One Thing You Must Do on Android Before Going to Places with Limited Internet Connections

In major cities like New York, Tokyo or Paris, we seldom need to worry about the limitations of wifi connections as these places offer great connection speed pretty much everywhere. However, when we travel to places with very limited internet access, one default setting in Android will pretty much guarantee messing up everything. It is very important to learn about it and take proper steps to deal with the issue before your trip starts.

Google Play Store Hell

Google play store has a default setting to auto download updates to your important applications (and the not so important ones like games). Google is also smart enough to give you the options to download such big files related to application updates only when your Android device is connected through wifi instead of cell phone network which often entails expensive data fees. This works fine when your wifi connection is fast with unlimited bandwidth. When you are constrained by very poor connections provided by places like a hotel or internet bar, this feature becomes a pain in the ass as you will not be able to do what you really want to do like checking your messages or browse for information that you need at the moment.

In short, the auto update eats up all the bandwidth that is provided to you. Worse yet, the connection provider may deed you abusing the network and cut you off the network. It is very often that you are paying for the connection by time. The slow down caused by auto update simply waste your time and money.

Disable Application Updates

To disable the auto application update, you have to launch Google Play Store. And here is the catch why you have to do this before you are trapped at your destination. You need wifi to get onto Google Play Store but auto update already started the moment you are getting wifi connection which in turn choking off all other things you are trying to do including access to Google Play Store. Under such adverse condition, it will take you a long time before you can get onto Play Store, if you are not cut off by the internet connection provider already.

Within Google Play Store main menu you will find the item Settings. Choose that and the first item is application update. Set it to never update. You can always change it back when you go back to places with better internet connections.

End Notes

I was told that internet access can be a problem in several parts of the world but I have never really experienced the limitations first hand until now. The problem is real and if you are interested in staying connected through email and other means on the internet, it is important to take the necessary steps or you will be in for a nasty surprise like what I experienced.

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