Verizon S3 connection problems - Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III

Anyone else having problems with sending and receiving calls on their S3 in areas where they should be having no problems?
I got my phone at launch and it seemed to work fine, I noticed the connection issues after a couple of weeks and figured they would be fixed with software updates as time progressed.
But it's been over 6 months and I'm really growing tired of having to resend texts 5 times and never receiving calls. My phone shows I have 2 bars of 4G yet when my family calls me from the front door of our house (which is 12 feet away from my room) I get nothing. The only reason I know this is because I have the google voice chrome plugin that tells me when I have messages or missed calls to my google voice number, but since I have my voicemail synced up with gv it tells me when I have missed calls regardless of it being to my actual cell number or my gv number. If it wasn't for that I would never know that I missed calls all the time. And I only know I miss texts because my girlfriend gets pissed at me all the time because she thinks I'm ignoring her when I don't reply to texts I'm suppose to receive but never do.
So I've been living with this annoying problem for a while now and I thought maybe it was just my room that had bad reception but I remembered that my previous phone (HTC Droid Incredible) never had this problem. So I tried out my parent's feature phones (LG env 2 and 3) and they didn't have any problems while I replicated the same situations. Their old inferior phones worked better than the nice premium one I paid extra for. Ain't that some bs?
And now I go to a different school that has terrible reception in all the buildings I have classes in. So I always turn on airplane mode and enable power saving to make sure my phone doesn't die by the end of the day. But the other day I asked this random girl sitting by me in the first floor of the student union if her galaxy s3 was getting signal and she said "No, this phone sucks in this building". I asked what service she had and she said Sprint. I didn't know if I should have felt content knowing I wasn't the only one or mad that this phone might have an antenna problem. BUT just yesterday I was in the same student union, in the lower floor this time, and I asked this guy from my class if his data was working on his phone and he said "Yeah I'm downloading a picture right now.", to which I replied back with which service? He said "Verizon", what phone? "Motorola Razer something". At that point I got so frustrated that I felt like throwing my phone.
I mean the phone itself is great, I love using it and taking pictures with it, although lately I've been getting "camera failed" errors a lot. It's just really annoying that it doesn't serve its most basic functions when I need them to work.
So I'm asking if anyone else has been experiencing similar issues and what they did about it? I would have called Verizon sooner but since I'm an added line on our family's plan they only want to talk to my dad. He and I have different schedules so it's always a pain to try and coordinate.

I had similar issues with by i535.
Except the issues appeared the 1st day I got my device, and I was highly po'd to say the least, considering I left sprint the same day because I couldn't complete a call for months. Troubleshot with Verizon tech as is the protocol prior to replacement, and saw the device was faulty. Not communicating with the Towers. Device issue possibly regarding the antenna, but uncertain.
Anyway, I got a new replacement a few months ago, and all has been well.
The cause of your issues may be the same, except yours were delayed in appearing. Hard to tell.

Yeah, I'm hoping to try and get a replacement soon. I'm just scared I'll get a refurbished one that has the same issues.

Related

anyone else had these issues

So i want to inform the Tbolt community on the major headache the past 3 days have been, just in case anyone else has had similar problems or will later on.
Starting on Monday at 530 pm est my data connection started acting up.
I would be trying to load a web page, and it would say network issue, meanwhile my 3g icon is there with the arrows lighting up like crazy
I went into the radio menu ran the ping test and got errors all over the place. Proceeded to do a battery pull, same issue.
At this point I got home didn't want to deal with verizon and threw on wifi.
Day 2: Next morning it couldn't even connect to 3g, so my initial thought was another outage.
Later 3g is back up but same issue as before, I finally call verizon they see an error and they fix it.
Day 3: I go to make a phone call and get a message its connecting me to a cellular operator to make a collect or credit card call, i try again same thing. Friends try calling me it says the person your calling cant be located.
I call verizon, 40 minutes later they tell me to do a full reset on my phone, I do no resolution. I call back they see the error and fix it
Day 3 continued: next phone call i receive comes up as unknown, I answer its my boss, whose number I have saved. I have someone else call, same issue. This issue persists the rest of the day until I call verizon, now that issue is finally fixed.
Now I'm sharing this mainly because Verizon insists they are all isolated incidents that just so happened to occur right after each other, even the fixing my voice issues to calls showing up as unknown. I personally believe that w/e the first tech did to fix my data issues, started making my phone a ticking time bomb for the other two issues. If anyone else runs into similar problems maybe verizon can figure out a way to fix one and prevent the others, so no one else has to deal with tier 2 tech support as much as I had too the past 3 days.

[Q] Some phone calls not coming in - anyone else?

I have read through the FAQs and seen several posts from users of other phones and other networks with the same issue, but there has not been an answer to be found.
I've experienced this issue with 4 different ROMs now, so it's not ROM-based. I've tried 3 different radios, so it's not likely modem-based.
The issue is that I will get voicemail notifications for calls I miss, but I'm sitting at my desk with my phone and it didn't ring, nor is there a missed call indication. 5 minutes later, someone else might call me and the call comes through fine. It appears to be purely random. People who call me sometimes get through, sometimes not. It's not the same person who can't get through, or the same network.
Does anyone have an idea what is happening?
dontezuma said:
I have read through the FAQs and seen several posts from users of other phones and other networks with the same issue, but there has not been an answer to be found.
I've experienced this issue with 4 different ROMs now, so it's not ROM-based. I've tried 3 different radios, so it's not likely modem-based.
The issue is that I will get voicemail notifications for calls I miss, but I'm sitting at my desk with my phone and it didn't ring, nor is there a missed call indication. 5 minutes later, someone else might call me and the call comes through fine. It appears to be purely random. People who call me sometimes get through, sometimes not. It's not the same person who can't get through, or the same network.
Does anyone have an idea what is happening?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your description definitely sounds familiar. There are times when the phone was under clothing or left on vibrate, then there are those back to back instances where you notice because the first call went straight to voicemail and the next one gets through.
Ideas? Maybe not, but there may be some clues worth considering. Every wireless carrier I've used suffers dead spots where you are 99% guaranteed to have your call drop in progress driving by.
Locally (NJ) AT&T has 2 on the westbound "covered roadway" leading to the skyway. My point is I've observed where they won't affect my passenger's TMobile calls. Oddly, when I experience this there, the call has usually gone on uninterrupted through the Holland Tunnel. Must be an infrastructure quirk.
The drive by carrier dead zone is a fixed location call deterrent. An expert could probably say how much each example is based on tower locations versus radio interference. I guess a similar scenario might be possible wherein the call recipient is stationary, like at your desk, and some moving interference breaks a fragile tower connection. I have to say it seems a lot less prevalent with SR vs. previous smartphones and with my current ROM / Modem vs. former ones.
pc103 said:
Your description definitely sounds familiar. There are times when the phone was under clothing or left on vibrate, then there are those back to back instances where you notice because the first call went straight to voicemail and the next one gets through.
Ideas? Maybe not, but there may be some clues worth considering. Every wireless carrier I've used suffers dead spots where you are 99% guaranteed to have your call drop in progress driving by.
Locally (NJ) AT&T has 2 on the westbound "covered roadway" leading to the skyway. My point is I've observed where they won't affect my passenger's TMobile calls. Oddly, when I experience this there, the call has usually gone on uninterrupted through the Holland Tunnel. Must be an infrastructure quirk.
The drive by carrier dead zone is a fixed location call deterrent. An expert could probably say how much each example is based on tower locations versus radio interference. I guess a similar scenario might be possible wherein the call recipient is stationary, like at your desk, and some moving interference breaks a fragile tower connection. I have to say it seems a lot less prevalent with SR vs. previous smartphones and with my current ROM / Modem vs. former ones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. No, this is definitely chronic and not related to dead spots. I have my phone with me at my desk, 3 or 4 bars, no issues. Just doesn't come in. It's been really bad since moving to the JB ROMs. It pretty much never happened without explanation (dead zone, etc.) when I was on ICS and earlier. :/
One other performance problem that my Captivate had resembled this.
When I complained to Customer Service, they did some kind of remote (non-destructive) "reset" of my account. That corrected the random call drops I had reported then.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda app-developers app
pc103 said:
One other performance problem that my Captivate had resembled this.
When I complained to Customer Service, they did some kind of remote (non-destructive) "reset" of my account. That corrected the random call drops I had reported then.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda app-developers app
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Click to collapse
Were you dropping calls midstream, or not receiving calls? My problem is with not receiving calls when I'm somewhere I usually do and at times when my cell service looks fine (adequate bars).
dontezuma said:
Were you dropping calls midstream, or not receiving calls? My problem is with not receiving calls when I'm somewhere I usually do and at times when my cell service looks fine (adequate bars).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Now that you mention, I recall it was a mix. Bars were good, some calls were silently missed, others FCd the phone app while ringing in, forcing reboot. Good, stable calls surrounded the (<5%) failed ones. AT&T's account reset corrected both issues. Stock ROM back then was Éclair or Froyo.

Pixel SMS/MMS issues

So my first pixel (32gb black) had microphone issues and had that replaced yesterday no problem. It was all working totally fine and like it should until after the ball drop last night when all of the sudden my phone would not send text messages anymore. So I went to bed thinking it was just tower overload from the new year celebration. Then I wake up this morning and my wife tells me she got 20 text messages from me all in duplicates. I think great, its all fixed. Then I realized throughout the day that while my messages were going out now I was not getting any back. We tested this and sure enough nothing is coming through.
So I chatted with a Google rep and after doing all the troubleshooting (Safe mode, cache clear, reboots, etc) we still had the same issue. At that point he says he talked to a specialist who says its a known issue affecting a small group of Pixel owners and they are working as quickly as possible to fix it.
Anyone else experiencing this? I haven't been able to find any other posts about it which seems really unusual.
I have the exact same problem as you! You're not alone...and yes this is very frustrating. I haven't seen much posted about this issue either. I also thought it was tower overload until my mother-in-law told me my mom was texting me and I wasn't getting any of the texts. Can you send texts? I can. What about phone calls? I can still make and receive those. I'm talking to google as we speak. See what happens.
Well I'm glad I am not alone. I can also still send messages and make and receive calls. Just no text messages coming in. They said it might be my sim card and they want me to talk to my carrier which is ATT. who is your carrier? Let me know what they say or if you get it resolved!
I've been having the same issue with AT&T. Also the same thing happened to me on NYE. I sent happy new year to a friend and he got it like 30 times. I then didnt get any txt's for the rest of the night. I then rebooted my pixel in the AM and I got flooded with txt's I didnt get the night before.
This has been an on going problem for me and AT&T because I get txt's in spurts. Nothing for a while then all of a sudden I get a chunk and then nothing again. It's also very random as I have not been about to duplicate it. I think it's just something with AT&T and the pixel.
mdecker79 said:
I've been having the same issue with AT&T. Also the same thing happened to me on NYE. I sent happy new year to a friend and he got it like 30 times. I then didnt get any txt's for the rest of the night. I then rebooted my pixel in the AM and I got flooded with txt's I didnt get the night before.
This has been an on going problem for me and AT&T because I get txt's in spurts. Nothing for a while then all of a sudden I get a chunk and then nothing again. It's also very random as I have not been about to duplicate it. I think it's just something with AT&T and the pixel.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had almost the same issue. I sent out some texts for the new year that night and they kept saying failed but people said they got them about 100 times. From there I turned it off and rebooted in the morning. Then it was exactly the opposite with them going through no problem but not coming back at all.
I had another Pixel prior to this and never had any issue after a month of use. My brother and SIL also have the same phone on my plan and live right up the road and have never had the issue. It seems unusual that its only affecting SOME phones and not all who have the same set of conditions.
I'm going to talk to my local AT&T store today and see if they will pop in a new SIM card for me and give that a shot.
I have similar SMS issues with my Pixel XL on ATT. In my case, I seem to have more issues sending or receiving SMS while connected to WIFI. Disconnect WIFI and they send/receive as they should. I've had ATT replace my SIM and check all necessary configs on their side and all looks good according to them. I can take that same SIM and put it in my Nexus 6P and all works as it should on WIFI or on carrier.
prestonpeterson said:
I have similar SMS issues with my Pixel XL on ATT. In my case, I seem to have more issues sending or receiving SMS while connected to WIFI. Disconnect WIFI and they send/receive as they should. I've had ATT replace my SIM and check all necessary configs on their side and all looks good according to them. I can take that same SIM and put it in my Nexus 6P and all works as it should on WIFI or on carrier.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So I just tried turning off wifi and sending a few test texts. Still nothing for me coming back. I wish that would at least temporarily solve the issue so I could get on with my day to day life. It seems strange that others are having this issue but there isn't any chatter about it online. I thought more people would be posting about it but there is nothing.
ATT has an SMS test number you can send "test" to 151 and it will respond if all is working correctly. I have the same results with that test number as I do with any other contacts.
Okay so I got mine resolved. I went to the ATT store and they put in a new SIM card and reset network settings. They also reregistered the serial number of the phone to my number. After that all my messages came flooding in and I've been fine ever since. So many one of those three things fixed it though I had already reset my network setting before so I don't think that was it. Best of luck to the others out there!

Out of service area problem

Within the past 2 weeks my phone had been dropping calls or not being able to receive calls at all sometimes. Let me try to explain. Sometimes when I try to make a call my service will cut out and say "out of service area" and not but 5 seconds later it will show I have service again. I can send text messages surf the web anything but make phone calls. At&t doesn't believe that it's on their end. Whats going on??
You are not alone, I have similar problem. I went to Sumsang center in Bestbuy last weekend, the Sumsang guy there told me he loses DATA randomly too, he knew at least 3 people having the same issue since last OTA. And they are all AT&T users, all S8+ phone, the Samsung guy told me they already know this situation and investigating it, hopefully they will push another update soon.
For now, I reboot my phone every morning before I leave my house.
ericzhf said:
You are not alone, I have similar problem. I went to Sumsang center in Bestbuy last weekend, the Sumsang guy there told me he loses DATA randomly too, he knew at least 3 people having the same issue since last OTA. And they are all AT&T users, all S8+ phone, the Samsung guy told me they already know this situation and investigating it, hopefully they will push another update soon.
For now, I reboot my phone every morning before I leave my house.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's very frustrating. I've talked to samsung on the phone and they told me I could send my phone in and have it tested but I feel like it won't do anything. And they would send me a refurbished phone back not a brand new one like the one I purchased. I drop connection all the time during calls, when I try to make calls it doesn't matter. The people at at&t are no help.
Add me to it. And to me it is an intermittent problem. It does not happen all the time. I am on Sprint, and I have the phone unlocked through Sprint since I paid it off. Not sure if unlock changed anything.
Anyone got the problem sorted out?
S8 plus out of service area
Hi.
I also have the same problem and this is not a software problem this is hardware problem you need to change the boot.
Theirs no other way
I had a similar issue. My phone showed I had network coverage but I kept missing calls. My provider sends a text message on missed call. I would call my number, phone would not show anything and i'd get a missed call sms.
I took it to the local samsung authorized service, they replaced the motherboard, the display and battery on warranty. Basically I have a new phone now and it works.

Calls and Messages Not Coming Through Even with Full Service

Hello All,
I have been a One owner for about three years now, have had it rooted and with a custom ROM since the day I got it, and have no issues until very recently. Within the last two weeks, I have started experiencing a strange issue. Basically, a lot of calls and texts aren't coming through. In the case of the calls, I never receive a missed call notification. With the texts, people will send me messages and I won't get them until hours later sometimes, and then they all come in at once. Sometimes however, everything works fine and I can have a conversation over text just fine, or I'm able to get a call. The weird thing is though, I can call people just fine whenever, and my texts send right away. Another strange thing: my phone showed that I had full bars all throughout this time. I immediately assumed that it was an issue on the carrier side (AT&T), so I called them up. At first they told me that there were three towers down in my area, and that was likely the cause of my problems. This made since, as they also said that the towers had been down since Tuesday the 6th, which coincidentally is when I got back into town, and have been back since. They assured me that the towers would all be fixed by today, the 12th. Well, I was still noticing that I was having issues again, so I called AT&T, and they told me that the towers were fixed, but that they would escalate my problem to the network engineers, and that they would get back to me in 3-5 business days. At this point: I'm considering that the problem must be a hardware issue with my phone, rather than a service issue, as it all didn't quite add up. I had already flashed a different ROM and had a new SIM installed so it wasn't either of those. So, I went to my local AT&T store and picked up a ZTE Mayven 2 for $40, to try and figure out if it was really a service issue or if it was the One. I've only had it for a few hours at this point, but everything seems to be working fine. I'll continue to use it for a few days to confirm.
Has anyone ever had a similar experience to this, or have an idea what the issue could be or how I could fix it on my end? I'm pretty unfamiliar with flashing radios/modems, etc., but I wonder if that could be the issue. Also, I am running Sultan's Cyanogen Mod build version 13.0-ZNH5Y-20120430-STABLE. Any help is greatly appreciated!
Phaildroid said:
Hello All,
I have been a One owner for about three years now, have had it rooted and with a custom ROM since the day I got it, and have no issues until very recently. Within the last two weeks, I have started experiencing a strange issue. Basically, a lot of calls and texts aren't coming through. In the case of the calls, I never receive a missed call notification. With the texts, people will send me messages and I won't get them until hours later sometimes, and then they all come in at once. Sometimes however, everything works fine and I can have a conversation over text just fine, or I'm able to get a call. The weird thing is though, I can call people just fine whenever, and my texts send right away. Another strange thing: my phone showed that I had full bars all throughout this time. I immediately assumed that it was an issue on the carrier side (AT&T), so I called them up. At first they told me that there were three towers down in my area, and that was likely the cause of my problems. This made since, as they also said that the towers had been down since Tuesday the 6th, which coincidentally is when I got back into town, and have been back since. They assured me that the towers would all be fixed by today, the 12th. Well, I was still noticing that I was having issues again, so I called AT&T, and they told me that the towers were fixed, but that they would escalate my problem to the network engineers, and that they would get back to me in 3-5 business days. At this point: I'm considering that the problem must be a hardware issue with my phone, rather than a service issue, as it all didn't quite add up. I had already flashed a different ROM and had a new SIM installed so it wasn't either of those. So, I went to my local AT&T store and picked up a ZTE Mayven 2 for $40, to try and figure out if it was really a service issue or if it was the One. I've only had it for a few hours at this point, but everything seems to be working fine. I'll continue to use it for a few days to confirm.
Has anyone ever had a similar experience to this, or have an idea what the issue could be or how I could fix it on my end? I'm pretty unfamiliar with flashing radios/modems, etc., but I wonder if that could be the issue. Also, I am running Sultan's Cyanogen Mod build version 13.0-ZNH5Y-20120430-STABLE. Any help is greatly appreciated!
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Click to collapse
Did you tried flashing different roms?

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