Gotcha. Well, I guess this is a feature request, then. I think it would make sense for something like [1+1+1+1]/4 should be the time-signature equivalent of Force Duration: that is, it should be a way of prescribing particular beaming for a given section, even if it means overriding global Notation Options.
If you consistently need certain settings, you may consider getting a trial license for Pro and saving all your desired settings as default. I believe this should carry over to Elements once the trial is finished.
…or just ask nicely, and someone here on the forum would be glad to tweak settings on a file you provide, and send it back to you with those changes. 
But even with Pro (I think we just established) getting eighths to group by quarter-note beat will be a manual process (although copy/pasting and then using Lock rhythm may help in some cases).
In what time signature, Derrek? Not that the OP’s specified what time signature they’re struggling with, but I find that if I set:
the first option in Notation Options > Simple Time Signatures Without a Half-bar to Break beams at beat boundaries
the first option Notation Options > Quarter Note (Crotchet) Denominator Time Signatures With Half-bars to Bream beams at beat boundaries
I get this, without manually fiddling with anything at all.
It’s easy enough to then fix the irregular ones via time signature overrides, like so:
What you say, Leo, is good to know, and I hope it helps the OP; but since the OP was having trouble, I expect half-bar time signatures were involved. Since in my own music I would be seeking to group notes to reflect the larger rhythmic divisions rather than splitting them, I don’t come across this challenge frequently.
Learn something new everyday!!! I would have put money on the fact the [1+1+1+1]/4 would beam to the quarter note (crotchet). Feature request please.
Robby