topic Re: Android mobile problems in Digital Home Phone

Android mobile problems

Delx7 — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 12:07:23 GMT

Hello everyone, I hope somebody might be able to help with a few problems I've been having for quite a while now please?

Last year, at my extremely elderly, now bereaved mum's house (which means I'll have to be here indefinitely, hence even more need of help for all this), I switched the BT Fibre To The Cabinet Broadband with copper wire Home Phone to EE Full Fibre Broadband with Digital Home Phone. Due to this, I took the option to port my Vodafone mobile number to EE in order to take the £11.50 per month unlimited data plan monthly bundle. Since doing this about 9 months ago, there have been a number of unexpected problems that have cropped up...

Firstly, when I ring the BT Decor 2600 landline from my Samsung Galaxy Xcover Pro (Android 13, can't update further), I cannot ever type and register the remote access code for the landline, in order to, for example, delete messages clogging up the answerphone. I can type and register digits whenever given a menu option eg by the doctor's surgery or when ringing other businesses, but NEVER when attempting this important remote access task, nor even when trying to remotely access the hugely vital Truecall Secure Call Blocker Unit which is also in the domestic phone loop. The same thing happens when trying a Betacom Das 500 landline instead of the BT 2600 (both with attached answer machines, which is absolutely vital for elderly mum to screen calls.

Not sure why this is the case? Is it due to the landline setup now being fully fibre/digital/connected to broadband instead of the previous analogue/copper wire setup? Or is it down to something else?

Just to clarify about the setup:- the first device in the 'phone loop' that the broadband connects to, from living room wall fibre broadband socket, is the Truecall Secure unit. A Motorola FW500 Hybrid landline phone (for whenever broadband connection is lost) is plugged into the back of that. This does not ever emit a ringtone (presumably because of the Truecall unit?). But this is worked around by having the BT 2600 (with built in answer phone) just outside the living room door, connected with digital adaptor. (Upstairs is a portable BT digital phone, also connected by adaptor, but this hasn't affected any of the problems I'm describing here.)

The other problems are less urgent, but still pretty annoying tbh. Firstly, since all this change of setup, especially porting my mobile number from Vodafone to EE, instead of grouping all mobile calls to and from any number under one entry on both the pre installed Phone app and Phone by Google app, eg showing 25 calls between me and a friend under one heading in the apps, it shows each call individually, ie 25 different entries with same person every time! Does anyone know why that happens please? Never was the case with Vodafone sim tbh...

Finally, since porting to EE, I have constantly received a handful of spam calls per week, usually Chinese people pretending to be immigration, though also some from German numbers. With Vodafone, I received fewer than a handful of spam calls in over 22 years. Anyone know why this is happening please? All my numbers, including this mobile one, are registered with TPS, and I actually registered again to see if that helped- unfortunately not...

With this spam call problem, is it anything to do with the number on the sim that EE sent being different to the number I ported from Vodafone? In fact, next to where my mobile signal and battery level reading are at the top right of my mobile, it actually says Vodafone LTE instead of EE. Is this normal for ported numbers? (In 'About Phone' on System settings, the mobile number of the sent sim is there rather than my own ported number.)

Sorry for such a long message, but thought it best to be very thorough with details to make it easier to solve. Please do ask me for more relevant details if you need them.

Cheers,

DEL 🙂

PS There appears to be no option for DTMF tones or switching on dial pad tones on either of these very widely used phone dialling apps for some reason, or at least in conjunction with this particular mobile.

Re: Android mobile problems

XRaySpeX — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 12:57:29 GMT

@Delx7 : How many landlines do you have? You mention a BT Decor 2600 landline & a Betacom Das 500 landline. Do you mean these are landline phones all on the same landline no.?

Where are the BT Decor 2600 & Betacom Das 500 phones & the Truecall Secure Call Blocker Unit connected to? You mention "a 'phone loop' that that the broadband connects to, from living room wall fibre broadband socket". Does that mean that you have connected the Green Phone port on back of router to your existing internal phone wiring? There isn't a "wall fibre broadband socket" with Full Fibre; just the ONT on internal wall which has nowt to do with phones.

What is a remote access code for a landline? Does that mean you let it go to ansaphone & then need to dial an access code to get into it?

You sure when you call your landline no. from your mobile it's not going to your ansaphone but to the BT/EE 1571 VM service & so not recognising the access code to your phone?

Most of this is about Digital Home Phone & so I have moved it there. I should raise your less important mobile issues of listing recent calls & spam calls separately under Android Devices. There those more familiar will be able to respond.

Re: Android mobile problems

bristolian — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 12:51:14 GMT

You'd initially posted in the "mobile" section of the forum, it may be better to have separate posts for separate issues. Users with expertise in the landline side may not frequent this board, in the same way those with mobile expertise won't tend to browse the broadband section. I'll pickup some of the mobile bits...

Calls grouped - this is an Android option. The exact menu locations differ between Android versions, and I can't currently find it on my (Android 15) device, but the option used to be called "group calls" or something similar.

The spam call issue is just coincidence. Usually when you port-in, the phone will set the "my number" field as the number attached to the SIM present on first boot-up. It sometimes corrects over time or when the phone is restarted after a change of number.

Re: Android mobile problems

Delx7 — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 13:22:39 GMT

Thanks for quick reply, and also for moving this to a more appropriate location (this is my first ever post, so wasn't really sure exactly where was best tbh).

Yeah, I've cocked up slightly with the terminology here I think. Into the green port (on living room wall) is plugged the Truecall Secure unit. Into the back of that is the hybrid Motorola landline phone.

Outside the living room door, as Motorola won't ring (due to Truecall?), nor does it have the necessary audible ansafone for elderly mum to screen calls, is the BT 2600. Because of the problem I described, I disconnected that and tried the Betacom Das 500 in its place as I used to have one up North where I live so trust it and remotely accessed it regularly for well over a decade. Neither worked when trying this, or trying to remote access Truecall unit.

Yeah, remote accessing is indeed exactly what you asked ie typing a code either after answer message has finished, or even during it. The BT 2600 is set to go to answer message after only two rings, so is well before the EE 1571 voicemail kicks in. I was very careful about that, not least after seeing that point made several times to others with queries and problems on this forum last year.

Hope this makes my problem clearer, and that someone knows what to do.

Re: Android mobile problems

Delx7 — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 13:26:31 GMT

PS Despite the number of landline units plugged in here at Mum's house, she has only one landline number. (Just to reiterate, BT Decor 2600 is connected by digital adaptor, though of course that's obvious lol.)

Re: Android mobile problems

JimM11 — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 14:34:39 GMT

@Delx7 Try the Decor plugged direct in the back off the EE Hub, just incase you cannot get the tones through the DVA from your mobile connection, assuming that when you do try that you can here the Samsung trying to send them when the keypad option is available!

Re: Android mobile problems

Delx7 — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 15:54:57 GMT

PPS Of course, I meant the green port is on the router, not wall, but thankfully everyone reading that will surely realise that was another **bleep** up from me, unfortunately...

Re: Android mobile problems

XRaySpeX — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 16:30:46 GMT

Just to get this clear, you have the following set-up with your phones:

The Truecall Secure Call Blocker Unit plugged directly into the Green Phone port of the router. The Motorola FW500 Hybrid landline phone beyond it connects to the mobile network when the line goes down.
The BT Decor 2600 is connected to an ATA adapter elsewhere & is sometimes swapped out for the Betacom Das 500.
The portable BT digital phone is connected to an ATA adapter upstairs.

I'm a bit suspicious of the Truecall in this set-up. It's not a phone as such but it is connected directly to the router. It won't be interceding between the other 2 landline phones on ATAs as they will be talking directly to the router. I should take it out for the mo' & connect the BT Decor direct to the router & see if you can make your remote access call from your mobile. Later on you can put the Truecall back in front of the BT Decor & see if it still works. If it doesn't the Truecall's the culprit.

Re: Android mobile problems

XRaySpeX — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 16:32:53 GMT

I generally believe what you say unless proved otherwise as now 😉.

Re: Android mobile problems

Delx7 — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 10:17:37 GMT

Cheers for such a quick reply, unfortunately my own response to it got lost here somehow.

Thankfully what you said jogged my memory sufficiently to remember that what I was asking about is actually called 'merged call logs'. Googling this for these phone apps shows the absolutely absurd decision was recently made by Google and whomever did the native app for this Xcover Pro (I assume it must be Samsung themselves?) to remove this really valuable option totally! How does that make any sense, I ask myself...lol

(This Android 13 Samsung Xcover Pro also doesn't give me the option to uninstall updates from any app as was possible before from older versions, so as with the inability to remote access landlines on EE Fibre digital home phone network, we're now getting fewer invaluable features despite paying far more money. Totally unacceptable tbh, but there we go...nothing we can do about it, eh?)

Thanks though for your feedback, hopefully this info will be useful for someone else confused by this problem, anyway.

Re: Android mobile problems

Delx7 — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 10:29:48 GMT

Cheers Jim. I tried that yesterday ie plugging BT Decor 2600 directly into the EE hub's green port. Sadly made no difference whatsoever, still no response whatsoever from mobile keypad. So, for some reason, the problem appears to be totally with the (way more expensive) EE digital home technology not being able to carry out a simple invaluable task that the old, (apparently) usually inefficient copper wire system could do easily. Not sure why this is though?

Re: Android mobile problems

Delx7 — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 10:40:46 GMT

Did you find out the reason for this btw? Not as severe as your problem seems to be, but there's been greatly reduced functionality on both those things at my now bereaved, extremely elderly and vulnerable mum's house since switching to EE and their far more expensive fibre network/digital home phone from previous adequate analogue copper wire phone network, sadly...

Re: Android mobile problems

JimM11 — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 10:54:51 GMT

@Delx7 I have a very similar effect, when the mobile is connected on wifi calling, and i dial the local surgery then when it asks you to input the number option the mobile does not send the tone, work around at present is to drop off wifi calling and dial as normal, that always works no problem! It's not everything, some work just fine, to date so far Surgery and Tesco are the ones issue wise! Going to be awkward for you to test, but would try another landline to see if that gets through to the Decor answering system! All a process until you find it!

Re: Android mobile problems

Delx7 — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 10:59:25 GMT

Thanks again. Yeah, I was pretty sure that the Truecall unit was disrupting things in some way, as evidenced by the Motorola hybrid plugging into it never ringing (also, picking up the receiver when the other two phones connected to digital voice adaptors are ringing does nothing ie Motorola phone in that set up is purely for dialling out, not receiving calls. Pretty irritating, but can live with that due to proximity of still ringing Decor and its audible ansafone).

As said to Jim, plugging Decor directly into hub green port does nothing other than allowing that phone unit to ring. Zero improvement in the mobile dial pad/remote access problem unfortunately.

Excluding the Truecall (except for this type of very temporary experiment of course) from the network is simply not an option, so it looks like we're stuck with this problem? I wonder why far more expensive technology than the copper wire system removes absolutely invaluable features like this? Especially on something even more vital than remote access, like a protective Truecall unit for the highly vulnerable? Just doesn't make any sense to me tbh...

Perhaps someone from EE themselves can jump in here as they sometimes do and tell us why this is the case? (Obviously I'll not be able to work out the technical reasons for it lol I laugh...but it has really annoyed me a lot, I'm afraid to say. But nothing we can do about it, I'm assuming?)

But I do appreciate your replies and feedback so far on this.