I bought a Galaxy S8 (SM-G950F) from the /e/ store and it works for most of the things. Updated to the latest image and since then I’ve noticed a very annoying issue with the calling app which is not always reproducible but appears enough to be annoying.
Here’s how it happens :
DO : Start the phone
DO : Play music for example with VLC.
EXPECT : Sound works.
DO : Make a call
EXPECT : You can call.
ACTUAL : When making the call sound works when entering the phone number but then stops working. And then it stops working for all the apps, just like a sound driver crash. However this crash seems to be only triggered by the phone app.
WORKAROUND : Completely shutdown the phone, wait a bit, and turn it on. Retry several times until phone decides to work.
Note that from time to time it can also crash during a call, I observed it once. I checked several times and my volume settings are OK.
I’ve observed this behaviour with image 0.11-2020083170821 which is standard to /e/OS since my phone proposed it.
Issue seems to be related to the phone component as it occurred even before I installed Aurora. Sound works fine for example on VLC before activating the phone component but not after. Calling with Signal for example works.
Things actually work normally with Fairphone Checkup. Everything else works including Signal and Skype phone, both with LTE and Wifi. Even the beeps when I enter the phone numbers work, but things stop working immediately after dialing up when the communication is established (when things crash).
So it’s definitely not an RMA issue but a software bug. One time the phone app crashed and then the sound bug appeared. Workaround is to reboot the phone until things work but it may require several attempts.
Note that for me sound works when using Signal, Skype or any other app than the phone. Wiping the cache partition as suggested there but with no luck. Rebooting the phone in self mode does the same as well.
Otherwise maybe this could do the trick ? It’s a Xiaomi trick but looks like it has been applied to Samsung phones as well. (I’m not exactly comfortable with rooting the phone however)
@Anonyme any idea ? (it is an S8 bought from /e/ Store. Speaker is not the culprit, it only happens when doing GSM calls - even calls with Signal are not affected)