Google Voice Doesn't Work At All

[Patrick Boyle]

Like the title says. I got my new Droid tonight from UPS. Set up went very smooth, very impressed with Android coming from BlackBerry and iPhone.

Then I tried to set up Google Voice...I've been using it for the better part of a year now on my other phones, and it was one of the main reasons for buying this phone. During the GV setup, the app attempted to validate the phone with my GV account with an SMS text. The process failed several time.

Next, I decided to go ahead and set the phone up manually via the website. That worked, and I ran the GV setup again. This time it recognized that my droid number was on the account, and skipped past the previous problem area. Then came calling and voicemail setup. I opted to route all outgoing calls through GV. Done. I then attempted to set up voicemail by dialing the *71 number. This failed. ("call cannot be completed as dialed").

SO to get voicemail working, I again went to the website and did it manually, which seemed to work, except when I dial my voicemail from the phone I get "the google voice subscriber you have dialed is not available."

Oh, and when I make outbound calls it doesn't even attempt to use GV. It uses the droid's number.

I've tried a lot of tinkering, and uninstalling/reinstalling of GV. No dice. Any help?

 

[hookbill]

Like the title says. I got my new Droid tonight from UPS. Set up went very smooth, very impressed with Android coming from BlackBerry and iPhone.

Then I tried to set up Google Voice...I've been using it for the better part of a year now on my other phones, and it was one of the main reasons for buying this phone. During the GV setup, the app attempted to validate the phone with my GV account with an SMS text. The process failed several time.

Next, I decided to go ahead and set the phone up manually via the website. That worked, and I ran the GV setup again. This time it recognized that my droid number was on the account, and skipped past the previous problem area. Then came calling and voicemail setup. I opted to route all outgoing calls through GV. Done. I then attempted to set up voicemail by dialing the *71 number. This failed. ("call cannot be completed as dialed").

SO to get voicemail working, I again went to the website and did it manually, which seemed to work, except when I dial my voicemail from the phone I get "the google voice subscriber you have dialed is not available."

Oh, and when I make outbound calls it doesn't even attempt to use GV. It uses the droid's number.

I've tried a lot of tinkering, and uninstalling/reinstalling of GV. No dice. Any help?

My advice? Try again later. It may be just a problem Google Voice is having and has nothing to do with the Droid.

 

[Patrick Boyle]

Thank you for the quick reply. I think what I'll do then is uninstall GV and remove my droid's number from the account. Then I'll reinstall and keep trying to activate the phone through the app until it works. That should be a good indicator of whether the system is working or not.

 

[takeshi]

I don't think I activated mine through the app.

Oh, and when I make outbound calls it doesn't even attempt to use GV. It uses the droid's number.

...and you had the Use Google Voice option enabled in the GV app settings?

 

[LtKen]

Activating through the app has never worked for me -- ignore the app and just set it up the way you would if you were never interested in checking your voicemail from your phone. Then install the app.

 

[R1Lover]

you should be dialing *71XXX-XXX-XXXX where X is your google voice number

 

[Patrick Boyle]

I don't think I activated mine through the app.

Oh, and when I make outbound calls it doesn't even attempt to use GV. It uses the droid's number.

...and you had the Use Google Voice option enabled in the GV app settings?

Yes, it was enabled.

Activating through the app has never worked for me -- ignore the app and just set it up the way you would if you were never interested in checking your voicemail from your phone. Then install the app.

Like I said, I tried setting the phone up first through the web site. Even if I skip the voicemail set up and ignore that whole part, the phone still does not use google voice when dialing out.

 

[becominglumberg]

dumb question

here is a question i must ask... have you been invited to google voice yet?

 

[Zargon]

here is a question i must ask... Have you been invited to google voice yet?

...i've been using it for the better part of a year now on my other phones, and it was one of the main reasons for buying this phone. Help?

........

 

[becominglumberg]

ah, right. well, here is what i noticed, when i set it up on my droid... when i used the number provided in the gvoice app on the phone, it didnt work (and froze my phone once). when i set up my phone from the gvoice site, it gave me a different number to enter, which worked. i don't know why, but i can't complain.

 

[Scribble]

Does turning up the inbox refresh rate eat up battery?

I have mine set to 15 minutes, but it seems like kind of a long time to wait to see if you get a VM...

 

[Patrick Boyle]

ah, right. well, here is what i noticed, when i set it up on my droid... when i used the number provided in the gvoice app on the phone, it didnt work (and froze my phone once). when i set up my phone from the gvoice site, it gave me a different number to enter, which worked. i don't know why, but i can't complain.

You're right. It was mentioned before that *71+ my GV number will work, and that is what the website has you do. Now if I could get it to dial out correctly...

 

[Patrick Boyle]

Update: I did a factory reset on the phone and it still doesn't work. Is there a way to install some version of Android other than 2.0.1, or at least re-install a copy from the internet?

 

[Patrick Boyle]

2nd update: I downloaded a copy of Android 2.0.1 from google and installed using the sdcard upgrade method. This didn't work either.

I just don't get it. It couldn't possibly be a hardware issue. This is very frustrating because I can't get support from Verizon, Motorola, or Google on this issue.

At least I've still got 29 days to return the phone...maybe before then 2.1 will come along and solve all my problems.

 

[hookbill]

2nd update: I downloaded a copy of Android 2.0.1 from google and installed using the sdcard upgrade method. This didn't work either.

I just don't get it. It couldn't possibly be a hardware issue. This is very frustrating because I can't get support from Verizon, Motorola, or Google on this issue.

At least I've still got 29 days to return the phone...maybe before then 2.1 will come along and solve all my problems.

Google is the only one responsible for giving you support because it's their product. And Google has no customer support.

Even if you could go back to 2.0.0 it wouldn't make a difference. Your just not having any luck. Sorry to hear that. Google Voice works for me.