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Level 1

0 points

iPhone 1.1.3 Bugs

I have discovered several bugs in the latest firmware on my bone stock 1.1.3 iPhone. Wonder if anyone else is seeing these as well?

1) I am finding that after the upgrade to 1.1.3 my phone is dropping a lot more calls. (traveling the same route for years and know I have good coverage) I find that quite often after about 5 to 8 min of talking on my commute to work the call will get dropped, the signal bars drop to 0 and the display show call failed. When I press end call the signal immediately returns to full strength and the phone works normally.

2) I have created a few custom ring tunes using GarageBand and transfered them to the phone without problems. However I have found that if I assign a ringtone to a specific contact that my custom ringtone only seems to work about half of the time. The other half the default tone plays when the caller with the specific tone calls. I have tested this and it seems totally random to if the default or the custom plays. Also I have tested this with the standard tones by assigning a different built in tone to a contact, and the same thing happens. I have not noticed this problem before 1.1.3. Anyone else have this problem or know a solution? I have checked my address book and for the contact has only one entry in the address book, and also the caller ID and the photo assigned to the caller, but the ring only works half the time.

3) My iPhone will create a blank home screen when ever I add a new bookmark on the phone. I have added 3 additional web bookmark icons to my main home screen (To fill it up, I think it looks nicer than the empty space) but now every time I add a new bookmark (Not a home screen link, but a simple bookmark) my phone has an empty home screen page that will stay until I reboot the phone.

Anyone seeing the same, or maybe have a fix or workaround?

iMac, Mac OS X (10.5), Stock iPhone 1.1.3

Posted on Jan 22, 2008 6:48 PM

73 replies

Feb 12, 2008 11:25 AM in response to bigmikey

Seriously... the text thing is getting really old. We've been patient for a long time and I thought something as simple as the time being out of sync with whatever would be a pretty simple fix. What's taking so long, Apple? It's bad enough we have to deal with ATT's incompetence without having issues on your end too.

Feb 12, 2008 11:44 AM in response to easysicily

The GSM standard has a feature that lets the cell tower broadcast the Date and Time that it gets from GPS (the towers use the signals for synchronization, they presumably know where they have been installed)

- Some carriers don't turn the broadcast feature on in cells that cross multiple time zones, or they configure it in peculiar ways.
- Some phones need to have the GMT offset entered (e.g. in Paris GMT-1) and don't do anything when presented with a timezone not covered by the carrier indicated on the SIM.

Since most phones have a time function, were other people's phones showing the right time?

To my understanding, no GSM phone, including the iPhone, can figure out your time zone information automatically, it would require a large, dynamic table that tracked times zones for states, countries, locations and changing daylight savings rules. A phone with Internet access can do it, but it will be tricky with all the European carriers.

(I'm assuming you had Time Zone Support turned on in the Settings when you traveled)

Cheers,

Flack

Azzz

Level 1

35 points

Feb 13, 2008 10:26 AM in response to bigmikey

also responded on another topic i've been tracking but thought i'd post here too...

all, i had a major dropped call problem as soon as the 1.1.3 update came out as many of you did. i did all of the things recommended in this forum with no success...until now! here's what i TRIED:
reset phone
restore phone
new SIM card from ATT
...all of these DID NOT work so i went to the AppleStore Genius bar and they gave me a new phone.

i have not had a dropped call since....
if it matters...
iPhone 8GB
1.1.3 (4A93)
model-MA712LL
modem firmware-04.03.13.G

pitaman

Level 1

0 points

Feb 13, 2008 12:45 PM in response to bigmikey

The problems that I am having don't seem to match what is already reported, so I
thought I'd post them here.

I'm a long time Apple user - since about 1993, and this firmware upgrade
is undoubtedly the worst experience I have had with an Apple product. Sorry -
had to vent a little.

A - At the time that iTunes suggested I upgrade my iPhone firmware to 1.1.3,
there was also a notice from Software Update to upgrade iTunes and Mac OS X
at the same time. I run a few months behind - maybe 10.4.8 or so. When I
installed the iPhone firmware without upgrading iTunes or Mac OS X, it crashed
my phone entirely, leaving it in "recovery mode" - and it did so without first
finishing the sync, so I lost a lot of calendar entries that were only on my phone.

B. Upgraded iTunes and Mac OS X and after several tries convinced iTunes
to recover the iPhone which resumed working - sort of.

C. Now I have the problem (which apparently was the subject of a radio
show earlier today) where the phone fails to notice that the headphone
adapter has been unplugged. Thus the phone has nothing plugged into
it but the earpiece doesn't make a sound.

D. The showstopper for me is that my phone now daily drops not a call
but the whole connection to AT&T. I'll pick up my phone and find out
that I've missed several calls and the display says "no service". Shutting
down the phone and restarting it fixes the problem but it is unacceptable
as a workaround.

I haven't called Apple yet - going to do so momentarily. Maybe somehow
my hardware got really messed up.

Alan

pitaman

Level 1

0 points

Feb 13, 2008 1:46 PM in response to pitaman

The phone support that I got was excellent. They referred me to the local Apple Store, where the service experience was shockingly bad. Haven't spoken with the Genius Bar yet.

ski4

Level 1

4 points

Feb 14, 2008 6:43 AM in response to pitaman

my phone also is dropping calls way way too much
it is not the cell service
i have been with att for years never had this issue till my iphone came along
i went to the genius bar and my phone was swapped with a new one that also does the same thing

it is rediculous
the antenna bars will go from full to none
then right back up when i pull the phone away from my face

the people i am talking to will say i was still showing up as connected to them when i get back to them. sometimes i can't even call them right back it will keep saying call failed

it is way to bizarre and makes me ashamed to say i spent 400 bux for this thing
my friends and family are now all having 2nd thoughts about this and are looking more at blackberries etc
this is ashame as the phone realy has such awsome features
i hope apple corrects this soon

Feb 14, 2008 7:02 AM in response to bullfrogII

Update, so after Apple replaced the phone with one which had 1.1.2 it solved the problem, NO MORE DROPPED CALLS. Then a week later I upgrade to the suspicious 1.1.3 and immediately began having problems again. Heres the weird thing it only lasted a couple of days and now seems to have stablized and I have not dropped any more calls, nor have I watched the signal strength bars drop to zero and then back up.

So how about a little conspiracy theory: Recall when we were all magically delighted with new icon's/features showing up on our iPhones without our knowledge? Is Apple pushing out a fix behind the scenes?

jia10

Level 4

1,716 points

Feb 14, 2008 7:04 AM in response to bullfrogII

What icon features are you talking about? Must have missed those.

mcm2008

Level 1

0 points

Feb 14, 2008 10:21 AM in response to bigmikey

I have noticed, in regards to the bars dropping and possibly the dropped calls, there seems to be another process taking place on the phone at the same time this happens. I don't know what is happening in the background on the phone or if the phone is connecting on the Edge network or a wireless network. Maybe there is a conflict or that the other process takes over thus leaving the phone with these issues. I will admit that it is truly annoying to have full bars when making a call, to have it drop to 2 to have it go back up moments later.

Feb 14, 2008 1:28 PM in response to bigmikey

I am seeing the dropped call issue also after firmware 1.1.3. The signal shows full strength and then suddenly drops to nothing- and then back to full strength.

This is a big issue for me- and I hope Apple looks into this and resolves it. It is almost as if the new firmware causes the phone to check for signal too frequently and when it does not get a good response - fails the call. I say this because I have noticed that I can still hear the person and they can hear me- when the signal is one bar- but then the phone decides there isnt enough signal and fails.

It did not happen so frequently before- please fix this.

humara97

Level 1

110 points

Feb 15, 2008 10:33 AM in response to bigmikey

Nothing useful to add other than this problem really *****.
i've been dropping calls for weeks and just thought i had bad luck and had a bad phone. finally googled "iphone dropped calls" and of course there are tons of blogs about it, wired has a bit about it, and there's this thread. darnit apple!!! fix this now. i really want to chuck my phone out the window now. great, a $600 phone that can't keep a call going more than 5 mintutes. only apple could do this.

kbenford

Level 1

0 points

Feb 20, 2008 11:13 AM in response to bigmikey

I'm in the same boat. I'm consistantly having dropped calls and the signal strength is weak in buildings.

Stalban

Level 1

8 points

Feb 20, 2008 1:59 PM in response to bigmikey

As for when this problem manifested itself, I'm in the same boat; it came with my 1.1.3 "upgrade". I called AT&T and got a very helpful tech support person. He walked me through the standard template of resets, which I patiently told him I had already accomplished. He then initiated a series of resets on his end. Not sure what those consisted of but I've noticed that the frequency of my dropped calls has diminished...a little. Since I have a v-e-r-y lengthy commute, I've started logging the mile markers where I drop the calls. So far, it's been consistent that the calls drop in virtually the same locations each day.
So, my own personal conclusion is that the upgrade did something to mess up the transition of my in-progress calls from tower to tower in locations where I didn't previously have this problem.

I do find it humorous though, that when talking with the AT&T rep or even the folks at the Apple store they're all unanimous in telling me that I'm the very first person to mention this problem! With the amount of traffic on this post combined with my fellow iPhone owners locally, I find that hard to believe!

uncgal83

Level 1

0 points

Feb 20, 2008 8:09 PM in response to Stalban

I had to join this discussion in the hopes that Apple hears our plight. I did the 1.1.3 upgrade about 3 weeks ago and ever since then I have had dropped calls with anyone I speak whether they are Verizon or ATT or a land line it did not matter. VERY frustrating when the line of work I do requires me to have a reliable phone service....

Similar to everyone else, it shows full bars when you start the call and just drops to no bars in mid sentence...

Apple please fix it or provide us a way to revert back to the previous version without a restore (which I heard doesn't work)

Message was edited by: uncgal83

uncgal83

Level 1

0 points

Feb 20, 2008 8:18 PM in response to uncgal83

I just found this, probably won't work but I am giving them a try one by one. I plan to do the first two suggestions tonight...will report back my results tomorrow.

http://www.iphoneatlas.com/2008/01/29/increase-in-dropped-phone-calls-under-ipho ne-113/

iPhone 1.1.3 Bugs