BUG REPORT: ACER LIQUID ZEST - Internet calls (Viber and Skype) do not ring when the screen is off

Hello,

I have recently bought an Acer Android smartphone (ACER LIQUID ZEST Z525) and I am reporting a bug.

When the phone is in stand-by (screen is turned off) Internet calls do not ring. I first noticed this bug when I installed Viber application. First I thought the bug is in Viber, however after I installed Skype I noticed the problem in that application as well.

PROBLEM DESCRIPTION:
1) Incoming Viber call –> ACER LIQUID ZEST Z525 does NOT ring
2) Caller hangs up
3) Sreen in ACER LIQUID ZEST Z525 automatically turns on and the phone reports MISSED CALL.
4) 2nd incoming Viber call NOT later than 30 - 35 seconds after 1st call – ACER LIQUID ZEST Z525 rings
5) Caller hangs up
6) 3rd incoming Viber call LATER than 30 - 35 seconds after 2nd call – ACER LIQUID ZEST Z525 does NOT ring

IMPORTANT:
1) The problem does not appear if the screen is ON (i.e. the phone is "awake").
2) The problem also appears when using Skype application instead of Viber. The only difference is that the calling party does not hear ringing tone in his phone and the application reports failed attampt to esatblish a call.
3) Acer Live Updater says that the SW in the phone is up-to-date.

Best regards from Croatia/ Igor

Accepted answers

All comments

the_emporium

At least for Viber, go to Settings-->General.. There should be an option for "Wifi - sleep policy". Click on it, and you should have 2 options.. first is "always connected - Viber will keep Wifi constantly on", and second is "Use device settings.....".. Which one is selected.. You should have the first option to force wifi not to sleep. If wifi sleeps, obviously no calls Smiley Happy

Also, under Android Setttings-->Wi-Fi, click on the 3 dots onthe top right (for additional options).. Do you have an "Advanced" option ? Select it if you do. Then under Advanced you probably have an option for "Keep Wi-Fi on during sleep". Select it and ensure the option is set to Always.

PS: I'm going from my menu options on my Zest Plus, and assuming they are similar, but they may vary slightly.

Igor_Pejić

Thank you for your answer however you missed the point -> this has nothing to do with Wi-Fi (i.e. IEEE 802.11 b/g/n LAN protocol) since my Acer phone does not use Wi-Fi. However I checked the Wi-Fi settings you reffered to in Viber as well as in Android and they are as you told they should be.

Nevertheless, the phone still does not ring. Please note 3rd point in my first post -> when the caller hangs up the called phone (my Acer phone) automatically wakes up (screen turns on) and reports missed call.

the_emporium

Have you takent he latest Firmware update ?

I am suspecting that there are many side effects after the last update acer put out. I had a few strange behaviour on my phone after the last update (including the obvious one that DTS was no longer truely functional - even though it was supposed to be fixed - and controls seemed to partially work).

A factory reset seems to have cleared up all the issues Smiley Sad I know, it is no fun doing a factory reset, but even thoguh this last update fixed a few things, it was also not a clean patch for some reason.

I don't use skype, so I can't test that. But I just tested using Viber, and my phone had no issues ringing even after sitting at idle on my dresser for over 2hrs... I used my wife's phone, and called mine using viber free call, and it worked as expected. I don't have a data plan, since I have Wifi available at most places and don't see a need for it for me. So that is another variable.

Is it possible you have "restrict background data" options turned on ? Either globally (Settings->Data Usage), or on a per app basis (Settings->Apps->Viber->DataUsage) ?

I know it sounds brutal, but factory reset may be the only way to get the functionality back.

After last update, I did to a factory reset, to get back the stability of my phone.

Igor_Pejić

No I didn't updated the firmware. I recently (a month ago) bought the phone and as soon as I started to suspect the firmware I checked in the Settings (About the Phone) and as I said in my first post under "Important":

"3) Acer Live Updater says that the SW in the phone is up-to-date."

I have another phone (from different manufacturer) with the same Android version (6.0) and the same Viber and Skype versions and it does not have this problem. When I realized that I started to suspect on Acer Zest firmware.

Check is Settings (About the phone) says:

Himax852xes_himaxctp, fw version: b5

It is obvious to me that there is no CONNECTIVITY problem here. IP packets do rech my Acer phone and the caller hears ringing tone in his own phone. Otherwise how we could explain behavior of the phone, namely point 3 in my first post -> when the caller hangs up the called phone - Acer Zest - does wake up and reports missed call. On the other hand Skype does not even ring at the caller since Skype in the caller's phone reports inability to establish a call when my Acer sleeps (i.e. screen is turned off).

Regarding factory reset it is a little bit risky and since this is not official support I wouldn't do that without official tecnical support telling me to do that...

the_emporium

I agree, it is not official support. You probably won't get much of a direct answer from official support anyhow. But in 95% of the cases, first thing that they would tell you is to do a factory reset, and then if problem persists, they'd tell you to call google Smiley Happy (which we all know is ridiculous).

The only risk there is for dfoing a factory reset, is to lose any personal information you have on it, and you would need to spend time to recofigure the phone. But with the exception of photos which may or may not be synced, or antyhing you uploaded to your phone manually, odds are that most of the info is already backed up to your google account (unless you disabled the account sync options).

My phone is a Zest Plus T08 (not T06) and I don't have the issue.. Maybe someone with a plain Zest T06 can comment if viber and/or Skype work as expected for them.

Obviously, it is your phone, and you can chose to do as you wish. If you do find a solution to the problem, I'm sure others would be interested in knowing what it was.

Best of luck.

Igor_Pejić

This post is for the sake of informing the Acer community about the solution.

The problem has been solved but despite the symptoms the problem was NOT in Acer phone but in the internet data link with the telecom ISP. The problem has been solved at the ISP. Nevertheless the software in the phone could be imporved so that the phone detects the problem in the network and reports it to the user rather than to confuse the user into thiking that the problem is in the phone software.

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