Wifi Calling Intermittently Stops Working

[FyShy]

I'm a little surprised there is only one other thread here relating to this, given how widespread the problem is. The only other thread seems to have been closed because someone posted a solution that does not work for most people. So I am posting it again. This issue appears to have been around for at least 3 years and affects multiple recent'ish models of Samsung phone.

To recap my and other peoples problems (from the UK forum where this has been posted more widely):

The issue:

People on limited or no cellular reception but good Wifi internet connection who have Wifi Calling turned on and working. They find that Wifi Calling will intermittently turn off (the icon disappears and they stop receiving calls and text messages). It does this silently and intermittently. This does not appear to be caused by any particular factors, such as moving between signal areas, it just happens randomly.

Before posting a platitude response, please read the rest of this post carefully - this is not just a case of not knowing how to turn WifiCalling on and it is not simply a setting that we forgot about. This appears to be a long-running fault with a range of Samsung Galaxy phones, most notably the S-series from at least S20 on up.

* I have an S21 FE 5G. This issue seems to be related to the S20 and S21 models but does also seem to affect other later models such as the ultra series as well. Older models such as the F8/F9 seem unaffected, although not all providers have implemented wifi calling support for older models, so a downgrade isn't likely going to be an option. Older models would also likely not have received the same operating system updates, so the issue could be in one of the updates, as has bee suggested by multiple other posters elsewhere. I upgraded from a perfectly good S8 Active to an S21 because I needed Wifi Calling. That was a huge waste of money given it doesn't work properly.

* Others have reported switching to a non-Samsung handset, such as LG, and this has resolved the problem. I have not done so because I generally love Samsung and really want to find a less scorched-earth way to solve this.

* Many people have tried a clean factory reset and this has not resolved the issue. So it would appear to not be interference of any 'rogue' software as Samsang has suggested in response to other posts.

* I and other people live in areas with very low or no cellular signal but do have a good internet connection with a Wifi Calling compatible wifi router. For reference - I get 70Mbs up and 30Mbs down, so its not a problem with the quality of my internet connection.

* Wifi Calling for me and others does work periodically. This is not a problem with initial configuration of Wifi Calling - please stop suggesting that and making YouTube videos of how to turn it on. We know already.

* Wifi Calling is correctly turned on and does work. It just doesn't stay working.

* The period of time it stays working before turning off seems to vary from an hour to several days. There is no apparent frequency or time of day when the dropout occurs. I've been monitoring it - there is no useful pattern to it.

* WifiCalling turns off periodically without any apparent cause (such as moving into weak WiFi signal areas, or accidentally turning it off manually - seriously who does that). The wifi/handset icon just goes away and it silently stops working, and therefore no longer receives incoming calls or text messages. Note - Wifi internet is still working fine and other internet-based communications, such as WhatsApp still work fine at this point. It's not an internet connection issue.

* Changing from Wifi Preferred to Cellular Preferred does not solve the problem for most people.

* Turning on location services does not solve the problem for most people. It is on for me, always has been.

* Clearing system cache does not solve the problem for most people.

* The impact of this issue for me and others is huge. For me this is critical because I am an emergency service first responder and rely on being able to receive phone calls.

* If there is any level of mobile network signal, even no bars, a Wifi call will initiate if it's currently working, but I can't start a Wifi call unless there is a recognised network signal, regardless of the Wifi Preferred setting. I get the error message 'No mobile network available' - even if the Wifi signal is strong.

* The same issue has occured at different times with my wife's S20 on the same Wifi. So it's not a network issue or a wifi issue.

* My carrier has looked into it from their side and cannot see any indication of a problem on the network. They are aware that other users are having this problem but don't have a solution for it.

* Going into flight mode and back out will usually solve the issue, as will rebooting, or removing and replacing the sim card. I have had my carrier temporarily kick me off the network to resolve it. None of these solutions resolves the problem permanently.

* The problem does not resolve on its own. Manual intervention is always required.

* Despite another poster suggesting there is some warning of a configuration change popping up for them that predicts it, this is not happening for me or others, nor is the system-forced setting change they describe.

* This problem is wide-spread. I have found many many people on different forums describing exactly this issue from different countries across different models and different carriers. This is 100% a fault with the phone or system software. The problem is getting Samsung to acknowledge it and do something about it.

* Everone who has reported trying to talk to Samsung Support about it seems to have gone nowhere, with the best resolution for some people being Samsung agreeing to refund the purchase of the handset in good faith without acknowledging the fault. Those users have then switched to other brands and had no further problems.

If anyone reading this thread has found any kind of software update or fix for this, please post your solution. It seems unlikely there is any interest from Samsung in dealing with this in any way. If anyone from Samsung is reading this, please pay attention - this is a real issue affecting many people and could have potentially been the result of a bad update. It would be nice to know that Samsung are aware of the problem and working on it, rather than simply ignoring the community when they are trying to deal with it.