# Fixing Free Mobile Roaming Connection

I use [Free Mobile](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Mobile) as my phone company in Europe. €19.99 for 35GB of roaming is a great deal since it works not only in Europe but much of the Americas, Asia, Australia and [much more](https://assistance-1.free.fr/mobile/freeroaming/).

Anyway, I was poking around in my account setting trying to figure out how to stop Free from texting me every time I turn off airplane mode:

> Messagerie "666" Free: le 06/12 à 11:49, ce correspondant a appelé 1 fois sur votre mobile sans laisser de message

It comes from different numbers so I can't just block it. If anyone knows how to stop these please let me know! **Edit:** I asked support and they said it can't be turned off.

## The Problem

I was on the "[my options page](https://mobile.free.fr/account/mes-options/forfait-bloque)" and turned on "blocked plan" (Forfait bloqué) which says:

> Activating this option will block all calls, SMS and MMS to special paid numbers as well as roaming and paid communications to and internationally or DROM-COM.

Oops, I didn't realize that would stop my roaming data from working right away...

When I got back on wifi I turned off that setting, rebooted, turned off my phone, waited a few hours, changed APN settings (I use [these](https://support-pro.free.fr/configurer-manuellement-le-reseau-mobile-serveur-sms-mms-apn-et-acces-internet/)), etc. But ultimately I couldn't get any connection to the data that afternoon.

## The Fix

Settings> Network & Internet > Sims (select my sim) > Turn off "Automatically select network"

In that list, most networks say something like "4G vodafone NL (forbidden)". **I tapped it anyway. Then I connected to data without a problem.** I went back and turned on auto select network again so I don't have any problems when I travel.