5 Best Fixes for Android Not Making or Receiving Calls

Are you unable to get in touch with friends and family because your Android smartphone won’t make or receive phone calls? That can be quite a trouble in times like today when it is important to be in touch with people. We shall explain a few likely reasons why that happens and solutions to fix them. Of course, we know the fragmentation of the Android models out there, and our solutions cover a wider range of models, if not all.

The first culprit to this issue is network coverage. Check the cellular network bar on your smartphone to see the signal strength in your location. If network reception is low/weak, try moving to another location to get better network reception. You should also check that you don’t have ‘Do Not Disturb’ enabled on your smartphone as this could block/silence incoming calls.

Additionally, if you are unable to receive phone calls from a particular contact, check that you haven’t blocked the phone number. Conversely, if you can’t call a particular number, check that the person hasn’t blocked you; call the person with another number, perhaps. The issue could also be caused by some basic glitch that a simple device restart would fix. So, reboot your phone and see if things go back to normal.

Malware could also be responsible for this issue. If you noticed you couldn’t make or receive calls after installing an app, uninstall the app, and check if everything goes back to normal. If your Android smartphone still won’t make or receive calls after doing all of the above, proceed to the methods in the next section.

1. Disable Airplane Mode

Check that Airplane Mode is disabled on your device. If it is disabled but your Android phone still can’t make or receive calls, try enabling Airplane Mode and disable it after a couple of seconds.

Disable Airplane Mode from Android Quick Settings drawer or navigate to Settings > Network & Internet > Airplane Mode.

If your Android smartphone is still unable to make calls after enabling and disabling Airplane Mode, try the next solution.

2. Check SIM Card

Your Android device might be unable to make or receive calls if the SIM card(s) on it is inserted improperly. You can choose to physically eject your SIM card(s) and check that it is correctly placed in the SIM tray/port as instructed by the manufacturer. You can remove the SIM card, reinsert it, and check if you can now make phone calls.

3. Reactivate SIM Cards

Instead of ejecting your SIM cards, you can deactivate your SIM card and reactive it. That could help resolve any phone-SIM card conflict that’s hindering you from making or receiving phone calls. Follow the steps below to deactivate a SIM card on your Android device.

Step 1: Launch the Android Settings menu and select ‘Network & Internet’.

Step 2: Tap SIM cards.

Step 3: Now, tap the affected SIM card that won’t make or receive phone calls.

Step 4: Toggle on the On button to deactivate the SIM and tap OK on the prompt.

That will deactivate the SIM and you should get a prompt when the process is completed. Tap OK to continue.

Note: You can only deactivate a SIM card if you have multiple SIM cards in your phone. You’d get an error message stating “Error: can’t disable all the SIMs” when you try to deactivate the only SIM card on your phone.

Step 5: On the same SIM configuration page, toggle on the SIM card to reactivate it.

You should get a prompt when the process completes. Tap OK to proceed. Now, try making a call and check the solution solved your issue.

4. Clear Dialer Cache Data

Clearing your dialer app’s cache data could also help get your phone back to making and receiving calls.

Step 1: Launch the Settings menu and select ’Apps & notifications’.

Step 2: Tap ‘See All Apps’.

Step 3: Scroll through the list of applications and select Phone.

Step 4: Select ‘Storage & cache’.

Step 5: Tap the Clear cache icon.

Now launch the dialer and check if you can now make (and receive) calls.

Note: Clearing the Phone app cache data will not delete your call history or contacts, so you have nothing to fear.

5. Contact Network Carrier

If your phone can make and calls with another SIM card, you should contact your network carrier —with another number or via social media channels— to confirm that the affected SIM card is active and hasn’t been blocked. If the SIM is active, you might be provided with useful information to resolve the issue with your SIM card.

Hello, Hello, Hello

If all the solutions above fail to fix the issue, you should reset your phone to factory default. And if that fails as well, the problem is most definitely hardware-related. The issue could be due to a faulty antenna or a damaged SIM port. Who knows? Visit an authorized smartphone repair center to get your device checked for possible hardware damages.

Next up: Do you often miss important phone calls? Read the article linked below to learn some useful tips that will ensure you never miss a phone call on your Android smartphone.