iPhone 11 Pro Max 4G LTE Signal Issue

Mrholland57 wrote:

I’m having serious connection issues as well, my wife can be right next to me with her iPhone 8 with 3 bars and mine with barely have 4g, constantly loses connection! I cycle airplane mode a dozen or more times throughout the day and that seems to help but it’s temporary. I’ve power cycled the phone, reset the network connection you name it to no avail!

Hey, you might wanna read my post above, my problem was pretty similar to yours and I haven't seen it occur after upgrading to iOS beta 13.4

Hope it helps!

I am on the third iPhone 11 ProMax. Have had this one since August 1. This seems to be following the same pattern as the other two, but I am waiting to see more. It often has one bar less than my iPad. Never had a problem with my iPhone 5, 6, XsMax (and any other iPhone I might have had that I am not remembering in between the 6 and the X - don't recall if I had a 7. I know I did not have an 8). Problems first started when I got the 11 ProMax in January, 2020. Worked ok at first, but then within a few weeks, experienced calls breaking up and some dropped calls. Apple allowed me to send the first 11 Pro Max back and they sent me another one, as some report that it is a problem with the individual phone and a replacement fixed the problem. I think I got the second one in April or May. Same thing except worse. Worked ok for a few weeks, then gradually more and more breaking up and dropped calls until the phone did not work at all - did not pick up any cell signal at all and I was basically without a phone for many days until I spoke with Apple and they sent me a new one. Got my 3rd one August 1, 2020. Dropped a couple of calls at first, then was ok for several weeks. OK, but not good. Cell signal very low in my home, which was never a problem with prior models. But mostly I could call and hear and be heard until gradually getting worse in September. Now it mostly works, but sometimes the call breaks up and I have had a few dropped calls at home last week. One person at Apple I spoke to said that there is now an Intel chip in the phone, different from prior models. They say it is faster than before and they will stick with it for the 12. However, if this is the issue, it clearly does not work for me and I may have to go back to an 8 or something. Maybe switch to a Samsung or something, as it is really frustrating not to be able to use it at home. Also...Verizon says that there are 5 cell towers within a half mile of my home, so it isn't a Verizon problem.

I have tried getting a new Sim card also. Has not helped. Always has less bars than my iPad. On my third 11 promax. Never had a problem in my home with earlier models, including the 10 S max. Wish I never gave that up. Now it is only available from resellers. So third 11 promax starting to fail just like the two before them did. Never had a metal case. Have tried new Sim cards. Wi-Fi is on so that’s not the problem. Have five cell towers within half a mile according to Verizon. It’s the phone. The only thing I have not tried yet is trying to force it back to 3G. Some people have said that works. Seems like a dumb thing to have to do to get the latest model to work.

Sadly swapping to another 11 pro max could result in the same issues. I stepped down to a regular 11 and have none of the issues I faced with the pro max. It’s ultimately your choice, I do notice the screen isn’t as crisp on my 11 as it was in my pro. I have service though.

Do you have apple care? Try taking it to an apple store to have them look at it. The phones come with a 1 year warranty. Depending on where you’re located it could be an all day ordeal at a store because they are always packed. Switching to the beta program won’t necessarily solve your issue. Good luck.

The awful connectivity issue, (the data/3G/4G being disable whenever 11 pro detects new nearby WiFi), which was highly reproduceable seems to be fixed (Verizon in US). I'm confident this has not been a Verizon/carrier issue at all but, rather, an iPhone issue. I first tried turning roaming on, (which I don't need) and that actually seemed to fix the issue. Then, I did a network reset, [Settings>General>Reset>Reset Network Settings], and the roaming was turned off in the process and, so far, this seems to have fixed the issue.. fingers crossed. It's an intolerable issue and hopefully is resolved. If it comes back/can't be fixed, I will be switching back to Android. Being completely new to Apple products, I really wanted to experience the "it just works" that so many Apple fanboys told me but, I have not had THAT kind of experience at all...yet.

I don’t know what the culprit is exactly can’t seem to get a straight answer! I have to put mine airplane mode at least a dozen times throughout the day then turn it off toggling the radio, then it works fine, very annoying! In all fairness I do live in rural northwest Louisiana on a farm, when it town it works flawlessly! Overall I’m happy with my choice, this phone takes awesome 4k 60fps video!

It's just beyond frustrating that my iPhone 11 Pro Max has the worst cell phone reception of any iPhone I've owned in the past 10+ years. I make it a point to tell everyone, all the time what a miserable device it is. My wife's iPhone 6 always has great reception where my iPhone 11 Pro Max is incapable of making a call, streaming music or sending an email. My kids have taken to calling my iPhone my iCamera because that's the only thing good about it.

My understanding is that it's a hardware/design issue due to the modem chip that it has. I hope this is changed in the next generation iPhone.

It has a terrible handoff between cell signal and WiFi too which compounds the problem. I have Apps like Pandora that constantly says the device is offline because I am in my car and the cell signal is poor and of course there's no Wifi.

Oh one other funny side-note when I brought it to Apple when this initially started the Genius there mentioned about how terrible cell reception was on the iPhone X. So We shouldn't be so naive to think Apple isn't abundantly aware of this issue, but just incapable of fixing it until hopefully the next generation.

I bought 11 ProMax at the end of January. Had iPhone 5, XSMax and one other one in between...maybe a 6 or 7. Never had problem until the 11 ProMax. I am on Verizon. Phone worked for about two weeks; then started to have trouble hearing people and them hearing me, then started dropping calls. Bars would start at 4, then within a few minutes drop to 3, then to 2 then to 1. Exchanged phone with Apple - got new one in April. Same scenario. Worked fine for about a week or two; then trouble hearing and being heard, 4 bars to 3 to 2 to 1 within minutes; then dropped calls. Last week - actually no signal at all for days now. Got new SIM card from Verizon. That didn't fix it. They did all they could do. Apple did a few things including full reset and then reset using info on iCloud back up. Kept my fingers crossed, but alas. New phone, new SIM card. Nothing works. Verizon said I have 5 cell towers within a ½ mile of where I live. My neighbor downstairs, right under me, has cell signal, but I don't. Can't believe two 11ProMax didn't work. Don't know if I should try one more, and then three strikes and your out - either new model or new carrier.

It's a design flaw that can't be fixed. I got my 11pro max in September last year and had/have the same experience. When I first went to the Apple store the 'genius' told me that the X also had terrible reception. After reading hundreds of comments on the Apple blog it's clear that it's not the carrier (I haver Verizon too) and it's not the individual phone. It's just a terrible product, but the camera is great! I'm waiting to see if the new iPhone 12 will have the same terrible Intel modem chip or if they changed back to Qualcomm. And if the new iPhone 12 has Intel I am switching to a droid.

Apple support suggested getting a new SIM card so I did that and trying it now. I don't think it has helped so will be sending the phone back to Apple - they offered to replace it if this fix didn't work.

It can t be solved by you. Go to apple. They will give you another phone.

Everyone has the same issues. Not the networks obviously. I have a 2 week old 11 Max on T-Mobile running iOS 13.3 and I’m having all the same issues. Took it to the apple store at the Mall of Georgia and they were worthless. I walked down to swap the sim at T-Mobile who were helpful and it didn’t fix it either. I have 2 days left to return it or get a different phone. Is signal better on the regular iPhone 11? maybe go back to an old iPhone or back to a Pixel.

I’m having serious connection issues as well, my wife can be right next to me with her iPhone 8 with 3 bars and mine with barely have 4g, constantly loses connection! I cycle airplane mode a dozen or more times throughout the day and that seems to help but it’s temporary. I’ve power cycled the phone, reset the network connection you name it to no avail!

The phone had no issues for a month and then in the last few days the problem has happened again. Today I was in an area where I had three bars of LTE but every app and browser reported no internet connection. Switching to airplane mode and back again did not fix. When I moved to a new location with four bars I still didn’t have any internet, but from there I switched to airplane mode and back again and now internet service is restored.