"Quail" made a cruise to the east coast in late 1923, and in 1925 she was at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for repairs. In 1927 she spent time patrolling the west coast of Nicaragua, and later joined the fleet in the Caribbean for maneuvers. From July 1928 to January 1929, she was on the east coast, operating between Virginia and Massachusetts. She returned to Coco Solo in 1929. Following duty with the control force in the Panama Canal area from 1929 to 1931, "Quail" operated out of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, from 1931 to 1941, including in her duties a period of survey work off Alaska. On 25 July 1940 the "Quail" landed a force to construct a naval air station on Palmyra Atoll.