I have been having a problem with my Samsung S21 Ultra Android phone. Periodically, I will get an inbound call, there is no ring, and it goes straight to voice mail. It is possible this only happens when I am in my office where there is a T-Mobile remote hot spot and wifi. The only other place I might have seen it is on the couch in the living room, which is directly above my office. I get very few inbound calls on this phone, so I don’t have a good experience base to generalize from, but it doesn’t seem to be consistent. Any ideas of what to look for?
Find that phone number in your recent or missed calls, on your phone and block it… I don’t have any androids, but I imagine they have that ability… Blocking has worked well, no idea how long my blocked # list is, but so far so good…
weco
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I use iPhones so I have no ideas of my own, but Google seems to have some suggestions.
https://www.google.com/search?q=android+incoming+calls+go+straight+to+voicemail
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But these are calls I generally want to receive. Today’s was regarding repair of the land line.
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I’ll check those out, but at quick glance it isn’t Do Not Disturb since I am getting notifications of texts and Signal messages.
No, except that rarely but occasionally it happens to me, an iPhone user. Like you, these are
“Wanted” calls, and they end up in voice mail without ever having “rung” on my phone. My theory is that it’s something with “the last mile”, that the call thinks it has reached my phone but hasn’t, and after 4 or 6 rings the carrier intercepts and sends it to voice mail. Even more rarely, but still occasionally, I don’t get the notification that there’s a voice mail there for several hours.
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Well, I have been through all the checks I could find … including searching for several because they weren’t where the instructions said they were and the only change was call forwarding under various conditions which don’t apply. Those were forwarded to an 805 number I don’t recognize and I turned them off. Remaining is checking with T-Mobile.
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One of the key issues for me is that it works at times and places and not at other times or at certain places. I did have an issue many months ago where I thought it might be related to blue tooth ear phones which were out of range in the office, but since then I keep blue tooth turned off except when specifically in use. Other than that, it seems it does seem to happen in the office, but not elsewhere, without changing anything.
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How many bars do you have? Turn off your wifi and just use your cellular for awhile. See if the problem goes away then. The tower obviously thinks it is ringing your phone but since your phone isn’t receiving it, it probably has spotty or non existent service at the time. It could be your phone keeps switching from cellular to wifi. If your phone does not have service at the time the tower will send it directly to voicemail.
Andy
Got all kinds of signal since I can see both the wifi router and the hot spot from where I’m sitting.
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Optional: To block spam calls on your phone, turn on “Filter spam calls.” You don’t get missed call or voicemail notifications, but filtered calls are in your call history, and you can check your voicemail.
Maybe, maybe not.
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So are you using the wifi and the hot spot for signal? Do you hook your cell phone to the tower also? Three different sources?
Andy
Be sure about that - recently happened to a close friend of mine, it was a symptom of a live identity & financial theft hack. He caught it just in time. (There was also a keylogger on his Windows device). Only reason he got curious was because his emails were being autoforwarded too, and they got sloppy and didn’t leave a copy in his inbox.
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I have no filtering set except for blocked numbers.
My office is in basement, so far from ideal for getting the tower. I certainly use it elsewhere, though.
Tamhas if you have your phone setup to hook up to your wifi router, your hot spot and a cell tower that could be your problem. Your phone could be switching back and forth depending on the signal. Try setting your phone to one source and have your phone forget the other sources. If you use the cell tower, turn off the wifi. If you use your router, turn off the cellular and forget the hot spot on your phone.
The reason I state this is because it is an intermittent problem. It seems that your phone might be switching sources and then the call goes directly to your voice mail. By using just one source and the problem goes away you will know that is your problem.
Andy
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The problem with picking one source is that I am only in the office part of the time. When I am at the grocery store, I need the tower, but in my office there is little signal from the tower. When I am in the bedroom, I want the wifi since that signal is strongest. I suppose I could try turning off the Personal Cellspot since I should have strong wifi signal when I am there, but what about if I am having computer problems and there is no wifi?
Note too that I have noticed no issues with Signal or texts or updates or anything except phone calls.
Texts and updates do not work like calls coming in. When a call comes in the telephone company reaches out to your phone and see’s if it is there. If it isn’t then it will send it to the voicemail. It doesn’t wait around to send and receive or send a little, send a little more. So that is why you would have the problem with a call coming in instead of a message or update. ( I know that is over simplified but I do not want to go into how the PST network operates and how an Ethernet/ IP based system operates.
I can understand you not wanting to shut off all your connections/sources but if it is bothering you that is the only way to troubleshoot it. When you leave the house you could turn back on the cellular. I would just leave it off when in the house. When in the house only have your wifi hooked to your phone. I suspect that what you will find out is your phone is switching sources at times and that is when the call is going to voicemail intermittently.
Andy
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I suppose one thing I could try is just turning off the Personal CellSpot for a while. Wi-Fi should give us coverage in the house and tower while walking around. I suppose the big problem is that I get so few calls, it might take months to have a reasonable test. Perhaps I should try T-mobile.
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Tamhas, unfortunately it isn’t going to be a Cell phone provider problem. The same problem happens to all of them. It is more that your cell phone keeps switching sources. At least that is what I suspect. Fortunately I have a tower near me so I just leave my cell phone hooked to cellular and only turn my wifi on when the cellular is having a problem. As you know these are some of the hardest problems to fix because they happen so intermittently.
Andy
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