October OTA update for Note 4

[Anonymous]

Hi,

Ever since the latest update got rolled out to my Note 4 (which I bought sim-free - full price), O2 is forcing the phone to Wifi Extra connection completely ignoring my preference of not automatically switching to a Wifi service I didn't select. By doing so, it causes the "Sim card removed" error and forces the Restart on the phone, as the message can't be dismissed. I know this is not Samsung's feature, and that O2 has implemented this change themselves.

Basically I live near an underground station, and this "new feature" is completely screwing up my phone. It also causes the phone to heat up much more than before.

I've done everything I could including the factory reset, sim card cleaning, etc... to no avail. It happens all the time it catches the Wifi extra. It has never done it before, the phone was stable, and despite rare problems with

some apps, the phone has never been so useless as it is now.

Right now I'm almost at the point where I want to root it, terminate O2 contract for breach of service terms, and go to Vodafone but I want to know if anyone else has similar problem, and whether they found any workaround without actually keeping the Wifi off all the time?

Thanks in advance.

PS: Why is the END keyboard key inserting # in this editor here? Another useless O2 "feature" ? It makes the editing so much harder.

[Bambino]

@Anonymous If you bought th phone sim free, whatever issues you're having have nothing to do with O2. Your best bet is to contact Samsung directly. http://www.samsung.com/uk/support/

[jonsie]

The October update was a large one. I strongly recommend that you backup and factory reset.  Nothing to do with O2,  it will be a software conflict. 

[Anonymous]

I already have done that, no change.
It happens only when Wifi extra is in range and the phone switches to it. No other WIFI causes this problem.
The Wifi Extra feature is a network feature and not coming from Samsung. It's the network that is forcing the Wifi extra on the phone, not the other way round. They trick the phone into thinking that there's no other network to do that.

[jonsie]

I never use that feature. Have you tried disabling it? 

[MI5]

Call cs and ask them to opt you out of wifi extra.
It's a feature controlled by your sim card but can be disabled by CS.

[Anonymous]

That's the problem. I can't disable it. It's a feature "Forced" on me by O2.
I will contact CS again as MI5 suggested, and try to get them to opt me out of it.

[Anonymous]

Thanks I will do that.

[MI5 · Accepted solution]

The way to disable it is to turn wifi off which is inconvenient to keep doing so.
As it is sim controlled cs should be able to permanently switch it off though how this affects other o2 wifi hotspots I've no idea.
The wifi extra page is here if you want to have a read https://www.o2wifi.co.uk/about/extra