Could SFOS be blocking incoming SMS or calls?

General
#1

Hello,

Background: I have been unable to log in to PayPal for for the past two days. I have not received a single SMS nor phone call from their 2-form authentication system. I called to PayPal and they confirmed everything should be up and running on their end.
I started investigating with my phone carrier: they say they are not blocking any incoming messages or calls and there is no pending message in their system…

Out of desperation, I will ask here as well: could there be a problem on my end with SFOS 4.5 rejecting some calls or messages?

#2

Please give information about phone model, SFOS sub-version (4.5.0.xx), country and network operator! Do calls and messages from other phones work?

1 Like
#3

4.5.0.24
Xperia 10 III
Czech Republic / 02

I do not know of any other calls or messages not working. I did not suspect my phone to be a problem except that out of desperation I am investigating all possibilities at this point.

#4

Is volte enabled? Can you check, if it happens on 2g and/or 4g? There are some other threads which mention this issue as well…

#5

If calls and messages from other people (real humans) do work then I can’t imagine that the phone is the culprit. But I can imagine that automatically generated messages from huge companies sometimes may disappear.

#6

I am on 4G, will search for VoLTE

#7

“4G calling (beta)” is disabled

#8

Dumb question but: did you restart your phone recently? If not do it

#9

Just after posting here…
edit: BTW at least one other sms gate works, I guess I should call PayPal again

#10

On service hotlines they often say ‘everything is OK on our side, check your phone or settings’, while there is not everything OK. Not every mishap in the server room is real time reported to the service hotline people.

#11

Yep, I’ve had random SMS functionality loss on X10II even before VoLTE times. PayPal SMS would simply not arrive, then noticed others wouldn’t either. I can’t recall whether anything but a reboot would fix it, or was toggling SIM cards off/on also an option.

#12

Had the same thing, problem matches pretty much the description of the VoLTE/3G issues reported elsewhere.

Switching manually to 2G for the relevant SIM in Settings made the SMS arrive (after hitting the PayPal Send Again Button).

Side note: PP seems to default to WhatsApp messages nowadays, so make sure you didn’t select that.

2 Likes
#13

Just a contrary note because it’s interesting, the GS5 port, also only 4G never has issues with SMS (I must admit I use paypal too often). That’s with the O2 network in Germany. Not sure how it helps, but it seems to indicate that it’s not SFOS but a modem issue?

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#14

I also receive all automatic SMSes from bank, ebay, paypal, etc. I’m on XA2.

#15

Did you try putting your SIM into another phone? It could be a very old clamshell that is still into a drawer.

#16

Switching to 2G? That really did not occur to me.
In any way, I was told by PayPal to not log in for 72 hours while they forward the issue to their IT department or what so I will not check it on 2G right now. (I the meantime I managed to pay in other way.)

I must say however, if this was the problem, it might be the last straw for me. I’ve been with Jolla since the first phone (after holding quite long to Nokia N9’s). And while I recognize they have added a lot of functionality and performance (or is it just the newer hardware?) it feels like Sailfish has been gaining problems with core functionality.

  • Missing audio in phone calls? Embarrassing enough. I had to reboot my phone too many times before admitting to myself this is a persistent problem and I have to look for a workaround (“pulseaudio -k”). EDIT: maybe this got better but even after the last update it happened to me once or twice.

  • Android applications loosing internet after leaving from wifi to mobile data. (workaround: toggle airplane mode on and off)

  • SSH server shutting down for who knows what reason… This is likely not a core functionality for most but this just did not use to happen. (“devel-su systemctl start sshd” and yes, it is enabled)

Edit: to be fair there are “core” phone functions that also got more reliable, this is what I recall:

  • Fingerprint reader used to be completely unusable, certainly on my previous phone, the first Xperia 10. Now I use almost exclusively to unlock the phone. (Sometimes I just have to tap the sensor several times to wake it up so that it starts scanning. Yet on other times it scans every touch that lands on it and it thinks I want to unlock it while I actually only handle the phone. I suspect this is a hardware/firmware matter, though.)
#17

Oh sorry I did not specifically mean to switch to 2G; just any other phone you have at hand. By inserting your SIM into some other phone and trying to login into Paypal, you can decide which of the two following groups causes the problem: either {hardware_modem, SFOS} or {telecom_operator, Paypal}.

2 Likes
#18

For me on Xperia 10 III everything works. Also quite on the contrary, I wish there was a way to block annoying spam sms numbers because I receive them quite often.

1 Like
#19

(A bit out-of-subject: once you manage to log-in with SMS:

  • install SailOTP on your phone
  • (optionnally: install barcode reader for an alternative tool to get the QR code)
  • enable two-factor authorisation in PayPal using SailOTP as the app
  • use the backup functionnality in SailOTP to save a backup
    • (Note: might not work on SD card depending on how sailjail is configured)
  • make a backup copy (e.g.: on your NAS, on your workstation, etc.) of the backup file that SailOTP generated
  • be sure to not forget your master password

This makes you able to not rely on SMS. Which is also useful if you’re travelling and use a different SIM card due to roaming)

4 Likes
#20

I would suggest Foilauth. It’s just better code. Otherwise, good advice :slight_smile:

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