Calling the cell phone experts .........

[MarNav1]

Greetings friends. Trying so solve a long term issue with my gf's phone(s). She has had 5 phones with 4 different carriers. Different numbers for each phone. Has tried a few sim cards as well. What happens is the phone will work for awhile and then starts randomly disconnecting.
When it does its like you just hung up, click! Then it will not call out or receive. Text does not work either. Sometimes the phone comes back after awhile. But eventually they have all ended up inoperable. Sometimes email will work. For the last few days it basically does nothing. Cannot call or text. We have tried everything we know, the carriers didnt seem too concerned.
If anyone has an idea we dont know what to try.
I can list the carriers and phones if that helps. She lives near Portland Or area. Thanks gents.

 

[IMA SOL MAN]

Sounds to me like her phone has malware on it. Does she have an anti-virus installed an running on the phone?

 

[MarNav1]

We are going on the 5th phone now that does this. Can malware travel thru phones and carriers? Im not saying it cant I do not know. We did scan this phone but it didnt show any problems.

 

[IMA SOL MAN]

We are going on the 5th phone now that does this. Can malware travel thru phones and carriers? Im not saying it cant I do not know. We did scan this phone but it didnt show any problems.

If she keeps going to the same website that has the virus, or, opening infected email on each phone...

Sometimes we are our own enemy. She might take it to an FBI office (probably one in Portland) and let one of their cyber experts look at it.

 

[ABTOMAT]

I doubt it's malware. Does this happen in a given location? Like, if she goes a half mile away does it work ok? Has she tried putting her current SIM card in a different phone and seeing if it works? Or putting someone else's SIM in and seeing if that works? What about warranty service from the phone makers? Does her provider have a store they can look at this in person?

 

[MarNav1]

Once it happens it doesnt matter where she is, it doesnt work. Switching sim cards didnt seem to make a difference. This last carrier did send another phone, within a couple months its doing the same things the other phones did.

 

[MarNav1]

Samsung s10 TMobile
Moto g power 2022 Boost mobile
Pixel 4 straight talk
Samsung s22 mint mobile
These are the phones and carriers.
She is on the 2nd s22 and it failed last Thursday.

 

[MarNav1]

The only common thread I can see is I think all 4 carriers use TMobile towers, but im not 100% positive on that. None of those phones work now.

 

[ABTOMAT]

What if you factory reset the phone? Still dead? Does its wifi still work? Are there specific apps she always re-downloads? Does she use aftermarket chargers? What if you take her SIM card and put it in a different phone? Or a different platform, like an iPhone?

All carriers using the same towers could explain dead zones, but not a phone completely failing.

 

[idleprocess]

Carriers have dead spots that are of varying priority to fix, generally due to cost. I've never gotten get a consistent signal at the local Home Despot - an issue across multiple carriers with disparate networks, probably due to the tilt-up concrete panel construction and the disinterest in locating a small cell within the building itself. I too have found carrier support for dropped calls and texts to be almost wholly perfunctory - involving phone reboots, network scans, trying to have people call you / make calls from problem locations, sending new SIMs - rather than actually looking at their own fkn reams of data and seeing what's going on with their tower network.

In general I had considerably worse luck on Fi than on VZW and AT&T prior; upon switching from Fi to T-Mo I experienced markedly better service on the same handset. This has lead me to believe that MVNO subscribers are systematically disfavored relative to the native MNO subscribers.

 

[turbodog]

You left some stuff unanswered... (which was unasked to be fair)

If you reset the phone to factory will it
a) send/receive calls?
b) get on wifi and surf/email
c) send/receive texts

Has she bought a new sim lately?

Is she simply sim swapping, or does she actually call the carrier and register the ESN with them each time?

Currently will it forget/join a wifi successfully but just not surf/email? Or does it not join at all.

When she gets a new phone... I assume she's restoring/syncing to her existing cloud account. If so, this is why I asked the first question... perhaps this is software/malware based.

I see another common thread... all android units. Throw that sim into a secondhand iphone and see what happens. Can pickup them for cheap, new in box, on ebay. Or just trade for one at her carrier.

 

[ABTOMAT]

I'll loan you an iPhone 6S if you need it. That should still be under carrier support.

I'm on totally the other side of the country but I've had zero trouble with Mint and Android. I've been using various models for years, including some sketchy Chinese phones.

 

[MarNav1]

You left some stuff unanswered... (which was unasked to be fair)

If you reset the phone to factory will it
a) send/receive calls?
b) get on wifi and surf/email
c) send/receive texts

Has she bought a new sim lately?

Is she simply sim swapping, or does she actually call the carrier and register the ESN with them each time?

Currently will it forget/join a wifi successfully but just not surf/email? Or does it not join at all.

When she gets a new phone... I assume she's restoring/syncing to her existing cloud account. If so, this is why I asked the first question... perhaps this is software/malware based.

I see another common thread... all android units. Throw that sim into a secondhand iphone and see what happens. Can pickup them for cheap, new in box, on ebay. Or just trade for one at her carrier.

I will ask your questions, the hard resets sometimes work but mostly not once it fails.

 

[MarNav1]

I'll loan you an iPhone 6S if you need it. That should still be under carrier support.

I'm on totally the other side of the country but I've had zero trouble with Mint and Android. I've been using various models for years, including some sketchy Chinese phones.

Awww thanks man thats so generous. Lets see if we can figure this out.

 

[LRJ88]

Android phones can have a very nasty trait in that they exhibit this behaviour at times. Usually just rebooting your phone works, but if it doesn't work it might even be worth resetting carrier settings. My mum's had issues with hers for bloody ages, with the same behaviour on hers. Rebooting hers works, but a true factory reset wouldn't hurt either. Since you have several, try factory resetting 2 of them, then you leave one as-is, no added apps, no customisation, no nothing, the other one you use as normal and then jot down any and all changes to the use one.

 

[KITROBASKIN]

Are you able to be with her in person to assist? Has she gone to a carrier that has a brick and mortar storefront where they can get hands on the phone?

Does she disrupt other electronic devices? Does she dislike that kind of technology?

With some online MVNO vendors that use other carriers' towers, the experience I had was that beyond basic troubleshooting, they bale out.

 

[PhotonWrangler]

Samsung s10 TMobile
Moto g power 2022 Boost mobile
Pixel 4 straight talk
Samsung s22 mint mobile
These are the phones and carriers.
She is on the 2nd s22 and it failed last Thursday.

I believe all of these are MVNOs of TMO. Is she on a prepaid plan or a contract? I'm wondering if it's prepaid and something is getting dropped between billing cycles.

Does the phone work in other areas than her home? If so then I'd suspect a flaky cell tower or local interference. When the phone is in failure mode, does the signal strength indicator show any signal?

 

[Got Lumens?]

I am just suspecting that she keeps downloading an app that takes control.
Try getting a new sim, contacting the company of service, and don't re-install anything.
Apps can be great, but not on my means of communication. I save that for the tablet or desktop.
I have experienced too many things gone wrong to download any apps to my phone.
Write down all the contacts in the phone, then go to the carriers retail location and request a new sim card.
Bear in mind You will need another working phone to contact the carrier to change sin card numbers.
Don't download anything from Icloud or the web and see if that fixes the problem.

 

[bykfixer]

Ima go out on a limb that GL planted and say there's a real good chance it's a keyboard app. Gals just love a fancy keyboard app.

My wife's android phones used to do all kinds of crazy stuff and it turned out to be her keyboard app causing it. She'd uninstall that one but install a different fancy one and .... shazam, here we go again.

 

[alpg88]

yea, it does sound like it could be an app related, fortunately it is easy to check, wipe your phone and not install anything, see if it acts the same way, i would not bother changing a sim just yet, 5 phones doing same thing more likely than not, is something user related