Lost cell conectivity after upgrade

CNinja

I have a Pixel 5a. This morning I restarted the cellphone to complete the upgrade to Build TP1A.220624.014.2022083000. After restarting, I get the message "No SIM Card" and can no longer send SMS or make calls. What are my next steps to help diagnose and resolve this issue?

Things I have tried:
Restarting again - no fix
Moved the SIM card to an old Samsung phone on stock Android - Verified good SIM connectivity
Searched online - found a Reddit comment of someone who may possibly be experiencing the same issue but no resolution. Found a set of instructions to "Wipe Cache Partition", but the directions don't appear to work for GrapheneOS (I just get a "No Command" error screen with the Dead Android Icon).

Max-Zorin

I doubt if this is the issue, but here goes. Often after updates I need to go into Settings > Network and Internet > SIMs > then ensure mobile data is toggled on. With some updates it toggles off.

Again, I think your problem probably 99% something different.

CNinja

I checked, and unfortunately, that doesn't appear to be the issue. Thanks for the suggestion, though. Also, if this is the wrong forum to post this sort of issue, please point me in the right direction.

MetropleX

CNinja SETTINGS>SYSTEM>RESET OPTIONS>MOBILE WIFI BLUETOOTH

Do this which should force an update of carrier settings and APNs again. Let me know if this resolves and we can move forward.

CNinja

MetropleX
Unfortunately that didnt work. I performed the "WiFi, mobile & Bluetooth" reset and checked the box for "Erase downloaded SIMs". I rebooted the phone, but there is no change in behavior. It still says "No SIM card" on the lock screen in the upper left.

When I go into it Settings->Network, under "Calls & SMS" it says "Tracfone (Temporarily unavailable)" so it appears to be reading data off of the SIM.
I plan to call my carrier's tech support to see if they can fiddle with something on their side.

MetropleX

CNinja I will say with 99% certainty that a new SIM card will resolve the problem. How long have you had this one?

CNinja

Thank you. That is what the carrier support suggested as well. I'm currently in the process of trying to port the number to a newly purchased SIM card. I'll update this thread as I proceed

CNinja

Still not working.
Put the working SIM card back into the old Samsung phone. Put the new SIM in the Pixel. Initiated the transfer process. Lost service on the old SIM. No change on the new phone.
Did a factor reset on Pixel. No change
Flashed stock Google Android (TP1a.220905.044) on Pixel. Still no change.
Moved new SIM into the old Samsung. Got cell connectivity after reboot.
So, it appears something seriously wrong happened in a low level component in the Pixel 5 when the OS was updated. Looking back, I rebooted my phone while in a location with bad cell coverage, so Im going to wildly speculate that after the OS update, the cell modem decided to do a firmware update or something and failed 1/2 way through do to bad cell signal... but that is just my wild guesses at this point.

So, to summarize: Im stuck. My Pixel 5a phone was running just fine until I rebooted to complete a system update. After then, the "No SIM Card" error will always display on my lock screen. Neither replacing SIM cards nor flashing to stock Android fixed the problem.

Any other suggestions for me to try before I go and order a new phone? :(

MetropleX

CNinja it's not the OS on the Pixel that is the issue, if any element failed it would roll back to the known good version you were upgrading from. That counts for both stock and GOS, having flashed both again since this would take care of any firmware.

Your carrier says some devices need a 4G LTE SIM, if the SIM card you got was one and the issue persists it is likely that it is a hardware issue on the Pixel. If you download an eSIM and this worked that would confirm my suspicions, plenty of Pixels have been listed on eBay with this issue. Not enough for it to be commonplace but enough to know it exists.

Fives

Had this same exact issue before!

CNinja

At this point, I'm in agreement; I'm feeling it is a low-level software issue or down at hardware and not actually have anything to do with GOS. I am RMAing the phone back to Google for repair.

I'll be reinstalling Graphene back on it when I get it back. Thank you @MetropleX for your support!

MetropleX

CNinja no problem at all, still be here when you are back 🤝