Every major service provider has adopted 5G technology, and 5G connectivity issues aren’t as common as they were in the early days. However, that makes it difficult to troubleshoot why the 5G service on your Android phone, Android 5G tablet, or iPhone suddenly stopped working. Whether your 5G speeds slowed to a crawl or you can’t pick up a 5G signal, here are the reasons your 5G access isn’t what you expect it to be. While it can be a hardware or software problem, it’s probably a mobile carrier or 5G coverage issue.
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8 The phone is stuck on 4G LTE after a software update
It isn’t always an issue with your phone
Sometimes, your 5G may not connect after updating your phone. It’s easy to assume there’s a problem with your phone. While that’s a good place to start troubleshooting, if you aren’t sure your phone was connected to a 5G network before starting the update, there might be a network connection problem.
Most of the time, turning Airplane Mode on and off or rebooting the phone solves the problem. If you still have network issues and had 5G before the update, reset the network settings. On Android, this can be located in different places depending on your OS version and manufacturer.
Here’s the easiest way to get it:
- Open the Settings app.
- Search for reset network.
- Choose Reset network settings.
- Select Reset settings.
If you’re on Apple iOS, you can search for the same thing or use the menus. Here’s how to use the menus:
- Go to Settings > General.
- Tap Transfer or Reset iPhone.
- Tap Reset.
- Tap Reset network settings.
When you reset the network settings, you clear your saved Wi-Fi logins, VPN connections, and other connectivity-related things. So, back up your phone, and in most cases, this shouldn’t be necessary, so look at other things first.
7 Low power mode restricting your cellular data
Low Power Mode (or Battery Saver) switches 5G to LTE to conserve battery life
Make sure you aren’t in low power mode or battery saver mode, as both turn off your 5G to save power until your next charge. Your battery doesn’t have to be low to enter one of these modes, but it usually turns on when your battery is low. You may have turned it on and off manually or accidentally switched it on without realizing it, so it’s worth checking.
There’s a quick toggle in the iOS Control Center when you pull down from the upper-right corner of the screen and a toggle in the Android Quick Settings panel when you swipe down from the top of the screen.
6 Hardware compatibility for older phones
If you’ve never connected to 5G before, make sure your phone can
Plenty of older generation phones don’t have the hardware to connect to a 5G mobile network. If you updated your data plan or switched carriers and expect 5G but can’t connect, check the phone specs to make sure you have a 5G phone.
5 5G compatible SIM cards and dual SIM slots
Not all SIM cards support 5G
If you upgraded your phone and use the SIM card from your old phone, it might not be 5G compatible. Check the label to see if your SIM card works with a 5G network.
Another thing to consider is if you have a dual SIM card mobile phone like the Samsung Galaxy S22. You might have one SIM card set to 5G auto and one set to 4G. The device can change the default SIM to the other card after a software update.
4 Network congestion
Sometimes, there are too many people using the network
All mobile carriers, even big ones like T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon, can get overwhelmed. If you’ve read about bandwidth before, cellular networks have a limited capability for how much mobile data they can handle.
Sometimes, you may see latency issues or a drop in high-speed connections. If you’re connected to 5G, and it’s extremely slow, this might be the problem. You can run a speed test to see how the network mode is performing and compare it to 4G mode. Sometimes, 4G is faster because 5G has been heavily adopted, especially in cities with a lot of users.
3 Coverage area issues
You might just be out of range
Coverage issues can happen in rural areas. It’s possible to have 5G working, walk 10 feet in any direction, and then be unable to connect. You know how people hold up their phones and walk around looking for a signal in movies? That’s still a thing in many areas of the world.
Most carriers have a coverage map showing where you’ll get voice and data signals. They aren’t always reliable, so check out tools like Ookla’s 5G Map to see where coverage works.
Sometimes, there’s a problem with the tower
Local towers can experience issues due to weather conditions like extreme snow storms or from routine maintenance or hardware malfunctions. If you and everyone you’re with have trouble with 5G, it might be the tower. In this case, the outage will be temporary.
Cellular towers typically have different antennas for 4G and 5G networks, with 5G using higher frequency bands (mmWave) than older 4G technology. Towers have multiple antenna arrays to handle different bands and network types, so it’s possible to have a problem at the tower for 5G but still have a signal on 4G.
If you can, check with your carrier and ask about the outage, or do a search to see if there are known outages in your area.
1 Wi-Fi interferes with your 5G signal
An older problem that can still happen on some phones
When you turn on Wi-Fi and connect to a Wi-Fi network that has issues, sometimes your phone doesn’t automatically switch to 5G. Instead, it tries to prefer the Wi-Fi network over mobile data usage.
This is a problem when connecting to a guest Wi-Fi, like in a grocery store or shopping center. Sometimes, those networks require you to open a web browser and accept their terms or login before using their Wi-Fi, but you’ll still be connected to it even if you can’t use it.
It can also be a problem when connected to a weak Wi-Fi signal. Turn off your Wi-Fi and see if your 5G connectivity improves.
It usually isn’t your phone that’s the problem
It’s almost always a network problem when you can’t get your 5G working, use these tips to figure out how to get connected and save yourself from frustration. If your phone has a problem, a network reset or reboot usually does the trick.
In most circumstances, you should not have to factory reset your phone unless you’re an advanced user who is changing and testing things the average user doesn’t know about. You might do this as a last-ditch effort, but we recommend exhausting the other possibilities first.
