How to know if someone’s phone is dead?

If you are trying to call someone but cannot connect to them, it could mean two things- either the phone is switched off or dead. To know if the person’s phone is dead is to listen to the automated response of the network operator. If you hear, “the phone is unreachable,” or it goes directly to their voicemail after one or half a ring, it means their phone is likely to be switched off.

If the phone is dead because the user changed their number, you will hear a message like “the number is out of service.” If the phone is dead due to going out of juice, you may or may not hear any ring (depending upon the user’s carrier), and it will take directly to the voicemail. Either way, the best way to check whether the person has blocked you or their phone is actually dead is to call them from a different phone number.

Sometimes the answer is not that simple, and you need to have detailed information before coming to a conclusion. It is nearly impossible to differentiate the response you receive from a switched-off or a dead phone. It hugely varies based on the user’s phone type, network carrier, and user preference settings.

Continue reading to understand the basic difference between a dead phone and a switched-off phone. We have listed all the possible causes, scenarios, and solutions for the problem.

When a person’s phone is switched off, it could mean they are busy and don’t want to get disturbed by anyone. It shows that the person is in control of their phone, which means you can try them after some time, and they probably will pick up your call. However, when someone’s phone is dead, it means their battery has gone off or their number has gone out of service for a long time. 

Reasons why you cannot call a person?

There are various reasons why your call is not connected to a person:

The phone is switched off

Your call won’t go to a person, or it may go to their answering machine if their phone is switched off. All you can do is leave them a voicemail asking them to call them back or call them after some time. The best option is to call their other number. However, it will only be possible if they use a second phone. 

The number is out of service

If you call a person after a gap of months and can’t reach them, it probably means they have changed their number or been blocked by their network provider for not paying the bill. However, it could also mean the person is in an area where they can’t receive the network signal of their carrier.

They have active the “Do not disturb” or “airplane mode”

You cannot call a person when they have activated the “do not disturb” or “airplane” mode in their mode. This means they are busy at the moment and do not want to be disturbed. Try calling them after some time.

They have blocked you

Sometimes it means they have blocked your number. However, you shouldn’t jump to a conclusion right away. Try calling them from another phone number and see if you can get to them.

How to know if someone has blocked you?

A blocked number receives the same response as a dead phone or a switched-off phone. If your number goes to voicemail, it could mean their phone is switched off, but it could also indicate you are blocked. 

Similarly, some blocked numbers give you the same response as a dead phone, such as:

“The number is temporarily out of service.”

“The person you are calling is unavailable.”

How to tell if someone’s phone is dead?

Phone ring once and disconnects

In most scenarios, if you call a dead phone, it will automatically disconnect, or you will hear an automated voice saying, “this number is unavailable or out of service.” However, if the person with a dead number has opted for a call forward feature, then your call will go directly to their new number or the answering machine of their new phone. If the call goes to an answering machine, you will hear a ring once before it goes straight to the answering machine.

Check their WhatsApp status

You can check a person’s last active status on WhatsApp to know when their phone was ON the last time. If they are a frequent WhatsApp user, you can get a clear idea about their last active time before their phone goes OFF.

Now, a person’s number can be unreachable even though they are active on WhatsApp. This happens when the person is in a place with wifi but doesn’t receive a signal from their carrier. If you see them active on WhatsApp, you could give them a WhatsApp call to confirm.

If a person’s WhatsApp “last active status” is quite long or you couldn’t find them on WhatsApp, it means they have changed their number, or their number is out of service.

Send them a text message

If a person’s number is switched off, the text message you sent will only display as “sent,” not “delivered.” It will be delivered to them once they turn off their phone. This is a great way to know when someone has switched ON their phone. However, it won’t work if their number is off for a longer time. Once the waiting period is timed out, the message will be returned as undelivered..

If you can forward the call

You can forward the call to the person’s other number if they have activated their call forwarding option in case their phone’s dead or turned off. However, not everyone activates this option, especially if they use a corporate number. Before the call is forwarded, you will hear the call ring once and then have the option to forward the call even if their number is off.

You will hear a beeping sound

Also known as the “Not Reachable” tone, the beeping sound is a default sound used by network carriers that signifies the number you are calling is either off or dead. In such cases, you won’t hear any line ringing or have an option to leave a voicemail. Instead, you will get a text message stating that the person is unreachable at the moment, depending on their provider. There are also network providers who will notify you once the person’s mobile is ON.

Conclusion

It might be that the person may be going through some tough times. In such cases, you shouldn’t intrude and respect their privacy. If it’s urgent to get in touch with the person, you should try contacting some friends or family members to know more about their situation.

Spotify Keep Pausing

Before you try to fix the issue, you need to find the reason why your Spotify pause while playing a song. The are various reasons such as connectivity issues with Bluetooth devices, network issues, account settings, ads, cache data problems, and more.

The first thing you should do is to check the speed of your internet connection, ensuring it is running at optimum speed. Try to switch to a faster internet connection. Another step you can do is check whether you have enabled “data saver mode” on your smartphone and “high-resolution” mode in Spotify. Try logging out from all devices and start over again, followed by restarting your whole device. If it still doesn’t work, you may try uninstalling the whole app and downloading it again. However, if it does not work out, there are more ways to fix this issue.

There are several reasons why your Spotify might be pausing in between. Here are eight different ways to troubleshoot the problem.

1. Disable Data Saver Mode

When you are on “Data Saver” mode on your smartphone, you will have a problem streaming high-res music or videos. Spotify is available in various qualities ranging from 24kbits to hi-fi lossless audio. So in a scenario where you have enabled “Data Saver” mode in your phone and enabled hi-fi music in your Spotify app, it is going to create buffing issues as your app is not receiving enough internet speed to run high-end music.

The first step to do is to check whether you enabled the data saver mode on your phone.

Checking data saver mode in wifi

• Go to “settings” on your phone and tap “Wifi.”
• Tap the wifi network you have connected to
• Scroll down the page until you find the “low data mode.”
• Now you can turn ON or OFF the low data mode by swiping right or left

Checking data saver mode in cellular data

• Go to “settings” and tap “network or cellular” on your phone
• Tap “network data options.”
• Scroll down until you find the “Data Mode.”
• Switch OFF the low data mode

Adjust streaming quality in Spotify

• Now, if you already have a low-speed internet connection, you need to switch OFF the “hi-fi” music quality to “automatic” or “low.”
• Open the Spotify App and go to Settings by tapping the “gear icon.”
• Scroll down and tap audio quality.
• You have two options “Wifi” and “cellular streaming.”
• You can select streaming options such as low, normal, high, or automatic. The automatic adjusts the quality of audio by recognizing your signal strength.

Note: Sometimes, data saver mode can degrade the quality of music and crash the app. In such events, you may get the message to relaunch the program again. We recommend you switch to a network with good internet speed.

2. Turn On Background Data

When background data is OFF, it will restrict your phone from performing tasks like running the app (internet-based) in the background, downloading a file, or getting notifications when you turn off the screen. It also means you cannot stream music apps like Spotify when your screen goes OFF. If other apps are working fine but Spotify does not, it could mean that Spotify does not have background data access.

Activate background data access to Android

• Go to Settings
• Scroll for the “data usage” option and go to “cellular data usage.”
• Select the apps you want to give background access
• Toggle right or left to on or off the background data

 Activate Background Data on iOs

The background data access is called “Background App Refresh” on iPhones and iPad.

• Go to settings>General
• Tap Background App Refresh
• Turn on Background App Refresh completely by toggling it ON
• You can also select to turn in ON only for specific apps while using wifi or cellular data

3. Delete Cache

The cache is data that stores your listening history, album & Playlist art, thumbnails, and other data from the app. They are used to speed up the loading process as your app doesn’t have to use the internet to download the same images, Playlist, and data repeatedly. While cache in the right amount can make your experience better, sometimes too much data can corrupt this cache, causing your Spotify to crash.

Cleaning Spotify Cache from Android

• Long press the Spotify icon and select app info, then Storage & Cache
• Go to app info, clear cache
• Tap the clear cache and restart the app

Cleaning Spotify Cache from iOS

• Open Spotify and go to settings>storage
• Scroll down to the clear cache button
• Tap the “clear cache” button and restart the app

Cleaning Spotify Cache from Windows

• Press Window key +R at the same time to open the run dialog box

Or

• Type “run” on the search box and open it directly from the screen
• Now copy and paste “%localappdata%\Spotify\Storage\” excluding the “”
• This will open up the storage folder of Spotify. Press Ctrl+A to select all files and press the Delete key.
• Do not delete the whole storage folder of the Spotify- only delete the files inside it.

4. Turn Off Hardware Acceleration

Hardware acceleration is a feature used for improving the performance of an application. However, it can become counterproductive in some devices, such as older computers or smartphones. If the hardware acceleration is ON, it might make your Spotify pause, freeze, or crash.

• To turn off hardware acceleration, launch the Spotify app
• Click the three dots in the upper right corner of the app
• Tap on “view,” then go to Hardware acceleration
• After you disable hardware acceleration, you may get a message saying, “disabling acceleration can make your Spotify load slower.” It’s fine; go for it.
• Restart the app for the setting to take effect

5. Turn Off Power Saver Mode

A low power mode is an option where you can limit background activity to save your battery life. Low power mode disables apps and activities that consume more power. It may disable your background data, notifications, power-consuming applications, wallpapers, etc. As a reason, Spotify may stop playing when you have your power saver mode turned ON.

Turn off power saver mode in Android

• Go to “settings” and check for options like “battery” or “battery & performance.”
• Choose your battery saver mode OFF if it’s ON.

Turn off power saver mode on iPhone

• Drag down from the top-right side of your iPhone
• Tap the battery icon

Or

• Go to settings and tap on Battery
• Go to “low power mode” and turn it OFF

Turn off lower power mode in Windows

• Click on the battery icon right next to the taskbar
• Click on “Battery Settings”
• Scroll down to the “battery saver” section
• Uncheck “Turn battery save ON automatically if the battery falls below.”

6. Check your wifi connection

To stream lossless quality music, you need to have at least 2 Mbps download and 512kbps upload speed. Even if you are playing general HD music, you still need at least 512 kbps download and upload rates.

Make sure you are not streaming Spotify at a higher quality when on a low-speed connection. You can do a speedtest to check your wifi connection. If you have high-speed internet yet face a low-speed connection, you should disconnect any devices connected to your wifi router. Else, you can split the bandwidth or assign a certain speed limit to a device.

• Login to your router
• Go to the Bandwidth control option
• Enable bandwidth splitting
• Set bandwidth to the device and save

Note: Not all wifi routers have options; check the make and model of your router or call your internet service provider for assistance.

7. Check your earphones and airpods

If your smartphone’s 3.5″ jack is a malfunction, it may not detect your wired earphones. A slight movement, and your phone will think you can pull out your earphones. As a result, it will pause the music.

Similarly, if you have a faulty Bluetooth chip in your smartphone or airpods, then it may stop detecting your airpods. The other cause might be due to the low charge in airpods. Check the Battery of your airpods, ensuring they are fully charged.

Also, check the Bluetooth versions your device is compatible with. While most BT devices are backward compatible, you need your devices to be compatible for the best audio experience.

8. Sign out of all devices

If you have logged on to multiple devices, then maybe they are conflicting. The simple solution is to log out from all devices and start over again.

Despite facing tough competition from newer apps, Snapchat is getting bigger and better, with more than 319 million users worldwide and annual revenue of 4.1 billion by the end of 2021. With such a massive number of users, Snapchat’s support team and developers are doing a commendable job in maintaining the uptime of our servers. However, that does exempt them from some usual downtime and system maintenance.

If you cannot access Snapchat, there might be a chance of server overload. In such a situation, all you can do is wait. Besides the server, the problem might also be with your smartphone and internet connection. Try to check your internet connection; if possible, switch to another internet source and check if that solves the issue. Meanwhile, make sure you are using the latest version of Snapchat, and your app is clear from caches.

Let’s explore the possible solution to each problem in detail

Why is my Snapchat not working? 

Check Snapchat’s Server

Before you go into the critical steps, make sure the problem is from your side and not from the side of Snapchat.

Snapchat’s servers may go down due to overload with millions of people logged in. Sometimes it may go down due to undergoing maintenance and technical error.

To check the online status of Snapchat, open Downdetector. This site provides reliable information about all the major websites and online services, including Snapchat. Once you enter the website, type in “Snapchat” and enter.

If the server is up and running, you will get the message “User reports indicate no current problems at Snapchat,” or you will get the message “Snapchat is down due to maintenance or overload.”

You can also check the comment section to see whether other users are experiencing the same problem. The website also displays an outage map pointing to the recent outage areas.

Sadly, there is hardly anything you can do if Snapchat is down from the server-side. In such circumstances, all you can do is wait and hope the problem to resolve as soon as possible.

If the Snapchat server is up and running, you need to identify the problem in your phone and fix it.

Update your Snapchat app

If you haven’t updated your Snapchat for a while, you might miss out on any essential updates. Updating software is crucial as the updates come with bug fixes and technical improvements. Even if your ‘automatic updates’ feature is ON, make sure you run the latest Snapchat app. You may go to your Android Playstore or iPhone App Store and go to the “Snapchat” app page. If your app has new updates, you will see the ‘update now’ option next to it.

Updating the app is the best course of action when your Snapchat is not working.

Clear the cache

A glitch makes your Snapchat freeze randomly. You need to clear the cache going through your profile to solve this. Tap on the “settings” option, click “clear cache,” and confirm.

Restart the application. It should longer freeze.

Check your internet connection

If all the above steps do not work, the only logic is that you may have an “internet connection.”

If you are using the internet from your “network carrier,” check the internet connection of your network. Try to open some websites or apps to see if it’s working. You can also try to reset the internet by rebooting your mobile phone or Turning your “airplane mode” ON and OFF.

If you are connected to the internet via WiFi, see if your router and modem are working fine. Restart the modem and router again.

Restart your Phone

If your phone is running for a long time, there is a chance it may accumulate some unnecessary cache or glitches. In such events, a warm reboot can solve the problem.

If your problem exists, you may try “turn off” your phone and “turn on” it again.

Restart the app

Some users may face some hardware issues even while logged in to Snapchat. The phone fails to identify the users’ sign-in. This often happens after a firmware or app update.

Try to log off your Snapchat account, log in again, and see if it works.

If Snapchat is still not working, try to follow the steps below:

If your Snapchat is working, but you cannot access or operate some features of it, then continue reading for the right solutions.

Why I cannot send messages on Snapchat?

If you could access other sections of Snapchat but fails to send a message, there is a high possibility that the issues might lie in your phone.

Update or Login again

The first step is to close the application and check for any new updates. If there are no updates, log out of the app and log in again. This may solve the problem.

Clear the Cache 

You can also try clearing your Snapchat cache. Your app store your data in the form of cache. If you have been using the app for a long time and haven’t cleared the cache, this accumulated cache can become corrupt after a while and may hinder its performance.

You must clear the cache files to address the situation.

Clearing Snapchat Cache in Android:

Go to the “Settings”

Tap on “Apps and Notifications”

Go to Snapchat and tap “storage and cache”

Tap Clear Cache

Clearing Snapchat Cache in iPhone:

Open the Snapchat app on your iPhone

Tap the gear icon located on the profile screen to open the “Settings” functions

On the screen, swipe down and tap on the “clear cache” option

Choose the selected option such as “clear all cache”, “clear browser cache”, “clear lens cache”, “clear discover cache”, “clear memories cache”, and “clear stories cache”

Select the type of cache you want to clean and tap “confirm.”

Delete the conversations

If you cannot send messages to a user, you can simply delete the Snapchat conversations to boost your app. Remember, deleting the conversations will also delete all the open and unopened snaps.

You need to navigate your profile and go to the settings to clear conversations. Scroll down to the privacy section and select “clear conversations.” You can choose all the usernames whose conversations you want to delete.

Why I cannot take pictures from Snapchat?

If you open up the camera in Snapchat and see a black screen, most probably Snapchat does not have the device’s permission to take pictures.

If you open up Snapchat and see a black screen, it’s likely because you forgot to enable camera permissions for Snapchat. You can view app permissions by checking your iPhone or Android settings.

Enabling camera permission to Snapchat:

Android:

Tap the gear icon on the right side of your screen to go to the “settings” menu.

Scroll down to the “app” section and click on the “permission > permission” option

A list of options will appear, such as Location, photos, camera, mic, cellular data, etc. Click on the “camera” option, Select “Snapchat” from the list of apps, and turn it ON.

IPhone:

Start the settings app

Scroll down and select “Snapchat” from the list of apps

Turn on each permission (forex, camera) simply by swiping right.

Why my Snapchat Filters and Lenses are not working?

With thousands of Snapchat filters and lenses available and not being able to use them can be a huge annoyance. To fix this, you need a good internet connection as the “filters” and “lenses” are data-heavy and may require some good internet speed to load. Meanwhile, you should also try updating and restarting your app to see if that solves the case.

Some filters are geo-restricted, meaning they won’t appear unless you are in a specific location. You must turn on your Location to use these geofilters. If you haven’t already provided permission to your Location, you can follow the steps below:

Android:

Go to “Settings”

Click on Apps, then select Snapchat and tap on “permissions.”

Turn the Location option ON.

iOS:

Go to Settings and tap on privacy followed by Location

Locate “snapchat” from the app list and toggle the Location ON.

Why I cannot sign in to Snapchat?

If you have logged out of your Snapchat and the app takes forever to log you back in, the server is probably down. All you can do is wait for Snapchat to fix the issue. Meanwhile, you can also try to clear your cache and restart and update your app.