Android 8.1 APN settings

[Umidigi]

Just got a nice new phone with android 8.1 and none of the default APN settings work with public mobile.

Also I am unable to create or edit APN settings either ??? What is going on ????

[Anonymous]

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@jacblac wrote:

We are in décember 2019 and I still have the same problem you had last year. I will change provider.they dont look very serious.

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This is not a problem specific to Public Mobile. Other carriers have the same issue. There are workarounds. Have you tried them?

[jacblac]

We are in décember 2019 and I still have the same problem you had last year. I will change provider.they dont look very serious.

[CatCanyon1]

Thanks for the suggestion. I'm going to try tir method using a Virgin SIM card. Il let you know.

@CatCanyon1 

[Anonymous]

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@Happenis wrote:

Woohoo. Freedom Mobile sim did the trick.

Thanks for nothing Public Mobile

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Glad to hear you got it going. Thanks for the update.

Public Mobile is not the only provider with this issue.

Someone a few weeks ago found that a Roam Mobility SIM would allow the same workaround too.

[Happenis]

Woohoo. Freedom Mobile sim did the trick.

Thanks for nothing Public Mobile. Seven months with a brand new phone not working after your sim locked the APN. I think you should purchase Freedom Mobile sim cards and provide them to your customers that have this issue

[Happenis]

Thanks. I'll do that

[ztra]

Ask some of your friends, that have active and inactive SIM cards from different  providers.  Or pay the $10 to Freedom Mobile to have a SIM card mailed to you, and try that.  I don't know if ti will work but if you have no other options it may work.

[Happenis]

Thank you for that. I did go through a mall and tried every cell phone store to see if they had ideas/suggestions. The only one that was willing to try their sim was a Bell store. No luck. I'll keep trying

[ztra]

I read that Verizon in the states made the request to Google to not allow consumers to modify the APNs. So with Android 8.x that had this "feature".

There have been some public mobile users that have used the swaping of SIM cards sucessfully.  You may want to try that.  Do you know anyone that has Freedom mobile SIM card (active or not active), that may work?  The freedom mobile SIMs seem to work the best.  I tried Koodo and PC Mobile and they did not work. You can do a quick search on how to do that. 

[Happenis]

I spent the better part of a day trying this some time ago. Couldn't figure it out

[Happenis]

I haven't. Yet. I've rooted phones in the past and have had mixed success. Suppose I may have to but it's frustrating to have to. I'd sorry of like to know who's fault this is. The phone manufacturer? The carrier? Or Google. Whoever screwed up should make it good IMO.

[ztra]

Here is another solution that might work: https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=75157321&postcount=14

[Alex888]

@Happenis Have you tried rooting the phone?

[Happenis]

For what it's worth you can add me to the list of Umidigi A1 Pro owners that have a paperweight. Got the phone for my wife. It worked okay on Koodo for a month. Then I switched her to PM so we're both with the same provider. And *poof* locked APN. Umidigi has been of no help - and even quite rude

[mik101]

This may have already been mentioned in the previous few pages, but folks running LineageOS Android (I'm running 15.1 -- Android Oreo) shouldn't have to enter the APN settings at all. It will automatically replace your old ones when you swap SIM cards.

I was plesantly surprised after swapping out my Bell one to the PM one on my Redmi Note 5 Pro. I had gotten accustomed to always entering APNs after flashing custom roms or switching carriers, on all of my previous phones.

[ztra]

Neither Public Mobile (nor Telus) can fix the ability to add an APN.  You need to talk to the manufacture of the phone.  I bought my phone from KickStarter and the company was more than willing to get my APN setup.  From what I have read, when Google released Andorid 8.0, they added the feature (at Verizon's request) to not allow end users to have the ability to Add new APN settings.  For most service providers this is not a problem, but my phone did not work.  So, UniHertz (the maker of my phone) created a new ROM that I was able to load on to my phone and now I have the ability to Add a new APN.

I would suggest contact your manufacture of the phone to see if they can assist.  Or try one of the other techniques mentioned on the site about swapping SIM cards from different carriers.

That is all that I can tell you.

[sdmel]

are you saying that telus (public) can fix an umidigi APN mobile data issue ? 

what crtc number did you call ?

[ztra]

This may or may not help as it could only work with my phone.  About a month ago I got a new Unihertz Atom Android 8.1 (from Kickstarter) and it would not allow me to Add or Edit the APN settings.  I contacted the manufacturer and after lots of back and forth emails with their engineers they got me to perform the following steps.  NOTE: THIS WAS FROM UNIHERTZ AND MAY NOT WORK ON OTHER BRANDS OF PHONES.

1. Input the phone number "*#*#09#*#*"
2. This will take you to an APN Engineer Info View Screen 
3. Click Adavanced Settings and enable "Force read-only APN editable" and enable "Force allow adding APNs".  See attached screen shot below.
4. Restart you ATOM phone.
5. After restart, try to add new apn parameters or edit existing apn parameters.

This worked perfectly on my device.

[wetcoaster]

@Anonymous

LOL, I did plenty of research on the phone itself before I jumped in. But it never occurred to me that I should check out the OS. (While I like a technical challenge, these days I just don't have the time for extended messing around with stuff that should work reasonably well out of the box...)

Lesson learned.

What really gets me that in 2018 Alphabet/Google/Android (wherever that decision is made) is actually playing along with those games. Limiting data access / usage is so last decade!

Sorry for the rant.

[Anonymous]

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@wetcoaster wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@wetcoaster wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Dunkman wrote:

From my brief reading on the issue online, some people have had success using a Freedom mobile SIM card to change the APN settings to Public Mobile and then re-insert PM Sim card.  

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Right. I keep forgetting they exist. They're not relevant to me where I am so they don't hold much of a spot in my feeble brain.

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Same here re Freedom.

I think a SpeakOut SIM might work as well, if you have easy access to one of them. YMMV, though.

(Thing is that I can't exactly retrace every step, since I was "just playing" and have a second phone that works fine with PM, so no urgency getting the compatibility with 8.1 out of the box sorted. It would only load the Telus or Koodo profile which works for call and text but not data), with no option to add one. I put the old SpeakOut SIM in, and, I believe while power was on, changed back to PM. I still can't add a new APN profile but the settings in the now available sp.mb.com are correct.)

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Thanks wetcoaster. Was your old Speakout SIM at all active? ie. does the trick require an active SIM? Or even a virginal SIM might work?

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@Anonymous 

Yes, the SpeakOut SIM I used for the above is still active. I don't have a brand new one flying around and, as mentioned, I'm not even sure if i would be able to replicate what I did to make it work.

BTW, active Fido SIM (data only plan) has also locked APN profiles only, without possibility to add a new one in Android 8.1

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Dang! This is a wicked update. Thanks for your additional info. I know it's been a short while now with it in the wild but jeez. Figure it out. Interesting that the odd carrier doesn't do this.

But...for the technically adventurous...there are some workarounds.

[wetcoaster]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@wetcoaster wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Dunkman wrote:

From my brief reading on the issue online, some people have had success using a Freedom mobile SIM card to change the APN settings to Public Mobile and then re-insert PM Sim card.  

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Right. I keep forgetting they exist. They're not relevant to me where I am so they don't hold much of a spot in my feeble brain.

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Same here re Freedom.

I think a SpeakOut SIM might work as well, if you have easy access to one of them. YMMV, though.

(Thing is that I can't exactly retrace every step, since I was "just playing" and have a second phone that works fine with PM, so no urgency getting the compatibility with 8.1 out of the box sorted. It would only load the Telus or Koodo profile which works for call and text but not data), with no option to add one. I put the old SpeakOut SIM in, and, I believe while power was on, changed back to PM. I still can't add a new APN profile but the settings in the now available sp.mb.com are correct.)

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Thanks wetcoaster. Was your old Speakout SIM at all active? ie. does the trick require an active SIM? Or even a virginal SIM might work?

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@Anonymous 

Yes, the SpeakOut SIM I used for the above is still active. I don't have a brand new one flying around and, as mentioned, I'm not even sure if i would be able to replicate what I did to make it work.

BTW, active Fido SIM (data only plan) has also locked APN profiles only, without possibility to add a new one in Android 8.1

[Anonymous]

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@wetcoaster wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Dunkman wrote:

From my brief reading on the issue online, some people have had success using a Freedom mobile SIM card to change the APN settings to Public Mobile and then re-insert PM Sim card.  

---

Right. I keep forgetting they exist. They're not relevant to me where I am so they don't hold much of a spot in my feeble brain.

---

Same here re Freedom.

I think a SpeakOut SIM might work as well, if you have easy access to one of them. YMMV, though.

(Thing is that I can't exactly retrace every step, since I was "just playing" and have a second phone that works fine with PM, so no urgency getting the compatibility with 8.1 out of the box sorted. It would only load the Telus or Koodo profile which works for call and text but not data), with no option to add one. I put the old SpeakOut SIM in, and, I believe while power was on, changed back to PM. I still can't add a new APN profile but the settings in the now available sp.mb.com are correct.)

---

Thanks wetcoaster. Was your old Speakout SIM at all active? ie. does the trick require an active SIM? Or even a virginal SIM might work?

[wetcoaster]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Dunkman wrote:

From my brief reading on the issue online, some people have had success using a Freedom mobile SIM card to change the APN settings to Public Mobile and then re-insert PM Sim card.  

---

Right. I keep forgetting they exist. They're not relevant to me where I am so they don't hold much of a spot in my feeble brain.

---

Same here re Freedom.

I think a SpeakOut SIM might work as well, if you have easy access to one of them. YMMV, though.

(Thing is that I can't exactly retrace every step, since I was "just playing" and have a second phone that works fine with PM, so no urgency getting the compatibility with 8.1 out of the box sorted. It would only load the Telus or Koodo profile which works for call and text but not data), with no option to add one. I put the old SpeakOut SIM in, and, I believe while power was on, changed back to PM. I still can't add a new APN profile but the settings in the now available sp.mb.com are correct.)

[Anonymous]

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@Durhamajp wrote:

I went to do this but I don't have the add symbol what else can I do if it isn't an option to add APN?

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Went to do what? Did you find a working Freedom SIM?

[Durhamajp]

I went to do this but I don't have the add symbol what else can I do if it isn't an option to add APN?

[Anonymous]

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@Dunkman wrote:

From my brief reading on the issue online, some people have had success using a Freedom mobile SIM card to change the APN settings to Public Mobile and then re-insert PM Sim card.  

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Right. I keep forgetting they exist. They're not relevant to me where I am so they don't hold much of a spot in my feeble brain.

[Dunkman]

From my brief reading on the issue online, some people have had success using a Freedom mobile SIM card to change the APN settings to Public Mobile and then re-insert PM Sim card.  

[Anonymous]

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@Durhamajp wrote:

That App was asking me to do major changes to my system. Which may take away my warranty. Right?

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I'm no lawyer but your warranty is most likely hardware not software. But I don't know.

[Durhamajp]

That App was asking me to do major changes to my system. Which may take away my warranty. Right?

[Anonymous]

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@Durhamajp wrote:

As in no longer get allowed to change the APN

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My understanding is that *some* carriers are affected and some not.

Then there's that little app at that link that supposedly gives you the ability to add an APN. So it's in there. Just depends on how much you want to do to get it. Somewhere along the way someone suggested reverting back to the previous Android but then someone else said they didn't think there was a revert capability.

I don't know. I don't have a current Android phone.

Edit: There's this.