Sound crashes often when calling on Galaxy S8 using GSM.
Hi,
I bought a Galaxy S8 (SM-G950F) from the /e/ store and it works for most of the things. Updated to the latest image (did not try older ones) and since then I’ve noticed a very annoying issue with the calling app which is not always reproducible but appears enough to be annoying.
Here’s how it happens :
- DO : Start the phone
- DO : Play music for example with VLC.
- EXPECT : Sound works.
- DO : Make a call
- EXPECT : You can call.
- ACTUAL : When making the call sound works when entering the phone number but then stops working. And then it stops working for all the apps, just like a sound driver crash. However this crash seems to be only triggered by the phone app.
- WORKAROUND : Completely shutdown the phone and turn it on. Sometimes you need to do it several times to get the sound back on calls. (Reboot is not enough) Please note that sound works for any other app including phoning with Signal (which probably uses 3G) - however I tried with Trucaller and the GSM test lead to the same result, sound crash. It tends to show that the issue is probably in the lower level layers of the ROM, maybe some issue with Orange France and the GSM component.
Note that from time to time it can also crash during a call, I observed it once.  I checked several times and my volume settings are OK.
I’ve observed this behaviour with image 0.11-2020083170821 which is standard to /e/OS since my phone proposed it.
Phone information :
- Image : /e/OS 0.11-2020083170821 (obtained after upgrading the phone using the system update feature on the phone)
- Model : SM-G950F
- Phone encryption : on
- Cell phone operator : Orange France
- MicroSD Card inserted.
Aurora Store enabled (required for my banking app Société Générale) but with /e/OS system components blacklisted. Only the maps app has seen updates applied. If you need I can give you all the installed apps version. Issue seems to be related to the phone software component as it occurred even before I installed Aurora. Sone works fine with VLC as an example if I use it prior to phoning, but no longer after. Calling with Signal or Skype works out of the box both with Wifi and LTE, so the phone component seems to be faultly (not in hardware but on the ROM).
Checked the phone with Fairphone checkup and all is okay as well.
Tried to wipe the cache partition, boot the phone in safe mode, with no effect. However found this link which might be interesting : https://www.reddit.com/r/LineageOS/comments/b52xao/no_sound_during_calls_please_help_me/