In This Article
Short answer: Most call failures are software or carrier-side, not broken hardware. Start gentle and work up. Toggle airplane mode on, wait fifteen seconds, then off. That alone clears a large share of intermittent cases. Still stuck? Check for call forwarding by dialing *#21#, rule out Do Not Disturb and any blocked numbers, then refresh the carrier profile and, if the line is truly dead, call your carrier to re-push the SIM. Skip the home fixes entirely if no other device on the account can dial out, since that points to a carrier outage.
When an Android phone stops receiving or making calls, the instinct is to assume the radio has failed and the phone is on its way out. It rarely is. In almost every case the antenna is fine, and the problem sits in a setting, a stale carrier profile, or a line the network needs to re-provision.
There are really four likely culprits: Do Not Disturb or a call block quietly intercepting the ring, a stale Wi-Fi Calling registration sending calls to voicemail, a SIM or eSIM that needs reseating, and an outdated carrier configuration. Beyond those, a handful of settings get overlooked again and again, chiefly call forwarding left on after a missed-call service, call barring, and Fixed Dialing Numbers. We will walk all of it in order, lightest fix first.
These steps are written against a Pixel and a Galaxy, but they map cleanly onto most mid-range Android phones too. The telephony stack underneath has not shifted much in recent releases, so the menus may sit in slightly different places, yet the moves are the same. If you would rather start from the other end and rule out the line itself, see our companion piece, How to Fix an Android Phone That Will Not Make or Receive Calls.
If your phone is acting up in other ways too, a few related guides are worth keeping open as you work through this one:
- How to Fix an Android Phone That Keeps Freezing
- Remove Ransomware From an Android Phone (Step by Step)
- Stop Popup Ads When You Unlock Your Android Phone (The Real Fix)
The quick checklist
If you only have a minute, run straight down this list. None of these wipe your data, and any one of the first few resolves the bulk of cases on its own. Stop the moment calls start working again.
- Cycle airplane mode: on for fifteen seconds, then off. This re-runs the network attachment and clears many intermittent failures.
- Check for call forwarding: dial *#21# to see the status. If something is set, dial ##21# to cancel it.
- Rule out Do Not Disturb and blocks: check the DND tile, your Blocked numbers list, and Pixel’s Call Screen or spam filter.
- Toggle Wi-Fi Calling off and on: a stale registration sends calls straight to voicemail without ringing.
- Refresh the carrier profile: on Pixel via the testing menu, on Galaxy via a software-version update; reseat the SIM if needed.
- Call the carrier: if the line is truly dead, only a server-side reset and a fresh SIM push will bring it back.
Confirm it is not Do Not Disturb, a block, or call forwarding
Before you touch anything technical, rule out the settings that silence or redirect calls without any sign that something is wrong. These are the most common reasons a phone looks broken when it is working exactly as configured.
Start with Do Not Disturb. Pull down the quick settings and check the DND tile, because on both Pixel and Galaxy it silences incoming calls unless the caller is a starred contact or you have allowed repeat callers. Next, open the Phone app, tap the three-dot menu, go to Settings, then Blocked numbers, and make sure the person trying to reach you has not been added by accident. On a Pixel, also check Call Screen and the spam filter; aggressive screening can quietly send an unknown legitimate number to voicemail before it ever rings.
Then there is the setting almost nobody thinks to check: call forwarding. If your calls were ever routed to voicemail or another number, that rule can linger and swallow every incoming call. Dial *#21# to see the current conditional and unconditional forwarding status, and dial ##21# to clear it. While you are in there, look at call barring (Phone app, Settings, Calling accounts, then Call barring), which can block outgoing or incoming calls outright, and Fixed Dialing Numbers under the SIM settings, which, when on, only lets the phone dial an approved list. Each of these is a frequent, invisible cause of “my phone will not receive calls.” For the official Pixel checklist on connection and calling problems, work through Google’s own steps for fixing calls and connection problems on a Pixel.
Reset the radio stack
Once the call-handling settings are clear, the next move is to make the phone re-establish its connection to the network from scratch. Most intermittent call failures live here, in a connection that came up half-broken and never recovered.
Cycle airplane mode first. Switch it on, wait a full fifteen seconds so every radio truly powers down, then switch it off. That forces the phone to re-run the LTE and 5G attachment handshake, which is enough on its own to fix a large share of intermittent cases. If it does not stick, reboot the phone properly, not just a screen lock; a real restart clears the carrier-config cache that a toggle cannot reach.
If you use Wi-Fi Calling, this is the moment to recycle it. A stale Wi-Fi Calling registration is one of the most common reasons calls go straight to voicemail without ever ringing the handset. Open Settings, Network and internet, SIMs, pick the line, and turn Wi-Fi Calling off, wait a moment, then turn it back on. On a Galaxy the toggle lives in the Phone app under Settings, Wi-Fi Calling. Re-registering the service fixes calls that ring on other people’s phones but never reach yours, and it is far quicker than the deeper steps that follow.
Refresh the carrier profile
If the radio reset did not help, the carrier configuration the phone is running may be out of date, especially after a SIM swap, an eSIM transfer, or a recent network change. Refreshing it pulls a fresh APN and IMS profile so the line registers cleanly.
On a Pixel, dial *#*#4636#*#* to open the Testing menu, tap Phone information, and look for a Refresh carrier settings or similar option. One important caveat: this code is no longer the universal trick it once was. It still reliably opens the Testing menu on current Pixel phones, but Samsung disabled it on recent One UI versions, so on a Galaxy it simply does nothing. Android Police keeps a tested rundown of which secret dialer codes still work on which phones if you want to check yours before dialing.
On a Galaxy, take the supported path instead: go to Settings, About phone, Software information, find Service provider software version, and tap it to check for an update. That is Samsung’s equivalent of a carrier-profile refresh. If neither route helps, reseat the hardware. Power down, remove and reinsert the physical SIM, and power back up; for an eSIM, open Settings, Network and internet, SIMs, tap the eSIM, and reactivate it through your carrier’s app. Samsung’s own walkthrough for a Galaxy that cannot make or receive calls covers the menu-by-menu version, including how to reset mobile network settings without losing your messages.
Call the carrier as the last step
If nothing on the phone has moved the needle, the fault is almost certainly on the network’s side, in a provisioning record only the carrier can rewrite. This is the point to stop tinkering and pick up another phone.
Call your carrier from a different line and ask them to run a line-provisioning reset and re-push your SIM or eSIM profile. Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T, and the major UK and EU networks all have a tier-one tool that does exactly this, and it often resolves a dead line in minutes. Crucially, ask them to confirm that VoLTE and VoNR are switched on for your account. A growing share of “cannot make calls” tickets trace back to accounts where VoNR was never enabled after a SIM swap, which leaves the phone unable to place calls on a 5G standalone network even though everything on the handset looks correct.
The fix order, step by step
Here is the whole sequence in one place. Work it from the top, and stop as soon as calls come back, since there is no need to run the heavier steps if a lighter one already fixed it.
- Clear the call-handling settings. Turn off Do Not Disturb, check Blocked numbers and Call Screen, then dial *#21# to check call forwarding and ##21# to cancel it.
- Reset the radio. Cycle airplane mode for fifteen seconds, then reboot the phone to clear the carrier-config cache.
- Recycle Wi-Fi Calling. Toggle it off and back on so a stale registration stops routing calls to voicemail.
- Refresh the carrier profile. Use the Pixel testing menu or the Galaxy software-version update, and reseat the SIM or eSIM if needed.
- Call the carrier. Ask for a line-provisioning reset, an eSIM re-push, and confirmation that VoLTE and VoNR are enabled.
Cause and fix at a glance
Different causes leave different symptoms. Match the line that sounds like your situation, then jump to the matching step above instead of working the entire ladder.
| What is going wrong | The fix |
|---|---|
| Do Not Disturb or a blocked number | Check the DND tile, Blocked numbers, and Pixel Call Screen |
| Calls silently forwarded elsewhere | Dial *#21# to check, ##21# to cancel forwarding |
| Call barring or Fixed Dialing on | Turn off call barring and FDN in the Phone and SIM settings |
| Stale network attachment | Cycle airplane mode, then reboot |
| Wi-Fi Calling registration gone stale | Toggle Wi-Fi Calling off and back on |
| Outdated carrier configuration | Refresh the profile on Pixel or update software on Galaxy |
| Line not provisioned, VoNR off | Call the carrier for a reset and VoLTE and VoNR check |
Common questions
My phone vibrates but never rings, why? That is almost always a volume or ringtone setting rather than a call fault. Open Settings, Sound and vibration, and raise the Ring volume; also confirm a ringtone is selected and that DND is not silencing the ring.
Calls go straight to voicemail without ringing, what is happening? The usual culprit is a stale Wi-Fi Calling registration. Toggle Wi-Fi Calling off, test a call, then turn it back on. If that does not help, dial *#21# to make sure calls are not being forwarded.
My eSIM broke after a software update, how do I fix it? Reactivate it. Go to Settings, Network and internet, SIMs, tap the eSIM, and reactivate the line through your carrier’s app. If the option is missing, the carrier may need to re-push the profile from their side.
Can I reset network settings without losing my data? Yes. On stock Android the path is Settings, System, Reset options, then Reset mobile, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth; on Samsung it is Settings, General management, Reset, Reset network settings. It only clears saved networks and pairings. It does not delete your apps, photos, or messages.
The bottom line
A phone that will not make or receive calls is rarely a hardware death sentence. The fault almost always lives in a setting, a stale registration, or a carrier record, and the fixes run from a fifteen-second airplane-mode cycle to a five-minute call with your network.
Work the order: clear the call-handling settings, reset the radio, recycle Wi-Fi Calling, refresh the carrier profile, and only then escalate to the carrier and ask them to confirm VoLTE and VoNR. Do that and most people are back to taking calls in a couple of minutes, without ever setting foot in a repair shop.
