S22 not getting UI 7 update and Visual Voice mail app completely gone.

[Quadrupus]

Hey everyone,

I have been having some problems with my new S22 (SM-S901U/DS). 

I will start from the beginning. 

I was previously with ATT on a family plan and we all switched to Consumer Cellular early May. This was with my my older phone (s9). I got settled in with CC and upgraded 2 phones within the plan to S22's mid June. The other S22 has a model number (SM-S901U1)

At the time of upgrading phones my visual voicemail was working fine. Some where around the start of July the app completely vanished from my phone. There is no visual voicemail nor can I download the visual voicemail app from the galaxy app store. CC said I was still active for visual voice mail. We tried restarting and I even did a factory reset. This did not change anything.

Also around the start of the month I was able to upgrade the other phone to UI7 android 15 and still has visual voicemail (though the user of that phone does not use visual voicemail). My phone on the other hand is still on UI6.1 android 14 and states it is to up to date. 

I called samsung and they told me this was a carrier issue.  I didn't understand that as we have another phone on the same plan that isn't having these issues. 

I called CC and they are telling me it is a samsung issue. 

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. 

[Velez]

Try doing a reset network settings on device wait about 24 hours. You should receive the update also. Hope this helps 🙏

[Quadrupus]

Thank you Velez, just did the reset. Will keep you posted tomorrow.

[Velez]

That sounds good.

[Mujibar]

Was your phone (901U) bought from AT&T or CC? The model number indicates that it was originally a carrier-locked phone.

[Quadrupus]

Both phones were purchased unlocked off a seller on Amazon.

[Mujibar]

That's the problem. Your phone likely has firmware tied to a different carrier. The phone is looking for an update from that carrier, not CC.

The other phone (901U1) doesn't have that issue because it was factory unlocked and has carrier-agnostic firmware.

You will need to have unlocked firmware flashed to your phone before it can get updates. If there's a CC retail location near you, you can contact them to see if they can do it. If not, you'll have to go to a uBreakiFix location; they're an official Samsung repair partner.

Links for both are below:

https://www.consumercellular.com/retailstores

https://www.ubreakifix.com/store-locator

[Quadrupus]

Mujibar,

Thank you. This is most certainly 2 problems in one as the visual voicemail is also probably tied to the carrier of the phone since the firmware wasn't flashed. 

I did talk to ubreakifix in my local area and it was $30USD. 

I double checked the Amazon listing and it does state that it should be SM-S901U1. Since it is not Amazon is willing to take it back for a full refund and I'll just get another phone. 

My fear is that I spend the $30 bucks into it and then I am still having problems. 

Thank you everyone who threw in your input. 🙏

[Mujibar]

Up to you whether you want to spend the time returning the phone you have and waiting for a new one (which may also not come with the right firmware), or pay $30 to fix the problem relatively quickly. Either way, the phone will have to be set up again. The firmware flash will erase all data on the phone. Whichever you decide, make sure you back up everything you want to preserve. Good luck.

[Mujibar]

Alternatively, you can flash the firmware yourself using a software tool called Odin. You may or may not be comfortable doing that. You won't find discussion about it here. There are videos on YouTube showing how to do it.