Set Up Mobile Hotspot with a Custom Name and Password
The first time you turn on the mobile hotspot on a Samsung phone, it broadcasts under the device name with an autogenerated password. That default network name is often confusing for guests and reveals your phone model to anyone scanning nearby networks. You can replace both the name and password before sharing your connection.
Change Preferred Network Mode
If your Samsung phone keeps dropping to a slower connection or won't pick up 4G or 5G even with full signal bars, the Network mode setting might be locked to an older standard. This option decides whether the device connects using 2G, 3G, 4G, or 5G, and a wrong choice here cuts off faster networks completely. On dual-SIM models each SIM slot has its own separate setting.
Set Default SIM Card for Mobile Data
If mobile data feels slow after inserting a second SIM, your Samsung phone is likely still pulling data through SIM card 1 by default. On some models only that first slot supports fast LTE, so calls or texts on SIM 2 work fine while data stays sluggish. Switching the active data SIM fixes this without removing either card.
Turn Location Tags On or Off for Photos and Videos
Every photo or video you shoot with the Samsung Camera app can quietly attach your exact GPS coordinates to the file. Share that picture online or send it to someone, and the location data travels with it, revealing exactly where it was taken. Most people only notice this after a photo has already exposed a home address or workplace.
Turn Location (GPS) On or Off
If navigation apps cannot find your position or refuse to load a route, Location access is often switched off on your Samsung phone. Weather widgets, Find My Mobile, and location-tagged photos rely on the same GPS toggle, so one setting affects several features at once. Turning it off saves battery but breaks any app that needs your real-time position.
Show or Hide Date and Location in Gallery Photos
If the photo details in the Gallery only show file size and resolution, but never a place name, geotagging was probably switched off when the shot was taken. The date and location overlay only works retroactively for pictures that already carry that metadata.
Select Network Automatically
If your Samsung phone keeps losing signal or sticks to a weak carrier after you picked a network by hand, the automatic search feature is switched off. Once you select a network manually, Select automatically stays disabled until you turn it back on yourself. This mostly shows up while traveling or right after inserting a new SIM.
Move Contacts to Another Storage Location
If your contacts are split between the SIM card, the phone memory and a synced account, finding the right entry can get confusing fast. Samsung's contact app lets you shift entries from one storage location to another without deleting and re-adding them. This matters most when you swap SIM cards, switch accounts, or clean up duplicate entries after a sync.
Connect to Wi-Fi via QR Code
Typing out a long WLAN password on a guest's phone wastes time and usually ends in a typo or two. Samsung's Wi-Fi QR code scanner reads the network credentials straight from another device's shared code, so you skip manual entry completely. The catch: the other device has to generate and display that QR code first before your phone can scan it.
Add a Wi-Fi Network Manually
If your router does not appear in the Wi-Fi list, it usually means the network is hidden and not broadcasting its name. In that case you have to add it by hand using the exact SSID and, if the network is secured, the correct password. A typo in either field is the most common reason the connection still fails afterward.
Set Default SIM Card for Calls
If your Samsung phone keeps dialing out from SIM 1 even though you meant to call from SIM 2, the default call SIM is likely locked to the wrong card. You can also set the phone to ask every time before placing a call, which helps when you keep one SIM for work and one for personal contacts. This same setting can be changed directly from the status bar shortcut, not just deep inside the settings menu.
Turn Wi-Fi On or Off
If your Samsung phone refuses to connect to your router or keeps burning through battery searching for networks, the Wi-Fi toggle might simply be off or stuck on. Wi-Fi handles both local file sharing and your main path to the internet, so a wrong setting here blocks every online app at once. Switching it on or off from the system settings usually clears up connection drops and unwanted background scanning.
Turn On or Off Roaming Assistance
When you dial a saved contact while abroad, Samsung often sends the number exactly as stored, without adding the country code. That can make calls fail or connect to a random local number in the country you are roaming in instead of reaching your contact back home. Roaming assistance decides whether Samsung fixes this prefix automatically or leaves it to you.
Set Up a VPN Connection
Streaming services blocking your location, unsecured public Wi-Fi, or a company network that only accepts encrypted traffic - all of these push you toward a VPN. On Samsung phones the connection only routes through a VPN server once a valid profile has been created manually, since One UI does not ship with preset providers.
Turn Mobile Hotspot On or Off
If you need to share your Samsung phone's mobile data connection with a laptop, tablet, or another phone, Mobile Hotspot has to be switched on first. Without it, nearby devices cannot detect your phone as a Wi-Fi access point at all. Many people also struggle to find where this toggle sits once they need to turn it off again to save data or battery.
Show or Hide Wi-Fi Network Quality Info
If your Wi-Fi list only shows network names, you cannot tell before connecting whether a network will actually be fast or barely usable. Samsung phones can add a quality label like Very fast, Fast, Normal, or Slow right next to each network in the list. This option lives inside the Wi-Fi advanced settings and most people never turn it on.
Turn NFC On or Off
Contactless payments, file sharing, or tag scanning suddenly stop working on a Samsung phone when NFC gets switched off, often without you noticing. Some users turn NFC off on purpose to save a little battery or stop apps from reading tags in public. The toggle sits inside the network settings rather than a quick shortcut.
Turn Wi-Fi Calling On or Off
If calls keep dropping in areas with weak mobile signal but strong Wi-Fi, your Samsung phone probably has Wi-Fi Calling turned off. This feature lets the device route voice calls over a wireless network instead of the regular cellular connection. Whether it needs to be on or off depends on your carrier and where you spend most of your time on a call.
Pair a Bluetooth Device
If your Samsung phone will not connect to a speaker, headset, or car radio, the two devices are simply not paired yet. Phones and speakers usually just need to confirm the connection on screen, but many car radios ask for a numeric code to be typed in on the Samsung device. Missing that step is the most common reason Bluetooth audio never starts.
Turn Bluetooth On or Off
If your Samsung phone keeps reconnecting to a car stereo or speaker you did not want right now, Bluetooth is still active in the background. Leaving the radio running also uses a small amount of battery even with nothing paired. Switching it off stops these automatic reconnections until you turn it back on.
Rename a Paired Bluetooth Device
If your phone keeps showing a paired accessory under its factory name instead of something you can actually recognize, that label comes from the device itself, not from your phone. Samsung just displays whatever name the headphones, speaker or car kit broadcasts over Bluetooth. Once several accessories use similar generic names, telling them apart in your Bluetooth list gets confusing.
Connect via Wi-Fi Direct
When two Samsung phones are next to each other but can't share files because they're not on the same WLAN, Wi-Fi Direct solves it. This peer-to-peer connection skips the router entirely and links two devices straight to each other. It only works if both devices support Wi-Fi Direct and have the feature open at the same time.