I have a Galaxy S10 which I reinstalled /e/ on yesterday and all seemed to be working fine, I was able to make a call yesterday, though when someone tried to call me I only received an SMS notifying me of a missed call.
Now, when I try to make a call using “Phone” app. It shows the ‘calling’ screen but it doesn’t start ringing and the recipient’s phone doesn’t ring. Also, when someone tries to call me, they get an ‘engaged’ tone as though I’m already on a call.
I can send and receive SMS via my carrier so I can’t understand why the calls aren’t working.
When I go to Settings > Network and Internet, it shows my carrier listed under “Calls and SMS” and also under “SIMS”. If I take the SIM out and put it in another phone I can make and receive calls without issue.
Do you have any advice on settings I can look at to try and resolve this issue?
I spoke with my carrier today and everything looks fine from their side. They reset my service anyway but it hasn’t made any difference.
Additional troubleshooting I have done:
Settings>Reset Options>Reset wi-fi, mobile & Bluetooth
Settings>Reset Options>Reset app preferences
Given that I can make and receive calls when the SIM is in another device, it tells me that the issue must be with /e/ somewhere. I updated from v2.4.1 to v2.5 via Settings>Updater sometime yesterday but I can’t recall if that was before or after the problems started. Is there a simple way to roll back the update to check if this fixes the problem?
Also tried it today with a completely different SIM card and the same issues are occurring so there is no doubt it’s to do with the OS. I’ve played with every setting I can find related to mobile data and no change.
If anyone has any suggestions I’d be extremely grateful.
Sure, you are correct that this is a problem for you with /e/OS, but I believe the logic is flawed.
I cannot prove this accurately in code, so please treat this as speculation. I have noticed that while apn became more and more complicated say 2 years ago, APN have become abbreviated by some carriers since then, especially it seems to me in the case where one pays a “sub-contracting organisation” rather than the mainstream carrier itself. (Like me, I pay Asda, the carrier is Vodafone.)
I also wondered about the APN and the sub-contractor vs mainstream carrier issue. I’m in Australia and Optus is my mainstream carrier via Coles (sub-contracting to Optus). The pre-selected APN has always been “Boost Mobile” (which is Optus affiliated) and is also listed correctly in the link you provided above.
I was not aware of the list of carriers that do not work with /e/OS, fortunately I’m not with Telstra which is the only mainstream provider on that list in Australia.
This SIM worked just fine making and receiving calls so something has changed. I wish I’d pay more attention to the timing of things as I didn’t realise there was a problem until after I’d upgraded to v2.5 but I was making and receiving calls the day prior to the upgrade so it’s very possibly the cause.
I really like /e/ so I’m going to try rolling back the update (or wiping again and reinstalling the earlier version that was working as a backup option )
The issue is very possibly related to the fact that Optus have apparently started shutting down 3G. They may not be shutting down every coverage area at the same time, which would explain why your calls were connecting one day, but not the next.
As you probably already know from extensive discussions in these forums, Samsungs lose VoLTE capability whenever a custom ROM is installed (thanks to Samsung’s closed, proprietary IMS implementation and the current inability to reverse engineer it). So yes, in one way you could say that it’s an OS problem, but likely not related to that /e/OS update specifically.
Of course, Optus’ customer service probably don’t know that you installed a custom ROM and lost VoLTE capability. All they see is that you’re presumed to be using a standard, VoLTE-enabled Samsung device. Or if they do know you replaced the OS, then the customer service rep might not be aware of the resulting loss of Samsung’s IMS.
That’s my assumption, anyway, supported by the fact that you get normal call functioning when moving the SIM to a different device (presumably either non-Samsung, or if Samsung, then one running standard Android). The fact that a different SIM has the same problem in your device also supports that assumption.
Hey thanks for the advice. I am aware that Optus are shutting down 3G and wondered also if that was the cause. I’m currently connected via LTE which after doing some reading should be equivalent(ish) to 4G but the nuances are lost on me, I’m still learning, so it’s very possible this has something to do with it. I switched my preferred network to 3G, which caused the “Settings” app to crash. When I restarted it worked fine and had the preferred network listed as 3G but there was not network connectivity which was expected. I mainly tried it to see if re-establishing the connection with LTE would do anything but no change.
I was able to “downgrade” back to v2.4.1 using TWRP and the issue is still persisting so I’m running out of plausible explanations that suggest the phone, SIM or /e/ are the cause so it’s I guess my next option is to find a friend on another carrier and try their SIM.
If you’re in Australia and using /e/ successfully, do you mind if I ask who your carrier is?
I’m in the U.S., where we’ve been dealing with all of the carriers’ 3G shutdowns over a couple of years now.
LTE is 4G, yes. VoLTE is Voice over LTE, a distinct telephony protocol, different from simple 4G/LTE data (browsing, etc.), and different from the old 3G voice protocol, which is different from the old 2G/GSM protocol.
A dead giveaway when checking whether a phone is using VoLTE for calls is if the network indicator at the top of your screen changes from “4G” or “LTE” to something lower during an attempted call.
As you have no network connection when set to 3G only, that means there probably isn’t a 3G connection in the area where you are. If Optus haven’t completely shut down 3G everywhere, you might get a 3G connection when moving around different geographic areas, but apparently not for long.
That all makes good sense. I’m very close to a city to it’s unlikely I would be connecting to a 3G network (the same SIM in my other device, same make and and model but with stock Samsung OS, no changes) works just fine.
I have never seen my /e/ phone list 4G at the top right (though when it was working just fine I didn’t think to look). When I reboot the phone, it shows ‘LTE’, briefly (it flashes twice and then doesn’t appear again). Sounds like you’ve zeroed in on the issue. It’s not using VoLTE.
Doing a quick search on the forums, I see you’ve been helping people here with exactly the same problem and that as long as I’m using this Galaxy S10 (or any newer Samsung?) I’m not going to be able to make calls using /e/.
If I’ve interpreted it correctly. That sucks but what can you do. Get mad or get a new phone. Been thinking about a Pixel anyway…
Thanks for your help, this community is great, even if Samsung is not
Correct. Unless you reinstall stock Android, which would be a huge step back, privacy-wise.
During the network transition to 4G calling (i.e. VoLTE), when both 3G and 4G networks were available, your Samsung running /e/ could revert automatically to the old 3G network to complete calls. Now that 3G is gone, or nearly gone, and presumably 2G as well, it has nothing to revert to if it can’t complete a VoLTE call.
So, if you need to make calls over the carrier’s network, and if you don’t want to reinstall stock Android, then you’ll need a different brand of phone. You can adapt the Samsung to some other purpose, or sell it with stock Android reinstalled, for instance.
As a temporary (and largely inconvenient ) solution, I have the two galaxy S10s, I may just strip the one running stock firmware back to the absolute bare minimum of applications and use it to receive calls and texts. I spend most of my time connected to WiFi so all the apps I need from the big tech nasties can stay sandboxed via /e/ and Insular on the /e/ phone.
Thank you iabd & Taurus. The linked articles explain it all very clearly why this has happened and I’m shocked (sarcasm) at the conduct of Australia’s big telcos in allowing this to go forward as it has.
I’ve been running the “two-phone” solution and it’s getting me by until get my next mobile device.
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but what can you do. Get mad or get a new phone. Been thinking about a Pixel anyway…
) solution, I have the two galaxy S10s, I may just strip the one running stock firmware back to the absolute bare minimum of applications and use it to receive calls and texts. I spend most of my time connected to WiFi so all the apps I need from the big tech nasties can stay sandboxed via /e/ and Insular on the /e/ phone.