21
Oct
09

Blackberry Error: Cannot connect. Call in progress.

By Joshua Steimle 15 Comments Categories: Reviews & How-To

Solutions to the “Cannot connect. Call in progress.” error on the Blackberry:

1. Soft reboot (alt + right shift + del)

2. Hard reboot (unseat and reseat battery)

Today was the first time I’ve had this problem. I’ve had my new Blackberry Tour with Verizon for about two months now, and today I was on a bike ride when I received a call. I didn’t take the call, and the phone was in standby mode, but it’s easily possible that buttons were getting pressed while I was riding. When I got back home someone tried to call me and it went straight to voicemail. When I started trying to navigate the phone, I would get a “beep” every time I hit the red button to go back to the home screen, and instead of going to the home screen it would go to the past calls screen.

I couldn’t figure out what was going on until I tried to dial my own voicemail and got an error message saying “Cannot connect. Call in progress.” Ok, great, so my phone thinks there is a call in progress. I turned the phone off using the red button, then turned it back on, but the problem was still there. I hadn’t figured out how to do a soft reboot, nor a hard reboot, so I didn’t know how to try those options. So I did a little searching around, and found the answers above. I tried the soft reboot, and that did the trick for me. I still don’t know what caused the problem in the first place, but at least I know how to fix it.

Related posts:

  1. Why I don’t call you back.
  2. Treo or Blackberry?
  3. Microsoft Office Small Business 2007 encountered an error during setup.
  • CraigE

    and when all else fails, you can always pull the battery. Never fails, works for any cell phone.

  • Tangtd

    You can use other mobile to call again and then end can.
    I`m try and successfull

  • Robert

    Having this same exact problem since yesterday. Pulled battery without Soft Reset and it didn’t fix. Just realized today that the problem was still there. No wonder I missed a lunch appointment – I never got the calls. Just did Soft Reset and Pulled Battery for Hard Reset. Crossing figures this work. Wondering if this is a issue with OS 4.7 as it hadn’t happened with the previous OS.

    Also trying to figure out why the phone keeps asking me about the SIM card each time I turn it on or wake it up. This is 2nd BB Tour and the 1st never did that. Weird. Usually there is a “Don’t Ask Again” checkbox, but not for this dialog.

  • http://none x blackberry user

    I just got this problem again for the 3rd time now, this phone as far as im concerned is a piece of crap. I really hate apple crap but think I will stick with an iphone, better apps, and less buggy

  • nickeaston

    My one-or-more-times a day “call in progress” lockup disappeared instantly when I finally asked for and received from Verizon a new phone number. The previous owner of my previous number had several collection agencies calling daily, none of which I answered… It seems obvious that the autodialers or other hardware used by collection agencies caused this irritating and potentially dangerous error–what about having to wait 5-10 minutes after a battery reboot to make a call–perhaps to 911 ?? Even though this BB error is widely reported on the internet, Verizon was of no assistance in diagnosing this problem–replacing the phone didn’t solve the problem. Verizon personnel at my store were in total denial (all they had to do is Google the error to see how common it is), despite photocopies of my phone showing this error and others, none of which appear anymore. Hope this solution works for other BB owners as well. Verizon is not responsible for this problem, but BB/RIM should have figured this out by now.

  • Chris

    Someone just reported the “call in progress” error to me today. Thank you for the soft/hard reboot solutions. I see this issue on this website and many other websites too – it appears to be an issue with muliple carriers and with many BlackBerry models (including the new Tour). I have a question: If a user is on a current call and another call comes in, should the user ignore the call or press the red button? I’m not clear on whether it’s better to ignore vs. press the red button. Does anyone know?

  • Ken

    I have had 9 Blackberry Tour 9630 phones in the last 9 months. I keep having the same problem with the call in progress issue. Sometimes I just wait 1/2 hour and try again it it works fine. Other times i pull the battery and it works fine until it happens again. The last one did this after 15 hours of getting the 8th replacement phone. I also am having problems with my phone duplicating the first number i dial when manually dialing a phone number. It will dial 22 or 222 or 2222 or even 22222. I have to delete all but one of the digits and then it dials normally or do a battery pull and in ten minutes my phone is up and running again. The eight phone did this multiple times before the keyboard locked up and multiple battery pulls would not fix it. I am having trouble with the ninth phone right now. I am sick of Blackberry!

  • nickeaston

    Ken: did you read my solution? Nine BBs in 9 months? Why don’t you insist on a new number?

    The BB is the dumbest smartphone I can imagine; in my mind I have a large list of design errors–I am biding my time till the iPhone works on Verizon or the Droid has a little more track record…

  • Aerie

    I’m so sick of messing with my BB that I’m done with RIM. I lost sound 4 months after purchase. They replaced it. I lost sound again. There is no way to clean the trackball. They don’t provide any support. They know there is a design flaw in the 9000, but they won’t admit it. The provider’s solution? Hand over another $400 and buy another phone?! The latest OS 5.0.0.822 OS is broken and causes ringtones to fail. Great huh? If I -can- get the ringer to work, it won’t work anyway because RIM released a broken OS to the unsuspecting public. The Bold 9000 is a piece of junk. People need to stop buying RIM’s products and I think it’s time for a class action lawsuit.

  • LDave

    Thank you Don! The soft reboot worked for me. Hopefully it wont keep happening like all of the other horror stories people have posted. Cheers!

  • Liz

    The soft-reboot worked for me just now. What a weird bug. Thanks for the tip!!

  • Lauren

    I had the same problem today and i have the BB Bold. I was in an area where there was hardly any service and my call was disconnected. However that person called back and when I went to end the conversation I heard the beep. I could only go back to my home screen by pressing the back button. The soft reboot worked for me, but my phone seems to be going slower than usual. I wonder what caused the problem?

  • alicia s

    try seeing if your sims card is in right.

  • Brooke Smith

    I just had the same problem. Read one of these posts and called from my work “phone number that is not programmed in the phone” and IT WORKS!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks everyone

  • http://youtube.com/kaceyleeproductions lee

    thank you so much it worked! i was so confused when that happened! i just took out the battery and voila it worked!