yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Verizon Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] bladerealm124:
Thanks for the response. Sadly Verizon is excellent in comparison to all other carriers in my area, especially in terms of 4g coverage by a large margin. I just happen to live in somewhat of a valley where service is poor. I can literally walk up the street 10 minutes and have 4 bars of 4g. Even outside of my house I usually have 2 bars of 3g. With my note 2 and thunderbolt I always had at least 1/2 bars of 1x or 3g indoors and rarely lost service. With my note 3 in the same indoor areas I almost never have service and typically have to go next to a window to get a signal.

My signal is indeed weak in general. However, it is significantly worse than my previous note 2 and thunderbolt in the same areas. It seems to have a ton of trouble holding on to a signal, especially when I'm on wifi or not on a call. When I do have service I can usually make a decent quality phone call. The strange part is once I'm on the phone the call is rarely dropped. It's as if the phone is dedicating more power to the radio in these instances, similar with when wifi is on. As soon as I hang up my I seem to completely lose service again. If I attempt to make another call I get "mobile network not available" until I get a bar back. But once I'm on a call again it seems to lock on MUCH more effectively, and I can remain on the phone for over an hour without issues, leading me to believe software could be playing a large part in the inconsistencies.
[Verizon Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] TechSavvy2:
Its either a dud device, or placebo. I've had all the Verizon phones (I switch every 2 months) including Note 2 and Thunderbolt, and my Note 3 destroys them with signal reception. In the same location as the other two, got 1 bar with TBolt, 2 bars Note 2, and 3 bars Note 3. Gets progressively better with newer phones for the most part (or they have been upgrading towers near my location, but not likely as my wife has had same signal the whole time). It does make me wonder about placebo when you say you only get decent reception near a window (unless you live in a steel/concrete house). Is it better when you stand on your car and hold your phone up in the air too?
[Verizon Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] bladerealm124:
Lol definitely not placebo. In fact, it's typically the only way I can make phonecalls. It doesn't take concrete to cause signal loss. Just as an example I'm currently about 7 feet away from one window and 12 feet from another. I have NO signal (no bars, warning symbol). Just took a screenshot, now I'll walk to the window and set my phone on the windowsill. Just took a second screenshot. See below:

Windowsill:

Just lost my signal again after moving back away from the window. As I stated earlier it seems to be a software problem since once I'm locked into a phone call I can have service for over an hour but as soon as I end the call I will lose it again. Also, you are one of the first people I have read to have better service with this phone than other devices(especially the note 2). Like myself, I have heard tons of complaints about the service with this device. But as you can see in my case it is a bit strange. I'm hoping someone has some information as to why this could be. Obviously not a placebo when I currently can't make a phonecall (denied due to no service). However, once I get a random bar and get the call connected I can stay on the phone for long periods of time without any dropped calls. Only to lose service again the second I'm off the phone.
[Verizon Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] icemike557:
I've had the same issues with the n3. My thunderbolt use to keep 2-3 bars of 4G around the house and at work. With the N3 I am lucky to stay at 1-2 and most of the time it is downshifting to 3g. On 3g the speed is good but when it jumps back up to 4G with 1 bar the phone becomes useless.
[Verizon Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] TechSavvy2:
You can read 10 or even 100 people on the internet that have the problem..... That still means you're seeing 9,999,900 people NOT reporting a problem. What you google search, you WILL find. I can search for people who have BETTER signal, and WILL find many many people in the same circumstance as I. There is something wrong with your phone. Re-flash odin image. If that does not fix, then exchange it as a defective device. WIFI or phone call status should NOT affect your signal.
[Verizon Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] -BoneZ-:
I must have a dud Note 3 also then because I have worse reception on my Note 3 than my Note 2 that's sitting right next to me. And sometimes the signal strength on my Note 3 starts going down over time to where I have to turn airplane mode on and then back off to get good bars and signal back.
[Verizon Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] KruseLudsMobile:
Is because you squeeze it too hard when you are holding it.

Sent from my Galaxy Note III; Previous owner/hacker of Galaxy S III, Galaxy Nexus, Droid X, HTC HD2, HTC Touch Pro 2, HTC Tilt, HTC 8525, O2 XDA II, O2 XDA.
[Verizon Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] armeN0317:
I really don't think you have a dud. I actually believe its the latest MJE update. My reception was noticeably better before that update and I believe that update had updates to the radio as well. Since then it has gone down. I've been keeping my fingers crossed hoping the upcoming kitkat update will resolve this but alas verizon is taking it's time with the update.
[Verizon Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] czach5932:
Both me and my friend have the note 3 and we both have noticed the same thing. We both drive trucks and the same area where we had service with a rezound and DROID we don't have service with the n3. I read somewhere the note 3 uses an "envelope" or something like that for power management for cell reception. Instead of stepping up or down power for the antenna is supposed to keep power as low as possible to conserve battery life. I've also heard someone else say that the previous radios were also better. Would love to find a solution, on a bad day I can drop 30-40 calls where it was only 5 or so with the rezound.
[Verizon Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Sporttster:
My Note 3's reception is equally as bad. It's terrible compared to my old Droid Razr Maxx and that's ridiculous. I'm really considering going to some other phone as this one has multiple problems including volume that goes up and down playing music, mute that doesn't stay muted, that stupid 'processing' nonsense with the camera when using stability, nanny nonsense with 'loud music can damage ears, turning down' and auto dimming the screen when no available setting can stop it, only a app can and worse yet, three times so far the friggin clock can't keep time and freezes!! Not happy with this phone at all!
[Verizon Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] czach5932:
I wont have time to try anything for a while but I was looking at some things on the phone and wondering if anyone knows what these values are or if anyone has tried to change them. Tired to do some research but I don't have much time during the week to do anything phone related.

android.telephony.apn-restore

persist.radio.add_power_save

persist.radio.jbims

Really hoping something can be figured out, me and a fellow truck driver talked yesterday and today and I had to have dropped the call 40+ times each day.
[Verizon Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] armeN0317:
Just an update on my end. I called verizon several times regarding the reception issues I've been having. They sent me a new SIM which was no help. They sent a tech out who concluded the angle of the tower to my house causes a dead spot. Long story short I got them to send me a range extender at no cost. Works good in my home office but my Note 3 still has sub par reception everywhere else compared to my droid maxx and wife's S4. I still believe this latest update caused the radio to perform so poor.
[Verizon Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] bladerealm124:
Interesting information from everyone. Thanks for the input. The power management for cell reception sounds like the biggest potential culprit as my signal changes significantly when switching wifi off(usually gaining a signal or a stronger signal instantly). It is also strange that I will typically not have service 90% of the time and cannot make a call from my house. But if I acquire service for a few seconds(long enough to make the call) I can easily stay on the phone for over an hour in the same location where I do not have service. It's as if it "locks on" as a result of boosting my signal(reception power). I plan on rooting soon if this problem is not solved to see if any custom ROM's help with the issue, especially if the Kitkat update does not fix it.
[Verizon Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] czach5932:
The problem is the locked bootloader. Without a custom kernel none of the drivers or anything like that can be changed to improve anything major. Also I did try and disabled the radio power save and noticed an improvement (not much but it's a start) I think I'll try and flash the previous radios and see if that helps. Won't be able to test it until Monday. I get good service at my house but not much once I get away from a larger city
[Verizon Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] bladerealm124:
True, forgot about that. I'm looking forward to your results. How did you disable the radio power save? Are you rooted?
[Verizon Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] czach5932:
I use rom toolbox pro but any build prop editor works. It's about 2/3 the way down. And I didn't have a chance to do any exact comparisons but even my friend said it seemed like I dropped calls less often
[Verizon Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] carycooke:
Worst phone ever

Horrible Reception

Locked bootloader

Last Samsung device

Htc One M8 here I come

Htcs RF is top notch
[Verizon Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] bladerealm124:
Thanks for the info I'll have to try this

Well I definitely don't agree with that but HTC does seem to have better radios. Other than the reception issues I've had this is by far the best device I've ever used
[Verizon Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] bladerealm124:
Any updates on the effectiveness of this? If you are definitely noticing a difference could you go over the exact changes you made with Rom toolbox pro? Thanks
[Verizon Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jamor414:
The reception on my HTC Incredible was nothing short of a nightmare.
[Verizon Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] carycooke:
My thunderbolt radio awesome

Rezound radio awesome

Even my eris had a good radio

I just recieved 3 voicemails on my samsung n3 and my phone never rang and I had full bars

Tethering is bad cuts in and out

Go figure
[Verizon Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jamor414:
Fair enough. To each their own. But if you google "htc incredible reception" you will see the nightmares that i speak of.
[Verizon Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] BigMcGuire:
I downloaded Build Prop Editor (by JRUMMY APPS INC) for free. About 30% down I see: persist.radio.add_power_save = 1.

I assume that's it. Not 100% sure. Setting that to 0 must turn off the power save?

Edit: Going to test with it set to 0 for awhile. Will report back.

Well... after setting that to 0 a reboot was required. First thing I notice is: Google Play market loads 3x faster than usual. Usually my phone struggles to keep up with loading icons while scrolling on WiFi. Seeing the same effect in the Google+ app as well. Data loads considerably faster on WiFi.

Does this setting affect the WiFi radio too?

Edit2: I'm crapping my pants cuz I'm so happy. I'm actually getting WiFi throughput! The real test will be my home's wifi router. I get absolutely no data throughput on that router. Will update with Edit 3 when I go home after work today. Also hoping this doesn't kill battery.... :P

Interesting Read: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2592289
[Verizon Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] bladerealm124:
Thanks for the info, I was considering making that exact change but wanted to see if someone else had tried it first. Please keep us updated on how it's working, I will likely try it tonight. Thanks
[Verizon Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] MeridianSun:
I did it last week and it has improved my signal but not drastically...

Sent from my Note 3
[Verizon Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] saddog5523:
I tried what the above poster did a few weeks back. My father, sister and I are all having horrible reception problems with our GN3 phones. I changed the value from 1 to 0, and immediately got 2 bars of 4G within my office building where I usually got absolutely nothing. It has fixed a lot of my issues so far. Have yet to change it on my father's or sister's, but will in the next day or so.

Also, if anyone wants to play around with this menu a bit. ##3282# (##DATA#) in the dialer brings you to a bunch of settings about your phone. A few interesting things under the Edit menu, you can change your vocoder and switch between different modes (Korea Mode, Sprint Mode, India Mode, and Mode Off). I'm afraid to change much of anything, so if someone wants to play around with that menu and report back, that would be great!
[Verizon Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] carycooke:
This has improved my signal drastically and also my wifes on her gs3

Im really impressed no dropped for 2 days when talking to her and us both in the boon docks when we usually drop atleast 4 or 5 calls over a hours period but none the last few days
[Verizon Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] BigMcGuire:
OK got home - yeah WiFi performance is very acceptable - I can tell though that it's not as good as work, but it's a ton better than it was when I didn't set this. Battery life doesn't seem to be affected noticeably (though it's hardly a scientific test). WiFi lag is almost non-existent.

Biggest difference tester? Roku App on wifi (using as remote control). Before? It would lag, pause for minutes before sending commands, and be generally unusable. Now? It's instant responses all the time - even when doing search.

Imo, this is pretty significant. I'm pretty happy. :)

Edit: This is on my home router that would constantly just lose internet connection - wouldn't load icons on the google play market, etc... It's not 100% perfect - sometimes even after this setting - going to the Roku App I'll get lag for a few seconds but then it'll start working normally. Definitely a huge improvement from the old way.
[Verizon Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] carycooke:
I did the build.prop tweaks also that was listed and even tethering is better for me. Might be a placebo but it seems faster
[Verizon Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] bladerealm124:
Thanks for the feedback. I did the build prop tweak as well to power saving and seem to have a slightly better signal lock. May just be a placebo but I was able to make a couple phone calls earlier in the same spot that I typically get a "service unavailable" error. Have you guys edited anything else besides the power saving?
[Verizon Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] BigMcGuire:
So far I've just done the power saving radio thing. I'm too lazy atm to google all the other changes and figure out what exactly they do. But it's on my to do list - I want to know what they do before I attempt them.

---------- Post added at 05:45 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:43 AM ----------

I am chromecasting to my TV with my Note 3 - something I couldn't do before on my home wifi - it would just lock up and I'd have to use my Nexus 7. I'm happy :) That proves to me this isn't a placebo effect :)
[Verizon Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] carycooke:
I did all the buildprop tweaks from here like what was posted earlier plus the radio power save off tweak

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2592289

I just pasted all the tweaks to the end of the buildprop with a text editor in root explorer
[Verizon Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] BigMcGuire:
So, WiFi problems aren't 100% perfect but definitely a lot better since doing this. It's easy to overload the WiFi while doing things. For example, while listening to music:

Here is my WiFi speed test: While Playing Music via Bluetooth

When not playing music (bluetooth off): Bluetooth Off

When not playing music (bluetooth on): Bluetooth On but No Music

Notice ping time differences. Seems the 2.4Ghz Radio gets overwhelmed streaming music and attempting to do WiFi at the same time?

But yeah, WiFi is definitely better with this radio power savings setting to 0. With it to 1, it's a lot worse than the streaming music pic - I'll sometimes have 15 seconds of no throughput (while not playing music) - I can't chromecast anything, usually can't load webpages fully, and streaming music is impossible.
[Verizon Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] czach5932:
A lot of those tweaks (especially network) seem like they might be from v6 supercharger. I don't think most of those will help reception but make what reception you have run faster. If anyone is interested about v6 supercharger I did some antutu benchmarks before and after. Pretty interesting I can underclock the phone and get about the same results. http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2681074

I'm glad the power save feature has helped people out but has anyone figured out what any of the other build prop settings do? I haven't had time to do any research but i'm hoping this weekend to track something down. Also I tried to odin the older radios over but for some reason it gets stuck before anything is flashed and also haven't had time to figure out why odin isn't working but that will be number two after I try to track down the build prop settings.
[Verizon Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jamor414:
The only thing i did was change data power save from 1 to 0.

What were the other commands/fixes?
[Verizon Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] czach5932:
android.telephony.apn-restore 1800000

persist.data.netmgrd.qos.enable true

persist.radio.add_power_save 1 to 0

persist.radio.apm_sim_not_pwdn 1

persist.radio.apn_delay 5000

persist.radio.jbims 1

persist.radio.no_wait_for_card 1

persist.radio.snapshot_enabled 1

persist.radio.snapshot_timer 22

persist.radio.use_se_table_only 1

ro.config.combined_signal true

ro.config.multimode_cdma 1

ro.telephony.default_network 5

ro.use_data_netmgrd true

telephony.lteoncdmadevice 1

vzw.telephony.appsapn-restore 60000

Those were all the possible radio build prop values I could find. I wasn't able to try and change anything else but like always I try to when I have free time. I also want to try and look into the ##data# menu and see whats there and if anything could help.
[Verizon Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] nelms:
noticed a pretty big difference in battery drain after switching to 0 , but on the plus side i did see better speed.
[Verizon Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] BigMcGuire:
Really? I estimated around a 10-20% loss - I chalked it up to using the phone more because WiFi actually worked. :P It seemed to me that the less time the radio spent trying to pull data via a radio, the more time that radio could sleep - so at first, I thought I saw an increase in battery life (downloading something quick, bam radio goes to sleep). But I haven't done some heavy tests like streaming music for 4+ hours, etc..

But I realize that's a bias enforcing what I want to think is happening on the phone. Most likely there is a battery drain.
[Verizon Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] czach5932:
Kinda strange. I'm a light user over the weekend and I talked for about 8 hours today and I went almost 4 days without charging my phone (and it was even at 18% when I plugged it in) I assume you didn't change anything else (any other build prop changes) I know some of the build prop changes can have a negative effect. I didn't really look though the changes posted here I just know in general changing certain values can have both and positive and negative effect. Oh well I would suggest to switch it back to 1 and see if you still have the same power drain. Also I just flashed the mj7 modem and going to test drive it tomorrow while talking to my friend all day and see if it helps. I read through the entire modem/stock tar post under android development and I noticed more then a couple people said that the previous modems worked better. Might depend on where you live and how close and how many towers are near by. The problem is that no one every really said what they were on before updating to mje so not sure if mj7 or mi9. I'll report back tomorrow and let everyone know if mj7 was better or worse and then try mi9. I'm pretty sure someone said they were on mi9 before updating to mje so that might be the better modem but gotta start somewhere.

Update: Been running the mj7 modem for about half a day and it seems to be about the same as mje. Not very pleased so I'll update if it happens to get better, if not I'll flash the mi9 tonight and see how it runs tomorrow
[Verizon Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] bladerealm124:
Looking forward to your update. Thanks
[Verizon Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] nelms:
Don't worry I wasn't necessarily complaining haha. I am noticing better signal. I'm running beans 6 and on mje baseband. Also looking forward to what you find out.
[Verizon Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] czach5932:
Ok good, I didn't know if you were talking about a huge impact that would make a difference with the daily use of the phone. I don't know what that build prop value actually changes or what conditions have to be met for it to take effect but its good that its helping people. Update on the mj7 radio flash. Like I said for the first half of the day it was probably about the same. It seemed like some places it would hold service for maybe a couple seconds longer before disconnecting but it was probably placebo. I just flashed the mi9 modem and hopes are good. Called my wife to make sure it was working and checked the baseband and it shows mi9 so I know everything updated correctly. Will update sometime tomorrow and let everyone know what the results are.

Update: I would have to say better but for being top of the line flagship phone it's still subpar. Dropping calls less often with mi9 but still not as good as my old rezound

Update 2: spoke to soon. I've dropped 16 calls in two hours this morning. I'm going to go into Verizon and try another sim card. If that doesn't help I'm going to ask for a replacement.
[Verizon Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] bladerealm124:
Please update with your results from Verizon with the sim and replacement. Thanks for all the help
[Verizon Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] bladerealm124:
This is a quote from a Verizon thread which is similar to what a member here stated previously:

They know the problem is the new antenna power management on the Note 3.

If you want to confirm this is the problem, make a call from an area of the office where you have a signal then move to the area where you get no signal, if yours is like mine it will keep the call. This is the power management sending more power to antenna to maintain a call. If the call has not been established, there is a paucity of current sent to the antenna and you see the "No Mobile Network" error

This is exactly how my note 3 behaves and gives hope that it is an issue that can be resolved with a software update
[Verizon Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] BigMcGuire:
Wonder if this is the cause for 4.4 being so late on Verizon phones?
[Verizon Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] bladerealm124:
I hope so. They really need to figure this issue out
[Verizon Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] czach5932:
It shouldn't delay our update seeing how all note 3 devices have the same envelope. Kinda upset seeing how even the budget providers have been rolling out the updates for weeks now