LG G8 Amazon Alexa model with Sprint, can't make or receive phone calls or texts, but DO have Data.

[BergerKing]

That sounds like what they typically do, but I've seen issues with swapping back and forth with different phones on Sprint before. Maybe, and I may be reaching here, a new SIM might make a difference. It sounds like an irritating issue, to say the least.

 

[clh42]

...I've seen issues with swapping back and forth with different phones on Sprint before. Maybe, and I may be reaching here, a new SIM might make a difference.

To clarify, I only swapped phones after this issue started. After being without voice/text for a week, I decided to try to reactivate my old phone, an LG V20. It DID work! I had voice/text, and data, with the V20. Then I sent the G8 into LG for warranty repair. They didn't find anything, but did so a software update of some sort. When I got it back, I tried reactivating the G8 but have the same issue.

Sprint has already swapped the SIM once, back right when the issue first started, but I might ask them to do it again.

 

[B. Diddy]

But I also checked the specific APN settings. I see two different APNs listed that are selectable by radio buttons One is named cinet.spcs, and the other is n.ispn. n.ispn is the one that is currently selected. I tried changing it to cinet.spcs. I saw the 4G indicator disappear, then about 10 seconds later the selection automatically switches back to n.ispn and the 4G indicator comes back. But that doesn't fix the voice/text issue.

Odd, wherever I check on the web, the only APN that's mentioned for Sprint is the cinet.spcs one: https://www.whistleout.com/CellPhones/Faqs/115014798607-Sprint-APN-Settings. Do the APN settings in your phone match what's in that link?

 

[clh42]

Odd, wherever I check on the web, the only APN that's mentioned for Sprint is the cinet.spcs one: https://www.whistleout.com/CellPhones/Faqs/115014798607-Sprint-APN-Settings. Do the APN settings in your phone match what's in that link?

Yeah, I had done some searching on this too after my previous post and found what you found too. I THINK that is outdated information. OR maybe specific to Sprint carrier-provided phones.

I then searched specifically for sprint n.ispn and came up with these links, which in general indicate that n.ispn should be correct for me, though the details within that are sketchy. (The very first link mentions that cinet.spcs is for Sprint carrier-specific devices, but mine is the Amazon unlocked version.)

https://www.reddit.com/r/Sprint/comments/a17ce3/information_for_those_of_you_with_hotspots_sprint/
https://s4gru.com/forums/topic/7859-what-is-the-difference-between-sprint-apns/
https://www.reddit.com/r/essential/comments/70sf9a/sprint_apn_settings/

 

[B. Diddy]

Can you disable IPv6 temporarily in the n.ispn apn?

 

[clh42]

Can you disable IPv6 temporarily in the n.ispn apn?

So, IPv6 doesn't appear to be enabled in the n.ispn apn. IPv6 IS enabled in the cinet.spcs apn, but as I said before it's using the n.ispn apn anyway.

There are 3 other APNs listed and I'm not sure what to make of those. They are listed, but do not have radio buttons beside them to select. They are ims, otasn, and pamsn. ims appears to have IPv6, along with IPv4. The others are IPv4 only. But since they're not selectable, I'm not sure how, or even if, the are actually used somehow.

Side note, I'm still interested in your opinion on what "broke" to cause this issue back on June 8. As I said, everything worked fine for 10 months before that with this phone on Sprint. Just suddenly on that day it didn't work anymore. I doubt both the phone and the network broke at the same time. Are you thinking it could be the phone itself that broke that I need to send it in for repair again, or more likely that it's a network issue and the phone itself is probably ok physically?

 

[B. Diddy]

I'm not sure if we ever clarified this -- is there a VoLTE toggle in the system settings, and are you sure it's on? https://scotteblog.com/2020/06/08/how-to-turn-on-voice-over-lte-via-sprint/

Personally, I still think that the issue is with the network and not your phone, but I just can't be 100% sure.

 

[clh42]

I'm not sure if we ever clarified this -- is there a VoLTE toggle in the system settings, and are you sure it's on? https://scotteblog.com/2020/06/08/how-to-turn-on-voice-over-lte-via-sprint/

No, you haven't asked that before. I cannot find any specific VoLTE on/off setting, though everything I read says that my phone does support it. The only settings I can find related to LTE is under "Network & internet," then "Mobile networks," then "Network mode." The possible settings of which are "Automatic," "LTE/CDMA," "CDMA," and "GSM/UMTS." It defaults to Automatic. That's when it doesn't work. When it's not working, even if I set it to LTE/CDMA, it still doesn't work. But if I set it to just plain CDMA, then I get voice/text and data drops to 4G. At that point, I can set it back to either LTE/CDMA or Auto and data switches back to 4G and I keep voice/text.

So what I was thinking was that the Automatic and LTE/CDMA modes enable VoLTE on this phone by default, but I don't know for sure. That by selecting CDMA only, it disabled the VoLTE and once the phone had a lock on that for voice/text, I could switch it back and it would keep the voice/test on CDMA. But I could be totally wrong.

Personally, I still think that the issue is with the network and not your phone, but I just can't be 100% sure.

That's my gut feeling too. Either related to the T-Mobile merger (though the last tech I talked to said they had not added the T-Mobile service to my account), or the tower work in my area. Except that 2 weeks ago I drove 20 miles across town where I'd be sure to be hitting other towers that were not under service, and had the same issue.

If I weren't only a month from the end of the warranty on the phone, I'd have much more patience with it. My main fear is that it might be the phone, and I won't know for sure until after the warranty expires and I'll be stuck with a broken phone. Or I guess have to pay to get it fixed.

 

[B. Diddy]

Oddly, on the official Amazon page, it says VoLTE is only compatible with Verizon, T-Mobile, and Metro: https://www.amazon.com/LG-ThinQ-Ale...ag=hawk-future-20&ascsubtag=UUacUvbUpU6815330

 

[clh42]

Oddly, on the official Amazon page, it says VoLTE is only compatible with Verizon, T-Mobile, and Metro: https://www.amazon.com/LG-ThinQ-Ale...ag=hawk-future-20&ascsubtag=UUacUvbUpU6815418

AH, interesting. Sprint has their own carrier-specific LG G8 and it is supposed to support VoLTE. That doesn't really bother me in general though. I honestly didn't even know VoLTE was a thing until you brought it to my attention in this thread. I did do a bit of additional research once you had mentioned it to learn what it was.

So does that change your opinion of what's going on at all? If the voice/text isn't using VoLTE, then am I correct that would mean it's still using CDMA for voice/text anyway? But then I really don't understand why it doesn't work until I change the mode to CDMA only.

 

[B. Diddy]

Normally, without VoLTE, the phone would use CDMA for voice and text and LTE for data, but most carriers have either switched already to VoLTE completely (and shut down their 2G networks), or have a plan to. So one possibility is that Sprint/T-Mobile have started rejiggering their network in preparation for sunsetting 2G, and your phone is caught in this limbo between only using 4G for mobile data if you have 4G on, and only using 2G/3G for voice/text when you turn off 4G.

 

[clh42]

Well, it's been a long road but I can conclusively say that it is NOT the phone. Or at least nothing in the phone "broke." Sprint HAS to have made some change(s) somewhere on their end that makes this phone no longer work on their network as it was designed.

LONG story short, LG was fantastic with the warranty and I finally got a replacement phone yesterday (previously they just sent back the same phone I sent them). I activated the replacement on Sprint again, and guess what?! Same issue. Big surprise (not).

There are also now a couple more recent reviews on the phone on Amazon saying they had exactly the same issues. One review said he fixed it by changing the APN to cinet, like we talked about before in this thread, but the reviewer made no mention of how he was able to get it to stick with the cinet APN. As I mentioned in earlier posts, any time I try to switch to cinet, it flips back to n.ispsn after a few seconds. Last night I tried adding a separate, custom cinet APN config with different values I found on the internet, but it still never worked.

Sprint is useless at this point. Not their phone so they won't touch it. I wish they would even at least acknowledge that network changes were made and "here's why your phone no longer works," but they still insist that no changes have been made.

I'm likely leaving Sprint anyway. I've thought about leaving for a long time, they have terrible coverage. The only reason I stayed is that I had a great, old, cheap, grandfathered unlimited data plan that nobody can touch price-wise if I give it up. But I think this is the last straw.

 

[snowmutt]

Well, it's been a long road but I can conclusively say that it is NOT the phone. Or at least nothing in the phone "broke." Sprint HAS to have made some change(s) somewhere on their end that makes this phone no longer work on their network as it was designed.

LONG story short, LG was fantastic with the warranty and I finally got a replacement phone yesterday (previously they just sent back the same phone I sent them). I activated the replacement on Sprint again, and guess what?! Same issue. Big surprise (not).

There are also now a couple more recent reviews on the phone on Amazon saying they had exactly the same issues. One review said he fixed it by changing the APN to cinet, like we talked about before in this thread, but the reviewer made no mention of how he was able to get it to stick with the cinet APN. As I mentioned in earlier posts, any time I try to switch to cinet, it flips back to n.ispsn after a few seconds. Last night I tried adding a separate, custom cinet APN config with different values I found on the internet, but it still never worked.

Sprint is useless at this point. Not their phone so they won't touch it. I wish they would even at least acknowledge that network changes were made and "here's why your phone no longer works," but they still insist that no changes have been made.

I'm likely leaving Sprint anyway. I've thought about leaving for a long time, they have terrible coverage. The only reason I stayed is that I had a great, old, cheap, grandfathered unlimited data plan that nobody can touch price-wise if I give it up. But I think this is the last straw.

Tough decision, particularly if the merger with T-Mobile improves things and they still honor the plan. Let us know what you decide.

 

[clh42]

Oh, no, I'm not waiting for that. I've read enough on the merger to know that it will still be quite a while before they move Sprint customers over to the T-Mobile network. I've essentially decided TO leave Sprint. I just haven't taken the time to shop for plans to determine where I want to go yet. But I should in the next week or two.