No sound 50+% of the time in calls, until reboot

That might be possible. Maybe I didn’t express myself understandable enough: the problem may have started with the update to Android 10 and on calls, when trying them after using Spotify some time before.
Still just an idea - and unfortunately there’s only a German topic up to now…

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Same problem here. The call seems to go through (timer starts running) but I can’t hear nor be heard. Rebooting fixes the issue temporarily and for an undefined period of time. In my case:

  • Fairphone 3 (bought directly from fairphone shop, on january 2020)
  • I never use earphones, never plug anything on that port.
  • Swapped the SIM to 2nd slot, same problem happens.
  • Updated the OS last week as per the phone notification. The problem started showing months before this and now it happens more often.

I sent them a request and they answered with a template answer asking me to buy a new SIM, change provider or some other non-sense. And telling me they will not look into it unless I satisfy all these demands. So I have to spend more money before they even decide to give it a look!? They don’t seem to honor their brand name when it comes to customers and that is extremely disappointing.

It looks like they have the problem well identified but got no clue as to what causes it, so the customer care team just fools around with you to buy themselves time.

I don’t really have any hope left and I’m stuck with this, but I’m sure I’ll never buy anything off this company again and I will not recommend it to anyone. As soon as the phone breaks down I’ll buy another phone somewhere else, replacing components of a piece of crap does not make much sense.

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I entirely agree with everything you say. So disappointing…
The last email I received said :

If not specified already, please provide the following information:

  1. Network provider(s)
  2. In which country are you experiencing this issue?
  3. Frequency of the issue after the last update. How often does it happen? Once a day, once a week, every phone call, etc.

I am checking with my colleagues how we can help you with this, I can only hope for your patience.

They’re totally trying to gain time. I just hope they do put resources in fixing the issue.

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To me it sounds like they’re trying to find a typical pattern for those problems. And as there’s currently no fix they hope for your patience…

I’m convinced they do.

Same problem here. Often when calling apparently people hear me, but I can’t hear others. Rebooting fixes it. Really hope that this will be fixed, but it only seems to become worse actually…

I’m convinced they are doing nothing. If they’d be looking into it they’d have told me something in the lines of “yes, we know the problem and are trying to find a fix, please be patient”, instead they simply deny everything and make you go through a nightmare to find an excuse not to help you.

I haven’t seen such a bad customer support ever.

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I have a newish FP3 and have the same problem which is resolved by restart.
I think it happens after using and then turning off Do Not Disturb
Barry

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Unfortunately I have to admit, that I am suffering under the same problem.

Did someone already find out what is causing the issue? I read about spotify and “do not disturb”.

I also noticed, that it became worse with the Android 10 update.

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as there is no real pattern in the reports of the users i assume that it simply is whether a software or a hardware bug. I suggest you too to write to the FP-support team to raise their awareness and put some more pressure on them for finding a solution!

I have the same Problem, i guess its since the Upgrade to Android 10. I have to reboot to receive calls wich is really annoying. Hope that there is a fix for this issue soon!

Hi Volker and all,

On my Fairphone 3 we discovered the problem of “no sound while calling” originates from two things. First, it only occured after the Fairphone software update ( roughly a month ago). Second it is related to the usage of another app from the playstore: Trivia Crack.
When the problem occurs, you can solve it by rebooting your phone. It will work fine…days after days…until we play Trivia Crack. After using this app one time I entered the “no sound while calling” problem again.
My solution for now…which is not elegant but practical: don’t use the app Trivia Crack any more and this works. To me, it seems likely this effect can occur with other apps (games) as well.

Note: When using spotify app the phone works fine.

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Hi Maud

The “no sound while config” was happening from september 2019, long time before android 10 update.
And I never used, nor I know what is, Trivia Crack.
Still, I have this issue, randomly appearing for days/weeks, until disappearing for days/weeks.
I thought at some point that it was correlated to the use of the jack plug, but I’m not sure, because I wasn’t able to reproduce at will the issue by plugging the jack

Please do contact Fairphone support, and do not hesitate to link to that thread

Cheers

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In another thread, Spotify has been identified as the possible culprit here. Could you please check if your issue occurs right after using the Spotify app?

Best wishes,
Thomas

Hello,
I’ve got the same issue with my FP 3 for months. I don’t use my phone a lot for calls but my impression is that it got worse during the last weeks.
Interrestingly I’ve had this problem with my FP 2 as well. That makes me think the problem might bei caused by an app (not Spotify in my case). But I admit that I don’t want to test every single app.
I will try the earplugs in the next days and report my findings.
Ticket is sent too.
Greetings

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You could try starting in dic:safemode, it would allow you to know whether this is caused by an app or not (not which one though).

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Looks like people are having troubles after using many different types of apps, which only have in common… sound :slight_smile:
This smells like a driver issue for audio/mic. Maybe a resource take/release.
In other words, something triggered by app usage, but present at the OS level. Which is maybe why they had hopes about the issue being fixed by android 10 ?

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i tested it in safe mode and the problem still occured, so I don’t think that it is related to specific apps!

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It gets worse everyday. Until the Update i was able to call via Bluetooth but now even that wont Work anymore until i restart IT. But hey atleast we get a Fairphone 3+ and new Cam Moduls…sigh god damnit… God f******* damnit is it that hard to give Support for a 450 Dollar Phone?

I do however think using and Audio App makes it worse. Seriously though we need answers when will it get fixed?

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This is the latest answer i got from the support team. think it may be interessting to you:

(I’ve been in contact with the team since a few weeks and they suggested many different “solutions”. I tried them all but nothing solved it. it really seems like they were trying to “buy” time to work on a real solution for this) At least they start being honest now:

Dear Thomas,

Thank you for contacting us and taking the time to provide helpful information. I apologize for your wait and I am sincerely sorry for the inconvenience caused.

We received seemingly similar customer complaints with this specific issue, so I will log it and forward it to our product team.
We are currently investigating the root of this issue. Unfortunately, at the moment there is nothing we can do to solve it. Please allow us a reasonable amount of time to investigate this.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation and patience. We are truly grateful to our customers for supporting our mission.

I will keep your request on-hold and I will get in touch as soon as we have any news.
If you have any questions in the meantime, please let me know.

Kind regards

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The fact that this has been lasting for over a year now is really concerning…

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