my iphone Xs Max keeps dropping calls

The Verizon rep told me it was the antenna. I’m no tech person but doesn’t make much sense how it can work and then not.. I’m on my second phone and supposed to receive a new SIM card in a couple days.. Hoping for a miracle.

Obviously it's the problem with Xs or Xs Max. I bought a Xs for my son from USA. Painfully just after one day we noticed the random call dropping in that phone. Earlier he used iphone 6s + with the same sim which was very fine. I thought it is a software issue-waiting for 12.2 update. But installing that, no good outcome- dropping call again. As there is no apple store here in Bangladesh no scope to return it. This company taking so much money for phone... people are responding as well but their basic functionality of phone call is with glitches. I am having iPhone 7 plus which is also having call quality problem.. people can not hear me well. Shame on apple. Since 2010, I am using many of devices of Apple like.. 3GS, 4S, 6S plus, 7 plus, ipad Air and Mac Air 17. Among them, I found 3GS and iPad Air are the most solid and stable products. Mac Air 17 also freezes

Similar to others on this topic I am having issues with calls dropping on my XS max. A reboot immediately resolves the issue so it can't be antenna strength because I am in the same spot. When the phone starts doing this the audio drops out after 6 seconds or so, then a few seconds later the call drops. Every time. A reboot makes the issue go away temporarily. I haven't brought it in to Apple as I anticipated the needless blanket troubleshooting that they made others do here (full resets etc) that I suspected wouldn't be effective and just waste my time. I am glad to have found this thread to verify that its a larger issue.

My guess is that will require a software update to fix as it's clearly software or software/hardware interaction. They are almost certainly aware of it but I doubt we'll hear anything back other than a fix one day.

Yes this keeps the phone from dropping calls, but is not the solution. You are in effect forcing the phone to call over the 3G network by doing this. This reduces call quality and on certain if not all carriers eliminates the ability to use data while on a phone call.

I am am on phone #2 and the issue persists. I am waiting on a new sim from Verizon to see if that is the issue (doubtful). IMO this is software related because both of my phones have done it and a reboot or reset network settings fixes the issue temporarily.

Verizon switched out my SIM card it seems to work while you are at the store right after a reboot but a day or so later you will have the same issue. Verizon even replaced my brand new phone for a refurbished and still have the same issue. Which now that I think about it is BS I had to replace my screen protector. So finally after arguing with a customer service rep at the store and talking to a manager. The manager finally tells me there is a fix which is to eliminate the LTE from the cellular calls. And it’s only an issue with Verizon. The customer service rep had no idea about this issue? Really? So all that after arguing for ten minutes that I bought a new phone and cannot make calls.👏👏👏good job Verizon....

I’m using XS Max.

That option might available in your region csmosk, here I have only 3 options.

1. LTE

2. 3G

3. 2G

no option for voice & data selection. One thing I’ve done is that I have shifted over 3G network, using it for a while (2hrs) made several calls no dropping issue came yet, let’s see how long will it go smoothly (sacrificing the speed of LTE for calling dropping) and how Apple resolve this major fault. But I’m really disappointed

It is disappointing that upon speaking with the phone support who run a call performance diagnosis could only prescribe a factory reset for me and that too without diagnosing what the “real” cause of the call dropping issue is. She even did find out a percentage of call drops from the system logs she accessed from my phone through the remote analystics session. Seems like apple is in a state of denial that these bricks can have some sort of a manufacturing issue which presumably seems to the the case as software update doesn’t seem to be doing the trick for them!

This is such an expensive device and I am feeling totally disappointed and no more proud of apple that I’ve always been defending the brand in my community where there are non apple mobile phone users. Hoping apple can turn around things and let it be my impression only. It would be really a sad day for me to stop using apple someday.

Quick update on this. I called Apple and apparently these phones (X and newer) have e-sims in them. Basically an imbedded SIM card. I called Verizon and had them swap my number to the e-sim. I now have my number on both the physical SIM card, “primary sim” in settings, and e-sim, “secondary sim” in settings. I turned the physical sim (primary) line off in cellular settings and I am strictly using the e-sim (secondary). So far so good it’s been about 2 days and I am not see the issues with VoLTE and call dropping I was. However, I need more time before I say this is a decent fix for the issue.

It has possibly happened once since swapping to the e-sim, not near as much as it was happening.

It could have been bad service at the time too because I checked my data speed and it was 1-2mbs. Also it resolved it self without a reboot.

Still need more time to tell.

Call Verizon and give it a try yourself can’t hurt to try it.

It hasn't happened to me since I turned off the voice for LTE. There isn't a difference in my calls otherwise... I can at least talk to people for more than 2 seconds and without rebooting the entire phone.

Yes as I said before that forces the call over 3G. When I do this it reduces the clarity of the call but more importantly it prevents me from using data while the call is connected. I receive/make 100+ calls a day and frequently need to access cloud storage or the internet while on a call so they s doesn’t work for me.

Did you have this issue right away after you buy, or it took few days/weeks? I just bought an iphone XS Max, and it works just well, its been a week now, and i live in southeast asia, i dont use verizon. So maybe the problem is in verizon?

It happened today while on the e-sim, only a reboot fixed it.

So this is not the solution either.

Back to to square one now.

I believe it started a month or so after I bought it last November. The XSMax on Verizon May be the problem but I have an Android phone with me at all times too and do not have this issue with it at all.

Same issue here. My wife and I both have an XS. She has not had any issues with calls dropping on her phone but I have had issues twice now. First time, updated to 12.2 and reset network settings. No issues for a couple weeks but problem came back today. Call connects, then drops about 2-3 seconds in. Calls dropping are consistent when calling both land lines and mobile lines. Service coverage is not an issue. I have at least 3 bars when calling.

Apple wants me to replace SIM Card and/or factory reset. SIM card isn't the issue and I'm not factory resetting a phone that is less than a month old. If it's truly a software issue, then why are some phones having issues and others aren't? We are both former Android users but switched so we can align with the kids and facetime/imessage/etc.

I agree with Ldjd79 that setting Cellular to Data only is not an acceptable solution for those of us that need to access data while on a call.

The nearest Apple store to us is over an hour away. I'm debating whether it's worth the trip to get a new phone. I'm not playing their game of resetting to factory settings and then driving back a few days later with the same issue. But before I request a new phone, why would the issue only be happening on certain devices?

When I called Verizon today, the store rep told me that the Apple Rep was just there and that they are working on a software fix. But, when I called Apple Support, they acknowledged no such thing. They told me to try a new Sim Card before going to the store. I put a stop to that nonsense and told them no. The Sim Card is not the issue and neither is resetting to factory default on a phone that has less than a month of usage on it.

So, back to my point in this ridiculously long post. Why would a software issue only be impacting certain phones?

I received a new physical SIM card and activated it on Monday. It was an ordeal and I was on the phone with Verizon for over an hour before we finally got everything working correctly. They took my number off the e-sim and activated it on the new physical SIM card but I had no VoLTE after the first attempt. It was set to Data and when I tried to check the Voice & Data option in settings to turn it on, it would give the error “Cannot Activate LTE calling, please contact Verizon. The Verizon lady couldn’t figure it out because my plan has it and the phone was saying could not activate. She had to push the activation through multiple times and I had to reboot the phone multiple times before it finally started working correctly. I lost iMessage and had to rest that too.

So far the phone hasn’t had the call drop issue since doing this, but I am not convinced this fixed it either yet. I will give it a few more days to see if it happens again.

Maybe be it isn’t necessarily a software issue but an issue with the set up on Verizon network. Some phones get set up correctly when first activated and some don’t. This would explain why some have the issue and some don’t.

I just don’t see how rebooting or resetting network settings would fix a hardware issue. I could be looking at it completely wrong though.