[Samsung Galaxy Note 9 Guides, News, & Discussion] Paras Lehana:
Device Settings Menu Guide, Tips & Discussions

Part 1 - Connections​

If you're new to this series or want to see the index, please read Post #2 first.​

The post has been updated as per the settings menu in latest Pie update.[/CENTER]

Wifi

Click on any network:

View supported Network speed, allocated IP address, gateway IP.

Toggle 'Auto Reconnect' to allow/disallow device to connect automatically to the network if it's in range.

Hold on any network > Manage network settings > Advanced > Set Static IP and DNS; Set Proxy;

Wifi Direct: Turn on Wifi Direct on a nearby device as well to transfer files wirelessly and fastly (speed up to gateway supported speed).

Menu > Advanced:

Turn on Wi-Fi Automatically: Your device will automatically enable Wi-Fi where you use it frequently. For example, you can disable your WiFi when you go out and you won't need to enable it again when you get back home. Tasker handles this job for me (try IFTTT for simpler setup).

Wi-Fi power saving mode: (On Pie, hop to developer mode) Analyzes your usage pattern and accordingly toggles WiFi. For example, if you get WhatsApp messages every 30 minutes on an average, the device learns about this traffic pattern and can toggle WiFi accordingly to fetch notifications every 30 minutes or whatsoever period is calculated. I keep this disabled as my usage pattern, like most of you, is dynamic. Better use App Sleep or Hibernation Apps like Greenify to save battery. Learn more about this mode here.

Wi-Fi control history: View apps that have toggled Wi-Fi recently. You can figure out if there's any culprit app that is toggling your Wi-Fi frequently when you have explicitly turned it off/on.

Hotspot 2.0: Automatically connects to APs that support Hotspot 2.0 or 802.11u. Network providers are themselves upgrading existing WiFi in public areas like airports and encryption is a must for Hotspot 2.0 so you can trust and rely on it while you don't have to manually guess the right network. Learn more about Hotspot 2.0 here.

WPS push button; WPS PIN Entry: (Pie doesn't support WPS but Google says it's coming back, Read here) Connect the device to WiFi by pushing WPS button on the router or entering WPS PIN in case these are enabled on the router. Learn about WPS here.

Install network certificates: Normally not needed. Some organization would need you to install certificates to access their domains. Same as what you do on PC to install certificates.

View device's MAC address and allocated IPv6/IPv4. Learn about MAC and IPs here.

Bluetooth

When the Bluetooth is ON, you can STOP/SCAN for nearby devices manually. Keep BT on for playing with following settings.

Menu > Advanced:

Dual Audio: Enables your device to connect to 2 different audio devices and play the same audio on both of them. Samsung explains this here.

Media volume sync: In case the connected audio device supports this, you can change the player's volume by your device's volume rockers by enabling this i.e. you don't have to manually raise the volume to the fullest on both your device and the connected player to get the highest volume possible for your house party.

Ringtone sync: Suggest usage?

Bluetooth control history: Similar as 'WiFi control history' above.

Phone visibility: (Moved to Separate section after Bluetooth in Pie, please tell if it works for BT as well) Allow devices (with Samsung Connect) to find your device for connection. You can disable it unless you live in a Smart Home or transfer files from other devices more often. Learn more about this mode here.

NFC and payment

It's turned ON by default on a new phone so do turn it OFF first. Samsung Pay will turn that ON if needed. The best thing about Samsung's flagship - Samsung Pay uses both NFC and MST (no other brand can do this) for payments. In case you don't know about MST (patented by LoopPay), must read here. MST works everywhere so I've keep NFC disabled.

Android Beam: Allows you to share stuff when you tap your phone with some other-phone-with-already-enabled-NFC.

Tap and pay: Select the default app for Payments and Others. Your default app will open up when you, for instance, tap your phone on an NFC-enabled POS (of course you need NFC to remain ON beforehand). Change 'If open app supports Tap and Pay' to 'Use open app instead of Samsung Pay' in case you want the App's own NFC payment feature, for example, in ICICI's Pockets.

Default NFC Method: By default and normally needed, 'Auto select'. In case you are the curious breed, learn about the different options here.

Flight Mode

Disables your operator's network. Since enabling this will also disable WiFi and Bluetooth altogether, you can turn back these two on without toggling flight mode.

Mobile networks

Data roaming: Enable it if your carrier doesn't charge you for roaming or you're rich enough.

VoLTE calls Primary: You'll see this in case your carrier supports VoLTE calling. #JioWaale

Network mode: By default, 'auto connect'. You can play with the options in case you're facing network mode changing issues or want to save battery (put to 2G only).

Access Point Names: I recommend you to request or configure your operator's settings for the first time even if it had been automatically fetched.

Data usage

Data saver: Formerly known as 'Restrict background data'. Your background apps will stop using network data i.e. you'll receive WhatsApp notifications only when you open the app again. You can also whitelist apps in 'Allow app while Data saver on'. This feature can help a lot in saving battery or making you check the phone less when you're hanging out with your girl. Me no girl so no enable!

Mobile data usage; Billing cycle and data warning: Do check this in a while to review the apps that uses most of your mobile data (maybe you don't need those apps that much on mobile data); Change your operator billing cycle, set data warning and enable data limit in case your operator doesn't give you free GBs.

Wi-Fi data usage; Restrict networks: Like mobile data, you can also review your Wi-Fi usage. Do review it once in a while to identify data-hungry apps that can affect battery and CPU as well; 'Restrict networks' (not available in Pie) helps you define your WiFi networks as 'metered'. It can be useful in a situation where a WiFi network you use is in fact a hotspot running on a device that uses mobile data. You can now restrict apps to use background data as described before in 'Data Saver'.

SIM card manager

Select Icon, Name and Network mode (described above) for the corresponding 'SIM slot' (not the SIM). Select preferred slot for calls, messaging and data. Learn about Smart Dual SIM here.

Mobile Hotspot and Tethering

Mobile Hotspot:

Wi-Fi sharing: In addition to mobile data, you can also share your Wi-Fi. This can be helpful in case you don't want to reveal your network or its credentials or don't know about them.

Menu > Allowed Devices: Enter MAC addresses of clients you want only to connect to your hotspot. Same as MAC filtering in routers.

Menu > Configure Mobile Hotspot; Timeout: Enable 'Hide my device' to stop exposing your SSID. Use 'WPA2 PSK' (Learn about wireless encryption here). 'Power saving mode' is similar to PMS in WiFi Advanced. Keep PMF on by default and change in case client doesn't support; Keep timeout low so that hotspot turns itself OFF earlier in case there's no client or change to 'Never Timeout' if you are going to need it for some time.

Bluetooth tethering; USB tethering: Learn about BT/USB tethering here.

More connection settings

Nearby device scanning: Although it uses Bluetooth Low Energy, I don't live in a Smart Home so have it disabled. If you enable it, you get notifications for nearby devices like TVs that support connections through your device (will annoy you at airports).

Printing: Do download Google Cloud Print and any other printing plugin required by your or your organization's printer.

MirrorLink: Great feature but I don't own a car. Learn more here.

Download Booster: Uses both WiFi and LTE at the same time to download apps over 30MB from Play Store and Galaxy Apps. In case you want that app as soon as possible.

VPN: Configure your VPNs here in case you have. I use Psiphon. You can also manually configure profiles as you do on PC.

Ethernet: Yes, you can use wired connection on your device too. Discussions here.

Private DNS: Pie supports DNS over HTTP/TCP and I recommend reading about this here. I use 1dot1dot1dot1.cloudflare-dns.com.