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Please Help! Nexus 5 Signal Issue(Not rooted)

I just got my Nexus 5 and I haven't root it yet. I notice that everytime I don't use my phone 5-10 minutes or hours, the signal will be lost and asking to reboot my phone. I can't tell when it's up or not. Sometime I take multiple reboot to get signal back up then it happens again and again. Is there a way to fix this problem without rooting? I don't think it's the Sim Card because I used it on my nexus 4 without any problem. or Just my device isn't good one. Please help!

Whose your carrier?

markdapimp said:
Whose your carrier?
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I have T mobile.

lsou said:
I have T mobile.
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What version of KitKat? If 4.4, flash the update. If not, flash 4.4 radio.

Aerowinder said:
What version of KitKat? If 4.4, flash the update. If not, flash 4.4 radio.
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I didn't root my phone yet, and I'm running 4.4.2 now. It's annoying to keep losing signal and it's back again. Even I have signal, I only have 1 bar compare to my old Nexus 4 has 3 bar or HTC one full bar.

I don't want to root it if its not solve this problem, I will have to return it.

There was an issue on 4.4 where it would randomly give you the "emergency only" message. You would have to turn on airplane mode and then turn it off, or reboot. But people have been saying it was fixed with 4.4.1/4.4.2.

PsychDrummer said:
There was an issue on 4.4 where it would randomly give you the "emergency only" message. You would have to turn on airplane mode and then turn it off, or reboot. But people have been saying it was fixed with 4.4.1/4.4.2.
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The radio however sucks in 4.4.2 and was better in 4.4.1
perhaps we may see 4.4.3 to fix this?

markdapimp said:
The radio however sucks in 4.4.2 and was better in 4.4.1
perhaps we may see 4.4.3 to fix this?
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I think it might be overall worse, but luckily I actually didn't see any decrease in signal in my area. I was really worried about it because I already have really bad signal in my house but 4.4.2 doesn't seem to be worse for me.

You guys forget to mention that Google cheaped out on the antenna to cut costs. Best you can do is to flash your carrier's radio over the generic one
Sent from my Nexus 5

dicecuber said:
You guys forget to mention that Google cheaped out on the antenna to cut costs. Best you can do is to flash your carrier's radio over the generic one
Sent from my Nexus 5
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each nexus device has a different build quality looks like the newer ones based off the serial number looks to be a tad better signal wise

Upcoming Update
dicecuber said:
You guys forget to mention that Google cheaped out on the antenna to cut costs. Best you can do is to flash your carrier's radio over the generic one
Sent from my Nexus 5
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I'm sorry, but you're dead wrong. SO much misinformation here. First off, there is no "carrier" or "generic" baseband. There is only one baseband. Second, antenna design requires a lot of engineering to maximize signal efficiency when you're dealing with interference from such things as wifi, nfc, Bluetooth, metal construction in the phone, etc.. I'm not sure what magical material you think that cell antennas should be made of that will solve issues?
I just got off of the phone with Sprint. They show that there is an internal memo on the issue and LG is aware of it. They will be pushing an update as soon as it's ready. Sprint will also be pushing an update for the Airave to help with the issue. The support rep told me that it is an issue where the wifi and LTE radios aren't playing nicely together and causing a conflict. That's why everything seems to work fine when 3G is set as a preferred network.

It's an issue that still hasn't gotten fix as seen here.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2525583&highlight=emergency
I'm going to have to buy a different phone because I have no signal almost everywhere I go. I switched my SIM to my wife's Note 2 and I had great signal and her SIM in the N5 had no signal.

I
The issue seem to be gone after couple days. I checked signal strength app, it shows same even though it shows only 1 bar.

Signal drops since 4.2.2

Hi everyone.
I owned a Nexus 5 one month ago, but unfortunately, it does not work as expected. On 4.4.0, I had multiple issues concerning network already (unable to switch to 3G networks only, very variable HSPA signal reception (from 4/4 bars to Edge exactly at the same place), ...). This issues were supposed to be fixed with 4.4.2 and most of them are, excepting HSPA signal which is still very weird. However 4.2.2 brings my phone another issue that I didn't noticed on 4.4.0 which is a very annoying and repetitive complete signal blackout (no reception at all (Edge/HSPA), even for emergency calls I guess). Signal drop can happen twice in an hour, twice in 10 minutes or may not happen at all 3-4-5 hours long. It's completely unpredictable. After a while, Edge signal (not HSPA !!) gets back by itself. If I wait 10-20 more minutes, HSPA comes back again, until it drops again.
Moreover, at phone boot, just after typing my PIN Code, it usually takes 2 or 3 minutes to catch a signal. Very slow isn't it ?
It does not seem to be a network issue, since my Samsung Galaxy S III doesn't encounter this using the same SIM card.
I read on Google forums and probably some XDA threads that I was not the only one to face this kind of network issues, even on 4.4.2, but issue description was each time a bit different from mine, thus I tought that it may be useful to post a new thread to describe precisely what was my problem.
Edit : My Nexus 5 is unlocked and rooted, but issue is present on untouched 4.2.2 also.
Edit 2 : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2525583 is probably my issue.
Do no hesitate to answer if you're thinking that you have the same issue (or kind of) or if you think that you know something that may help.
Thank you .
KennyG9

You can flash the radio from version 4.4 that helps a lot, I'm at work just search this forum the directions are here, it's easy.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4

^^ He appears to be talking about the link below. You can flash different modems that may work. Some people say different modems helped but I've had no such luck. I've flashed every modem available and still don't have data almost everywhere I go. I have data at home but that doesn't really matter since I don't need my phone at home.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2514095

Did you try flashing your carrier's specific radio?
Team Nexus 5 sucks

dicecuber said:
Did you try flashing your carrier's specific radio?
Team Nexus 5 sucks
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Were would one find the carrier specific radio? I'm on T-Mobile but have only found the thread with modems. Nothing carrier specific.

Thanks for your answers. Unfortunately, flashing different modems does not seem to help .

i've read, the .15 is good with t-mobile.
i'm testing it today too. my problem is not only a signal drop, i have only edge too and my modem won't switch back to umts or hspa(+).
i'm in germany with t-mobile (congstar).

[Q] What is a modem and can it solve my reception issues?

hey guys
i tried understanding by myself what exactly the modem does in a cellphone but since the term/word modem is so common it was hard to get results for the exact thing i want to understand.
my reception issue is this:
im from israel in a network called "Golan-T", using my previous phone, a nexus 4, i had great internet access and cell reception, 90% of the time i had 4/4 bars and the internet was H+ with speeds of 5-10Mbps (normal speeds here in israel)
now on my nexus 5, im there is a constant issue with the above
the bars go from 2-3 RAPIDSLY, meaning they could switch between 1-3 bars every 2-5 seconds, which i suspect not only means a terribly low signal, but also destroys my battery life
2nd, for some reason i NEVER get H+, but i assume the icon for + just might no be there in the nexus 5, but i get the same every few seconds change cycle with 3g (which gives me speeds of under 1MBps and i cant do ANYTHING not even google now searches) and H, which also changes every few seconds.
yesterday i drove for over an hour with Waze and didnt have internet for even 1 second.
so - after the above long story
i was wondering what could be a solution and someone tossed my way that the modem could be the issue and that it can be flashed, so i was hoping i could get some guidance here
ty!

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=47164660

The modem handles all cellular connections much like old internet dial up modems. Its what connects y you to your phones provider.
When it's referred to on xda it's most commonly talking about the radio firmware. Something which can improve or worsen signal depending on what has been changed in the revisions to it.
However your problem sounds more like an antennae issue than a modem problem.
Usually the radio only gets updated with an ota or factory image flash.
If you want to test you can flash the various factory images from Google which also contain the radio's or you may be able to find a collection of radios here on the forums to flash.
The factory images are flashed by using the flashall.bat included in the download. (Bare in mind this will also erase all data on your phone)
The radio images in the forums will usually be flashed in the bootloader with fastboot using the command
Fastboot flash radio xyz.img
Where xyz is the name of your downloaded image
Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app

4.4.3 baseband messing up with TMo LTE

I updated my N5 to 4.4.3 through this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/google-nexus-5/development/flashable-stock-4-4-3-supersu-t2771010
could not wait for Google to update my N5.
My wife's N5 was updated through official ota.
We are both on TMobile. Same plan. Same zip code.
At home we use to have both LTE signal at 3 bars out of 4.
After the update I noticed this issue where both phones are connected to LTE but now we have 0 or 1 bar out of 4.
often I see No Network at all.
Changing to 3g or 2g will set the phone back on Edge or HSPA.
I think the new baseband messed it up.
Anyone else experiencing this issue on TMO with N5?
Any ideas?
Thanks

I noticed 0-2 bars of LTE at home but mine has always been like that.

i feel like i have less LTE bars than i did prior to the update. In some areas where I have always had LTE coverage, I have HSPA instead. At work I have less bars - I work very close to home (NYC, Manhattan) so i'm not sure if it a problem as a result of the update or service issues in the city - at least in my case.

Bars and signal strength are not necessarily related. The bar is just telling you what the software is interpreting, there have been tons of signal bar hacks that make it more or less accurate.
What I will say is that the LTE drops are something I've seen before even when I paradoxically had "full bars" on LTE only to suddenly have my phone not actually displaying a connection and then it would, after a moment, drop to H+.

hormosapiens said:
I updated my N5 to 4.4.3 through this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/google-nexus-5/development/flashable-stock-4-4-3-supersu-t2771010
could not wait for Google to update my N5.
My wife's N5 was updated through official ota.
We are both on TMobile. Same plan. Same zip code.
At home we use to have both LTE signal at 3 bars out of 4.
After the update I noticed this issue where both phones are connected to LTE but now we have 0 or 1 bar out of 4.
often I see No Network at all.
Changing to 3g or 2g will set the phone back on Edge or HSPA.
I think the new baseband messed it up.
Anyone else experiencing this issue on TMO with N5?
Any ideas?
Thanks
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Not to sound like a D1ck,But.(I feel your pain)...Finally someone else besides me having issues and I'm on sprint (insert jokes now)the same thing has happened to me my wife my dad my brother and his wife.All of our data handoffs from 3G/LTE hang.I/we have gotten worse LTE.You are not the only 1.I even adb fastbooted back to 4.4.2 to see if the difference is just in my head.It's not.4.4.2 gave me LTE back again.

I am thinking to flash back the previous baseband. Anyone reversed back to the old radio but staying with 4.4.3? I can tell you that the battery life is better with 4.4.3.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Are you seeing that the behavior of handoffs is different or are you losing your data connection more often than before?

I am also seeing emergency calls only in some places like my job, where previously I had 3 bar lte. But at home it stays with 0 to 1bar very unstable. I am convinced is the new base band. Tmo told me to do a switch from 3G back to lte in network settings. After that didn't work they told me to do a full reset to factory settings. Thinking to flash back to . 23 radio.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

cookiehead2 said:
Are you seeing that the behavior of handoffs is different or are you losing your data connection more often than before?
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Both. The hand off is so bad I can't even verbally describe it.My singal drop is so bad I want to smash my phone.(but I want cause I love my nexus devices as much as my kids)

[Q] No signal strength all of a sudden

Hello,
I bought my Nexus 5 on the 11th of December 2013 and it had been working flawlessly ever since. Since last week, I started noticing the occasional signal drop and I'd be out of cell reception but would usually be back up within no time. However, yesterday, out of the blue I'm travelling on the highway and my signal strength disappears never to come back again. I've tried the following:
- Restore old backup (including EFS)
- Went back to stock from PA
- Upgraded to the latest radio
- Took back cover off to see if anything was wrong but found nothing.
- Tried another SIM card
Nothing worked. My SIM card works fine in another phone. Everything else such as WiFi and Bluetooth works flawlessly but I just don't get any reception.
This is very disappointing and I have my fingers crossed hoping someone can help me with this since I didn't plan on getting a new device for at least another year especially after paying $520 USD for my phone here in my country.
Thank you for looking.

im having a similar problem with the radio after the last few otas. im getting a lot of dropped calls on 3g aws...
im going to try to revert to an old radio as i don't think this is a hardware failing issue..
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

Flash stock firmware with fast boot. If its the same, its a carrier issue....call them to see. Or its hardware failure.

just wanted to post my fix for this issue - very disappointed with Google that i had to do this...my provider is mobilicity canada (3g aws band fyi)
flash krt01b radio from this thread...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2514095
this is *not* a carrier or hardware issue (at least in my case)
seems others are having same issue
https://code.google.com/p/android/i...s Owner Summary Stars&groupby=&sort=&id=70878

Then it is a carrier issue....cause on Telus in Canada....never had an issue with any radio version. ?

telus would have a stronger overall signal but uses AWS band for lte which is different than mobilicitiy 3g aws...

I'm not disagreeing.... Just saying its the carrier....not Google.
See my point?

KJ said:
I'm not disagreeing.... Just saying its the carrier....not Google.
See my point?
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Click to collapse
are you saying mobilicitiy is purposely weakening their cell signal cause they are almost bankrupt ?
i still blame google i had no issues with the radio before they borked it...

nolook said:
are you saying mobilicitiy is purposely weakening their cell signal cause they are almost bankrupt ?
i still blame google i had no issues with the radio before they borked it...
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Just saying that unless many have the issue with the phone or radio, then its an issue.....if not, it isnt .
So in this case, it leaves hardware or carrier....assuming a stock flash didn't help.
If flashing another radio helps the OP...awesome!! But the new radio does work fine for the mass majority.
Hope it does work for him tho!