Need to Disable 5G on my Pixel 6a

Actually... I may have a different problem.  I found that turning on the battery saver forces the phone to use 4G.  I was able to confirm this by going to Settings > About phone > Sim Status.  It showed I was connected to the 4G network, but I still could not place a call.  After rebooting the phone, I could call again.  So clearly the problem is something else.  There are many nice things about this phone, but too many seriously flawed things like randomly losing the ability to place (or receive!) phone calls.  I regret not getting a Samsung.  Now I'm stuck with it.

There is an add-on app I understand that will allow you to use either 5G or LTE on Android phones. One of the bad things about 5G, besides it not being reliable still in a lot of areas, is that it appears to use a lot more battery power than LTE.

Hi Skitch, we want to help you make and receive calls again while on the 4G network!

Fixes that may help are: 

1. Confirming that you have wireless service. Make sure you have a signal. Check our network coverage map.
2. Making sure your software’s up to date: Learn how to check for available updates. 
3. Picking your preferred network type from options, like 5G and LTE. This is found in your mobile network settings from your Settings app. 
4. Trying out our troubleshooting & resolve tool to help you fix your call & cellular data concern. Sign in to get personalized steps. 
5. Signal obstructions, like buildings, walls, and some phone cases can interfere with mobile service, including 5G. Try to avoid or remove obstructions.

If this doesn't help, let us know and we'll invite to in a Direct Message to troubleshoot on our end and escalate your service concern by creating a technical ticket. 

Thank you for reaching out to AT&T Community Forums! Please keep us updated!

Rhoda, AT&T Community Specialist  

I've tried the steps above and more with no improvement.  Unfortunately step #3 is not possible on the Google Pixel 6a that is provided by AT&T.  Although google indicates this can be done, the menu option they show has been removed from the Pixel 6a phones provided by AT&T.

Frankly, this problem is getting worse and worse.  I can't make or receive a phone call at all anymore.  If I'm in an area with a strong 5G signal it works fine, but I can't make or receive calls at home.  It should be able to do this via wifi calling at the very least, but that doesn't work for the past month or more.  Despite having an excellent internet connection getting 250mbit performance.  I also have a secondary wifi utilizes an AT&T mobile hotspot (Netgear) which uses the 4G LTE network and gets up to 70mbit or so performance.  Regardless of which wifi I connect to, I still can't make or receive a phone call.

This has become more than just a massive annoyance.  It's a safety concern.  I have no way to even call 911.  Today I called my local phone company to order a landline because my mobile phone situation with AT&T is so bad.

FWIW my last phone was an iphone 6s and it worked perfectly.  I never encountered this problem before I 'upgraded' to the Pixel 6a and '5G'.  

I'm an AT&T retiree and I'm at the point where I'm ready to cancel my service with AT&T and switch to another provider.  I hope someone can help me, but I dread having to go through the pain of getting 'Support'.  And, I might add... good luck if anyone from AT&T tries to call me.

Not all cell phone carriers have this built-in test screen, but many do. The option to turn off 5G for some versions of the Pixel 5 is in Settings–> Network & Internet–> Mobile network–> Preferred network. Often the preferred network settings are not there or are not allowed unless the phone is booted into safe mode.

@Skitch 

Yes, AT&T actively blocks access to the "preferred network" setting in a lot of the phones they sell.  Even some unlocked phones with an AT&T SIM card can still end up with those settings hidden.  They've been blocking those kinds of setting for years.  I remember having to dig into the engineering screen on an old BlackBerry 9800 Torch from AT&T to turn off 3G and force 2G (EDGE) only.  It was only as an experiment at the time, but this was 12 years ago.

For Samsung phones, there is an app available in Google Play to temporarily unhide the "preferred network" page.  It's called "Samsung Band Selection".  Its primary purpose is to select specific bands to use, but since AT&T uses only a small sub-set of the phone's available bands and they use a sub-subset of those in each location, there's no real benefit for that - too easy to just lose a signal outright if you pick the wrong band not used in your area and you basically have a dead phone. For AT&T users, it's the app's ability to set the network type that's useful.  Mostly.

Unfortunately, there does not seem to be a similar app for any Pixel phones. 

However, I have read that if you start the phone in safe-mode, turn off airplane mode, then you have access to the "preferred network" page. Make your change there, then reboot.  Seems to work for some.  But it's no guarantee.  I don't have a Pixel to try it.

If you do find a way to change your phone to only LTE, be warned that you may not be any happier.  If 5G is giving you problems, it's likely you will have the same problems on LTE.  It could be the tower sending the signal is just that bad all around.

Where I live, 5G is not very fast.  But if I drive a couple miles down the road, I find a spot that switches over to 4G-LTE, and it's really fast there.  But back at my house, it's back to 5G and relatively slow speeds again.  I'm talking the LTE gets over 175MB/s.  But at home with 5G, I'm lucky to get 25MB/s.  But what happens if I switch the phone (I'm on a Samsung S20 FE) over to LTE only?  I get a 4G-LTE signal, but pull in maybe 10-20MB/s.  No improvement at all.

I will say that I've never had any issues with calls though.  I do not use wi-fi calling, but honestly, if you are on wi-fi calling, it shouldn't matter what your cell signal is, even if it's totally gone - it's not being used.  That's the point of wi-fi calling.  So I don't get the connection there.

Hi joeldf  -  Thanks for your comments.  Unfortunately restarting in safe mode makes no difference.  It neither improves my ability to make or recieve phone calls, nor does it enable me to access any functionality to select a preferred network.  AT&T seems to have very effectively prevented its customers from being able to make any choices.  Another approach on non-AT&T pixel phones is to enter an MMI code like *#*#4636#*#* brings up a menu that allows selecting the desired network options.  Following this approach, I can set it to use LTE only and it does!  When I figured that out I thought the problem would be solved.  But unfortunately, even using 4G LTE, I still can't make or receive calls from home. 

It should just automatically use wifi to call, but it doesn't.  Yet it CAN make wifi calls, because if I'm in a location where it doesn't need to make the call over wifi (because I have a strong mobile network signal), it will call over wifi, and it will show that it's a wifi call.  But at home where it can't seem to be able to make calls over the mobile network anymore (I never had a problem for the previous 10 years that I've lived here), it won't even try to use wifi.  And that is regardless of whether I have wifi calling set to "If Wi-Fi is unavailable, use mobile network" or "If mobile network is unavailable, use Wi-Fi".   

My wifi hotspot (a netgear nighthawk mr100) has no external antenna and can only access 4G LTE. It is sitting next to my phone and get's ~40mb download and ~5mb upload.  My phone via 5G get's ~6 mb download and ZERO upload.  In fact, speedtest.net will report that it failed to complete the speedtest because it can't upload at all.  My phone via 4G LTE gets ~25mb download and a couple hundred k upload (remember ISDN?  ...like that).  Of course those numbers vary.  I suspect the horrible upload performance to be a major culprit.  But frankly, it shouldn't matter because the calls should be routing over my wifi.

FWIW, my old iphone 6s (and every phone before it, never had any problem with making or receiving calls at my address.  But maybe AT&T's network performance in my area has diminished since then?  Or maybe wifi calling worked right back then?  Regardless, that ship sailed and now I'm stuck.

If my Pixel6a would actually work the way it should with wifi calling, there would be no problem and I could care less if I have a strong mobile network signa from home.  I get over 200mb performance via my main internet provider/wifi.  When I first got the pixel 6a phone it seemed to work fine.  But for the past couple months or so, no matter how I configure wifi calling or if I turn mobile data off and just have wifi... connect to other wifi providers... whatever, nothing matters and I get "call disconnected" as fast as I can click on the dial button..  

Every once in a while after rebooting and turning airplane mode on and off a couple times, I'll be able to make a phone call.  And it works fine until I hang up.  Then good luck making another one.  Sometimes if I go outside, reboot my phone, etc., I can place a call.  Sometimes a call to me actually gets through and it even rings.  

Dialing *#*#4636#*#* also lets me access detailed data about my phones connection and status.  Right now, connected to the 4G LTE network it says I have 35522 kbps download bandwidth and 7254 kbps upload.  Signal strength isn't great at -106 dBm, but it's ok.  It shows that Voice over LTE (VoLTE) and Wifi calling are provisioned.    But if I check my "IMS Status", there it says "Voice over WiFi: Unavailable".  

It's looking like I have no choice but to contact AT&T support.  Thus far in my life that has never been a good experience (thus my reluctance... sigh).

This has become more than just a massive annoyance.  It's a safety concern.  I have no way to even call 911.  Today I called my local phone company to order a landline because my mobile phone situation with AT&T is so bad.

@toye32 

That's not how that works.  5G is data only.  The mobile voice network is still on LTE... because of "voice over LTE".

Sure, "voice of 5G" exists, but if you can check the SIM card status (different phones have different ways to get to that), it should say the "Mobile voice network type" is "LTE", while the "Mobile data network type" can be "NR NSA", which is what 5G falls under.