Lumia 920 (Black) Tethering Issue, NOT THE NORMAL ISSUE!!!

[JeepGuy25]

Hey everyone... I just spent a good bit of time surfing/searching the forums for a problem similar to mine, but found none. ATT tech help hasnt been much help as of yet, but Im going to try to call one more time today.

My phone is a Lumia 920 with the latest updates. I have NOT installed the APN settings app or anything like that. I have a 10GB shared data plan with my wife.

Here is the issue...if I have recently power cycled my phone, I can go to internet sharing, turn it on, connect whatever I want to my phone, and it works perfect. I can then finish, turn off internet sharing (or let it time out), and later turn it back on again...MAYBE.

Sometimes it will let me connect 2 or 3 more times, then I get the standard error message "Connection Not Shared. To enable tethering on this device, go to att.com/mywireless or dial 611.". If I power cycle the phone though, I am able to tether again just fine for a few sessions.

Anyone else having this intermittent issue? I dont want to have to keep power cycling my phone. Thats a PITA and in my opinion unnecessary. Im tethering to a Nexus 7 when I do it...and between this issue and NFC being lame, Im about to switch to a Galaxy phone haha. And I LOVE my WP8, so that hurts for me to say!

Any ideas?

Justin

 

[realwarder]

Just tried it 5 times and worked fine here each share, but there were only minutes between tries.

Could be the time delay between activating or your connecting device causing issues, but generally seems to work for me.

 

[JeepGuy25]

I had it to the point where it wouldnt connect just a bit ago...in preparation to call ATT again. But after reading your message I just decided to try it, and it initiated no problem. Im wondering what is triggering it to not even activate.

But Im guessing whatever it is isnt a simple fix. Because if it was on ATT's end, I feel like it would never turn on in the first place. IF its my phone, then its probably something that isnt user fixable. I might try setting my phone to 3G only using that ##3282 and then give it a day to see if it acts up. Maybe its an LTE issue? I dont love that idea, but Im willing to give it a day.

I really dont want to factory reset my phone. I have too many good apps and settings situated haha. Hate the idea of having to redo it all. But I guess if it was a guaranteed fix, I could do it.

J.

 

[arandazz]

I have the same issue. Internet sharing always works just after a power cycle. Other times it works intermittently; sometimes gives me the. 611 message. Turning the phone off and back on will allow it to work. The issue is completely random. Initially thought it would occur after the phone was powered on for several hours, however in some instances I found sharing working without issue after the phone was on for several days.

Wondering if there is a solution.

 

[JeepGuy25]

Glad I'm not alone... Its really annoying. I'm working on installing a nexus 7 as a car PC and this is literally keeping the project from being pretty seamless. Sometimes ill randomly check tethering throughout the day and it'll work fine. But as soon as I try to enable it for the drive home, it won't work.

Like I said up top, that plus NFC limitations is really a downer for this project haha.

J.

 

[JeepGuy25]

Well...i think I figured out a work around. I went into the hidden settings and set the phone to 3G only. I also toggled ENS off. Did a reboot, and the phone constantly shows 4G now. Not sure why if I set it at 3G. Anyway, the speeds on speed test.net are WAY down, as expected. BUT...i have not had an instance where the phone won't turn on internet sharing.

The reduced speed doesn't seem to effect my music streaming. Things still play smooth and quick.

I am however paying for LTE service haha. So, I'm not a huge fan of this "fix". But at least I'm not power cycling.

Anyone else want to try it? Seems like this could be fixed with a Nokia update????

 

[JeepGuy25]

Well... Not sure how much interest there is here for this. Going on day two of no power cycling and internet sharing is still activating without issue. Shame that it doesn't work like that with lte turned on.

Come on Nokia/Microsoft/ATT!!! Figure this out!!!

 

[JeepGuy25]

Im just going to keep updating...since Im still doing some testing.

I went into my settings, and changed the network type from 3G only (still not sure why it shows 4G when this is selected) back to "automatic". SO right now, my phone is showing LTE.

I left "Toggle ENS" OFF... Im wondering if this is what is causing the issue. I went a few days without having to power cycle, but the lower speeds are annoying me. Streaming music works ok, but my phone's browser was suffering. And, Im paying for the LTE service, so I want to use it. I set it back to auto, and left ENS off...I will test for a couple of days and report back.

From my google search, it seems like ENS will switch to a lesser network (4G/3G) if the signal is better than the current. Even if its further away. Leaving it off, seems like it would keep it from leaving LTE to go to 3G if LTE signal was weak. Im not sure if this will negatively effect battery, or performance, but I will keep an eye on it. I still dont fully understand the setting.

Justin

**UPDATE** Well that didnt take long. I got the error message just a few minutes ago. Here is the funny thing. I was downstairs in my office building, and I noticed that my signal was 4G. So I turned on tethering, and it worked great. I walked upstairs, where I normally get LTE. I saw the status switch to LTE, and I tried to enable internet sharing. BINGO...error message. WTH. SO its only when the phone is on LTE that its doing it...regardless of the settings.

Ive now switched to "4G Only" in the settings, with ENS still off. I noticed when putting it on 4G only, you can choose between the LTE bands. That might be my next experiment if I get the error message again.

 

[JeepGuy25]

WTH... If I set the network to 4G only, I lose the ability to make phone calls. Why should this setting effect phone calls?? It flat out won't do voice calls. Switching to 3G or "automatic" fixes the call issues.

So as of right now, I see no way to have consistent internet sharing using LTE.

What a royal pain. Guess I'm either getting 1/3 the speed I'm paying for, or power cycling my device constantly.

J.

 

[walkabt]

How are you changing to 3g now on AT&T? They disabled the ##3282# or whatever it was almost a year ago on me. I have what appears to be a similar issue. They replaced my SIM card saying it was a SIM error and it worked for a week. My issue started up again when I auto tethered from surface 2 using Bluetooth command - turns on tethering on 920 without me having to manually set it. After SIM was replaced it has worked when I manually enable sharing, but still has issue with auto enabled tethering.

Once again, after SIM card was replaced no tether issue when I manually go to settings, internet sharing, on.

 

[JeepGuy25]

I'm using ##3282 and it works for me. I'm going to try calling tech tonight from my wife's phone. Since the last time didn't work out so well.

So you were having the same issue, then the new sim fixed it. Then when auto enabling via Bluetooth (which is awesome btw...didnt even know that was a thing) it stopped working for you? But you can still go in manually and enable it without a power cycle?

I'm looking into this auto enable via Bluetooth thing...can this work from an android tablet or is this only when pairing with a Microsoft device I wonder?

J.

 

[JeepGuy25]

Ok..just had a long convo with ATT. She had me do a reset, tried some other stuff, and its still not working properly.

So at this point, they want me to do a hard reset on the device. Ive never done that on this phone, and I have had it for over a year. So thats a years worth of pictures, videos, apps, and settings that Im going to have to figure out how to back up and then get back into shape when Im done.

Im sort of thinking Im just going to avoid that, until I can upgrade the phone to something else. I might go to an ATT store just to talk to them. Maybe try to get them to do a new SIM or something. Just irritated at the whole situation.

J.