Terracube 2e on /e/ OS useless as a phone?

Hi
I purchased a Terracube 2e from Murena two years ago.

The phone is pretty much useless as a phone. The toys work but actually using it as a phone is impossible. Sometimes the person called can’t hear me - especially first call of day… Sometimes huge amount of ‘electical’ noise on line. Drops calls. I could go on.

I spent a lot of time with EE who were surprisingly good and we did achieve some improvement, but not much.

I have chatted on the /e/ forum (I think anyway) and the consensus seems to be /e/ OS is rubbish on this phone.

I have complained to /e/ - Murena or whatever they are called this week and have been seriously jerked around. They want the phone back but given their lack of integrity I can only assume they are going through the motions which will result in further frustration.

I replaced the phone with a Nokia G42 5G from EE as a stop gap. Phone works as a phone but it stinks of Google despite my best efforts to get rid of same.

Can someone tell me if these phones are worth persevering with? I am in UK using EE as mentioned. I want a de-Googled phone that actually works as a phone - is that pie-in-the-sky stuff? Is this whole de-Google thing just a hobby for technically competent enthusiasts - which I am not.

The phone was sold as a viable piece of kit - it just isn’t. In communications with Murena I have offered to take any usable phone - new or used in replacement but they won’t get into any sort of meaningful conversation. I guess they feel pretty safe taking the proverbial in France.

Any useful thoughts?

Sorry to hear you’ve had frustrations with your 2e running /e/OS.

I daily mine using the development builds of /e/OS and have found it quite competent in normal usage. It doesn’t seem to be any more issue-prone than my wife’s Google Pixel 5 running /e/OS stable.

Do you know what model/revision 2e you have, and what version of /e/OS you are on? There have been a number of important improvements in more recent builds that might improve your phone’s reception/call-quality (relating to VoLTE/VoWiFi).

HI,
I’m having similar problems with my Teracube 2e on Murena, bought in 2022. People can’t hear me, often after about half a minute of conversation or so, sometimes switching to speaker mode helps. I’m having trouble hearing them. Not related to reception. Reception is another issue as it can be haphasard/emergency calls only on any given day. I’m not sure this is just a phone issue,it can be provider, although my husband has the same prvider and hasn’t got that issue with his samsung.
I’ve been trying to wipe the cache partition but when going to the recovery menu, the option isn’t there. It’s not in the advanced recovery menu either.
Any ideas on how to solve the problem would be immensely appreciated! Thanks!

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I don’t have this problem when calling over whatsapp

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Welcome!

Can you please tell us what version of /e/OS you are using? There have been a number of important fixes released in each build over the past few months, and v2.0, which launches tomorrow (2024-05-16), has even more.

I have been testing it for a few weeks and have not had any call issues, either over my cell/carrier or via VoIP like Threema.

Hi, thanks for the reply. It runs 1.21.1, so up to date, and the issues have been since a year or so, but getting more persistant.

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Can you share your carrier?

Perhaps they are changing the infrastructure in your area, leading to signal issues.

Your husband’s phone will have a different radio and antenna, so will perform differently on the same carrier.

Do you have another 2e you can compare directly to?

OUr carrier is Free , we live in France. Thanks for the explanation re radio/antenna! Unfortunately I hav no other 2e and no backup phone either…

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Apparently there is an antenna malfunctioning close by at the moment, supposedly fixed the 22nd at the latest.So that would solve one problem at least! However, the call issues are not related, they appear with full reception also.

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Good, glad that part will resolve!

I’m thinking your phone may need to have the microphone serviced.

Perhaps reach out to support@myteracube.com?

will do! thanks for your help!

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Actually thinking it doesn’t really make sense as the mic seems to work fine when I’m calling through w.app?

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Do you know if using hands-free or speakerphone affects things?

It can improve things if I switch to speaker, but not always, and not always lasting

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Have you tried a full reset yet?

As in back to factory reset? No, as I’ll first have to find an SD card for backup
“I’ve been trying to wipe the cache partition but when going to the recovery menu, the option isn’t there. It’s not in the advanced recovery menu either.”

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Yeah, /e/ recovery does not have a menu item for it.

You can probably do it via fastbootd, but I think trying a factory reset is probably more worth your time.

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