Roaming is Working now?? Did Samsung just access my S23 without advising me?

[imNotHappyJan]

To recap: I am visiting France and from 2 June to 26 June I had Roaming calls and data working perfectly for 21 days prior to 6.1 update downloaded overnight in France on 26 June. 

27 June to 13 July - 16 days - NO Access to Roaming Calls/data. Network settings were locked to Australia and unable to be set manually. 

I have probably wasted over 100 hours trying to get experts and amateurs to find a work around/fix, but after a dozen or more "Support" Techs from 3 different providers had all tried much the same set of solutions I was told to submit an Error report to Samsung via the Members App. 

*1 week later* and the verdict from the Samsung R&D experts : "it is probably a hardware issue" but I can't get it looked at in France because it is an Oz phone. So, bad luck, wait till you get home, then take it to Samsung Shop. Great. Thanks for nothing Samsung. 

NB the Flight mode indicator icon was 1/2 Gray - (The Googles tell me this is another known issue happening after some Samsung UI updates

14 July - Phone roaming is now working. Whaaaaatttttt???!

I am still in France. I have done nothing more to phone settings and seen no-one from Samsung EU or any other technicians/repairers.

So, if I did nothing. And no one else has had physical access to my phone..... Who fixed the Network settings? Who "magicked" the hardware fault? 

Was it Santa? Was it the Easter Bunny? The Tooth Fairy? Or did I just accidentally walk into a church and get blessed by Saint Samsung?

Or ..... Did Samsung send out an OTA fix for my, and other, UI 6.1 affected roaming phones but just not disclose/admit there was a roaming problem with 6.1??! 

Seems fishy to me, but I look forward to the venerable opinions and guesses of this community as to how this "damaged hardware" managed to revive itself.

[Dolgogi]

Samsung has pushed out the July update for the S23U (possibly for the whole S23 series) I believe, so this could have fixed it.

But how you got an update without knowing is odd.

[imNotHappyJan]

Verbatim text from the Samsung Error Log report team:
I can see that your current device software version is S918BXXS5CXE7 which is the same version as when the original error report was lodged. This indicates that no software updates were provided within this timeframe.

Should the issue continue to occur, the advice from our research and development team previously indicates that the issue is suspected to be the result of a hardware issue, but it is not possible for us to confirm a hardware issue with only software log analysis. To confirm a hardware issue, a hardware inspection is required.

[imNotHappyJan]

In other words "we have NFI, so let's go with a hardware fault that spontaneously corrects itself..."

[robmulally]

Optus fixed it. Your phone was working on day 5 according to your reddit post briefly until you used vpn. So as per my last post is either vpn or optus. As you did nothing it's obvious an optus issue, your phone was being rejected by the carriers . Or your vpn software updated. But you never told me what it was so I was unable to check. Technology isn't magic it does exactly what we tell it to do. And not every support person is equal so always ask them to explain it to you before they try something if they can't escalate.

[imNotHappyJan]

What Reddit post? The only Reddit post I referenced was another user stating the same issue as I had... Over a month before me. ????

Wow, good to know there is a clairvoyant on the team.

So, no, Optus did not fix it, no one touched it.

VPN had been investigated as a "potential" issue, so it was turned off, turned on and then (on instruction from Samsung Support, deleted.

It made no difference and was not reinstalled.... So VPN did not, could not, update could it?
U
No, not "obvious Optus issue" as stated above, and in previous posts (multiple times) phone was working for 21 days (not 5) perfectly. Then NOT working on Roaming for 16 days. Then working fine ...Again on roaming from 14 July.

Thanks for the advice, imagine me not asking any of the dozen or so Techs to explain what they were doing... I'll try turning it off and on again too..
Thanks very much for your input.
Cheers

[robmulally]

You still haven't told us what the vpn is... haha

[imNotHappyJan]

The VPN is irrelevant, as repeated several times.

As you still haven't demonstrated
a) that you accurately comprehended what was written in either post

b) that you have are anywhere close to giving a cogent, thoughtful or ntelligent answer to the question posed based on ALL the information supplied
as it appears you either didn't read it or the content went over your head, again.

Bless your heart and thank you for your input to date perhaps redirecting your huge intellect and knowledge of all things to another member's post may be best for all concerned.

Thanks again

[robmulally]

Can you let us know product name will help when searching. I saw another thread on here where it was suggested same as I did to use local sim to test. Glad it's working but be still great to know the vpn product name just to rule it out, vpn vs optus issue. Cheers

[robmulally]

The reddit post if not you another optus user with a vpn theirs worked for a while before using vpn on day 4. That's why I asked what it was. And yes if a vpn makes a mess removing it alone without resetting network again. That's the gap in the support process but it's not easy when you have a rightfully upset customer who through no fault of your own has to deal. With this on a holiday. Cellular tech is like magic and is not as simple as plugging in a cable it's a stack of dependencies. Like a tower of jenga , if samsung made a change hundreds of things need to change correctly to keep that structure only takes one kink to stop it all. And even I don't know all the steps. I would have asked you step one to try a local sim, step two remove vpn ans reset and try local sim. Then and only then move on to optus sim.. only because it's out of my control . I never update my phone when away and I always get local sim cards. But I have had issues with vpn software .