iPhone takes forever to regain signal

Question

Level 1

9 points

iPhone takes forever to regain signal

I work in a building that is partially underground has no iPhone reception, which is fine and I accept that. Once I go outside however, I normally get 5 bars easily, or at least I SHOULD. Many times, I'll be fiddling with my iPhone in the building and I have "No Service" then while I'm still using it, I step outside, but it sticks with No Service and takes FOREVER to come back to 5 bars.

Is there a way to make the iPhone "search" for a signal manually so I don't have to restart the iPhone or anything? Is there a way to make the iPhone search for a signal more frequently when there's "No Service"?

iMac Core Duo 17" 1.83ghz, Mac OS X (10.5), Powerbook G4 12" 867mhz

Posted on May 7, 2008 2:25 PM

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Answer 1

May 7, 2008 2:29 PM in response to Steve Flynn

I've noticed that too. Once my phone goes on no service, I have to cut it off and back on again for it to get any kind of service.

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Answer 2

DanH

Level 5

4,372 points

May 7, 2008 3:18 PM in response to Steve Flynn

My phone hasn't done that in a long time, but when it did I found two things that worked.

One is to turn on Airplane Mode, then turn it off. This is also faster than restarting the phone.

The other is a lot slower - full reboot, meaning hold power and Home until the Apple logo appears (ignoring the power off slider). But doing a full reboot about once a week is good preventive maintenance and may in part be why my phone doesn't do the No Service, long search thing any more.

-dan

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Answer 3

Dogcow-Moof

Level 8

36,203 points

May 8, 2008 8:15 PM in response to DanH

The Airplane Mode trick is the best solution.

Even most normal cell phones do this to save battery power; once they've been in a no service area for awhile they drastically cut back on how often they look for a cell tower, as infrequently as every five minutes or so.

Putting your iPhone in and out of Airplane Mode kickstarts the cell tower search process.

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