Unknown cause for beep sound.. which is driving me insane

[Maxeffortdroid]

Hello Everyone,
If someone can help me with this, I would be forever grateful and buy you a beer! I've tried everything and no one seems to be able to resolve it. Here's the context:

Problem: On most, but not all calls a tone beep occurs about every minute. The tone is loud and hurts my ears while doing (or receiving) a call, not to mention it's extremely annoying.

Phone & Carrier: Has occurred on both my old and new phone. Old phone was LG ThinQ 7 and new phone is Samsung S21 (128gig). I just got the new phone in December 2021. My carrier is Verizon and I'm on one of their regular 5G plans, not pre-paid.

Timeline: It's been happening for about 2 years. When I had my LG phone I could not resolve it even after speaking with both Verizon and LG techs on a conference call. I was hoping it would go away with my new phone since we could never resolve on my old LG, but sadly and maddingly it's still there! Argghh!

Details:
- With old LG phone nothing we did resolved it. Again, I worked with both Verizon and LG techs and no luck. We did everything including removing all apps and even factory resetting the phone.

- With the new S21 phone I worked with Verizon to test everything we could and nothing fixed it. They checked the signal strength and ran network tests. Finally it came down to 2 options: 1. safe mode or 2. factory reset. I had tried those before and they did not resolve it on the LG phone, but I tried again anyway. Strangely enough in trying safe mode for a couple days, I could not get the beeping to occur. So, Verizon thinks its an app on my phone, but I have no idea which one it would be and seems strange that the beeping still occurred on my LG when all the apps were removed with the factory reset. But maybe it's different with this phone. Anyway, I don't put games or garbage apps on my phone as I work in IT so I have at least some knowledge of the technical aspects and I'm very selective what I put on my phone. I pretty much use only well known apps, but there maybe some that don't fit that category. It's a real pain to try and go through removing apps one by one to see if I can find one that is causing the beeping, so I thought I'd post here and see if anyone has had this issue or knows of any apps that are known for causing beeping like this.

- I did not do any transfer from my old phone (like using Smart Switch, Verizon backup & restore, etc). I set up the new S21 from scratch and loaded & configured all the apps manually as well as copied all data/files over manually. I did this to make sure I didn't 'copy over' any issues that might be causing the beeping.

- The beeps occur whether on cell or wifi calling

- The old 'minute minder' that was on previous Samsung models does not come on this phone and I certainly have no loaded it - even if it's available.

- At my location I usually have either 5 bars of 4G or 3 bags of 5G, so that shouldn't be the problem and Verizon network techs confirmed my signal is good my tracking it for a few days.

- My wifi is high speed (225 MB/sec) so that's not the issue, and again, beeping occurs whether I'm on wifi or cell signal.

- My wife's iPhone13 does not have beeping at the same location.

So, the bottom line: It appears it must be some setting or perhaps an app. Does anyone have any ideas?

Thank you in advance for any help you can provide!
best regards,
Jamie

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Can you time it to see if the beeps come exactly one minute apart, or is it more random?

You most likely already checked this, but open the Phone app, tap Menu>Settings>Call Settings, and see if you find any options there to explain it.

 

[Maxeffortdroid]

Thank you. Yes, here's the basic scenarios that occur:
1. sometimes no beeps
3. most of the time the beeps start at 1 minute into the call and repeat at 1 min intervals there after. But I have noticed that sometimes it takes 2 -3 minutes and then the beeps start and repeat at 1 min intervals there after

and yes, I 've checked all the call / phone / network settings myself and with the Verizon tech.

 

[mustang7757]

Welcome to AC , you ever set up ringback tones ?

 

[B. Diddy]

Does this only happen when you're at home, or is it anywhere? If it's only at home, do you have a Verizon LTE network extender? https://community.verizon.com/t5/Ad...creeching-sound-on-the-phone-when/td-p/828371

 

[Laura Knotek]

Are you certain it's not call waiting? Are you getting any text messages or emails while you're talking on the phone?

 

[Maxeffortdroid]

Thank you everyone for the ideas & suggestions. Here's your answers:

@ mustang7757 ... No.

@ B. Diddy ... It happens everywhere (at home, at the store, etc). And I do not have any extenders, but Verizon has thoroughly tested (they say) the network coverage and they found no signal issues at all. And again, my wife's Iphone works perfectly with the signal here. My neighbor's phones don't have the beeping either and their right next to us.

@ Laura Knotek ... Yes, because it will happen every minute for calls I've been on for hours (30 min, 1 hour , 2 hours ,etc). IF it was call waiting it should stop once the caller hangs up or leaves a message.

 

[mustang7757]

If it was me , i would do factory reset and try without any apps , make a back up on pc with Smart switch so it will be easy to transfer your back up

 

[Maxeffortdroid]

@ Mustang7757. Ya I could do that, but holy cow man, I have a ton of apps & configurations for myself and work and it's a major pain to do that. Besides, the S21 is a brand new phone and so there shouldn't be any issues and to install one app and test at a time will take a lot to time which I truly don't have to spare. But I get you thinking... I'm just hoping someone else has had this issue or has another idea before I spend weeks testing apps one by one. ... and supposedly putting the phone into Safe Mode turns off all but the basic needed apps and when I did so a few times, I could not get the beeping to occur, which means it would appear that an app or some config is causing it. But the odd thing is, as I noted above, I did a factory reset on the LG phone but the beeping continued, so not sure why my safe mode test on this new S21 so far has not caused the beeping. Very frustrating.

 

[mustang7757]

@ Mustang7757. Ya I could do that, but holy cow man, I have a ton of apps & configurations for myself and work and it's a major pain to do that. Besides, the S21 is a brand new phone and so there shouldn't be any issues and to install one app and test at a time will take a lot to time which I truly don't have to spare. But I get you thinking... I'm just hoping someone else has had this issue or has another idea before I spend weeks testing apps one by one.

Definitely understandable , but to trace this down its best option , if you have a back up device be great , definitely can wait see any more members can suggest something but it sounds to me something was carried over.

 

[B. Diddy]

Try just resetting the network settings. Another approach may be to ask Verizon for a replacement SIM.

 

[Maxeffortdroid]

@ B.Diddy ... We did that and we did replace the SIM. We even tried the eSIM..... same old beeping continues! argghh! ;P

 

[mustang7757]

Just thought of something since its a Samsung, go to settings>general management>reset>reset settings might be worth a try if factory reset not a option at this time

This makes any modifications to a device from back up from another device settings wont effect personal data

 

[Maxeffortdroid]

@ Mustang7757 We did try that... but maybe it's worth trying it again, so I will. Also, I didn't note this in my original post (just added it), but I did not do any transfer from my old phone (like using Smart Switch, Verizon backup & restore, etc). I set up the new S21 from scratch and loaded & config'd all apps manually as well as copied all data/files over manually. I did this to make sure I didn't 'copy over' any issues that might be causing the beeping.

 

[mustang7757]

@ Mustang7757 We did try that... but maybe it's worth trying it again, so I will. Also, I didn't note this in my original post (just added it), but I did not do any transfer from my old phone (like using Smart Switch, Verizon backup & restore, etc). I set up the new S21 from scratch and loaded & config'd all apps manually as well as copied all data/files over manually. I did this to make sure I didn't 'copy over' any issues that might be causing the beeping.

Gotcha

 

[mustang7757]

You are using the stock phone app?

 

[mustang7757]

Try Google phone app from play store and see if its still happening

 

[Maxeffortdroid]

Yes using stock app. And that is what the phone uses in safe mode as I understand it, so that should eliminate that as the culprit - at least in theory anyway. But I'll look at trying the Google app as an option. Thanks

 

[mustang7757]

Yes using stock app. And that is what the phone uses in safe mode as I understand it, so that should eliminate that as the culprit - at least in theory anyway. But I'll look at trying the Google app as an option. Thanks

Yes ok let us know

 

[Maxeffortdroid]

The Google phone app does the same beeping... sigh...