I have been struggling with my FP2 for the last two days. I started noticing yesterday that I wasn’t receiving calls even though my phone was with me, switched on and was connected to the network. All calls went straight to voicemail, or worse, callers would just get a “busy” signal (which shouldn’t be happening anyway since I have voicemail on for unanswered, busy, and unreachable).
After talking to my provider (Vodafone Germany) to make sure there was no disruption of the service I have tried the following:
switching phone on/off
manual connection to mobile network
inserting the sim into an old Samsung - which didn’t even recognise it.
weirdly after putting it back into my FP2 it seemed to work, however the problem reappeared today. I could now sometimes receive calls but - alas - not consistently. So I’ve gone and gotten a new sim card, assuming that it was the culprit. No such luck! Calls are still not coming through.
I have no issues with my secondary sim (a UK giffgaff) so I switched the two cards around in the phone (after cleaning the slots with some pressurised air). Unfortunately, this didn’t change anything.
The network status is also behaving erratically - coverage comes and goes, and trying to access features like call forwarding or other call settings will sometimes result in a network error message.
I’m running the most current OS (17.05.2) and the only other issue with the handset is the screen which cracked a couple of weeks ago (waiting for a spare to become available) and that it will occasionally switch itself off and pretend it doesn’t recognise me anymore (I have Kaspersky running).
I’m fairly desperate at this point so any advice would be hugely welcome!
Given that your other SIM works fine, my first guess would be that it might nontheless be related to the network or the SIM.
Did you also try your new SIM in another phone (at the same location)?
Another try could be to switch the SIM with 3G/4G access and the one with 2G only. Maybe just one of these network types have a poor reception in your area.
Hey, thanks. I did in fact just put my new SIM into another phone and it works fine there as far as I can tell. It doesn’t seem to be location related either as I’ve been having the issue in different locations…
Not sure I understand about swapping the two SIMs - isn’t that what I did earlier when I changed them about in the FP?
In the FP2 only one SIM has access to 3G/4G and the other can only get 2G connection. This is independent of the slot, but a setting which you can find in:
settings --> more (network settings) --> networks
There you can first switch both to 2G only, and then change which of the SIMS gets access to 3G/4G.
In some areas the network coverage of the different network types vary; some operators in some countries are also already shutting down 2G (though I don’t think yet in Europe).
So it could be worth a try to switch those settings to check if its related to the network type.
In case you use 4G/LTE, try to switch to 3G/2G and see what happens. If it works then there might be a problem in your providers’ 4G network. Quite common to happen occasionally.
That seems to indeed be the problem. Or at least - it works for now on 2G, but as soon as I set it to 3G or 4G my call goes straight to voicemail. Wow. Who would have thought.
Will look at it some more tomorrow. Until then - THANKS! - but what do I do with the info? I mean, is this something the provider can fix or do I just have to wait for it to go away …?
Error in 3G network? Wow, this is rare. Are you sure the SIM you’re using is voice enabled? I mean, not that you use one voice SIM and one data SIM and just chose the wrong one?
For me, even though my operator promised that my data SIM could theoretically be used for voice (though expensive to use) it doesn’t work out well. Maybe you found a bug in your providers’ methods to cut out events which shouldn’t occur according to your contract: It happens occasionally that thing work out with 2G that should actually be forbidden.
Hey, thanks again. No, it’s definitely voice and data In fact I’ve been using both my SIMs for years, even before I had the FP …
Hmm, weird though that it works fine in my old S4 Mini, without “downgrading” to 3G/2G … I’m still thinking it’s more likely it has to do with the handset rather than the network…
Update: After more testing I have no problems with my SIM in a different handset, on the other hand switching the 4G access in the Fairphone to the second SIM starts causing the same problem, whereas the problem doesn’t seem to occur for the SIM that is set to 2G (but 3G already causes issues).
As the two SIMs are on different networks but cause the same problem it doesn’t look like a network issue to me but increasingly like it might be a problem with the handset.
Any other ideas? Thanks
… I’ll try disassembling the phone next to clean it and put it back together, one thing I did notice is that without the back cover there’s a small noise when I shake it, as if something is loose inside - is that normal?
If both SIMs have troubles with 4G in your FP2, and 4G works in other devices at the same location, then indeed it sounds like a hardware issue.
Dis- and reassembling the phone could be a try to solve it; if it doesn’t work, I guess the next step would be to contact support and let them know what you already tried and how you determined the issue.
The rattling sound is most likely just the vibrator, I wouldn’t worry about that.
Thanks Gerald. In fact I already contacted support yesterday to get a head start and they have just gotten back to me suggesting it might be a defect on the motherboard. I will however try disassembling it just in case. Anyway thanks again for your time!!
Any news in this case? I got the same problem with new FP2/6. Under 4G phonecalls in/out are blocked. SMS is working. SIM in other phones work nicely - so no provider issue!
Since people in this thread seem to have issues with calling while LTE is enabled: Do your providers support VoLTE? If that is the case but FP2 has issues with this we could narrow the problem down a bit. By disabling LTE the phone falls back to 2G telephony and the problem disappears. Could that be possible?
Hey, spologies for the delayed response. I ended up sending my handset in as there was no other solution. Got it back wiped and reset but without any actual repairs having taken place. Apparently it worked fine with different SIM cards. After this it behaved well for a few weeks then the problem started again. Now I’m returning the phone and getting a new one … but from what you’re saying this might have the same problem! Btw what is a Fairphone 2/6 I mean what does the 6 stand for?
Hey Martin, interesting point. Vodafone Germany does indeed support VoLTE but apparently not with the Fairphone, or at least it seems that way judging by their list of compatible handsets. Not sure this is the problem though …
I mean, is this something the provider can fix or do I just have to wait for it to go away …?