Samsung Galaxy S20 Network Issues

Introduction

If your phone is having trouble connecting to a cellular or WiFi network, has problems with mobile hotspot, isn’t receiving mobile data, or has issues maintaining a cell signal, this problem page will help get you connected and back online in no time!

Causes

Network Hangup

Occasionally, Samsung phones experience a bug that halts network connection to the phone. This leads to the phone not receiving any mobile data, despite showing an active (and perhaps even strong) connection to the network. To reset your phone’s network connection, simply toggle Airplane mode on for 30 seconds. Upon turning Airplane mode off, your phone should reestablish its connection to the network and fix any hangups you might have been experiencing. To toggle Airplane mode:

Swipe down from the top of the screen to open the Quick Settings Panel.
Tap the Airplane Icon to turn on Airplane mode.
Wait 30 seconds for the phone to completely disconnect from any networks.
Tap the Airplane Icon again to turn Airplane mode off.

Note that this will usually only solve cellular network connection issues, rather than WiFi issues. To reset a WiFi network hangup, you may need to forget and reconnect to the network. To do so:

Open the Settings app on your phone.
Select the Connections option at the top of the menu.
From the Connections menu, select the Wi-Fi option at the top.
- The Wi-Fi option may have a toggle on the right side, but you should be able to tap on the left side of the menu bar to open the WiFi menu.
Tap on the gear icon to the right of the network you want to connect to to open a detailed menu for that connection.
Select Forget in the bottom right corner with the trash can icon.
Then reconnect and reconfigure your network settings to fix the issue.

No Data Transmitted From Source

It may be possible that the reason your phone isn’t receiving data is that there isn’t any data available in the first place. If there’s an issue with your WiFi network or your mobile data provider, your phone won’t be able to receive data through no fault of its own.

You can check that your WiFi network is working by attempting to connect another device to the network. If you are able to connect to the network, try loading a few pages that update frequently to ensure that the device is receiving data from the connection. If the other device is also having trouble connecting or accessing data from the network, you can try to fix the issue by reseting your modem and router. To do so:

Unplug the modem.
Unplug the router.
Wait 30 seconds, counting slowly so that the devices have time to reset completely.
Plug in the modem.
Plug in the router.
Wait a few seconds for the devices to initialize before trying to connect again.

If reseting your router doesn’t work, get in touch with your internet service provider to ensure there aren’t any outages or shutoffs.

You can check that your mobile network is working by getting in touch with your cellphone carrier’s support line. You can find support links for popular providers here:

It’s possible that the reason you can’t connect to your mobile network is that you’re out of the country in which you purchased your plan. If you are traveling, be sure to check your carrier’s roaming service to ensure you’ll have coverage.

If you have confirmed that the problem isn’t on the provider’s end, and have reset your network connections to eliminate hangups, the problem may be with the software or componentry of your phone.

Incorrectly Configured Network Settings

If you’ve been messing around with your phone’s settings recently, it’s possible that you may have changed something you shouldn’t have in the network settings, which is preventing your phone from establishing a solid connection to the network. If you know a bit about network settings, you can try to go back in and fix any mistakes you might have made, but for the uninformed, reseting the network settings on your device should return everything to the functional default settings. To reset the network settings on your phone:

Open the Settings app.
Select the General Management option from the settings menu.
Select the Reset option from the general management menu.
Select the Reset Network Settings option.
Hit the blue Reset Settings button to confirm your choice.

Firmware Malfunction

Sometimes a software or firmware glitch can prevent your phone from connecting to a network. Although a rarer phenomenon, it’s important to rule out before you start opening up your phone and replacing components. You can solve hiccups in the firmware by restarting your phone. You can restart your phone by holding the power button for three seconds, then tapping the restart button twice.

If a normal restart of the phone didn’t help and you really suspect that a software glitch is what’s causing your network issues, you can go a bit further to perform a factory reset of the phone. This will completely restart the operating system of the phone and eliminate any glitches that may be occurring, but will also clear any settings or data you had, so it’s important to perform a backup of all data you wish to keep before a factory reset. To factory reset your Galaxy S20:

Open the Settings app.
Select the General Management option.
Select Reset from the general management menu.
Select Factory Data Reset.
Scroll to the bottom of the screen and tap the Reset button.
Confirm your choice by selecting the Delete All button.

Faulty Chipset

If nothing else seemed to solve your connection issues, the problem may lie with one of the chips used to make or manage network connections. If your phone experienced a significant impact or water ingress soon before you noticed connectivity issues, it’s likely that your connectivity issues stem from a hardware malfunction. Fortunately, all of the chips that handle network connections reside on the same motherboard, so you won’t have to narrow the problem down to an individual chip. Instead you can replace the motherboard to fix the issue.

If your phone is still under warranty, this may be something that you can have your carrier do. If not, we have straightforward guides to replace the motherboard in your Galaxy S20, S20 Plus, or S20 Ultra: