 2013
802
178
73
25
Srinagar
while we are on this topic can any body tell me is there any way of prefring 5ghz wifi over 2.4 ghz wifi... no i cant do it on router side it broadcast both with same ssid.
The phone by default connects to the WiFi with better signal which more often will be the 2.4g. I see that you can't disable 2.4g on the router. I remember an app called smart WiFi selector and another app called WiFi 5 that can help you. Google them.
 
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