Based at New York City and then at Norfolk, Virginia, through the 1920s and into the 1930s, Sandpiper operated with the fleet, off the mid-Atlantic and New England coasts during the summer and fall and in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico during the winter.

In January 1932, Sandpiper was reassigned to the Pacific and, for several years after her arrival on 20 February at San Diego, California, her new base, she provided services for seaplanes along the west coast.

From Coco Solo, her duties took her along the Central and South American coasts for survey expeditions and exercises and into the Caribbean for temporary assignments to various patrol units stationed in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

On the 23rd, however, while operating to the south of Cape Farewell, she was rammed on the port quarter by a British merchant ship which tore a hole in her hull and seriously damaged her steering gear.

In June 1944, she returned to the United States; underwent overhaul at Norfolk, Virginia; and, in September, got underway for Key West, Florida, where she remained, attached to the Training Detachment, Fleet Air Wing 5, until after the end of the war in Europe.

A month later, she was ordered back to the east coast and steamed, via San Diego, California, and the Panama Canal, to Boston, Massachusetts, arriving there at the end of October.

Sandpiper was decommissioned on 10 December 1945 at Boston, Massachusetts, struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 17 April 1946, and transferred to the Maritime Commission on 12 October 1946 for disposal.