Electronics

[Marybella]

@glb613

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@glb613 wrote:

I don't have a call blocking app.  I've never blocked a call on my iPhone or my home phone.  Maybe I'm lucky but, I've never had anyone call me to the point where I needed to block them.  Junk calls are computer generated and it's useless to block them just like it's useless to block e-mail spam. 

I also lose sound with "Words With Friends" app after the phone had been on standby.  Doing a hard reset solves the problem but, it's annoying.  I wonder if doing a facotry reset would solve my problems? 

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It might be worth a try to do a factory reset. Let us know if it helped you.

[Marybella]

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@drizzellla wrote:

Sorry to hear that the AT&T staff at the store did not help you. We were thrilled with the service we received at our AT&T store. The guy was so good. He really was impressive with how much he knew.

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@drizzellla

I was surprised that they didn't ask or look at the apps I had installed. After doing my online research, I see that apps can cause many problems with phones. Something as simple as a call-blocking app should have been suspect. They were very nice at my store and the store at the Mall of America, but neither considered the apps I had on the phone mmight have been the problem. So far, the phone is ringing when it should!

Spoiler

 Accidental spoiler insert.

[x Hedge]

@drizzellla,  Lol! You must've stepped into the Verision nearest me. It took 3 clunkers, all consulting one another there, to mess up a transfer from an employer issued flip phone to a smartfone. They lost all my photos, notes, I cant remember what all else.

All my employer said was "Try another Version store", and they let me keep both phones for a while.

An employee at another store finished the transfer but my photos were irretrievably lost. 

Since then I've become a big advocate of people learning as much as possible about how their phones/apps operate.

I've become wary about handing my phone over to anyone, even if they're employed as customer service reps. I recently had a service technician blame a problem in one phone on the fact I access my email through more than one device. I knew that was untrue when he said it. I can log into my email from any number of different PCs, laptops, tablets, and phones.

The problem was a technical error on their end, and had nothing whatsoever to do with my phone.

But I had to prove it. Fortunately, I could.

[dooBdoo]

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@glb613 wrote:

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I also thank you for posting back.  Too many times posters post "it's fixed" but don't share any details or the solution.  I'm having problems with my iPhone not ringing and missing calls.  I've also had problems with calls going straight to voicemail when the phone is turned on and it didn't ring.  All of the suggestions I've tried have failed to solve the problem.  It's not every call which adds to the difficulty of figuring out the problem. 

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           I also thank you, @Marybella, for the update.   Very thoughtful of you!   @glb613, regarding the iPhone calls...   can you see any pattern at all if you keep notes about the ones that don't ring through?   Have you set up "Do not disturb" and, possibly, caused some of your contacts not to ring?   I've read that sometimes cell towers have problems and some calls only make it to the voice mail prompt...  and some callers don't leave a message, so you don't know it happened.

          I found this online from August 2016:

"While many of the responses to this question point to the iPhone as the problem, the real problem may be the provider you use does not having sufficient RF channels to service your location at the time your missed call comes in.  Cell towers have a number of channels which are licensed to your carrier by the FCC that they use to communicate with your phone.  If the tower is loaded with other calls at the time someone is trying to reach you, the provider may try and reach you though the next closest tower which may or may not be able to "see" your phone.  If they are out of local channels and can not see you from the next closest one, the call would go to voice mail.  Your provider would then use a data or control channel in your area to report the missed call or report a voice mail if one was left. 

This tower loading issue can occur just like in the old days when you would try to make a long distance call and get an "all circuits busy" message.  Nothing different, there is only so much capacity available and when its all in use your calls will go to voicemail.  Ask your provider what the loading is on the tower in your area and that could be the problem and your phone will be free from blame...  Sometimes that provider with the most coverage and the most customers also has the most dropped calls due to overloading of their system with voice and data traffic..."

(source:  https:// discussions . apple . com/thread/3991388?start=45&tstart=0) 

[dooBdoo]

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@glb613 wrote:

I don't have a call blocking app.  I've never blocked a call on my iPhone or my home phone.  Maybe I'm lucky but, I've never had anyone call me to the point where I needed to block them.  Junk calls are computer generated and it's useless to block them just like it's useless to block e-mail spam. 

I also lose sound with "Words With Friends" app after the phone had been on standby.  Doing a hard reset solves the problem but, it's annoying.  I wonder if doing a facotry reset would solve my problems? 

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           I get a few junk calls now and then and I do block them because it's so easy, and any junk texts or iMessages get reported to Apple and to AT&T.   Don't know if it helps, since I get so few of those bad critters.    I also block email messages, and it can help cut back on them -- depending on your provider, that is.    Some providers actually use the information as a part of their software to identify spammy senders and questionable IP addresses. 

          By "standby" do you mean the phone simply hasn't been in use for a while?   If it's only the one app having the problem, it's likely an issue isolated to that app as you know.   Closing it out from running in background might help and also, as you said, maybe a reset or even deleting it and reinstalling it.    If it continues, you might want to see if there are similar reports on their Facebook page or in the app reviews, and also let the developers know.    Sending my best to you!   I know these glitches can be aggravating.

[x Hedge]

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@Marybella wrote:

@glb613

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@glb613 wrote:

I don't have a call blocking app.  I've never blocked a call on my iPhone or my home phone.  Maybe I'm lucky but, I've never had anyone call me to the point where I needed to block them.  Junk calls are computer generated and it's useless to block them just like it's useless to block e-mail spam. 

I also lose sound with "Words With Friends" app after the phone had been on standby.  Doing a hard reset solves the problem but, it's annoying.  I wonder if doing a facotry reset would solve my problems? 

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It might be worth a try to do a factory reset. Let us know if it helped you.

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Hi @glb613, my phone doesn't need a separate app for call blocking. It is built in as an option in the phone settings. But it's an Android, so dont know if iPhone might have a comperable option right in the phone app settings of your phone.

Also, i dont understand your comment about it being useless to block email spam. I set up filters that work very well to automatically delete spam so my inbox stays uncluttered.

[glb613]

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@x Hedge wrote:

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@Marybella wrote:

@glb613

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@glb613 wrote:

I don't have a call blocking app.  I've never blocked a call on my iPhone or my home phone.  Maybe I'm lucky but, I've never had anyone call me to the point where I needed to block them.  Junk calls are computer generated and it's useless to block them just like it's useless to block e-mail spam. 

I also lose sound with "Words With Friends" app after the phone had been on standby.  Doing a hard reset solves the problem but, it's annoying.  I wonder if doing a facotry reset would solve my problems? 

---

It might be worth a try to do a factory reset. Let us know if it helped you.

---

Hi @glb613, my phone doesn't need a separate app for call blocking. It is built in as an option in the phone settings. But it's an Android, so dont know if iPhone might have a comperable option right in the phone app settings of your phone.

Also, i dont understand your comment about it being useless to block email spam. I set up filters that work very well to automatically delete spam so my inbox stays uncluttered.

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Spam e-mail is computer generated and different e-mail addresses are used.  So if you block a particular e-mail address or domain, the next new one with a different address or domain will get through.  The only exception would be if you set up filters that only lets e-mail from your contact list get through.  It's the same with robo calls. 

[glb613]

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@dooBdoo wrote:

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@glb613 wrote:

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I also thank you for posting back.  Too many times posters post "it's fixed" but don't share any details or the solution.  I'm having problems with my iPhone not ringing and missing calls.  I've also had problems with calls going straight to voicemail when the phone is turned on and it didn't ring.  All of the suggestions I've tried have failed to solve the problem.  It's not every call which adds to the difficulty of figuring out the problem. 

---

           I also thank you, @Marybella, for the update.   Very thoughtful of you!   @glb613, regarding the iPhone calls...   can you see any pattern at all if you keep notes about the ones that don't ring through?   Have you set up "Do not disturb" and, possibly, caused some of your contacts not to ring?   I've read that sometimes cell towers have problems and some calls only make it to the voice mail prompt...  and some callers don't leave a message, so you don't know it happened.

          I found this online from August 2016:

"While many of the responses to this question point to the iPhone as the problem, the real problem may be the provider you use does not having sufficient RF channels to service your location at the time your missed call comes in.  Cell towers have a number of channels which are licensed to your carrier by the FCC that they use to communicate with your phone.  If the tower is loaded with other calls at the time someone is trying to reach you, the provider may try and reach you though the next closest tower which may or may not be able to "see" your phone.  If they are out of local channels and can not see you from the next closest one, the call would go to voice mail.  Your provider would then use a data or control channel in your area to report the missed call or report a voice mail if one was left. 

This tower loading issue can occur just like in the old days when you would try to make a long distance call and get an "all circuits busy" message.  Nothing different, there is only so much capacity available and when its all in use your calls will go to voicemail.  Ask your provider what the loading is on the tower in your area and that could be the problem and your phone will be free from blame...  Sometimes that provider with the most coverage and the most customers also has the most dropped calls due to overloading of their system with voice and data traffic..."

(source:  https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3991388?start=45&tstart=0)

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That might be the problem.  I live in town and only get 2-3 bars when I'm home.  I found out you need to include the area code with my cell phone number.  Eventually, everyone will have to do this.  They are running out of cell phone numbers resulting in requiring the area code. 

I have tried to figure out why I lose sound with the game Words With Friends when the phone goes into sleep or standby.  I log in, open the game and no sound.  If I do hard reset, the sound returns.  It's not every time so I have another intermittant problem.  I've had a lot of glitches with my iPhone.  I've taken it into Verizon and they can't find anything wrong.  I probably need to reinstall the operating system then from a backup and see if it helps. 

[Marybella]

@dooBdoo

Thank you for this information. This could be part of my problem!

[dooBdoo]

          You're welcome, @Marybella!   And @glb613!   I hope that helps out, and maybe you can talk with your provider...  but I don't know that they'll be able to do anything if that's the cause.