accidentally removed public mobile from my network

[ChrisLondon]

I was having difficulty with slow 4g upload speed, so I was fiddling with settings. It asked if I wanted to cancel or remove Public Mobile (I can't remember which message) and I clicked on Yes. I thought I'd just be able to get back on it but now all of the settings are greyed out in my Mobile Networks menu.

I have tried rebooting, airplane mode, resetting network settings and I made sure we both have active plans.

When I swapped the sim out to my wife's phone, it recognized it as Public Mobile but when I tried to make a call I got the message "can't connect the call because there is no plan on the account". I swapped the sim back into my phone and nothing...meanwhile, after putting the regular sim back into my wife's phone, she is still getting the same ""can't connect the call because there is no plan on the account" message, so both of our phones are now useless.

For her phone, I tried the "lost phone suspend then reactivate trick", but still nothing..

Any ideas?

[dust2dust]

You didn't mention a card error. So you changed sims?

So now how about your phone that started this thread and your fiddling with things around speed? 🙂 Always good to make sure the wife is set. 🙂

[darlicious]

@ChrisLondon 

So did you replace your wife's Sim card and it fixed both phones?

[ChrisLondon]

@dust2dust Thanks but I have figured out the issue. There was an error with her card after all. The problem started when I swapped sims but then there was a card error.

[dust2dust]

I hate factory resets. So now how about another full shut down restart now that it's all back from the reset.

[ChrisLondon]

@dust2dust My wife's phone is the same A32 5g as mine. I factory reset her phone and when she calls, she no longer gets a message, now the call just drops.

[dust2dust]

I have that app and yes Android 12 has partially disabled it. When you say Freedom you mean Public right? Was that in that app? Do you have a link to the video?

I have seen people do hotswap. I cringe so I've always shut down.

Are you and your wifes accounts actually active? That message sounds more like the long distances charges may apply and then yes the call goes through.

What make and model is your wifes phone?

[darlicious]

@ChrisLondon 

OK weird....that's the glitch a referral of mine discovered because he runs thru $5/500min add ons on his $15 plan like crazy and he discovered he would get that message when he ran out of minutes and as long as he didn't hang up and then pressed "*" his call would go thru 80% of the time.

[ChrisLondon]

@gpixel I checked that her IMEI is the same using both methods.

[ChrisLondon]

@dust2dust Yep, I made the mistake of hotswapping sims...doh!!! When I try using her phone today, after trying the shut down, remove sim, start up/shut down, insert sim, start up, it either hangs up immediately or the following message is said: "Sorry, we cannot complete your call since you don't have an active plan on your account. To make a payment to reactivate your plan, dial *611 from your Public Mobile phone". After the message, the phone will either disconnect or it will ring through to the intended caller. Tbh, I never let it keep going after the message yesterday.

[hTideGnow]

Hi @ChrisLondon   if you still cannot access APN, might be a factory reset is what you need

As long as you backup your stuff to Samsung Cloud, the reset won't be very painful

But I would reset it, test the data first without bringing down the cloud restore.  If things work perfect, then restore from cloud

[darlicious]

@ChrisLondon 

Oh...?so you removed freedom mobile and your networks greyed out? Did you originally get the phone thru freedom? Do you still have a freedom Sim card? They have magic powers....what is your OS?

[ChrisLondon]

@darlicious my IMEI still shows as normal

[ChrisLondon]

@Dust to dust I was watching a video about how to increase the UL/DL speed of Samsung phones (mine is A32 5g). With my 4g plan thorugh PM, I am getting between 20-60mbps UL and 0.3-1.5mbps DL speed.

In the video it suggested getting an app called Samsung Band Selection or something like that. Apparently that app no longer works as the video indicated. In any event, I'm not sure what I did, but the prompt was to remove Freedom Mobile and I clicked "yes".

[ChrisLondon]

@Miffed Thanks for your response and letting me know what the proper APN settings are. Unfortunately I am unable to change those as the menus where the settings are located, are greyed out.

[gpixel]

@ChrisLondon 

try this

>Turn off the phone
>Remove sim card from phone
>Turn phone back on
>Dial *#06# and press call button
>imei number will show on screen
>check setting/status to confirm imei number
>restart the phone with sim card insert to confirm networks connectivity

by the way the upload speed is slow for PM they throttle it to 10mbps on their 4g plans. mine is currently at 1.8mbps for some reason. when my plan changes I'll test it again. 

[dust2dust]

I think the pressing matter here now is the calling. Although we seem to have lost the OP for a while now.

I can remove all APN's pre-loaded in the phone and still call and text in and out.

@ChrisLondon- Do you do full power downs when you swap sims? Or are you one of those that do "hot swap" while everything is on? For the wifes phone, do a full power down. Remove her sim. Restart phone. Let it finish. Full power down. Insert sim. Restart. If that gets her phone calling again then great. Let us know.

Does she have the same kind of phone as you?

Is that the actual verbatim message the phone is giving when you try to call?

[darlicious]

@ChrisLondon 

Do you have a null or unknown IMEI # on your phone now? If so read this article...

https://www.technobezz.com/restore-galaxy-null-imei-and-fix-not-registered-on-network/

[darlicious]

@ChrisLondon 

I can't seem to find a setting that will allow me to delete pm on my A320. Any chance you have access to a freedom Sim card or a London Drugs selling Roam Sim cards for $0.29? Maybe one of those two Sim cards will allow you to re-add pm like they allow Oreo users to edit their APN? Alternatively you can ask customer support to text a configuration file if you can still recieve texts? This uncharted territory but one of the two might work?

[will13am]

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@computergeek541 wrote:

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@ChrisLondon wrote:

I was having difficulty with slow 4g upload speed, so I was fiddling with settings. It asked if I wanted to cancel or remove Public Mobile (I can't remember which message) and I clicked on Yes. I thought I'd just be able to get back on it but now all of the settings are greyed out in my Mobile Networks menu.

I have tried rebooting, airplane mode, resetting network settings and I made sure we both have active plans.

When I swapped the sim out to my wife's phone, it recognized it as Public Mobile but when I tried to make a call I got the message "can't connect the call because there is no plan on the account". I swapped the sim back into my phone and nothing...meanwhile, after putting the regular sim back into my wife's phone, she is still getting the same ""can't connect the call because there is no plan on the account" message, so both of our phones are now useless.

For her phone, I tried the "lost phone suspend then reactivate trick", but still nothing..

Any ideas?

---

Others are suggesting to reprogram the APN setttings because there isn't any way to "remove" a network.  It sounds as if you have accidently deleted your APN settings.  Making adjustments to the APN setings aren't going to improve the data speeds. Also, APN setings being missing or incorrect wouldn't prevent phone calls. As for whether a factory reset will fix things or not, it may very well do that, but there's only one way to know for sure.  If you decide to try that, make sure that you make a copy of any infromation/content that you wish to keep before doing that.

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Factory reset being the big hammer that it is should work for all software related ills.  If there was a deleted APN, it would be restored from the factory settings.  All other network related settings go back to factory defaults.  

[dust2dust]

Do you have any recollection of where exactly you came across some setting to do this? Or did you find an app and fiddle with the system using it? If so which app?

[computergeek541]

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@ChrisLondon wrote:

I was having difficulty with slow 4g upload speed, so I was fiddling with settings. It asked if I wanted to cancel or remove Public Mobile (I can't remember which message) and I clicked on Yes. I thought I'd just be able to get back on it but now all of the settings are greyed out in my Mobile Networks menu.

I have tried rebooting, airplane mode, resetting network settings and I made sure we both have active plans.

When I swapped the sim out to my wife's phone, it recognized it as Public Mobile but when I tried to make a call I got the message "can't connect the call because there is no plan on the account". I swapped the sim back into my phone and nothing...meanwhile, after putting the regular sim back into my wife's phone, she is still getting the same ""can't connect the call because there is no plan on the account" message, so both of our phones are now useless.

For her phone, I tried the "lost phone suspend then reactivate trick", but still nothing..

Any ideas?

---

Others are suggesting to reprogram the APN setttings because there isn't any way to "remove" a network.  It sounds as if you have accidently deleted your APN settings.  Making adjustments to the APN setings aren't going to improve the data speeds. Also, APN setings being missing or incorrect wouldn't prevent phone calls. As for whether a factory reset will fix things or not, it may very well do that, but there's only one way to know for sure.  If you decide to try that, make sure that you make a copy of any infromation/content that you wish to keep before doing that.

[hycm53]

@ChrisLondon "Is it possible that the SIM itself is no longer usable?"

I don't think the SIM card would make the Network Operators menu is greyed out. Access Point menu is greyed out. It's your phone hardware problem. In this case I think you should hard reset your phone. Make sure back up your data before hard reset.

You can contact Samsung here:

https://www.samsung.com/ca/support/model/SM-A326WZKNXAC/

[will13am]

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@ChrisLondon wrote:

@popping @will13am 

Is it possible that the SIM itself is no longer usable?

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Almost zero chance of that, unless there was physical damage that prevents the contacts from working.  I have moved my Public Mobile SIM from phone to phone so many times, I cannot even begin to count the number of times.  I have had SIM cards from other services that get swapped around all the time as well. Never have I ever had a SIM card failure.  In the community, some members like to suggest things like cleaning the SIM card, that could lead to more harm than good.  The last thing you want to do is spray noxious chemicals on the contacts.  

[Miffed]

Have you tried APN settings!?

Changing APN Settings On Android Phones

The APN (Access Point Name) settings contain information that's needed to make data connections through your phone.For most devices, you are not required to configure the APN settings.However, if you are experiencing data issues, check whether your APN is properly set up by following the steps below.

1. Check that your phone is unlocked. If not, contact your previous wireless provider.
2. Check that your device is compatible on our network; you can check using our phone compatibility tool here.

Next, check your APN settings:1) Open your settings, then tap:

• Access Point Names
• New APN Settings

2) Ensure the following fields match:

• Name: Public Mobile
• APN: sp.mb.com
• MMSC proxy: 74.49.0.18
• MMSC: http://aliasredirect.net/proxy/mb/mmsc
• MMS port: 80
• MCC: 302
• MNC: 220

3) If you needed to make a change, hit save, reboot, and you’re good to go!Make sure to enable data in your phone settings.

Changing APN Settings On An IPhone

The APN (Access Point Name) settings contain information that's needed to make data connections through your phone.For most devices, you are not required to configure the APN settings.However, if you are experiencing data issues, check whether your APN is properly set up by following the steps below.

1. Check that your phone is unlocked. If not, contact your previous wireless provider.
2. Check that your device is compatible on our network; you can check using our phone compatibility tool here

Next, check your APN settings:1) Open your settings then tap:

• Cellular
• Cellular Data Network

2) Ensure the following field matches:

• APN: SP.MB.COM

3) If you needed to make a change, hit save, reboot your phone, and you’re good to go!Make sure to enable data in your phone settings.

[ChrisLondon]

@popping @will13am 

Is it possible that the SIM itself is no longer usable?

[ChrisLondon]

@popping I looked up how to change APN settings, but you need to have access to the Access Point Names menu, which right now is greyed out.

[ChrisLondon]

@popping how would someone manually create APN settings for Public Mobile on the phone?

[will13am]

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@ChrisLondon wrote:

@will13am Would a factory reset even fix the issue though, as moving the sim to another phone caused additional problems?

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There is only one way to find out...  The one unique thing about Samsung phones is the so called CSC region code which is established with the first SIM inserted into the phone.  The phone does various customizations, geo-specific stuff, APNs, etc.  With both SIMs being Public Mobile, a SIM swap would be transparent to the system.  

[popping]

@ChrisLondon 

What is your APN settings on your A53 phone?

It sound like your deleted your APN setting for PM or selected a different APN settings on your Android phone.

If your phone does not have any APN settings, create a APN settings for Public Mobile and restart your phone.

Good luck!

[will13am]

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@ChrisLondon wrote:

I opened a ticket and after explaining my not being able to access the network operator menu to the CS agent, this was their response: "On our end everything is ok and I think it's better to visit a store or call Samsung to help you in this case because I can not access your settings from here."

What am I supposed to do with that? What Public Mobile store??? 4 messages over 2 hours and that is all I get? I have sent follow up responses, but they have said anything back for a few hours now.

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To be fair to the CSA team, they can only control your self serve accounts.  If they find nothing wrong them, the expectations is that the SIM card will work in a functioning phone.  Without having phone it hand, there is not much they can do to further the troubleshooting.  Try a factory reset.