WiFi Calling keeps turning off

[vzw_customer_support]

Dwatson808, I am sorry that you are feeling this way as having you do a factory data reset is the final part of the troubleshooting process. This would determine if it is a hardware or software issue including applications that have been downloaded that may be disabling the Wi-Fi calling feature. Typically, doing a factory data reset would only be necessary if we have followed through with all available troubleshooting steps. Can you tell me what troubleshooting steps you have taken so far? Have you attempted to use Wi-Fi calling on a different data connection other than your home successfully?

Kevin_VZW

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[dwatson808]

What you seem to be missing is that this is an occasional problem. WiFi Calling will work for hours, days, or weeks. On our WiFi network. On other WiFi networks. And, when it is enabled, it works great. But, for reasons still unknown, it occasionally turns Off. (See above for settings menu path of the specific setting we are talking about.) This change is typically noticed when trying to make or answer a call and call quality is very poor or the connection drops within seconds after placing/answering call. Go look and discover the setting is Off. Turn it back On. Wait until next time, hours, days, or week later when suddenly it's back Off. It's turned off when the phone was charging. It's turned off when the phone wasn;t being used. And no apps were being changed and on and on. We've tried desparately to correlate it with something we are doing, or some app we are both using (a pretty short set), or some ways we are using the phones. We have failed to find a correlation. Not syaing there isn't one. MAybe there is. We haven't figured out what it is.

We've tried Safeboot. But there is only so long one wants to leave one's smartphone in safeboot as it's basically useless as a smartphone. So, without leaving it in this state for weeks, it proves NOTHING about why the setting may turn off tomorrow or the next day but hasn't since the safeboot. We've tried Airplane Mode/WiFi On. Same problem. Unless we turn the cell modem back on every time we leave the house and turn it back off every time we return, the phone is useless as a phone anywhere but home long before we've proven anything about a problem that can go weeks without recurrence. We are now trying, on one of our devices, LTE/CDMA, Home only. If, a month or two from now, we've never had to turn WiFi Calling back on on that phone, we may be able to conclude that somehow that setting pair is related. And that might help suggest, to somebody who knows the internals and how those settings relate to what the phone does out and about as it sees various networks, what it means in terms of a problem in the phone code. But we are a long way from that yet.

I get that there are some things for which factory data reset may be good and/or necessary step to isolate a problem to one haystack or another. A very occasional problem like this doesn't seem like one of them. And, since Android does not backup/restore everything, factory data reset does trash among other things:

• All Smart Lock settings
• Stored fingerprints
• VPN
• All Bluetooth pairings (cars, etc…)
• Android Auto pairing
• Cellular data billing cycle/usage
• Settings in dozens of non-Google apps
• All non-Gmail accounts in Gmail including things that are a pain to restore like generated App Passwords for 2FA/2SV sites
• Android Pay financial accounts (and all transaction history for associated accounts)
• Authenticator registration for Microsoft and Google Authenticators, restoring of which, in turn, breaks every 2FA remembered device
• Google Assistant voice model
• Many SMS messages that were older than when Google says it last backed up the phone
• All MMS messages
• Dozens of apps that remember logins, or the device, or have verified the device

You may enjoy trashing all that stuff in your smartphone for a diagnostic science project of very limited utility. I don't. I created that list the last time I went there, did that.

[vzw_customer_support]

We totally get where you are coming from, dwatson808. We do want your phone to work properly. Hearing that the issue is periodically happening and the feature shuts off on its own, confirms that there is something within the phone causing the issue. 

We are sad to say, but unless you know what is causing the issue, then a factory reset may be required. Since the Wi-Fi calling portion of the phones are not directly related to your service with us, we have no way of knowing what's the cause. 

StevenG_VZW

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If my response answered your question please click the �Correct Answer� button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!

[dwatson808]

WiFi Calling is a network provisioned feature. Given that, I can't be as sure as you seem to be that the issue we are having, on two different phones, has nothing to do with the phones' interaction with VZW or other networks. Yes, clearly, for some reason, the phone turns the feature Off. No, I don't know what is causing this to occur.

We've already had one poster in the thread report that the Factory Data Reset did *not* solve this issue. I feel no need to replicate that experiment.

[dwatson808]

LTE/CDMA preference, Home only roaming is not a solution for us. We have both had WiFi Calling turn off within last 48 hours. My wife, multiple times.

[Robbiewarner]

I did a factory reset on my pixel 2 just the other day since I could not retrieve voicemail messages when in Wi-Fi land. I also was having the problem of Wi-Fi calling turning itself off randomly, and the factory reset did nothing to change this problem.

[dwatson808]

We also cannot receive VM over WiFi Calling directly from the phone app. But at least the workaround to that, long press 1 in dialer, is pretty straightforward. I *suspect* "they" know bout the VM limitation on WiFi Calling and will (or will not) fix it someday as a feature enhancement. Once the other WiFi Calling issuies get sorted out. If they ever do.

Maybe we should start another thread "Unable to retrieve VM over WiFi Calling"? I think I'll do that. Of course, the only rmemedy offered by VZW will be to attempt a Factory Data Reset.

[vzw_customer_support]

dwatson808, This has been a long process for you with your WiFi Calling issue. I regret that you're going through this problem. There are a few details that I want to go over.

Since this has worked before, and works intermittently (when it's on), the provisioning in our system is good.

Nothing on the Verizon side could cause your phone to turn off the WiFi Calling. This is controlled by the software on your phone. 

Other applications or the stock Battery Saver can turn off settings on the phone. 

With this in mind, did you update your phone's software recently? Have you noticed if the phones went into Battery Saver before the WiFi Calling was turned off? What solutions has Google offered?  

JoelR_VZW
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If my response answered your question please click the _Correct Answer_ button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!

[dwatson808]

WiFi Calling works fine when it's on. WiFi Calling doesn't work intermittently. It turns off intermittently. When it's on, it works. Period. (Except for direct access to VM. Which has never worked over WiFi Calling. It's 100% repeatable. Would you like to work on that? It's another thread.)

I'm sure the provisioning intended by your system is correct. I'm not sure that this problem is not somehow a result of interaction with the phones and the various wireless networks they talk to. I don't know about all of these interactions. I just know what I see happening. I couldn't agree more that this is probably some undesirable behavior of software executing on the phone. But agreeing with that does NOTHING to get the defective software found and fixed. Nor does knowing it's software in the phone make me feel any better about it.

As has been stated numerous times in this thread. We have seen this occur with or without battery saver enabled in the first place and while the phone was sitting on charge over night when battery saver, if enabled, would have been inactive anyway. And other things Battery Saver temporarily suspends do not change state forever, just until battery charge is restored. I'm pretty confident Battery Saver has nothing to do with this. There is zero correlation between WiFi Callng turning off and Battery Saver being enabled/disabled or actively saving battery or not. Can we put Battery Saver aside?

Yes, it could be caused by some piece of app software we've all added to our Pixel 2 phones. It's easy to imagine that we use some common apps and that we have a large set of apps that are different from phone to phone.

Of course we've updated software on the phone recently. Software on the phone updates several times a week. A thing called "Carrier Services" updated yesterday. Maybe it has a fix to this problem? How would we have a clue what it is or does or why it was updated? When I was looking up the precise name of "Carrier Services", I found that four more app updates are waiting to install. Have you ever had a smartphone and seen how often apps are updated? Google issues Android security (and other Pixel 2 system stuff) updates at least once a month.

WiFi Calling turning off is happening much less frequently for both of us than it did back in January when we ported to VZW and when my wife got her Pixel 2. What changed the frequency or occurence? You got me. Probably some software update to some of the tens of millions of lines of code running on the phones.

I haven't taken a swing at Google on this problem except in their user forum. Calling Pixel support will be just as problematic as talking to VZW Support. It's a relatively rare and non-repeatable problem that we can't demonstrate on-demand, uncorrelated to other things, occuring on multiple phones with very different sets of applications and somewhat different usage. They don't have better ability than VZW to troubleshoot. They'll probably just say to Factory Data Reset. Because they have nothing else to offer.

[boringusername]

Verizon phones will always prefer cellular over wi-fi unless there is absolutely no signal. If your signal is really that bad anyway just put the phone in airplane mode then turn on wi-fi.