'No data service - Temporarily not offered by the mobile network' message on Samsung S8

[RickD]

I was in the USA on the 6th Dec 2018 during the data outage (I was happily roaming on a US network unaware of the issues back in the UK). Since landing at Heathrow on Friday 7th my Samsung S8 has been continually 'pinging' the following message: "No Data Service - temporarily not offered by the mobile network".

I have run through all the possible fixes with O2 Tech team on the 8th and the only option (after exhausting all the other items on their checklist) as far as they are concerned is for me to Factory Reset my phone (only a few weeks old!). Before I resort to this time consuming process that doesn't even offer any guaranteed fix I put this problem to the O2 Community in the hope someone else has found a fix.

I am pretty certain this is related to the data outage on the 6th as I have previously used my phone abroad and returned to the UK without any issues so the coincidence can not be ignored in my view. I understand that this may be an Android operating system issue but neither Samsung nor O2 seem to be able to offer up any solutions other than the nuclear one of a factory reset. Anyone got any ideas?

[Cleoriff]

My husband had the same thing @RickD and he was in the house sitting next to me in the UK.

He just turned his phone off for 2 hrs and all was back to normal after that. (Even though the network was still down....)

[MI5]

Go to network settings and manually choose Vodafone.
Wait for registration to fail then go back and select auto network search.
Turn phone off and back on again.

[RickD]

Thanks but unfortunately this hasn't worked. The O2 guru reset my APN settings this morning but the problem still persists. If this doesn't get sorted then I'll go to another network as O2 seem unable to a) recognise/accept the fault and b) do anything about it

[RickD]

Thanks but this solution didn't work!

[jonsie]

I think the next thing to try unfortunately is the factory reset and if necessary after that, I would contact Samsung about repairing the phone, just so long as o2 have checked everything their end.

[RickD]

The O2 store APN settings update didn’t work either. Just done a factory reset but the problem persists. I still believe there are localised issues with the O2 network that are causing this. I don’t imagine O2 will ever investigate so it’s a phone repair....which will probably show up NO FAULT! I think this will be the start of a long battle with O2.

[gmarkj]

Just to summarise:
-calls & texts are fine, but data does not work?
-have you tried your sim in another phone/another sim in your phone?
-have you had a replacement sim (in case yours is faulty)?
-is the fault present everywhere or localised (ie, a mast error - check the https://status.o2.co.uk/ website) ?

[MI5]

and, have you used all your data allowance for this month?
http://www.o2.co.uk/myo2

[RickD]

Calls, txts fine. The message pops up frequently but only when in the village, near my home but most often in the house (where signal strength has always been poor but I’ve never had this message in the 19years we’ve lived here and I’ve always been with O2 (other networks are just as bad)). The message only pops up for the briefest of moments but when it does, YES, the data is not accessible. (I have plenty of data allowance left this month too).

Outside the village the message never comes up and my phone is usable without any problems. The problem is very localised. I called O2 today and they’re sending out a new sim for me to try as the hard reset I did yesterday did not solve the problem.

I also tried booting the S8 up in Safe Mode (ie. disabling all the apps) and the message was there still so it kind of confirms the signal more than the phone in my view. It’s all a bit weird and I hope the new sim will solve it but I’m not holding my breath. If it doesn’t then it pretty much confirms a localised signal issue but getting O2 to agree to investigate the local signal may take many months and I foresee a massive struggle.