Reinstalling the system seems to have fixed the issue for now.

@domubpkm Re-flashed UT, unfortunately despite unchecking the 'wipe user data' box, it went ahead and wiped my data anyway.

However, the volume issue seems to be fixed. How strange, I wonder what had caused it in the first place. I am still considering giving Volla OS a go though, just to try both options (I'm not too much of a fan of Sailfish OS, so I doubt I'll be putting that on the phone lol).

@domubpkm I'll either be trying this or trying Volla OS when I have time to see if it's the phone or the OS. Thanks for the help

@domubpkm Sure, I've made a thread about it now where I go into more specifics:

https://forums.ubports.com/topic/6457/volume-unresponsive-on-volla-phone

@totalsonic Oh God I hope not. I might have to consider trying to flash VollaOS to the phone to see if it has the same issue. I'd rather not have to if it can be avoided though.

This has been partially discussed in a previous topic: https://forums.ubports.com/topic/5804/ringing-volume-and-other-issues/2 However, I feel that the issue isn't properly resolved.

The volume buttons on the Volla seem completely ineffective. The volume bar on the screen goes up and down, but there is no change to the volume of the system (although since OTA 18 having the volume on 0% does mute the phone, so there's some improvement there).

In the aforementioned topic thread, uVolMan was brought up as a solution, and it works sometimes, but it is a very clunky solution which is a pain to have to adjust on the fly. It is incredibly frustrating to have to switch apps and unlock a slider in order to change the volume when there are volume buttons that the system can clearly recognise (hence why there is a visual acknowledgement of them on the screen but not an audible one).

In the short time I have had the phone this has been an issue when it was running OTA 16, 17 and 18, it doesn't seem to be being fixed.

Worse still, since installing OTA 18 the volume issue has started to affect calls too. It used to be the case where speaker phone was unusually quiet, but the standard call volume was okay. Now there is an issue where I cannot hear anything during a call, the person on the other end of the call can hear me, but I hear nothing. Even adjusting settings in uVolMan seem ineffective in this scenario.

Does anyone have any suggestions of how to properly fix this issue?

I've had to put my SIM in my old phone now as a phone without the ability to have a phone call is no phone at all....

I'm having a similar(ish) issue.

My Volla Phone doesn't have TWRP (at least it doesn't look like the TWRP I'm used to). However, when I've done updates to OTA 17 and OTA 18 after both I am met with a recovery screen stating that the update has failed and that I should reboot and try again. However, when I do reboot the update says it has installed and in the about section it will say the correct OTA number.

I assume this is a minor glitch and that everything is probably installed correctly. Is this a known glitch? Is there a way of verifying that all of the OTA update has been installed?

@domubpkm That's a good question, I didn't think to test that when I wrote my last post.

It seems to not accept MMS messages, I've yet to send one (It's been so long since I've used an OS that actually supports MMS that I've gotten out of the habit of using it), but as it doesn't accept them I doubt it will send them either.

So, to clarify my point more. As of July 2021 the Volla Phone can:

• Send and receive phone calls
• Voice mail works
• Mobile data works (2G, 3G and 4G all tested)
• MMS doesn't work

On O2 in the UK.

@scoobie Sorry for the late reply (busy). I've used it for around a month now and I'm mostly very happy with it.

It does have an issue with the volume rocker not actually changing the volume. Although since OTA18 it can now mute the audio lol.

Other than that, I'm happy with my choice

After using the Volla Phone with Ubuntu Touch in Britain with O2 for almost two weeks now, I can say that it's going well. I haven't noticed any issues with the signal or coverage yet.

Hopefully this will help others who have wondered the same thing.

Having taken everyone's comments and advice into account (thank you very much to everyone who has been helping me), and having ran a Mastodon poll (for the hell of it) I have just ordered myself a phone to run Ubuntu Touch on as a daily driver!

And the winning phone is drum roll................ the Volla Phone!

@cibersheep Well I suppose this will need to be a one step at a time kind of thing. Once a half decent guide for one language is set up then surely it shouldn't be too much trouble for people to translate it later.

@luksus That's a shame, the FP3+ looks like such a cool phone.

I'll be keeping an eye out for updates to it though as I would love to try out the phone when the Ubuntu Touch port for it is more ready.

@domubpkm Thanks! I've taken you're advice and have posted a question about this in the Volla Phone thread!

@stanwood Thanks for clearing up my confusion to do with on-line and off-line charging. I hadn't even considered that a phone wouldn't be able to charge when turned off!

As for the Xiaomi; I am really tempted by these phones and have looked at them before. From a hardware perspective they look great, the big killer for me is how I would need to go about unlocking the bootloader.

Here's where I might be getting a bit tin foil hat-ish; I simply do not trust giving Xiaomi any of my data whatsoever. So, do you know if it is at all possible to unlock the bootloader without creating a Mi account? If I can't then I'll have to pass on the Xiaomi's even if their phones do look really good.

@cibersheep I've been a typical British person and haven't even considered languages other than English. Are there even Ubuntu Touch guides in other languages? If not then this clearly is another issue all together that needs resolving.

This information about the update system makes a lot more sense now, this is definitely something that will need to go in the guide. Once I get myself a more functional Ubuntu phone I am going to look into doing some quick write ups of potential guide pages, and info like this will be going into it.

@libremax That makes sense, thank you for clearing that up for me

I'm looking into getting a Volla Phone to use as a daily driver phone here in Britain. But I've seen quite a few people across different countries saying that they are having some issues with their network when using the Volla Phone with Ubuntu Touch.

Does anyone have any experience using the Volla Phone in the UK? I am on the O2 network and I just want to make sure I will actually be able to use the phone I am about to buy!

I have emailed Volla to ask about this and they got back to me saying:

"I found the following information on the UK website of O2.

LTE BANDS UK

1 - 2100 MHz
3 - 1800 MHz
7 - 2600 MHz
8 - 900 MHz
20 - 800 Mhz

The Volla Phone operates on

GSM / 2G: 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz,
UMTS / 3G: 900 / 2100 MHz,
FDD / LTE / 4G: 800 / 850 / 900 / 1800 / 2100 / 2600 MHz"

So as the numbers seem to add up, would I be safe to assume that I would have no issues with my signal?

I would appreciate anyone's advice or experience on the subject, even if you're using a different network, how has your experience been of using the Volla Phone in Britain?

@libremax I had looked at this phone before, and it does look really good. The thing that has put me off however, is the way that it seems you have to unlock the bootloader.

How easy is it to unlock the bootloader on the Redmi Note 7? And is it possible to do it without having to give my details over to Xiaomi and wait for them to grant me the unlocking code?

The phone itself looks great, I just don't like what I've heard about Xiaomi. But if I'm wrong please tell me!

@keneda I had looked into the Pixel 3a, and it looks so good. It really is the lack of an SD card slot that's holding me back as 64GB of storage is just not enough for me.

I'll put it on the maybe pile though, just in case I don't get along with the Volla or Fairphone.