Finally, I've received the right phone. It is from Southwest Distributors, via Swappa. I should have followed the recommendation of the UBports site and gone there first. I could tell right away because one of the first steps after powering it up is asking about a SIM and giving the option for an eSIM. Verizon models don't offer that.

I'm now on my fourth Pixel 3a from Amazon or Ebay. Every vendor has send me the wrong phone. Wrong model, wrong size (I already bought case and screen protector separately), Verizon-locked, unknown vendor locked. The one I have now is the wrong color, although I don't care about that. From Ebay, it's supposed to be "Factory unlocked". I tell vendors that I want that, plus OEM unlocking. This time, I was able to put my Google Fi SIM card (that I use in a Google Nexus 4) in and activate it. That works, but the OEM unlocking is greyed out. I can't downgrade Android to 9 (step 1).

I haven't been able to find out the model of this (Regulatory Label is blank). I tell vendors that I want a G020G, following the advice elsewhere in the forum, but I can't determine that that is what I have. I'm waiting for a call back from Google to see if they will unlock it or tell me what the phone's status is.

I can't see that it supports eSIM, but from what I read it is supposed to. There's no eSIM IMEI listed or other evidence of it. Is this a clue as to what the phone is?

Thanks for any info you can provide me.

Okay, this is a dumb question that I haven't been able to answer for years. I've used a Nexus 4 for some years, usually in the dev channel. I never notice that an OTA has arrived. I guess that's because they are only relevant in the stable channel. I'm probably wrong about that. You see, I'm ignorant of a lot about OTAs. How do I know which OTA I'm on and how do I see that I have received one? I can't find answers here, Wiki, general web searches. Sorry to bother with such a trivial question.

I'm interested in exploring working on this, so that CardDAV can be configured via the system-settings and more. I don't see it under the system-settings-online-accounts repository in Github. I've run Mobian on my Pinephone and all the usual Nextcloud services are available in the settings there. I guess the code, even the language, could be pretty different in this case between Mobian and UT. Still, I'd like to explore that. TIA.

@nero355 I bought a Pixel 3a.

@keneda, I've been able to return every phone I bought. Both Amazon and Ebay have good return policies. They even provide a free return shipping label. So, I'm not out any money (at least yet).

I will look at those other phones. I'm looking for what is closest to a daily driver. I have my Pinephone for hacking on, if I want.

@keneda, I guess the sellers aren't bothering to look up the IMEI from every phone and properly determine which model. But, they advertise them as the specific models, which is not nice. One of them seems to have many Pixel 3a and 3a XL phones, and they are all listed as the same, which is hard to believe. My experience is that there are more Verizon and other carrier-locked Pixel phones out there than ones that people got directly from Google. Who would bother to get it shipped to them when they can walk into a store and by a branded one?

This is so frustrating. Is there a reliable source to buy these phones for UT at a reasonable price?

I'm upgrading from a Google Nexus 4 to a Pixel 3a. I have a convergence dock for my Pinephone. Since the P3a uses USB-C, I'm wondering if anyone knows if the dock for the Pinephone will work on the P3a. TIA.

The seller also couldn't provide the info regarding bootloader unlock status. He says that he doesn't know how to check it for me.
Any help with it, guys, please?

If I recall correctly, they have to first enable Developer mode by going into the about phone section of system settings and clicking seven times on the build number. Then, go into the system settings Developer settings. They will see an option for OEM Unlock or something like that. If it is greyed out and therefore cannot be changed, then the phone bootloader cannot be unlocked.

I have a Pixel 3a on the dev channel with Red Pocket GSMA in the USA.

MMS works both in and out ONLY when the WiFi is ON.

If I turn the WiFi off, I can't receive MMS, but I can send it.

I've tested this a number of times. I don't know if it is just intermittent or really depends on WiFi. I will try sometime when I'm away from home so that the WiFi is on but I'm not getting data over it.

I don't know if this is specific to my device (Pixel 3a) and I can't find that this is talked about in this forum. I am using the dev channel. I'm surprised that the Notifications settings in System Settings doesn't list Messaging (SMS texting app). I don't see a way to add it. Consequently, I don't see how to control turning text messaging notification off and on.

In an aside, it looks like I get notifications for SMS messages but not MMS (MMS is working on this phone).

Just want to add that I got a G020G from a 3rd party and it didn't work with my Google Fi SIM, which works in everything else I put it in. From the suggestion from another thread here, I'm switching to RedPocket GSMA. SMS, MMS, group text, all work.

I bought a Red Pocket SIM, since success was reported with given APN numbers in the Halium 9 Bounty thread in this forum. I have success! MMS, group text, works. I want to provide a bit of the detail for me.

I'm in the Boulder, CO, USA area.

Red Pocket gives APN information on their website:
https://help.redpocket.com/hc/en-us/articles/360042491332

The APN name is different there compared to the Bounty thread (which gives PRODATA). That doesn't seem to matter.

The MMS Proxy entry does matter. I found that the hostname didn't work, but the IP address did.

There was a suggestion around here that this might work better with WiFi OFF. I found that REPLIES from other phones to my group text (MMS) initiated from my P3a FAILED with WiFi OFF. When I turn WiFi ON, then group text replies SUCCEED. Odd that MMS would fail to be processed correctly on the P3a when WiFi is off.

I can't get my Google Fi SIM to work. It's got to be something about the APN settings. I think it's on the same network, but maybe GSMA with Google Fi might be on a network that doesn't work in my location? Maybe it's using T-Mobile and Red Pocket is using ATT? I don't know.

@nero355 I bought a Pixel 3a.

@flohack, got it. @Fuseteam led me through making the change and submitting it.

Here's what I do: I've prepared a gprs file on my Linux box. First I turn off Cellular data in the UI, then I adb push it to the phone, then adb shell to the phone, then sudo cp the gprs file to /var/lib/ofono/###########/gprs. When I turn Cellular data back on, the gprs file on the phone is immediately overwritten with the original one, that I get when I Reset All APN Settings in the UI. Where are those settings coming from? From the cell provider (Google Fi)? Some other file on the phone? So, I can't use the UI to set the APN I want and I can't hand code it in the gprs file. What's it gonna take?

@fredldotme Could you tell me what the steps are to make the changes to the gprs file to "stick"? Rebooting rewrites it with the T-Mobile ones that this phone defaults to when I put my Google Fi SIM in. Popping the SIM out and putting it back in also rewrites it. This same SIM card works great in my Nexus 4: pop it in, automatically gets T-Mobile settings (which are different from when I pop the card into my Pixel 3a), MMS works to and from with WiFi on or off. I'm trying to use the UI or modify the gprs file directly, and it won't stay what I set it to.

@flohack Okay, then why does the device page for the phone have a green check mark next to "Notification LED"?
https://devices.ubuntu-touch.io/device/sargo/