Level 1

50 points

iPhone 11 Pro Max 4G LTE Signal Issue

The new iPhone 11 Pro Max loses 4G signal from time to time (every a few minutes) when the Wi-Fi is off or no valid Wi-Fi hot spot is nearby.

Wi-Fi is off: The 4G signal drops to null in a sudden, and restores to full (4 bars) in 2-3 seconds. This happens regularly.

Wi-Fi is connected: The bars are steady - stay at 4 all the time.

I have tried:

Disable Auto Network Selection
Reset Network Settings
Reset All Settings
Reset All Content and Settings

None of them shows promising improvement.

iPhone XS

Posted on Sep 21, 2019 8:22 AM

Top-ranking reply

Jarcresder

Level 1

24 points

Posted on Sep 28, 2019 6:58 AM

I just got back from Apple Store and they swapped out my phone for a new one and the problem was fixed!!!

I would suggest doing these steps first before you go to Apple Store:

1) Call your cell company to debug first. Apple is going to say since it’s cell service issue and it’s not Apple problem. Cell company is going to go through list of debugging issues (reset network settings, etc) to see if that fixes your issues. If that doesn’t fix, continue debugging steps below.

2) Do a screen record of your phone dropping the cellular connection as evidence of you having issues just in case you’re in the Apple store and you can’t reproduce the issue.

3) Backup your phone. I used my laptop to backup because it restores much faster that way than going through WiFi.

4) Do a full wipe of your phone and set up your phone as a new phone (don’t restore from backup). This way you can see if your cellular issues are from software or from hardware.

4) Test our your phone and see if you are experiencing same issues.

5) If your cell connection is still dropping, take it into the Apple Store.

Good luck! I feel this is for sure a hardware issue for most people!

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Similar questions

364 replies

Jun 25, 2020 3:01 AM in response to ming36

Can anyone from apple please clarify this 4g issue? What should we do? Hello?

Aug 1, 2020 7:44 AM in response to userfish

Same thing happened to me on my iPhone 11 I did the same thing with the same result Feel the same as you

Aug 1, 2020 10:19 AM in response to ming36

I’m still going through this and I just got this phone last week.

Aug 3, 2020 6:24 AM in response to r2thehotone

I have Verizon and it's not the Verizon's service. I can literally be passing a huge cell tower and have two bars while my wife's 6 has 4-5.

Oct 3, 2020 9:51 PM in response to ming36

Hi. Was your problem solved?

if yes, pls explain how you worked it out.

tnx

SalunkeK

Level 1

4 points

Oct 15, 2020 12:41 AM in response to ming36

Facing same issue after installing iOS 14.0.1

userfish

Level 1

4 points

Jul 31, 2020 4:52 PM in response to ming36

Signal strength is terrible, 1 bar and barely usable and often not usable. I tried everything to fix and the only work around I've been using is to force the phone to 3G. That puts signal strength back to full as it was with four previous iphones. Pretty sad to downgrade new phone to be able to use!

Oct 2, 2019 12:06 PM in response to ming36

I noticed my iPhone 11 Pro Max is always sitting at 2 bars for 4G service. i find it odd since my older phone Samsung S8+ was at all 4 bars while at my house in the same area. Something else i noticed which i find odd- this phone on my wifi AC only gets about 25mbps...whereas the Samsung S8+ was getting 212mbps.

Oct 9, 2019 7:14 PM in response to BicycleBob

The POS phone is dropping LTE connection so often now I am experiencing repeated dropped calls. I am now relying on my Series 4 Apple Watch with LTE in standalone mode to make and receive calls reliably.

Oct 10, 2019 11:37 AM in response to ming36

I am in the same boat here. Last week I spent about 45 minutes with Apple support and we kicked off an advanced support session with them pulling logs. I continue to see this issue pop up randomly throughout the day and have to hard restart the phone.

I am running the latest iOS version, latest carrier update patch, and drop cellular service randomly throughout the day.

To me, this seems to be a software challenge and not a hardware issue.

Worst part is I have not heard back from anyone at Apple on the logs with what seems to be the root cause.

Next thing I am going to try is a full phone restore and set it up as new. I am curious if restoring it as a new iPhone vs. from my iCloud backup of my iPhone X could solve this issue.

Apple Support CASE ID: 100916236156

Oct 12, 2019 1:06 PM in response to pmmalg

When I had the Iphone XS MAX, the signal of at&t was way better than the signal that I have right now with the Iphone 11 Pro, but it was E-sim, and it wasn't Ios13, so maybe one of that things makes the problem. I'll put my number again as an E-sim and check if it gets better or not.

ming36 Author

Level 1

50 points

Oct 13, 2019 12:49 AM in response to ming36

Hey guys

I didn't expected that so many people having the same issue when I initiated this thread. I just want to share some updates since the problem was solved through iOS upgrades.

Actually Apple USA called me a few days back requesting for additional information, quoting the same case I raised to Apple Australia. Apple was monitoring this thread and noticed that my phone was among the few having the issue fixed, so they wanted to know more about it.

On the call I told them the symptom of the issue again, and share my network settings, iOS and carrier profile versions.

They didn't ask whether I was using eSIM or Dual SIMs, and I don't think SIM cards are relevant with the Issue either. I went to a Optus store (My carrier in Australia) to switch to eSIM when the problem was fixed. Now the phone is working fine in a dual SIM configuration (Optus eSIM and a Foreign SIM).

On speedtest, the phone peaks at 60 Mbps at peak hours and roughly 480 Mbps after mid night when the physical SIM is disabled. The download speed would drop by half when both SIM cards are active. I guess the Intel chip will reserve bandwidth for each SIM, regardless if the SIM is carrying data. It's not optimised but I'm totally fine with it.

osaran81

Level 1

4 points

Oct 14, 2019 9:19 PM in response to ming36

I am having the same issue with an iPhone 11 pro max 256, the signal suddenly drops and when it gets back I cannot use Data or call till rebooting the phone, it is really frustrating situation, I booked a Genius Bar appointment at an apple store, but they said it was a carrier problem, however my carrier is saying its on apple side which means a hardware issue not a software, really am stuck between Apple and my carrier and don't know what to do with a newly purchased expensive device.

cavok76

Level 1

4 points

Oct 14, 2019 9:26 PM in response to Jarcresder

I have an eSIM installed and thought that was the issue. Looked into the Mobile Status and get No SIM on both Sims briefly, like it's doing a warm boot. This has happened several times. I have captured it on screenshot. I don't think its the second SIM or a coverage issue.

osaran81

Level 1

4 points

Oct 15, 2019 9:51 PM in response to VVii Tii

I am in Japan too with same problem with docomo Provider, however, it seems to be a bug facing more docomo subscriber with more than 85% compare to other carriers in Japan. For the moment even IOS 13.1.3 did not fix the bug, but there is a temporary solution which is Settings=> Cellular=>Cellular Data Options=> Voice&Data=> choose 4G, VoLTE Off.

Let's hope for a fix from apple with update to modem firmware, as rebooting the phone every time is such an annoying thing to do.

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iPhone 11 Pro Max 4G LTE Signal Issue