Help Turn off Mobile network while traveling?

[TheSalesman]

To be clear, this is not about roaming or data. As soon as I stepped off the plane the phone asked me if I wanted to shut off roaming and mobile data, which I did.

Here's the problem. The phone still gets text which is actually fine by me. However, the phone is constantly dropping, searching, and receiving service. Every time It gets within service range, it makes a noise (or vibrates if on silent). So the darn thing vibrates every 3 minutes. To make matters worse, it only connects to the local phone network for perhaps half a minute. So it connects, drops the connection, and spends time searching for the connection again. My battery life lasts about 3-4 hours tops. I wanted to use my phone as a camera while on this trip, but using the camera only depletes the battery more. I can get a few hours of life out of the phone before it's dead.

I just want to turn off mobile entirely. Any help?

 

[jj14x]

Enable airplane mode, and turn on WiFi if needed.

 

[AZgl1500]

To be clear, this is not about roaming or data. As soon as I stepped off the plane the phone asked me if I wanted to shut off roaming and mobile data, which I did.

Here's the problem. The phone still gets text which is actually fine by me. However, the phone is constantly dropping, searching, and receiving service. Every time It gets within service range, it makes a noise (or vibrates if on silent). So the darn thing vibrates every 3 minutes. To make matters worse, it only connects to the local phone network for perhaps half a minute. So it connects, drops the connection, and spends time searching for the connection again. My battery life lasts about 3-4 hours tops. I wanted to use my phone as a camera while on this trip, but using the camera only depletes the battery more. I can get a few hours of life out of the phone before it's dead.

I just want to turn off mobile entirely. Any help?

Also be sure you turn off Image Stabilization on the camera, and make sure HDR is turned off.
Especially if you need maximum battery life to use it primarily as a camera.

I have never had any trouble with just pulling down the Notification panel and turning off the MobileData. On my phone, that stops it from searching for service... I also have notifications turned off on Data and Wifi. IMO they are useless as you can see the icons at the top, and I don't need the vibrator wasting battery anymore than you do.

as you noticed, SMS and normal telco service work just fine without LTE data. They are both a 1x service.
____________________________________
Verizon Galaxy S5, KK 4.4.4, ART
MyPhoneExplorer saves your tailbone
Nova Prime, Textra, Blue Mail, Qi wireless equipped
MacroDroid senses Screen off, turns Wifi & Data OFF
MacroDroid senses Screen on, turns WiFi & Data ON

 

[AZgl1500]

Oh, one more thing, my WiFi and DATA are always turned off while traveling. See my signature.
I easily get 2 and 3 days per charge on a normal basis.
If on a camera trek like you are, probably only 1 day per charge.

Over the Christmas holidays, used the S5 to make a lot of videos as we traveled thru strange country.... always had about 40% to 55% battery at end of day.
____________________________________
Verizon Galaxy S5, KK 4.4.4, ART
MyPhoneExplorer saves your tailbone
Nova Prime, Textra, Blue Mail, Qi wireless equipped
MacroDroid senses Screen off, turns Wifi & Data OFF
MacroDroid senses Screen on, turns WiFi & Data ON

 

[AZgl1500]

My wife's phone is also an S5, and I have her phone configured just like mine with MacroDroid controlling the WiFi and Data radios.

She only uses her S5 as a phone, nothing else.
Here is a screenshot of her phone as of "right now". Looks like it will go at least another week before it needs a charge.

.

____________________________________
Verizon Galaxy S5, KK 4.4.4, ART
MyPhoneExplorer saves your tailbone
Nova Prime, Textra, Blue Mail, Qi wireless equipped
MacroDroid senses Screen off, turns Wifi & Data OFF
MacroDroid senses Screen on, turns WiFi & Data ON

 

[acraftylady]

I too just pull the menu down and turn data off and don't have any trouble like that. I mostly travel from NY to PA every week. If I am going to be taking a lot of photos I keep a few portable battery chargers in my purse. Mary

 

[mikedt]

I too just pull the menu down and turn data off and don't have any trouble like that. I mostly travel from NY to PA every week. If I am going to be taking a lot of photos I keep a few portable battery chargers in my purse. Mary

That's not really the OP's problem, you're still in the same country and using the same carrier. The OP is international roaming, and it seems the phone is repeatedly hunting and trying to connect to foreign networks, because obviously the SIM's own network is not available. Possibly it can't make a connection because the OP's carrier doesn't have a roaming agreement with any carriers in the country that he's in. But the S5 is not taking NO for an answer and so keeps on trying, and is putting a heavy drain on the battery. I've done roaming myself last year, China Mobile SIM and have roamed on Beeline in Russia, who do have a roaming agreement, and once my phone connects, that's it, it stays connected.

Switching it to flight mode, and just using WiFi would likely be the best thing to do. One thing international cellular data roaming can be stupidly expensive, and not careful could end-up with a bill for hundreds or even thousands of bucks, which has happened to some people.

EDIT:

There is something else that can happen when roaming, and this is something that I've encountered in Hong Kong when using a British SIM. There might be more than one network available that has a roaming agreement with your own carrier. And it could be that the phone can't decide which network it should be using and is repeatedly switching between networks, instead of sticking to just one, and that would likely drain the battery as well. The fix for this is to go into settings > networks and put networks to "manual" and select which particular network you wish to roam on. Sometimes this would be desirable anyway, because roaming on a particular network might be cheaper than the others.