blackview shark 8 will not connect when i dial out

Roy Everitt wrote:

Hi ​@Daz_S 

I have taken my iD mobile SIM out of my wife's Samsung and back into my Blackview Shark 8 to have another go at solving this. 

As you can see from the screenshots below: 

The phone is showing 2 bars with HD. 

The phone is showing that it is on the 3 UK network, that using mobile data is selected, that VoLTE is selected and that preferred network type is selected as 4g (recommended). 

However under preferred networks iD is only showing as 2g/3g 

I have tried inputting manually iD mobile 4g but when I do this the settings automatically reset themselves back to 2g/3g

As I said earlier it is all beyond me. 

But now going to try my iD mobile SIM in my old Blackview phone to see if that makes any difference. 

 

Your reply must have been stuck in their awaiting review area and sorry for the delay in replying to your other posts - got some other things going on (looking at other providers coverage results) as ours really isn’t working well at all currently.

It’s very interesting that your phone has retained previous European connections (my Samsung does not do this) - so whether this is a contributory factor is unknown. I’d always assumed it would only ever show those you’re in range of.

However this leads me onto something. When I joined iDM in February 2024 and my with joined in March 2024 both of our phones presented our phone numbers in the 07 format (in the about phone section). And that’s how they remained until October 2024 when we went to Europe. I set our accounts up accordingly and set the phones up too in readiness for Spain, Portugal and France. And when we got there, after a few wobbles, once the phones obtained a roaming network (which was far stronger than anywhere (thus far) in the UK) both phone number automagically changed to +447 - as expected. And our phones (once connected) were absolutely fine. BUT, upon our return to the UK both phones RETAINED the +447 format. Now you’d think this in itself isn’t a big deal, so why is it when I obtained a replacement SIM, once the SIM was activated MY number ‘jumped’ back to 07.

So going to Europe changes something on the SIM (or something within iDMs systems) and it doesn’t automatically change back? This is known about within iDM but thus far I’ve not had a reason why it does this.

And why would this change not be corrected upon reconnecting to iDM in the UK?

And this is even more interesting - why does your phone only show iDM with only 3G and 2G? Have you tried manually connecting to ANY other UK network apart from iD and 3? Try this as it will fail to connect, but in doing so it disconnects the SIM from iD/3 and then manually reconnect to iD. Does this make any difference to the missing 4G on iD?

Not sure if you’ve tried this yet on the BVS8, but maybe try a network reset (but with NO SIM installed) as this should drop any saved networks (just wondering if all the saved connections could be doing something odd here too, but if they’re not at least we can rule these out I guess) - you would need to set up Bluetooth connected devices and any WiFi networks. Then reinsert the iD SIM.

Note the suggested network reset above and then I really would try a new SIM. If anything it should reset any European connections like mine.

Oddly enough my wife and I came from Tesco’s too.

We might be diverted away from the BV for a moment, but the Samsung phones were they both from Tesco’s and are they clocking up a few years? If so, go to settings, then you’ll see a magnifying glass/search icon about a third of way down - tap on that and then start typing this in service (look at the results and if you see Service provider software version tap on that or if not keep typing (afterservice) provider and then see if the result shows and post up the last group of letters ie O2L,O2I/EUX,EUF for that s-p-s-v.

Again many of us out there with old Samsung’s are finding that post 3G switch-off our faithful Samung phones no longer work - the service provider software version is to blame.

Indeed, it’ll be the 3G switch off. There are many others in the same boat and I was lucky my S10+ kept on working on iDM (even though mine appears to have some Austrian blood running through its processors - long story, broke my original S10+ years ago and the insurance supplied a phone that wasn’t a full UK spec model, naughty insurance… and this wasn’t discovered until post 3G had its plug pulled out)

Duly noted you’re looking at what should be a better outcome, considering why all of this came about🤞

(though IMHO you shouldn’t have had to request this being as your phones worked fine pre switch-off)

Thanks ​@Kash I have replied to your Private Message

Hang on. Thinking about it, does your BV still think it’s roaming when the iD SIM is installed, hence the Spanish networks showing!!?

Your preferred network list image

With the O2 SIM in do these Spanish networks still show?

If it’s only the iD SIM then this must be the iDM SIM being used outside the UK, as both of the phones here also had a weird number change that couldn’t change back to how they used to be (as you know only mine did revert back and had to get a replacement SIM to do force this)

Hi ​@Daz_S 

The next time I am at my brother-in-laws I will try his o2 SIM and have a look. 

Also, one thing I haven’t tried yet is to see if my wife’s iD mobile SIM will work in my BVS8

Btw yesterday I tried manually entering the APN settings as per instructed here on this page:

• 3G is being switched off and I can't make calls. What do I need to do? F.A.Q.

But alas it made no difference

Hi ​@Roy Everitt,

We’ll get back to your PM as soon as possible.

Hopefully we can get this resolved for you.

Kash

Roy Everitt wrote:

Hi ​@Daz_S 

The next time I am at my brother-in-laws I will try his o2 SIM and have a look. 

Also, one thing I haven’t tried yet is to see if my wife’s iD mobile SIM will work in my BVS8

Btw yesterday I tried manually entering the APN settings as per instructed here on this page:

• 3G is being switched off and I can't make calls. What do I need to do? F.A.Q.

But alas it made no difference

It’ll be interesting if his doesn’t show all those networks - AFAIK our phones should only show those in range. So that puts your predicament onto is yours also some weird roaming glitch issue plus the 3G switch-off. I did raise the 07 to +447 when roaming (and that it doesn’t revert back to 07) with an iD manager, but even he couldn’t answer why it does this. I (and the manager) know 3UK tell iDM to tell their iPhones users to input their phone number as +447, but the Android OS doesn’t (well not on mine or my wife’s anyway) permit changing it to +447. So this can only be something within how the iDM SIM sees it being used outside the UK.

I would guess to say being as you’re the same as me (my wife and I both used our SIMs in Europe) that your good ladies will also show the same as yours. Now if you knew somebody else on iDM who has never took their SIM overseas this would be a good test. Or try a replacement iD SIM - if you want to try you can get one for free from Currys. And if you do - for the most part many put a replacement SIM in first and then activate it - I would in your case (and other strange cases) activate the SIM first, wait for the old SIM to show no network, wait another hour and then pop the new SIM in.

FWIW when I did the same (as in activated the new SIM and waited) when I put the replacement in it automatically applies certain settings - like WiFi Calling and VoLTE - even though I’d turned off WiFi calling on the old SIM - so the new one overrides previous settings

edit. Regarding the APN settings, my phone has more options than those on their help page. I need to pop put shortly but if you want exactly what mine says (to compare) then let me know and I’ll post them up.

Hi ​@Daz_S 

I tried swapping my wife’s and mine’s iD SIM cards

My iD Mobile SIM card worked in her Samsumg A54 

But her iD mobile SIM didn’t work in my Blackview Shark 8

Given that my brother-in-law’s o2 SIM card worked fine in my Blackview Shark 8 AND that my iD mobile SIM works in my wife’s new handset, (Samsung A54) and old handset, (Samsung A50) and my old handset, (Blackview A80 Pro) it does appear to me that the problem is confined to the combination of Blackview Shark 8 handset with iD mobile SIM card post 3g shutdown. 

What I found interesting was when I looked in my wife’s A54 settings at the preferred network it said 5g/LTE/3g/2g and her old handset, (Samsung A50) says preferred network LTE/3g/2g

I really appreciate your help but I must admit I am finding this all very confusing 

Hi ​@Roy Everitt,

We no longer support 3G calling which means that all calls will need to be on 4G/VoLTE.

Regarding the A50 it doesn’t support 5G so you won’t see the 5G option on that handset.

Kash

Thanks ​@Kash 

That makes perfect sense to me but what doesn’t is that my Blackview Shark 8 phone is a 4g phone - so why would it be affected by the 3g switch off?

I thought that would be the case. But in doing so you’ve ruled out your SIM being the cause as the BVS8 does the same on both - again should you wish to try a replacement iD SIM or if anyone you know also uses iD (and they haven’t been overseas with their SIM) then this will either do the same or possibly work - if it does then its related to roaming and this interesting +447 SIM number allocation issue - if it still doesn’t work we can say with some confidence its the loss of 3G.

As I mentioned a few post back, it your phone works on O2 after they switch off their 3G then it does point to how iDM provision their SIMs for certain phones - but it can’t be a brand ‘thing’ as your SIM works in your BVA80 Pro. Are both BV’s on the same Android version? I’m aware the iD app requires Android version 9 and upwards to function so their SIM might also take the Android version into consideration too… ← pure speculation on my part.

And as Kash mentioned the Samsung A50 would need to be 5G ready - my wife’s Samsung S20FE is 5G ready (though our area appears to be a long way off 5G via 3UK) whereas my old faithful S10+ is LTE like your A50. Both of our phones were originally on contract with Tesco.

(and irrelevant to your issue but the only reason we left Tesco after 10-12 years was the degradation in the O2 signal here - ironically iDM at the beginning was the best we’d had in years and since April 2024 its been gradually getting worse, to the point of since October (a coincidence perhaps but after we got back from Europe) its almost unusable (hence why I thought it was roaming related and I tried a replacement iDM SIM). I have been liaising with iDM and they have also been in touch with 3UK, sadly due to the estimated time to have 4G working here as it can elsewhere in the country we might be leaving iDM without me even making it 12 months with them - a massive shame as the pricing is brilliant, but at the end of the day I need a working signal and it is actually 3UK that are the ones at fault, but my (and yours) contracts are with iD hence them getting a bad rep)

And that IS a great question Roy - we know they say it’s not compatible (as I posted that answer) - but WHY does a 4G capable phone no longer work if it worked before? I’m aware the provisioning for 4G calling (or VoLTE) comes from the SIM (as long as the 4G calling/VoLTE is an option on the phone) and I’m aware some older Samsung phones still have VoLTE disabled if the phone has certain software versions installed, but from the face of it your BVS8 appears to have it all enabled. The other odd thing is how your phone now shows the iD network (albeit 2G and 3G only) as 3 UK - I’ve seen this 3UK several times on other topics but never found out why it changes to 3 UK - its like it disassociates iD and has to fall back to 3UK. What does the SIM do to the phone to make it lose the ability to use 4G if the phone is 4G capable? (and to that point why does your older BV phone still work?)