phone keeps reverting to MTN APN

P

philipm

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I have a Samsung Galaxy J1 Ace Neo (2016) that I bought from takealot.com and the MTN SIM I bought from the local MTN shop keeps reverting to the MTN APN setting, which I can’t delete or edit. I put the same SIM in an iPhone and it didn’t have the problem.

I tried turning off auto updates in case updates were messing with the APN settings but almost as soon as I gave it to the employee who uses it, it did it again. In one day, MTN has eaten the phone’s entire monthly airtime.

Afrihost support claims it is not the SIM but the phone and suggests flushing it but I am not sure if this is good for the sewerage system. Even if this does sound like a good idea because every time this happens, it chews airtime really fast.

More seriously, I do not see how reverting to factory settings will fix this. The phone should not be locked to MTN as I didn’t buy it from them. if for some reason MTN pushes its own settings to the phone when it first sees it on the network, won’t that just happen again?

Any ideas on how to fix this? So far my best bet looks like going to another network. Afrihost goes on month-by-month contracts but since the airtime on the phone is gone anyway, I don’t have a lot to lose by switching now.
 
It is more than likely the default APN written to the SIM that the phone jumps to.

iPhone as I recall ignores that sim default.
 
My answer would be...don’t use Android. :)

But might try using the USSD codes to request network configuration update from the network. It won’t overwrite the SIM default but may very well overwrite the phone default in a different manner that makes it stick.
 
I had this problem when I provisioned an MTN prepaid sim to Afrihost. I kept setting the APN and 30 seconds later it was back on MTN.

I left it for 24h to let the "provision" happen and it stopped doing it around 24h later.

I think something in the provisioning tells the network not to default the SIM's APN to MTN once its moved to Afrihost. Until that's done it will keep defaulting back.
 
neoprema said:
I had this problem when I provisioned an MTN prepaid sim to Afrihost. I kept setting the APN and 30 seconds later it was back on MTN.

I left it for 24h to let the "provision" happen and it stopped doing it around 24h later.

I think something in the provisioning tells the network not to default the SIM's APN to MTN once its moved to Afrihost. Until that's done it will keep defaulting back.
Click to expand...

Is this something I can do now after the phone has been on Afrihost for a fair amount of time?
 
Have you provisioned that MTN SIM To use Afrihost data? You don't need to do anything on the handset other than make sure its on Afrihost's APN once they've actually provisioned the APN on that SIM
 
neoprema said:
Have you provisioned that MTN SIM To use Afrihost data? You don't need to do anything on the handset other than make sure its on Afrihost's APN once they've actually provisioned the APN on that SIM
Click to expand...

As far as I know I did that (back in June 2017). The issue is that it keeps flipping back to the MTN settings, which I can’t delete or remove. The issue has become more severe now the phone is being used more out of the office (where there is a computer and WiFi).

Afrihost have been unable to offer a solution so I will probably give up on them and shift to another network. Number porting to the rescue.
 
philipm said:
I have a Samsung Galaxy J1 Ace Neo (2016) that I bought from takealot.com and the MTN SIM I bought from the local MTN shop keeps reverting to the MTN APN setting, which I can’t delete or edit. I put the same SIM in an iPhone and it didn’t have the problem.

I tried turning off auto updates in case updates were messing with the APN settings but almost as soon as I gave it to the employee who uses it, it did it again. In one day, MTN has eaten the phone’s entire monthly airtime.

Afrihost support claims it is not the SIM but the phone and suggests flushing it but I am not sure if this is good for the sewerage system. Even if this does sound like a good idea because every time this happens, it chews airtime really fast.

More seriously, I do not see how reverting to factory settings will fix this. The phone should not be locked to MTN as I didn’t buy it from them. if for some reason MTN pushes its own settings to the phone when it first sees it on the network, won’t that just happen again?

Any ideas on how to fix this? So far my best bet looks like going to another network. Afrihost goes on month-by-month contracts but since the airtime on the phone is gone anyway, I don’t have a lot to lose by switching now.
Click to expand...

This is an odd one. It really does sound like it could be your device. I say this since you have used another device and it works perfectly.

It would best to try and format your device to see if the issue still persists. If you don't come right with that I will need to get our Critical Care Team involved. Please let me know how the format goes and we can go from there.
 
AfriNatic said:
This is an odd one. It really does sound like it could be your device. I say this since you have used another device and it works perfectly.

It would best to try and format your device to see if the issue still persists. If you don't come right with that I will need to get our Critical Care Team involved. Please let me know how the format goes and we can go from there.
Click to expand...

I will try to retrieve the phone from the employee and report back if I can fix it. Unfortunately the problem only seems to surface when I am not near the phone.
 
AfriNatic said:
This is an odd one. It really does sound like it could be your device. I say this since you have used another device and it works perfectly.

It would best to try and format your device to see if the issue still persists. If you don't come right with that I will need to get our Critical Care Team involved. Please let me know how the format goes and we can go from there.
Click to expand...

I have the phone and the settings look right – yet if I make sure WiFi is off so it is definitely on the cell network, the Afrihost APN checker reports it as wrong. By format the device I presume you mean erase and recover user data?
 
I have a similar problem with my old man's phone. But this happens when the battery is taken out. somehow it always reverts back to mtn default settings as opposed to afrihost and one cannot delete those default settings.
 
AfriNatic said:
This is an odd one. It really does sound like it could be your device. I say this since you have used another device and it works perfectly.

It would best to try and format your device to see if the issue still persists. If you don't come right with that I will need to get our Critical Care Team involved. Please let me know how the format goes and we can go from there.
Click to expand...

I reset the device and put the Afrihost APN details in again. And it stlll reports as being on the wrong network. It worked before; how could this be broken now? Any ideas?
 
philipm said:
I reset the device and put the Afrihost APN details in again. And it stlll reports as being on the wrong network. It worked before; how could this be broken now? Any ideas?
Click to expand...

One thing I didn’t try. It’s a dual-SIM device. Could switching to the other SIM socket make a difference?
 
A few hours after resetting it suddenly it is working. Unless I can consistently be sure it works, I will have to consider shifting it to another service.
 
philipm said:
A few hours after resetting it suddenly it is working. Unless I can consistently be sure it works, I will have to consider shifting it to another service.
Click to expand...

Glad to hear this is sorted Phillip, sorry about the delayed response here. Let me know if you need any further help.
 
Set your APN settings as follows:


APN Name: Afrihost
APN: afrihost
Username: <leave blank>
Password: <leave blank>
APN Type: default,supl
Authentication Type: CHAP

The APN type should lock it as the default APN
 
MavChat said:
Set your APN settings as follows:


APN Name: Afrihost
APN: afrihost
Username: <leave blank>
Password: <leave blank>
APN Type: default,supl
Authentication Type: CHAP

The APN type should lock it as the default APN
Click to expand...

Thanks for this. You can also double check your settings for most devices via this link: https://www.afrihost.com/landing/mobile/apn/
 
MavChat said:
Set your APN settings as follows:


APN Name: Afrihost
APN: afrihost
Username: <leave blank>
Password: <leave blank>
APN Type: default,supl
Authentication Type: CHAP

The APN type should lock it as the default APN
Click to expand...

APN type is set that way but it still reverts. Giving up on Afrihost and switching to another provider.
 
philipm said:
APN type is set that way but it still reverts. Giving up on Afrihost and switching to another provider.
Click to expand...

I am sorry to hear this, are you sure I cannot get somebody to call you to try and sort this out for you?
 
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