[Bug fixed] mobile network gets lost / crossing borders [answered]
asked 2017-11-27 22:10:06 +0200
When I leave Germany with my Sailfish X (OS 2.1.3.7 / t-mobile 4G network), roaming: always allowed, mode: 4G preferred, automatic carrier selection active, I encounter the following problem:
As soon as I don't have a t-mobile germany connection anymore and the foreign mobile network is available, the Sailfish X seems to lose mobile network connection permanently. Upon my arrival at my destination, in the upper right corner instead of 4G and the signal strength I can see a greyish square (see attachment "homescreen"). And the device has deactivated mobile data and roaming (see second attachment "settings"), while it seems to be searching for a 4G network.
I can't switch on data connection manually, but switch off and on the phone. Then I can turn on mobile data connection again manually - in Germany and abroad.
When I drive home again, i.e. foreign mobile network --> t-mobile germany it's the same problem.
What I already tried is to check and change APN settings. It didn't help.
---update---
When I bought my Sailfish X, I first used another sim card in it. After some days I put the t-mobile sim inside. That's why I thought today, this might be the problem: https://jolla.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115011240387-Fixing-the-settings-of-mobile-data
I installed Ofono Log. But it didn't help solve the problem as described in the above helpdesk instructions.
---update2---
IMPORTANT
When I crossed the german border this evening coming home from a neighbouring country, I was able to watch the Sailfish X all the time, i.e. as soon as the foreign network was out of reach, the phone chose a german mobile network (t-mobile) correctly - as it should - but then approximately 5-10 minutes later lost all mobile conncection - as described in my first posting here.
I opened network settings, but the settings weren't accessible anymore, but greyed out and not reactive. In the last line where usually your network operator can be found it said "Netz: Registrierung läuft" which means "Network: registration ongoing".
---update3---
Today I tried out crossing the border using 3G (UMTS) only ("prefer 3G"), since @peperjohnny below in the comments gave this hint. Well in my case unfortunately it makes no difference. No matter "prefer 4G" or "prefer 3G": the issue persists.
I also tried to cross the border with flight mode active, i.e. I activated flight mode in germany then drove to the neighbouring country and deactivated flight mode. The device showed similar behaviour, i.e. all mobile network connection lost permanently.
The only workaround: reboot.
---update 4 = the solution---
Jolla helpdesk send me a bug fix by email, i.e. an rpm which changed ofono version from ofono-1.19+git34.1-1.56.1.armv7hl to ofono-1.20+git5-1.13.1.armv7hl. I installed this and afterwards crossed the border to and from my neighbouring country including network change (home country network to foreign network and vice versa) without any problem, i.e. without permanently loosing the the mobile network connection in the country that I was driving to. Problem solved. Thanks! They told be that the fix should be included in OS update 2.1.4.
This sounds similar to an issue recently reportet by @sbo : https://together.jolla.com/question/174513/roaming-and-dataroaming-woulnt-work-at-all-in-switzerland/ Unfortunately I don't know if this really is caused by the same reason or if any solutions have been found yet. Maybe @sbo can tell us that?
ghling ( 2017-11-28 09:07:25 +0200 )editI'm not with t-mobile but e-plus or o2 whatever they are called this days. I had the same issue I think. What helped me was to not use 4g as prefered but 3g. After that I could connect data without problems.
peperjohnny ( 2017-11-28 10:05:12 +0200 )editI had the very same issue with Czech T-mobile when I was traveling to Germany. My xperia x couldn't find the network so I changed the settings from automatically find network to manual and back and everything was fine after that.
sepuka ( 2017-11-28 10:31:23 +0200 )editDoes your device works with mobile data? I have problem to connect to mobile data (I always got an error that I already reported to Jolla) with my t-mobile sim card.
Had this a while ago ;-) Finally found my APN was still as it was a decade ago. Now "internet.telekom" is working nicly. Other settings I have are Protokol as "IP", Authentifizierung as "CHAP", user-name and password don't matter, just something there is sufficiant.
reakolia ( 2017-11-28 23:42:21 +0200 )editI remember that my Xperia X received the wrong APN settings from my provider when I powered it on for the first time (only 3G worked). That was no big deal for me since I could simply correct it, but if you roam a lot this may become a problem. That sounds like a possible explanation for your issue. I'd contact Jolla via their customer care about it (and point towrads this suspicion).
ghling ( 2017-11-29 09:03:25 +0200 )edit