I’ve just received my Librem 5 from a third party less than a week ago and the SIM tray is breaking. I have removed the SIM to and from the device three times only.
The last time I did this, yesterday, the part of the SIM/SD tray, the black plastic that’s supposed to be flush with the phone when closed, is now protruding and is wobbling back and forth from the rest of the tray. This black plastic part of the tray is the only thing to grasp after you insert the tray removal push-key. When it is fully out, the black plastic has a significant amount of play in it, and I fear it will break soon. I opened the phone and took out the battery to see if there would be a way to insert I from there, but all I see is a space for something called “SC,” and have no clue what it is for.
Is this a known issue? I am gentle and methodical when adding/removing the sim card tray, as this process could potentially damage the SIM or the internals, but I never expected the tray to begin failing.
It would be nice to see the SIM and SD cards, in future models, be inserted next to whatever SC means. Sure, the battery would need removing, but better than breaking an essential part. If this breaks, IDK what to do. I wasn’t the original customer.
Any ideas? Can I purchase a replacement? I emailed customer support, but I’m anticipating, “You didn’t buy it from us, therefore, we cannot help you.” Hopefully, I’m wrong. I did purchase this new and unused and look at it as still supporting Purism’s mission with Librem 5.
With my SIM tray removed, the end piece (the section with the hole to access the tray release) is also notably wobbly and consequently feels a little flimsy. When fitted it does sit flush tho.
Mine was like that out the box and has not gotten any better or worse. As it was like that on day one I figured that is probably just the way it is. I’ve had my phone several months now, I don’t remove the SIM tray very often so haven’t given it much thought. But, it does seem an obvious difference to any other SIM tray I have encountered, and now that you’ve mentioned it, I’m realising that I haven’t seen it mentioned anywhere else so may be it’s not standard and our trays are faulty.
I would think that if it didn’t sit flush then the SIM and uSD card (if fitted) would not be fully seated in their slots and would probably be misaligned with their respective contacts, are your SIM and uSD being recognised? Any intermittent issues with either of them?
There are no foreign objects in there.
The black plastic piece (I’ll call the tray’s cover) that you need to insert push-key and is attached to the metal portion of the tray, seems as through it either broke away a bit, or has loosened from being fixed to it. Though it is still attached. If I hold the tray and lightly wiggle the tray cover, it moves noticeably back and forth like a loose tooth. It was not previously like this, it was solid, and it was flush with the phone and did not move when inserted.
I have not inserted an SD card, inly my sim. And yes, I am very meticulous about the whole process. It is in currently with full bars of 4G. The SIM/SD card tray is for sure not the way it is intended to be.
I assure you, it’s designed this way, probably to make it easier to align and close. Both my Xperias have the same design. That wobbly piece is connected loosely to the tray in two places.
Is there any way you could post a picture of the phone with the tray inserted as you have it, and a picture of the tray outside the phone with your SIM card installed, matching the one I posted above?
If it previously didn’t wobble, it’s probably just that the piece was pushed in a bit farther to the tray, and then it got loosened at some point… to revert to its natural state.
I’m not so sure about this being normal. It should be fixed in place and I most definitely did not push it in too far. I’m very careful with sim trays. I’m in communications with customer support ATM and plan to shoot them a video of the problem.
I’ll keep this thread updated as they figure this out.
I meant that the previous owner may have jammed the small wobbly piece in farther on the tray to keep it from wobbling, or that it just got that way naturally.
I pulled my tray out for a quick look. The tray cover as you’re calling it is a separate piece with tabs that clip it (between two metal plates) to the larger assembly. It doesn’t appear to be a design that lends itself to being fixed/rigid so I’d concur with amarok that it’s expected to have some level of play in it.
That being said, it’s difficult to see how it could be as designed but also not sit flush when inserted so I would think there is still some issue with it or some obstruction deep in the tray slot.
I am also having issues with my SIM tray, I also ordered this third party (ebay) waiting for my original Purism order. I have mostly just played with the device without a SIM card, it has great potential. But now trying to daily drive it, I can’t even get my SIM card to be read, everything appears to be in snug, not sure what the problem is? I am using T-Mobile in the US.
if you are looking to troubleshoot that yourself then look at the mmcli commands in the Tips and Tricks Wiki or otherwise I suggest you contact support.
If looking into it yourself then you want to know whether the modem card is even coming up and being recognised, and then whether the SIM is being recognised, and then whether it is having difficulty ‘associating with’ the mobile network. In particular, for the last point, whether you get calls but not data or data but not calls or neither.
It might also be a good idea to check the ribbon connector of the modem and make sure it’s connected and not damaged, especially as you bought the phone from a private party.
And then, assuming you have the SIM card oriented correctly (and the right way up), and the HKS is not activated, you might check in the software settings to make sure mobile is activated, and that your carrier’s name appears next to the “Network” entry. If not, tap it and reset it.
Also make sure you have the U.S. modem (BM818-A1) and not some other region.
thanks for the help, but I might have another issue. My US T-mobile SIM card appeared to be in the tray just fine but was not read by the Librem 5 at all after being my SIM card for many years. I put it in my previous phone, a Pixel 3A with Graphene OS and a Blackberry Passport with Blackberry 10, the SIM card is now not being read by either device? Did the Librem 5 somehow break my SIM card? Is that even possible? TMobile have a security feature on it? I mean I would doubt a TMobile security feature as I am running it on phones that don’t use iOS or Android.
not the first time, but since I have tried restarts, I am looking through the settings, but what is worrying me is the SIM is no longer being read by two other phones I alternate time with.
Someone else reported a similar thing here recently, but I don’t find that thread on first search. It seems unlikely that carefully inserting a SIM could actually kill it. And I don’t think T-mobile has started disabling old SIM cards all of a sudden, although they might like to. They do require VoLTE-capable phones (and probably new SIMs) now, but to my knowledge they haven’t started actually disabling connections over it.
This: