SIM Card Not Inserted error

Forcing recovery worked for me too.

For what it is worth, in my situation, the upgrade went fine and the phone seemed to be working fine for about a day with 2.2, my apps and data. I was showing the phone to a friend, demoing some apps, and I brought up one of the movie apps... which immediately crashed. So, I decided to reboot the phone to be safe. I don't honestly recall if I forced a reboot, or powered down and up... but which ever I did, it came up with the SIM problem, telling me to connect to iTunes. Connecting to iTunes, gave me the error - above.

Also, since I've seen alot of notes about people's assumptions in this and other threads... my phone appeared to have email working fine IMAP & POP. 3G and Edge were working fine. It was actively connected to a VERY STRONG 3G network signal when the problem surfaced. The phone has never been jailbroken. Well, that's all I can think of... I hope this helps others.

Now that I've done the recovery, I'm going to try to get my backup installed.

BTW, anyone else note ALOT of lint in the SIM card slot when they pulled it out (assuming you like I did that). I cleaned it out with a wooden toothpick - but sheesh... I'm thinking the seal isn't that good.

Good luck to you all... and thanks to those above for posting the helpful remarks and links.

Sorry, I might have been wrong about that, I can't check because I only updated an iPod Touch and it doesn't have an Airplane mode. However I'm pretty sure when I was updating an iPhone to 2.0.1 this summer in a little pop up window in iTunes, when you're about to update and have to click Next couple of times it did say to make sure to disable an Airplane mode, but that was the 2.0.1, maybe for this one you didn't have to, so if I'm not right than I'm wrong. If I'm understanding correctly a network connection is required for activation so Apple can make sure that you're iPhone is still in service, I really doubt that Apple has a full access to AT&T's records and even when iPhone is Activated at the AT&T store it's still not fully activated until you receive a text message on your iPhone saying that it is, so it does normally complete an activation wirelessly, maybe that's why it doesn't show your SIM card ID anymore...

For what it's worth to you I checked and the ICCID does show a number.
I updated to 2.2 successfully yesterday.

I just upgraded to the latest iTunes and then connected the iPhone for he 2.2 upgrade (the phone was in normal mode not Airplane mode; that's a complete non sequitir).

Now the iPhone asks for a SIM code to unlock the phone but won't accept it. I rang Singtel/Optus (in Australia) and they told me this is very common. They have been seeing it a lot since 2.1. Optus has put in requests to Apple to have it sorted but they tell me Apple is silent on the issue.

The Optus helpdesk operator volunteered without prompting to mail me a new SIM card, no questions asked. But if I need the phone in the next few days (I do) he suggested I take the phone and SIM card in to an Optus store for a replacement.

Apple has a serious liability on its hands with this.

I was able to get my iPhone working...
Check out this post, about middle of the way down.
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=8502698#8502698

-Jeff

Recovery Mode wouldn't work. iTunes wouldn't recognize the phone at all, BUT when I took it into the Genius Bar, they plugged it into an old MacBook, and voila! It appears that the update never finished installing and left the phone totally Bricked. I was told that if I would have deleted all of my Backups and everything on my computer associated with iTunes, uninstalled both iTunes and Quicktime, and then reinstalled, that it SHOULD recognize my iPhone at that point. But anyways, check out the post above for more details...

I updated to itune 8.02 and charged my 3g iphone with 2.1 the other night. I got the sim not found message with the connect to itunes screen when I booted the phone. I tried the sim in an old Motorola phone and it works.

I went to the apple store and the genius bar tried to restore the phone with no luck. After the restore it came back with the same no sim message and connect to itunes. They ordered a new phone since they are backordered right now. I hope it is a new phone and not a refurb since mine is only 4 months old and pristine.

This will become a big deal when it starts happening out of warranty.

Hi - Glad to read this thread. I did an 2.2 upgrade to my iPhone and it failed. Same reason - it was left in Airplane mode at the time as I am in the UK and not using the phone for a few months. I read the Recovery mode comment and that rebuilt the entire OS, deleting all my user files - the phone did go on line. It showed the right phone number - thankfully I have the Mac with me that is primarily used with the phone. Also, thankfully Mac iTunes did a full backup of the phone before it started the upgrade.

After doing Recovery, I was prompted by Itunes to restore the backup to Iphone - It went ahead and did the Restore from Backup which includes my user data. It then did a Sync of my music and applications. - it was done after about an hour. Most importantly, my Solebon solitaire game winning statistics have been restored! So I can see how much time I have spent playing solitaire - Free cell.
Don't start that game unless you want to get addicted.

This 2.2 upgrade bug should get logged as it seems other people have been given bad information when they reported SIM problems to Apple stores. There was no problem with the SIM - the Airplane mode must basically block access to reading the SIM so the upgrade software assumes there is a missing SIM or a password protected sim. That was the initial message I received - to unlock my SIM during the upgrade, but mine isn't password protected. You can see that the iPhone is in Airplane mode at the same time - as soon as I saw the initial error of reading the Sim, I could see the Airplane mode icon turned on and realized I had upgraded in that mode.

There is no way to take the phone out of Airplane mode once the upgrade has started. Resetting the phone as shown in Apple's troubleshooting section didn't help. Only the Recovery would work at that point, plus then Restore and Sync.

I also read where people were told to wipe out their Itunes etc. That makes no sense at all as that is where your user backup is located. I mean, Apple doesn't build PCs so rebuilding your software isn't necessary.

thanks for having this thread - it made it work for me...bryan

Here is a similar situation I ran into and how it was finally corrected:
1) Had iPhone (2G).
2) Work bought me a Blackberry, I cancelled iPhone service.
3) Continued using iPhone like an iPod touch.
4) Tried to do update to 2.0.2. UNIT WAS IN AIRPLANE MODE during this.
5) Got "Sim is not inserted..." message
6) Went through craziness with AT&T and Apple to get it working. All said, "no contract, no phone, too bad".
7) Before selling the iPhone, I tried to make an emergency call with the phone. It said "Can't do that without disabling airplane mode. Disable?
8) I clicked disable and cancelled the call and the iPhone came back up (I may have needed to plug into iTunes. I also got messages about activation, but it never activated cause I don't have service.

Hope this helps someone.

I should say I could then use the device like an iPod touch again.