Everytime I've had a service issue, this is what fixed it.

Raelareames
Novice II

I have had visible service for about 9 months. There have been four times during that nine months when my service suddenly just quit working. The first time, I contacted visible and we tried to troubleshoot my phone multiple different ways. None of them worked. Eventually I was told the problem would be sent upstairs to some techs and I would be contacted in a few days. Now mind you this troubleshooting took a few days as I could not use my visible phone and had no internet service so I had to use someone else's phone. I was without service for over a week. When I receive a response from upstairs I was told my problem was because of the area I was in and I needed to use Wi-Fi. Absolutely ridiculous. The phone had worked before. So I got back on messenger and just so happened to get someone who thought of one more way to troubleshoot my phone. I wish I knew who they were because I would give them all the props in the world. The solution they suggested fixed my phone that time and all three times since. I have also used the same method to troubleshoot a few other people's phones and every time it has fixed the problem. I don't know if it will work for everyone, with every phone, every time. But if you're having problems with your visible service it's definitely worth a shot. Here it is: find an old SIM card from any other phone service aside from visible. I have used a US Cellular SIM card I have used a Straight talk SIM card and I have used a total wireless SIM card. All of them worked for this trick. Shut your phone off, remove the visible SIM card, replace it with the SIM card from a different service, boot up your phone and leave it on for at least 10 minutes. Obviously your phone won't work during this time frame. Then shut the phone off, take the other companies SIM card out of the phone, replace it with your visible SIM card, and restart your phone. You should have service after that. The way it was explained to me is that when you put in a different SIM card it resets your phone to try and work with the different Sim. Obviously it's different service and most likely there is no service on that SIM card so of course it won't work to get you service. But once the phone tries to reset to this SIM card when you take it the old one out and replace it with your visible sim, it forces the phone to reset to your visible SIM card and for whatever reason this reset fixes the problem every time I have used it. Hopefully this solution will work for you too. That way you can save yourself time and effort and save the techs some confusion. Let me know if this works for you or not because I'm curious if there are other ways anyone else has found to fix their service issues. However by and large I have had less service issues with visible than I've had with any other company so hopefully you never have to use this trick.

27 REPLIES 27

beav
Superuser
Superuser

Thanks for the suggestion. When I get the service unavailable message, I do one or more of the following:

 

-Reboot the phone

 

-Dial *228 What does that do? https://www.techwalla.com/articles/what-does-verizon-228-update-do 

If a post has solved your problem, please mark it as an acceptable solution, it helps others that may have experienced a similar issue get a quick resolution.

bpositive
Intermediate III

Since visible is only using LTE, you may loose the signal frequently if you are behind the range. Also their roaming service should be turned off which may be also problem. I had to use wifi calling in case this happens to me.

My phone regularly says 5G while on Visible so it seems it really does use more than LTE.  I do, however, have dropped calls every.single.day that they've been unable to resolve.

Me as well!

I have the exact same problem, dropped calls daily and cut offs in the conversations I do have

I just talked to one of their so-called helpers tonight in the chat and he told me to check and make sure roaming was connected. Do you think I should turn that off?

from what I see on my phone visible default settings are roaming off. Shaking my head since it said the shorthand was a bad word. I just turned it on so hoping that stops me from losing service randomly every 6 months or so. 

Like clockwork every 6 months or so my data disappears. And chaos always ensues because I never remember I have to reopen the SIM card holder. Such a pain. Never had to do this with Verizon, att, or T-Mobile. So your answer about them only using lte possibly answers my problem. I just turned on roaming too per someone elseโ€™s comment. This evening I thought Iโ€™d install esim to see if itโ€™s a way around the problem of losing service every 6 months. But I see per another comment with esim that it still happens.  4.5 hrs later and having to reinstall esim since it didnโ€™t properly install the first time. And the subpar chats were not helpful. If this happens again, Iโ€™m switching carriers. 

grecian57
Novice

Thank you so very much for this post. Because of this I now have service since three days ago that I have been trying to fix the issue of no data connection with the substandard  chat service ,who incidentally just waists valuable time of  members with phone issues..

It has come down to this that members do superior work addressing issues than the so called tech department..

Thank you again even if it is a year or so later..

I am having trouble and wish I could do as youโ€™ve suggested to see if my issues are resolved, however my sim is an eSim. Do you know if I can put a different SIM card in and try this anyway or if itโ€™ll cause a bigger problem? 

msepiphany007
Novice

Hi, I tried your trick but I turned on my phone without any Sim card. Then I tried different apps and internet connections for about 7 minutes. Then I put the Sim card back in and everything is fine.

Thank you so much for a great suggestion.

Cynthia

msepiphany007
Novice

Hi, Thank you for your suggestion. I may have an improvement. I removed the Sim card then turned the phone back on without any Sim card. I spent about 7 minutes try to use a bunch of apps and connect to a search engine. Then I turned my phone off. Put the Visible Sim card back in and turned my phone on and everything is fine again!! 

Hope this helps for anyone without a different SIM card to use.

thanks for this.  I had a similar lost connection problem.  This worked for me.

Thank you!! This works when nothing else did.

ElCheapo
Novice

You saved my life!  I had no voice service after activation of a Moto G Power phone (had previously activated an iphone with no problems).  Numerous chats, endless resetting of phone and network with no results.  Emails from tech support saying they were still working on it.  Sooooo frustrated.  Tried your fix of putting my old Verizon sim in then putting the Visible back in.  Hooray!  Worked!  Thank you so much for posting your solution!

bksullivan
Novice

thanks for this post.  I have found these community posts are much more helpful than the Visible chat service which just runs you through the obvious  - e.g., reboot, turn off your data, turn on your data, etc.

Appreciate you taking the time to post this solution

ctshawl
Novice

@Raelareames wrote:

I have had visible service for about 9 months. There have been four times during that nine months when my service suddenly just quit working. The first time, I contacted visible and we tried to troubleshoot my phone multiple different ways. None of them worked. Eventually I was told the problem would be sent upstairs to some techs and I would be contacted in a few days. Now mind you this troubleshooting took a few days as I could not use my visible phone and had no internet service so I had to use someone else's phone. I was without service for over a week. When I receive a response from upstairs I was told my problem was because of the area I was in and I needed to use Wi-Fi. Absolutely ridiculous. The phone had worked before. So I got back on messenger and just so happened to get someone who thought of one more way to troubleshoot my phone. I wish I knew who they were because I would give them all the props in the world. The solution they suggested fixed my phone that time and all three times since. I have also used the same method to troubleshoot a few other people's phones and every time it has fixed the problem. I don't know if it will work for everyone, with every phone, every time. But if you're having problems with your visible service it's definitely worth a shot. Here it is: find an old SIM card from any other phone service aside from visible. I have used a US Cellular SIM card I have used a Straight talk SIM card and I have used a total wireless SIM card. All of them worked for this trick. Shut your phone off, remove the visible SIM card, replace it with the SIM card from a different service, boot up your phone and leave it on for at least 10 minutes. Obviously your phone won't work during this time frame. Then shut the phone off, take the other companies SIM card out of the phone, replace it with your visible SIM card, and restart your phone. You should have service after that. The way it was explained to me is that when you put in a different SIM card it resets your phone to try and work with the different Sim. Obviously it's different service and most likely there is no service on that SIM card so of course it won't work to get you service. But once the phone tries to reset to this SIM card when you take it the old one out and replace it with your visible sim, it forces the phone to reset to your visible SIM card and for whatever reason this reset fixes the problem every time I have used it. Hopefully this solution will work for you too. That way you can save yourself time and effort and save the techs some confusion. Let me know if this works for you or not because I'm curious if there are other ways anyone else has found to fix their service issues. However by and large I have had less service issues with visible than I've had with any other company so hopefully you never have to use this trick.


THANK YOU!!!!

 

My TCL 20 A 5G would show service briefly (5 to 20 seconds) then suddenly disconnect and stay that way... no bars or service indication of any kind. Extremely odd and inconvenient.

 

Inserted Visible SIM in an old iPhone SE that I use as a hotspot often, so I knew the SIM itself wasn't the issue. I googled and found this community/post! 

 

Used an old Republic Wireless SIM like you said and everything now works! I also tried dialing *228 first, but it didn't seem to restore anything (even when I was connected to the network for those lovely 10 sec).

 

Good luck to anyone else ๐Ÿคž

 

 

P.S. IMO Visible seems to work better with iPhone than Android, but this TCL is an absolutely incredible phone at the price point and I didn't want to give it up. I'm stoked rn lol. Very happy in general, but will say I used to get better service on Mint Mobile. By better, I mean on all fronts. Never had an issue in 3+ years.

What keeps me on Visible is the fact that it's less expensive for more data, and reasonable quality data at that. I won't leave as long as that stays true, even if I had to return to iPhones.

LFC1
Novice

Thank you! This worked perfectly! I had the same issue and none of the initial measures helped. (I thought maybe the weather or my phone were at issue, then I found your post). I happened to have a spare visible SIM at hand (that is not in service). Although it's visible, I tried just in case for the purpose described. I placed the null in, then my active card in, and like a charm, bars were back! I'm going to keep the spare in my phone case with the SIM key. Thank you, thank you!

Dzeke
Novice

I just got started with Visible; I ported my old number from Verizon on an iPhone XR using the eSIM method. It worked (3-4 bars of service) for about 2 hours, then phone signal quit (no bars showing). I got on tech support chat and they had me go through the app and activate the phone again, using a newly-downloaded eSIM. The process made it look like I was porting my number from another Visible phone to this "new" one, even though it was the same phone!  Anyway, now I have 3 SIMs that show up in Settings/Cellular; they're labelled "Personal," "Business," and "Primary." "Personal" was turned on; the other two were turned off. That did work for the rest of the day but then this morning, I restarted the phone, just because Apple recommends restarting periodically, and that KILLED the phone function, no service bars and no way to call out or in.  BUT, I found something that worked - I went into Settings/Cellular, turned off the "Personal" SIM and turned on "Primary."  After a few seconds, that showed that I had "SOS" service, but not regular service (SOS is an Apple thing that gives you emergency access to any available phone system).  So then I turned off the "Primary" SIM, and turned "Personal" back on, and boom! three bars came back on immediately, and it has been fine ever since, about 12 hours now. To me, this sounds like the eSIM version of Raelareames' method of swapping out physical SIM cards. It's like "removing" the nonfunctioning eSIM by turning it off, then putting it back in by turning it back on. I hope this helps! 

E-Sim XR here also - I only had the option to toggle off โ€œTurn on this lineโ€ under Settings/Cellular, after switching back to ON, works again - thank you Dzeke and everyone

JudeLepine
Novice

Thank you so much! It worked. Visible was asking 3-5 days to fix it, it did the trick in 15 minutes 

JReed6
Novice

I'm going on 3 weeks without service, wasted countless hours waiting to chat and then try to problem solve with an agent. The past 3 times the agent said they were going to escalate my situation. Then the chat would end. What does "escalate" mean to these people. Sorry, I just had to vent. Thank you, I will try this later after work. 

Jesuskid76
Novice III

Omg this worked! I used my old Visible SIM card that was no longer activated even and it still did the trick. It may not be a permanent fix since Iโ€™ve dealt with this SOS issue for the past few weeks but it helped this time around! 

TCLy5geez
Novice

Getting 3 or 4 bars but slow or no data. Voice, texts, email a bit slow, but any app updates, web browsing are glacial over last 4 days. About midway between Texarkana and NW AR, no similar sustained issues in 2 years of use. Using a TCL 20a 5g, intact. Was told it would take 3 to 5 days to technical troubleshoot? Will try the SIM test swap but l've got signal, just null data speed.

/// lll \\\

Update: Tried the dummy sim swap, no change, ie plenty of bars but almost no data.

 

While the service may be cheap the phone wasn't, and time being money I'll need this resolved soon or seeking more reliable carrier. Prior to the Verizon mandatory upgrade really had no significant issues aside from a few weather disruptions.

 

Open to other suggestions, or explanations.

Albany555
Novice

Thanks for posting this - and thanks to the people who suggested taking out the physical SIM and trying to use it without one. ALL OF THE TECH HELP PEOPLE SHOULD READ THE SUGGESTIONS IN THIS THREAD !!!

I spent over four hours chatting with the customer service people - and they used all the same script  as mentioned here (escalate, "people upstairs", engineers) then they finally offered to FedEx me a physical SIM - but I never got the tracking info emailed to me as promised. 

WHAT WORKED? Taking out the old (Verizon) SIM, restarting the phone, and going into settings to toggle the on/off switch for the Primary line.  Suddenly I have signal bars, am now getting a bunch of text messages that were held up, and I can access LTE. 

Not sure the $$ savings is worth all of this time and stress - might just go back to regular Verizon if this keeps happening. 

Chuck50
Novice

You may be onto something my friend! I used your method and it worked! Thanks so much!

Mandypants82
Novice

My phone started yesterday with no service so I'm trying your suggestion right now ! Thank you for this ! Ill let you know if it works