This story is being continuously updated….new updates are being added at the bottom…..

Customization of stock Android OS by OEMs, wherein phone manufacturers add their own flavor to the UI with an intention to enhance user experience, often muddles things up along with bringing in new functionalities and feature improvements.

When such buggy OS updates are circulated globally, users right away highlight the issues they instigate through the official device forum channels and other social media platforms. This, in turn, gets the concerned OEM on heels to fix things up or at least acknowledge the change if intentional.

pie

Android Pie

Same stands true for 2018 Android 9.0 Pie, that got into light many at times when OEMs pushed a buggy version of Android OS to their devices. While most of the major smartphone brands have already released Pie on the promised devices, some are still in the process of doing so.

One such brand is Samsung, that recently rolled out Pie with One UI – Samsung’s customized skin based on Android 9.0 Pie – to Galaxy S8/S8+ and Note 8 phones on all major US carriers.

Galaxy-s8plus-oneui-pie-update

Android Pie update notification on Samsung Galaxy S8+

And even this update has managed to disturb a functionality. What has now come to our notice is that since Pie has landed, Caller ID is broken and not working as intended on Samsung Galaxy S8, Galaxy S8+ and Note 8 devices.

Going by reports posted across the company’s official help forum i.e. Samsung Community and others, the devices aren’t displaying the contact information anymore on incoming calls, even for the already existing contacts.

Here’s how some of the complainants word the issue:

When I am receiving a phone call and I have a contact in my contacts, I only see the area code and phone number when the phone is ringing. The contact name does not appear, yet afterwards, it does show the proper contact name int the “recent” tab of phone. An example, my son called and the caller id showed the phone number, his phone number, he was calling from but not his name.

My Galaxy S8 stopped displaying the contact info for incoming calls although I still have all of my contacts in my list. I have gone to settings and chosen contacts, all and I have have gone to the cloud and account. I synced my contacts there as well. Still no go.

One of the users also added that they are getting multiple complaints form customers.

I had several customers come into the local store to show me the issue also. Clearing the cache on the contacts and phone apps won’t fix the issue. Factory resetting the phone doesn’t fix the issue either. It’s taking place on the S8 Active and Note 8 devices as far as I can tell. I haven’t had customers come in with any other Samsung phones to report the issue yet, but I’m starting to keep track of the devices it’s taking place on too. Samsung hasn’t posted a fix yet or acknowledged that there’s a problem yet. They may need more evidence.

Here’s what some of the users said on Twitter.

galaxy-s8-caller-id-bug-tweet1

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Some of those affected explain the issue saying that it’s basically the Caller ID and spam protection that gets disabled randomly.

Since Pie came down, the built in Caller ID and S.p.a.m. Protection keeps turning off.

galaxy-s8-caller-id-bug-tweet3

For those of you naive, Caller ID and spam protection is part of Samsung’s ‘Smart Call‘ feature that lets you know who’s calling even when the number isn’t on your contact list, so that you can easily block if it’s spam.

Caller-ID-Samsung-Smart-call

Samsung Smart Call – Caller ID

Not only Galaxy S8/S8+ and Note8, some Galaxy S8 Active users are also facing the same issue. It’s also worth stressing that most of the reports are coming form AT&T users.

How to fix it?

Apart from complaining about Caller ID not working, users have also figured out a work around, which has been given a thumbs up by most of those affected. All you have to do is disable AT&T Call Protect and you are good to go.

Go to Google play and search up CALL PROTECT it should be an app that is pre installed and just click uninstall to delete the update that is causing the problem then disable auto update for that app.

Another user shared that they were also suggested by a Samsung representative to do the same.

We were seeing this issue at the store also for AT&T phones. I touched base with our Samsung rep who advised of disabling the app. We’ve confirmed that disabling the AT&T Call Protect app has been fixing the issue on all phones tested so far.

Moreover, Samsung Support USA also suggested one of the complainants on Twitter to do the same.

Please go to the Google Play Store and look for an app named ”AT&T call protection”. Please uninstall the updates or the app itself.

galaxy-s8-caller-id-bug-company-response

Samsung Support USA’s response

So there you go. Those of you who have been facing the Caller ID glitch after installing Android Pie on your Galaxy S8/S8+, S8 Active and Note 8 units, disable the AT&T Call Protect app and the issue should be resolved. Give it a shot and let us know ho it goes.

While initially it appeared the problem is AT&T specific, we stumbled upon a few reports from Verizon users too. So there could be a possibility that the issue is not carrier specific. But there’s no workaround that has come to our sight for them.

Rest assured, we are keeping a tab and will update the story in case of any further development.

Update 1 (April 29)

Affected users who don’t have AT&T Call Protect app are suggested by other users to install and then uninstall or disable the app to get rid of the Caller ID not working issue.

Even for the ppl that never set up the att call protect just hold down on the icon and disable it… PROBLEM SOLVED ??

Update 2 (May 08)

The issue has reportedly been resolved at least for Galaxy S8 users with a new update. Complete story here.

NOTE: Interested in more Samsung-related news and stories? Head here.

We’ve created also created an archive of all major developments related to the Samsung Galaxy S10 lineup. We are continuously updating that page with latest S10e/S10/S10+ news so that you don’t need to search for information related to the device on daily basis. Head here to access that page.

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Dr. Aparajita Sharma
1227 Posts

A budding entrepreneur by profession, and a psychologist by education. As a founding member of PiunikaWeb, I am nurturing this firstborn with my sharp-eyed expertise and even journalistic writing when needed.

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