Emergency calls only - samsung galaxy s7

[Anonymous]

Hi, 

I have my phone for over 2 years now and I had a repetetive problem.

It suddenly loses service connection. It says 'Emergencly calls only' with full bars and internet data works fine all the time, just can't make calls and txt. 

The first time it happene I left my phone in a hotel on holiday by accident, they sent it back to me and it had that problem since. I tried restarting the phone, taking the sim card out, restarting to factory settings. I couldn't put the sim card in a different phone because it's the only phone I have that works with micro sim. I then went to o2 store several times, we tried a new sim card (twice) and still the same issue. 

9 months later - while paying full bills and had to get a new phone with a new number - I already gave up on fixing it, was just using it for mobile data, suddenly my galaxy s7 got signal back so I thought cool, it fixed itself.

It has been working fine for about 4 months until it happened again. I came back from work, went to bed - phone was working fine. When I woke up it said 'Emergency calls only' with full bars. I'm trying everything again but nothing is working... again. 

Please does anybody know what is happening to my phone? It doesn't make any sense to me and I'm out of ideas what to do. I don't want to be paying £50 a month for the next however many months without using my phone again.

[Cleoriff]

Hi @Anonymous Have you checked the network status in your area. There may be work going on a mast nearby.

https://status.o2.co.uk/

Also I have looked on a few Android forums and this seems to be a common problem with this device. Two fixes suggested which usually work

"Remove your sim, gently clean it and replace it. Or, if this fails then you may need a new sim". However I see you have already tried that to no avail so hopefully one of our Android experts may be on later and offer further advice.

[mavericke]

Dear Apti,

You might also want to get into the recovery mode and wipe the cache partition without any loss of information. Please be aware that you ought to do so after you have back up you data.

If this fails, you might want to perform a full factory reset after backing up your phone.

Good luck!

[MI5]

When you left the phone on holiday did you report it to o2?
If so they may have put a block on the account.
Give customer service a call on 202 and ask them to check if there are any bars in place.

[Anonymous]

I checked network status and it says it works fine

[Anonymous]

I haven't reported it but I did tell them about the issue afterwards. It fixed itself then but this time I had it with me and it still did it.

[MI5 · Accepted solution]

It does sound like the phone is faulty.
I'd give Samsung a call to get it looked at.
0330 SAMSUNG or live chat https://e-contactus.samsung.com/uk/m/webchat

[MI5]

http://www.samsung.com/uk/info/contactus/