Help Cannot make or receive calls

[donnonm]

Hello,

Samsung Galaxy S9 phone; Model SM-G960U1; Android 10; Service provider: Tracfone

Phone was working perfectly for months.

Yesterday I tried to dial Tracfone's access number for international calling which is 305 938 5673.
Got a message saying the number is not working and to text 611 which is the Tracfone help system.

Received a text message back saying the system confirmed my phone number as a valid Tracfone number and the text system then said it's going to check my phone settings. Something reset and now I cannot make or receive any phone calls.

One additional point, using my phone in the past I kept getting occasional notification messages saying 'we cannot connect to visual voicemail'. I never wanted that so I ignored these messages. After their system changed my phone, a display appeared on the phone which was some type of visual voicemail display. But that is not now appearing nor can I find it.

I reset the network connections; enabled the Airplane mode and disabled it; removed the SIM card and inserted it again; checked the preferred network type; checked for any system updates; and went into safe mode to check for any bad apps.

When I try and make a call the call screen displays just like for a normal phone call but never connects.

When I went to Tracfone they checked all the settings in connections; turned off wi-fi and bluetooth; confirmed that airplane mode was not on; looked at mobile networks, which is lte/cdma, checked the access point name: vzwinternet;

I removed the SIM and reinserted; gave them the last row of numbers of the SIM card: 37235; and they asked me to dial *73.

Wi-Fi is working, I can connect to the internet, I can text, cellular data indicator shows a strong sigal so I think I'm getting cellular data.

Thank you in advance for your help,

Don

 

[Dannydet]

Factory reset the device

 

[Hadron]

Try the SIM in a different phone. If you have the same problem then it's either the SIM or Tracfone's systems that are the problem. If it does work then it's something about the phone.

 

[svim]

.....
, checked the access point name: vzwinternet;
.....

Perhaps something happened in the background that inadvertently switched your APN. That appears to be a Verizon APN, if your carrier is still Tracfone it is likely to be titled TFDATA or something like that. In your phone's Settings menu are there multiple APNs listed? Can you just switch it back to Tracfone? If it's not there, you can make up your own new Tracfone APN and switch to that to see if that fixes things.
https://www.tracfone.com/support/apn-settings

Tracfone is a MVNO that contracts with different carriers. Is your cellular service with Tracfone using Verizon? Or were you previously using Verizon?

 

[donnonm]

Thank you all for your help with this.

Was supposed to get a call 7:15 this morning from Tracfone upper level support. Was just another regular person that asked for my IMEI , last four digits of my SIM card and to turn the phone on and off 2 or 3 times, checking some things. Then he said he's going to schedule a call back for someone to call me in 30 minutes, at about 8:30.
3 hours later they never called back.

So I did do a factory reset - and still experiencing the same problem. Rechecked the APN, VZWINTERNET displayed and that was confirmed by one of the Tracfone people. My cell service is with Tracfone and I believe now using Verizon. I will try my SIM in my wife's S9. Wonder if running those Android diagnostic codes would show anything.

 

[Dannydet]

At this point I'd ask for a replacement device since the phone cannot make or receive calls.

 

[donnonm]

Thanks, Dannydet
Is there any chance that TracFone could have done something remotely to cause this?

 

[Dannydet]

I highly doubt that a carrier would deliberately sabotage a single client's device.

 

[victoriaviolet]

There are several reasons why you may not be able to make calls on your Samsung Galaxy S9 phone.
Check your network connection.
Check you text messages settings.
Check for software updates:
Restart your phone: Sometimes.
Check for any third-party apps.
Or simply do factory reset.

 

[AidenTheCrusader]

Thanks, Dannydet
Is there any chance that TracFone could have done something remotely to cause this?

Tracfone is sketchy.

 

[AidenTheCrusader]

Hello,

Samsung Galaxy S9 phone; Model SM-G960U1; Android 10; Service provider: Tracfone

Phone was working perfectly for months.

Yesterday I tried to dial Tracfone's access number for international calling which is 305 938 5673.
Got a message saying the number is not working and to text 611 which is the Tracfone help system.

Received a text message back saying the system confirmed my phone number as a valid Tracfone number and the text system then said it's going to check my phone settings. Something reset and now I cannot make or receive any phone calls.

One additional point, using my phone in the past I kept getting occasional notification messages saying 'we cannot connect to visual voicemail'. I never wanted that so I ignored these messages. After their system changed my phone, a display appeared on the phone which was some type of visual voicemail display. But that is not now appearing nor can I find it.

I reset the network connections; enabled the Airplane mode and disabled it; removed the SIM card and inserted it again; checked the preferred network type; checked for any system updates; and went into safe mode to check for any bad apps.

When I try and make a call the call screen displays just like for a normal phone call but never connects.

When I went to Tracfone they checked all the settings in connections; turned off wi-fi and bluetooth; confirmed that airplane mode was not on; looked at mobile networks, which is lte/cdma, checked the access point name: vzwinternet;

I removed the SIM and reinserted; gave them the last row of numbers of the SIM card: 37235; and they asked me to dial *73.

Wi-Fi is working, I can connect to the internet, I can text, cellular data indicator shows a strong sigal so I think I'm getting cellular data.

Thank you in advance for your help,

Don

Try checking Access Point Names (APN). Usually in network settings.

 

[nickdalzell]

I just dealt with this today. My Note II wouldn't call or receive calls (but text, data, and MMS worked fine). It's NOT the APN. No APN would make data and text fail (tested it myself)

It's likely they're enforcing VoLTE on you. I always thought VoLTE was also needed for SMS but apparently not. I just tried three other phones, one a LG Lucid 3 (2014), a Pantech Breakout (2011) and my S4 Mini (2013) and they all text, had data and could do MMS, but no phone calls. Under Settings-->About Phone-->Status everything checked out except one bit:

Mobile Network:
Unknown

That one part right there. It should say "Verizon Wireless". On the LG, it showed 'searching for service' despite it having all bars and 4G LTE. Texting still worked. MMS worked. Data worked.

The clue was the Pantech Breakout. It showed 'no service' as the carrier, and it had additional details regarding what it used for voice, and it was 1x. the status of 1x was zero. Nothing. Seriously, we have had 1x for years (and 3G, it actually connects to 3G at work!) but apparently today they finally shut 'em down. Took 'em long enough. My Galaxy S5 works, and it has HD voice (aka, VoLTE) same SIM and all, so it's a VoLTE thing. Verizon did say they delayed the shutdown of 3G 'indefinitely' and haven't issued an update yet but I guess they finally got the ball rolling. They were maintaining pockets of 1x/3G also for M2M and IoT systems as well, and if I went scanning, there are still small slivers of 3G left around here, enough for that 'unknown' network to show 'verizon wireless' where it remains until you restart the phone, but despite that I still couldn't call or receive calls on those phones. Oh well, at least I can still use the most feature-packed phone around, the Galaxy S5. It needs a battery though.