What to do if Galaxy S10 can't make or receive phone calls

Are you having trouble with calls on your Galaxy S10? If your device is unable to make or receive a call, then this article should help you troubleshoot it. Make sure to follow the troubleshooting steps in the order we present in order to efficiently know the cause of your trouble.

What to do if Galaxy S10 can’t make or receive phone calls

There can be a number of reasons why you are unable to make or receive calls on your Galaxy S10. Check out the solutions below to see which one can help in your case.

Confirm contact is not on Auto Reject list. Every Samsung phone has a feature to block numbers that a user wishes not to pay attention to. Make sure to check your S10’s Auto Reject list to see if the contact you’re not getting calls from is included. To check:

Open the Phone app.
Go to Call Settings by tapping on the three-dot icon at the upper right.
Tap Settings.
Tap on Block numbers.
Check if the number you’re having a problem with is in the list.
To remove a number from your block list, just tap on the icon at the right.

Check for a bad app issue. One of the common reasons for calling issues on many Android phones is a bad third party app. Try to run your Galaxy S10 to safe mode and see if calls work. If your device can make calls normally on safe mode only, that means that you have a third party app problem. These are the steps to boot to safe mode:

Turn the device off.
Press and hold the Power key past the model name screen.
When “SAMSUNG” appears on the screen, release the Power key.
Immediately after releasing the Power key, press and hold the Volume down key.
Continue to hold the Volume down key until the device finishes restarting.
Safe mode will display in the bottom left corner of the screen.
Release the Volume down key when you see Safe Mode.

If you think that there’s a problem with one of your third party apps, the next step is to identify what app it is. Start uninstalling the latest app you installed. If you can’t remember which of your apps may be causing the trouble, try to narrow down the suspects with elimination method. This is how you do it:

Boot to safe mode.
Check for the problem.
Once you’ve confirmed that a third party app is to blame, you can start uninstalling apps individually. We suggest that you begin with the most recent ones you added.
After you uninstall an app, restart the phone to normal mode and check for the problem.
If your S10 is still problematic, repeat steps 1-4.

Check for possible network service interruption. If there’s no third party app causing the problem, the next possible reason to check if it’s coming from the network side. There may be issues in your area due to planned or unplanned maintenance, or network trouble. Make sure to call your network operator at this stage to get firsthand information about the status of their service. If there’s no current issues in your location, then proceed to troubleshooting the device further.

Toggle Flight Mode on and off. Flight Mode or Airplane Mode can also block incoming and outgoing calls as well as other network functions. If calling service has mysteriously stopped working after going on a trip, it’s possible that you have simply forgotten to turn off Flight Mode.

Blocked contact. If you happen to be having trouble calling one contact only, it’s possible that said contact may have blocked your number. Contact him or her using another way to double check this.

Also, if you’re having a problem with one contact and you’re unable to receive calls from it, you should consider checking if the number is blocked or not.

Check for call barring. Call barring is phone setting that allows the Phone app to block incoming or outgoing calls. If you have this setting turned on before, be sure to check if it affects the contact you’re having a problem with.

Check SIM card. At other times, texting and calling problems can occur if the SIM card is loose or faulty. Try disconnecting the card from the device temporarily and see what happens. Before you do so, make sure to power off the phone to avoid corrupting data. Once out of the phone, make sure to wipe the card with clean soft cloth to clear any dust in its metal connectors.

If you suspect that there may be a problem with the card, you can also insert your SIM to another compatible phone (from the same carrier) to see if it can text and call.

If there’s obvious sign of damage to the SIM card, contact Samsung or your local retailer for a replacement.

Toggle Network Mode. If you live in an area with less dense population like the country side, the type of network your phone is connecting to may not be reliable. Try to use 3G instead of 4G to see if that will make a difference. You can do so by going under Settings > Connections > Mobile networks > Network Mode.

Once you’ve changed the network mode to 3G, try making calls to see if there’s any improvement. If calls are back to normal, try to toggle 4G network back.

Check Phone app. In some other cases, the cause of the problem may lie within the phone app only. There are two troubleshooting steps that you can do for the Phone app. The first one is to clear its cache. Here’s how it’s done:

Open Settings app.
Tap Apps.
Find and tap the messaging app.
Tap Storage.
Tap Clear Cache button.
Restart the device and check for the problem.

Should nothing change, the next Phone app troubleshooting would be to reset it to its defaults. This one will erase all your texts so be sure to back them up if you don’t want to lose them.

To clear data of the Phone app:

Open Settings app.
Tap Apps.
Find and tap the messaging app.
Tap Storage.
Tap Clear Data button.
Restart the device and check for the problem.

Factory reset. As a last resort, you must try to factory reset your device to cover all possible software-related causes. If there’s an unknown software glitch, wiping the device will most likely help. These are the two ways to wipe your device:

Method 1: How to hard reset on Samsung Galaxy S10 via Settings Menu

This is the easiest way to wipe your Galaxy S10. all you have to do is to go under Settings menu and follow the steps below. We recommend this method if you have no trouble going under Settings.

Create a backup of your personal data and remove your Google account.
Open Settings app.
Scroll to and tap General management.
Tap Reset.
Select Factory data reset from the given options.
Read the information then tap Reset to continue.
Tap Delete All to confirm action.

Method 2: How to hard reset on Samsung Galaxy S10 using hardware buttons

If your case is that the phone is not booting up, or it boots but Settings menu is inaccessible, this method can be helpful. First, you need to boot the device to Recovery Mode. Once you successfully access Recovery, that’s the time that you begin proper master reset procedure. It may take some tries for you before you can access Recovery so be patient and simply try again.

If possible, create a backup of your personal data ahead of time. If your problem prevents you from doing that, then simply skip this step.
Also, you want to make sure that you remove your Google account. If your problem prevents you from doing that, then simply skip this step.
Turn off the device. This is important. If you can’t turn it off, you’ll never be able to boot to Recovery Mode. If you are not able to shut the device off regularly via the Power button, wait until the phone’s battery is drained. Then, charge the phone for 30 minutes before booting to Recovery Mode.
Press and hold the Volume Up button, the Power button and the Bixby button at the same time.
When you feel the device vibrate, release ONLY the Power button.
A screen menu will now appear. When you see this, release the remaining buttons.
Use the Volume Down button until you are highlighting ‘Delete all user data.’ Press the Power button to select.
Press the Power button again to select the Yes – delete all user data option.
Press the Power button to highlight, then select the Reboot option

Contact your network operator. After trying all device troubleshooting, you should contact your network operator for help. Not all network issues are fixable on a user level. If factory reset fails to resolve the issue, the most likely problem may only be fixed by your network operator.

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