Pixel 3a XL experience
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@wsanford here are the T-Mobile APN settings that were reported to the UBPorts "North America Carrier Issues" group that seem to work:
Used For: MMS Name: T-Mobile MMS APN: pwg MMSC: http://pwg.mmsmvno.com/mms/wapenc <Proxy, Proxy Port, User Name, Password ALL BLANK>NOTE: the above APN and MMSC are identical to the US Mobile settings (T-Mobile re-seller)
Used For: Internet Name: T-Mobile Internet APN: epc.tmobile.com <User Name and Password BLANK>So, can you try those and then possibly reboot to see if it works? There were some bugs around changing settings "not sticking" so let us know if that is a problem for you. Again, to test MMS you need wifi OFF, cellular data ON. Good Luck!
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@rik Success!!! Thank you so much. It was odd though. It didn't work at first, so I drove into town and tried where I knew I would have the best signal, and still nothing. I came home and deleted the failed attempts and then tried again and it sent and received pictures just fine.
The settings are holding just fine after reboots.
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@wsanford great news! There is a bug in there that prevents using the "internet and mms" option for a single APN setting. But good to hear you have it working even though a bit kludgy
Looking ahead, I would like to dig into making MMS work while on wifi (by effectively "forcing" cellular data for all MMS activities regardless of if wifi is on or off), then look at group mms (now the messages are actually received to your phone but no app knows what to do with them, so that is why no error message even is created, they just are not handled), etc.
Getting "full features of MMS" working well would be a big win for the North America market I suspect.
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@wsanford your needs are way different than mine.
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I have to say that this last update in the dev channel make the batery last for the most time since I got the phone. Whatever you have done. Don't change it, maintain it. This is highly appreciated.
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@rik North América also Includes Canda and Mexico carriers?
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@rik It's been working great all day today, and it's getting pictures just as fast as my S9 on Verizon. Thank you again! Turning off the WIFI is a bit of an inconvenience but at this point, I really don't mind it as I don't want it connecting to any insecure WIFI along the way, so I was already turning it off when leaving the house. If there is ever anything I can be of help with testing on a Pixel 3a XL, shoot it my way, I'd be happy to help.
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@thousandtopics right now there are a few Canadians in the group as well, could be that Mexico has similar carrier issues, I am not sure.
For example, the "trickery" of US carriers detecting IMS capable handsets and then "behind the scenes" switching over incoming SMS to be delivered via IMS was a shared problem for some Canadian carriers as well. The "solution" of disabling IMS for the Pixel 3a "solved" incoming SMS issues for US and Canada, but not sure about Mexico.
It was trying to sort out "good old basic SMS" that initiated creating the "North American Carrier Issues" group because no one in Europe / Asia had any issues with incoming SMS. With carriers around the world moving at different times for VoLTE, etc., it seemed relevant to have a group dedicated to North America carrier issues.
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@rik oh well I'm from México, so No problems with SMS at all. The only complain I might have is the audio quality in calls. . . It varies a lot. And I don't see the use of using MMS since family and friends use Telegram and different more complete chat services.
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@thousandtopics
MMS is like SMS but with more than 160 characters pssible, and photos also, not talking about universality of the protocol. -
@thousandtopics said in Pixel 3a XL experience:
@rik oh well I'm from México, so No problems with SMS at all. The only complain I might have is the audio quality in calls. . . It varies a lot. And I don't see the use of using MMS since family and friends use Telegram and different more complete chat services.
Yeah, I would love to not use MMS but have to use it for friends and family that use it exclusively (that seems to be a lot of people in the USA). Incoming SMS was broken for at least Pixel 3a users in the USA until a few months back so once this got straightened out I agree with you that it is fine.
About audio quality, I don't have noticeable issues but I wonder if it is related to UT not supporting VoLTE yet.
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@keneda again, Telegram, matrix, etc works better than mms. And even if we here are more used to use wifi, a lot of places have public wifi or share it as part of a service in a café office or supermarket, deparment store, so. . . We don't tend to use a lot of mobile data, but since therer are other apps that handle that better than mms . . I mean, it's good to have it just in case.
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@thousandtopics
Each of those "other apps" are not compatible between them, that's where MMS is usefull, i don't have to install any app, create any account, and can send one to anyone knowing he/she will receive it, no matter what "other app" he/she prefers.Mobile data is not the problem here, i have 60 GB for 13€ monthly.
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@keneda which is great. To be completely honest, here there are plans the most expensive for at least close to 20 eur that might just offer 3 gb, offering "unlimited service“, which is a non-sense and "free“ Facebook Services + Twitter/Tiktok - referring them as "Social Networks“, not a very fair trade. Since you're paying to be a facebook subscriber isn't actually free. The rest of social networks are excluded of course. If I ask if ir supports Mastodon, Telegram or pixelfed I'm being seeing as a weirdo . . . Hahaha it is so funny.
So, I just pick up refill of 6,4 euro (to let you imagine the cost) for 1 gb or 2gb. So . . I prefer to donwload all the things I'm going to listen/see/read before going outside, and for essential comunication a telegram to the family group, memes or audio to some friends. I just receive most of the sms from companies, and that's about it.
I wouldn't know what to do with all that data available, maybe stream several episodes from netflix, but hey I still pay for internet at
Home, so, I have to use it anyway. -
I flashed another Pixel 3a XL this morning for a friend that I got interested in this, cause flashing misery loves company right? LOL He tried for two days but could not get Google Play Services to flash the phone back to 9.0.0 (PQ3B.190801.002, Aug 2019). I tried this morning and couldn't get it to work either, so I resorted to doing it manually and it went off without a hitch. Here is what I did. And just for the record, I'm on Linux, Ubuntu to be exact. You should have ADB and fastboot installed on your computer.
Go to the Google play services site and instead of "Flash" click on "Link" next to the 9.0.0 (PQ3B.190801.002, Aug 2019) image. It will download the zip. Unzip it and cd into it in a terminal.
Start with the phone unlocked and on in a regular operational state with developer mode and USB debugging enabled. Bounce (turn off and on) USB debugging so you get the pop-up to always allow from this computer.
In the terminal and run "adb devices" to make sure you can see it. then run "adb reboot-bootloader" which will take you to the fastboot screen.
The "Flash-all.sh" script from the zip you downloaded will fail, at least it always did for me, due to the "if" statement at the beginning. Instead, cat the script and just run the fastboot commands in it manually. There are only a few to run and remember you have to be in the directory these files are in to run the commands. This worked on two phones so far. I then ran the 0.8.8 installer and like magic, it was done. Like anything else in Linux, there are several ways to do anything and you never know when you might have to do something different for some unknown reason. I believe in picking up these referb phones, there is just no telling the how's or why's in which they were wiped and what it will take to get them to flash. But here's yet another way.
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Hello. Upon first porting my Pixel 3a XL to Ubuntu Touch, it recognized my SIM. I could make calls, and I did, to both my brother and mother a few times. However, when attempting to send a text, it would continue to load until eventually failing to send altogether. Then, after restarting the device, cellular service would be marked as searching before quickly being marked as "Denied" entirely, as stated in the pull-down menu. This whole cycle was replicated upon resetting, as well as when porting back to Android and again to Ubuntu Touch. I also tried installing the rc release instead of Ubuntu Touch instead of the stable release. I even tried installing the "nuntium 8" MMS patch to see if it would fix the issue (the forum said that it was the only patch listed that would do anything for the Pixel 3a), but it didn't seem to help any.For cellular service, I'm located in the US and use StraightTalk, an MVNO of Verizon. This is the only issue keeping me from making Ubuntu Touch on the Pixel 3a XL my daily driver phone, so I would really appreciate any and all help I can get in resolving this.
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@jackharness Verizon is polling for VoLTE. If it does not find it, it will block your device, thus the denied. VoLTE is coming but who knows when. So, an alternative if you must use Verizon is to use a non-verizon owned, but verizon based, MVNO and a sip service for calls.
But, the fact you could make calls says you are on a GSM sim. Verizon is troublesome, so I'd suggest using another MVNO such as US Mobile
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@rocket2nfinity Thank you very much! I had seen some threads regarding this following my post, and I was afraid this might have been the case. I suppose that I'll just have to switch back to Android for now, and wait until VoLTE support comes to Ubuntu Touch in a year or so. Network support is very hit-or-miss out here unless you go with Verizon, and I honestly couldn't be bothered with the switch. Keeping a number while switching plans is a hassle, and keeping my number is important to me. I'll definitely keep my eye out for VoLTE support, though.
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Hello,
Sorry if this is mentioned in the thread already, but I couldn't find it.What is the deal with "oem unlock" / unlocking the bootloader?
I bought a device off ebay and it oem unlock was greyed out and said connect to the internet to unlock. In the end I couldn't do it, so i returned the device
Since then I've been asking sellers if the bootloader can be unlocked on 3a xl or 3a, and they are all saying "NO" . So, which ones can be unlocked or how do you do it?
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@joe im only familiar with US models, which you would want the G020G; sellers advertise that their device is G020G but then they send out whatever. For the US the one you want to avoid is the verizon version G020E which is not unlockable. I had better luck on swappa than ebay
