Greetings. I purchased 2 Tracfone J3 Orbits this year. One continues to work flawlessly but the other has problems I hope someone can help me with. On the problem phone when I turn it on it takes from 2-4 minutes to find a signal and when mobile data is turned on it is always 3G. I have spoken with Tracfone numerous times and they have had me check options/settings, pull battery and sim card with no help. I also notice that the battery is now draining from 100% to 70% in 12 hours of standby with no use. The other phone which works fine pulls signal within 5 seconds and shows LTE for data. Tracfone is telling me the phone is defective. I would welcome any suggestions to correct this problem. Thank you in advance for your assistance
Thank you for your response. As I stated Tracfone is my carrier as I understand it as they utilize Verizon and AT&T towers to sell their service. If I am misguided about this then please advise me so.
Update: Did a factory reset on problem phone and symptoms stayed the same. Ran to Target and purchased another identical J3. Powered it up and called Tracfone to transfer number to new phone. This did so and still had same problems. When turned on took 2-3 minutes to find connection and mobile data was 3G. Phone/Text work but mobile data so slow that takes 3-5 minutes to send pic. Was transferred to 2nd level support. Over 2 hours he attempted various tests but still the same. We did find possible problem when I went to settings/connections/mobile network/APN.. There was the correct APN for Tracfone there but selection circle was blank. When I tapped it the circle turned blue as selected. As soon as I left that page and went back the circle was blank (unselected) again. Tech thinks that might be the problem but doesn't understand how it could be on both phones. Thinking this could be the problem but I'm no expert .. Any ideas/suggestions greatly appreciated .....
Hi, did you have any luck solving this problem? My wife's Galaxy J3 Orbit (purchased from Page Plus, which is owned by Tracfone) is behaving the exact same way, even down to the details about the APN not staying selected. Takes several minutes for any cell connection after booting up, and only gets marginal 3G data at best. My older Galaxy S4 mini gets full signal of 4GLTE data when hers can't even load a webpage. We are in the process of trying to get a replacement phone from Page Plus now.
After 3 calls to Tracfone 2nd Level support they swapped my new J3 with a used J7 Crown. When I fired it up it exhibited the same symptoms as the new J3. Taking a flyer I hopped on WiFi and did a system update. BAM! It works perfectly now. Why someone from Samsung or Tracfone who I talked to did not suggest this I'll never know. Also cannot figure out how with 2 new J3's one could work so well and the other not. May have been different years or one had a different OS. Good luck ...
