Hi everyone - Seems I am not the only Samsung user with this problem, but thought I'd share my experience and the steps I've taken to try and fix the problem (unsuccessfully). I am based in the UK.
About 10 days ago I installed the software update - One UI Version 7.0, Android Version 15.
Until that point I had no major issues with my phone's signal or internet. I had originally been with Vodafone for two years before moving to ID and the phone worked just fine on both networks. Following the most recent software update however, I started to experience the following (I'll try to explain in the most technical terms I can):
- Intermittent phone signal - Signal would fluctuate massively between full bars and no signal at all. Often showing the following messages in the top left of the screen - "Emergency calls only" and "No Service". This would persist for long periods, often only rectified by toggling Flight Mode on and off multiple times, or by restarting the phone altogether. I would get normal phone function for 15 minutes or so before the same thing happened again.
- Internet (4G & 5G) problems - Whilst the above issues were happening, on the rare occasion where my phone appeared to be functioning normally, my phone would show that it was connected to the network either by 5G or 4G. But this turned out to be false. I would try to use internet based applications on my phone and would get 'no internet connection' messages constantly, despite "appearing" to be connected to the internet. A short time later, I'd be thrown back into the dark ages with the good old "No Service" banner.
All of this being said - Whilst I was connected to my Wi-Fi at home, the phone and all of its apps worked perfectly fine. So I knew 100% that it was some kind of mobile network problem, I just didn't know how to fix it... Using tips from Youtube, Reddit and The Samsung Community I carried out the following steps in efforts to try and fix this problem...
1 - Reset network settings - Did not work.
2 - Cleared cache partition - Did not work.
3 - Toggled between 5G and 4G network modes - Did not work.
4 - Toggled "Allow 2G service" on and off - Did not work.
5 - Full factory reset - DID NOT WORK.
The only other option I had was to try another SIM. Now at this point I had almost convinced myself that this was my networks fault (ID mobile) and so I opted to move back to Vodafone and purchased a new SIM from them and migrated my phone number to my new Vodafone SIM... When it arrived I popped the new SIM in, full of hope that this would resolve my issue - It made no difference what-so-ever. Same issues as before. And seen as I've been with Vodafone previously and the phone worked flawlessly, I now knew for certain this was a problem with the handset.
Just to be absolutely sure, I repeated all of the same 5 steps listed above on my new Vodafone SIM - Unsurprisingly it did not fix the issue.
All day today I've been scouring the internet for other potential fixes with no success - Instead I've found myself reading stories about hundreds of other Samsung users with the same problems as me, all who are pointing the finger at the same thing - UI 7.0. These range from tablets, to midrange smartphones like mine, all the way up to the top of the line flagship models!
From some of the stories I've read, people have even taken their devices in to Samsung stores to be looked at by staff, only to be told they'll need to pay for motherboard replacements!? This seems absolutely ludicrous to me - Samsung botch their latest update, and then ask their customers to fork out exuberant amounts of money for a repair??
I've been a Samsung customer over ten years now and never before have I experienced problems like this. And from what I have seen, there appears to be no official press release or statement from Samsung addressing these issues?
If anyone can provide any help or advice or share their experience I'd be very grateful.
Thanks.
