I have a Samsung Galaxy A32 5G. I ran a systems update this morning, and immediately lost all cell contact. I not only have no bars, I have a circle with a slash through it. I cannot make or receive calls, and I can’t send or receive texts. I can get data through wi-fi when it is available.
I have been on chat with tech support twice about it, and got BS both times. The first one said (after “investigating”) that there is a cell outage in the area, and that I should just wait for that to be repaired. Then I went upstairs and thought to check our other phone, also using Boost Mobile but not a Samsung, and it has bars and works fine. So I went back on chat, and the next guy said he was going to send an Over The Air update from the cell to my phone that would re-set it. He said I would see one or more messages, and this would take up to two hours. The two hours have passed, cementing my suspicion that this too was BS. Because I wondered how the cell tower could find my phone when it does not receive any cell signal.
The last resort offered, in both cases, was to send in a report to tech services, which would take 24 to 48 hours to deal with. Ha ha, fool me twice shame on you, fool me three times, well, I’m an idiot I guess.
So my next step is to call. Ugh.
Any last minute tech tips to strengthen my case, or advice, welcome.
I wonder if your SIM card has borked? That’s a pretty easy fix overall, and since you have another Boost phone available, might try swapping the SIM into your phone, see if that fixes the issue. If it doesn’t, no harm no foul but it will be a bit more info to go on.
The other phone is a completely different type of phone, it’s a cheap flip phone. Would that sim card work in my oh-so-advanced smart phone?
If it fits physically, yes. There are a few different sizes of SIM cards, but they aren’t different amounts of complicated.
I went to the Boost storefront and tried a new sim card, no good. But they did figure out that it appears that the update didn’t finish, and now the phone doesn’t know who it is. Now I’m supposed to call Samsung to help. I’m in hell.
Totally sorry I didn’t see this thread earlier, because that was the first thing I thought of when I saw the symptoms. A few years back, this was my job, so I figured I’d through out an option, as well as a guess where this is going.
I’m linking to the T-Mobile website for the steps on a soft (and if needed) hard reset options using the hardware keys. I would hope Boost rep had you at least try the first, but 90% or so of the time for this sort of issue, you’re going to be stuck with the second. Which sucks, because it’s a total wipe of everything on the phone, but good in that it will USUALLY fix this sort of borked OS update.
https://www.t-mobile.com/support/devices/android/samsung-galaxy-a32-5g/device-resets-samsung-galaxy-a32-5g
I use T-Mobile’s site because I used to do this for them, and it’s easier for me to navigate, but should be the same.
So fingers crossed the soft reset will fix it, although again, if stuck in mid-update… I honestly think it’ll be the master reset. Just figured I’d suggest trying this before you went nuclear.
I don’t know why this has me chortling.
I have the A32 as well, it uses those super teensy SIM cards, I had to change mine out when I got this one last year. And FWIW mine has never hung up in the middle of an update, although the last one (a week or so ago?) postponed itself for a day for an unknown reason after Samsung sent me a text message to the wrong messaging app. No, Samsung, I do not use either your messaging app nor the native Android one either. Deal. Anyway, I don’t think update issues are anything endemic to the phone model.
No, it’s not a phone specific issue. I always remind people that what you have in your pocket isn’t a phone - it’s a tiny little computer that probably packs more power and storage than your first 2-3 computers growing up. And like any computer, it gets a software bork from time to time. Most of which, like any computer, can be fixed with a restart. Some of which are more like the blue screen of death.
In 2 years or so of doing T-Mobile tech support, I had phones that botched a software update probably every 2-3 months or so. So pretty infrequent, but not unknown, and it was over a wide range of machines. For that matter, in the last 5 years, I’ve had one PC (M and FiLs) botch a software update and despite my best efforts, required a full rebuild of windows.
Computers are complicated. Go figure.
Which doesn’t mean @Roderick_Femm doesn’t have every right to be pissed off, especially when the customer service folks (who were in way over their heads) passed the buck just to get him off the phone. That was pointless and would have driven me up the wall.
Well, off the chat, but same difference.
The Boost person tried a lot of stuff but I don’t think she did a re-set.
I have tried the soft re-set, erasing everything. I don’t think that’s working, it didn’t seem to recognize that it had a sim card. But it’s still coming back online so we’ll see.
How much worse than this can a hard re-set be?
We had Boost Mobile, formerly Virgin. We became tired of the poor coverage – even though there’s a cell tower a mile or two away. Apparently Boost didn’t use it. When I called to complain about the coverage, the basically said ‘It sucks to be you.’ (Not in so many words, of course; but that’s my take.) We switched to Xfinity. The bill is half what Boost charged, and the coverage has been excellent. I made sure I told Boost that I’m switching providers because their coverage sucked. (FWIW, my wife and I both have iPhone SEs.)
A soft reset just forces a complete stop of all functions and restarts, but without purging any data. It’s the equivalent of the old days where you’d pull the battery for a minute and replace, restarting the phone. It gets a few things that a simple restart won’t, but is generally more helpful if your phone is frozen rather than the SIM being unresponsive. Since it takes all of a minute, I just normally recommend it as an easy hail mary step.
The master reset is right there on the tin, it’ll purge all the data on the phone (not including removeable storage on phones that have it) and restore it to it’s factory defaults. Which also clears all post purchase apps AND software updates.
You have to set the whole thing up all over again, signing in (must use the original log in in most cases, your gmail/google info), setup, and then downloading all your apps over again. This fixes 90% of any software based issues, but you’ll probably end up downloading a bunch of carrier and system updates as well.
Possible warning - as phones get more ‘secure’, it has been more of an issue of the phone recognizing it’s been set up previously, so if you don’t sign in with the same android or appleID it can lock you out. So before you do any master reset, make sure you have the email and password you set it up with.
Looks like I did a hard re-set without realizing it. Sigh. And it didn’t fix the problem. And I can’t log into my Google account because it requires 2-step verification.
As mentioned earlier, swap the SIM from the bricked phone to another, and use that phone to complete the verification (your phone # follows the SIM) - which just to be sure of, they did do when you went into the store, right? I know you said they tried a new SIM, just double checking they verified both ways.
I personally do not use 2 factor verification on phones for this reason, all too often you’re stuck with a chicken and the egg problem for minimal added security. Sorry to see you caught in that.
If the Master Reset didn’t work, something is deeeply screwed in that phone - although until you sign back into it and it finishes all the updates there is a scintilla of hope. If you purchased it through Boost, see if they do replacements, but the prepaids almost always push that back to the manufacturer. And that’s if it’s still under warranty.
It’s a tiny little computer that’s more powerful than was used to send a man to the moon. Of course, people who grew up with computers have no idea what that means anyhow.
I’ve heard of new phone, who dis?, I’ve even drank to it before, but same phone, who dis???
Sorry for your troubles, @Roderick_Femm