How do I fix a problem with my phone(s) not switching cell towers? - Sprint

cerebralcow

Member
Jul 28, 2012
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I initially had this problem with my Galaxy S9 but I recently switched to the Pixel 4 XL and I am still having the problem. My phone will not update cell towers and gets stuck on 3G all the time. about 6-9 months ago I took my phone to a Sprint store after it started happening on my Galaxy S9 and the rep told me to manually dial ##873283# and it would force my phone to update the cell tower. I did this for months since I rarely used the internet outside of when I was connected to WIFI. But now this code doesn't work with the Pixel for some reason. When I switched phones I decided not to do a data transfer from my galaxy just in case it was caused by software. I did, however, redownload all my apps and data from my Google account. So maybe an app is causing it. Does anyone know how to permanently fix this or what is causing it? Is there an app I can download to print out a list of my installed apps or something like that?
 
##873283# updates the PRL (the preferred roaming list - you should connect to Sprint sites automatically). Go to a Sprint company owned store and speak to them. If you don't get anywhere (like being told to update the PRL again), ask to speak to the manager. (I suspect that they have a bad tower, or a dead spot where you're not "switching". (We have one around here - an entire house. The signal is great on the front steps, on the rear deck, in both side yards, but absolutely nothing inside. And it's not aluminum siding - AT&T, TMobile and Verizon all have great signals inside. Sprint has engineers who don't understand what "knife-edge effect" means.)
 
Find out which carrier has service where you need service, and switch to them (which is the first thing you should do when starting to look for a cellphone - find the proper carrier first).