Apparatus and methods are provided for connectionless data transfer. In one novel aspect, the UE in INACTIVE state initiates one or more data transmissions without RRC connection upon determining one or more preconfigured transmission conditions. The UE restores an INACTIVE AS context, establishes UL resources, and performs connectionless data transmissions. The UE monitors one or more preconfigured fallback conditions for fallback procedures and monitors stop conditions for suspension/stopping procedures. In one embodiment, the UL resources for the one or more data transmission are preconfigured configuration grant (CG) resources from the network. In one embodiment, the preconfigured UL resource is used for the data transmission only when the TA is valid. When the TA is not valid, the UE performs RA procedure and either uses the preconfigure resource or continues the one or more data transmissions by monitoring PDCCH with C-RNTI.