“No Service” after iOS 13.5.1 iPhone update

I have managed to get it back working as a telephone!

I did the following steps:

• Back-up phone to computer.
• Erase without restore
• Warnings that it wouldn’t restore the iPhone because it needed an update.
• Sure enough when the iPhone came back to life, it would not restore.

Put your device in recovery mode and set it up again

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201263

• On a Mac with macOS Mojave 10.14 or earlier, open iTunes. If iTunes is already open, close it, then open it again.
• iPhone 7 : Press and hold the Side and Volume Down buttons AT THE SAME TIME. Keep holding them until you see the recovery mode screen.
• Told me it was going to recover the iPhone.
• iPhone 7 came back to life and Vodafone appeared!!
• With it connected to iTunes it did a Restore as above.
• It took about an hour to restore. And even longer to download all my apps.

The same thing happened with my 8 plus. I finally got in touch with a real Apple expert. After running remote testing, one test came back as a failure which was Presence Test Baseband. I have no idea what that means, but my expert did. Instead of dismissing me like everyone else as being unwilling to accept a hardware problem, she took me at my word that it was software related. After being told not to do a full erase/restore by the other Apple techs because it might make things worse, this one said to do it. I erased everything back to brand new, but did not restore it from icloud immediately because that could have brought back the bad update. We verified that the phone was working without restoring anything. Then we did a second full restore from the icloud backup and this time the update installed correctly.

Steps taken:

1. Back-up phone to icloud or computer.
2. Erase without restore, verify that phone and texting works. Your mobile provider should now show in upper left corner.
3. Erase again but this time restore from icloud to get back your contacts, apps, etc.

I hope this works for everyone else. They all told me it was a hardware issue and I would have to pay to have it fixed or buy a new phone. They were wrong.

I have an iphone 7 as well and nothing in this thread has worked. My phone will work for a bit then it goes "no service". I stopped in at Verizon to see what they could to and I was informed that about two to three years ago there was a recall on some models of the iPhone7 for this exact reason. As it turns out, my phone IS one of these models so I'm mailing it in and hopefully their (free) repair will fix the problem.

Here's an article on that issue and the related model numbers. https://support.apple.com/iphone-7-no-service

Tried all the suggestions for this, but then found this page., right down to trying to restore the phone.

Contacted support and it appears to be the root problem. Shipping off phone today.

13 minutes on chat, start to finish, most of which was my getting to my computer to turn off Find My iPhone via the web. Easy.

ps_pause wrote:

Replacing the SIM in my iPhone 7 did *not* solve it for me.

That’s because it is a SYMPTOM, not a problem. There are at least a dozen different reasons this symptom can occur. For an iPhone 7 this is a good possibility—>iPhone 7 Repair Program for "No Service" Issues - Apple Support. For any iPhone here is a good place to start—>If you see No Service or Searching on your iPhone or iPad - Apple Support

I hope this was posted somewhere on those 8 pages but haven't noticed anything meaningful. It's just a coincidence, your phone has a faulty baseband that simply didn't pass the check during update. Apple fixes it for free: https://support.apple.com/iphone-7-no-service

Please see https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201415. If these steps fail to resolve your problem and you have an iPhone 7, then see if you qualify for https://support.apple.com/iphone-7-no-service. If not, then you should attempt to restore your iPhone to factory settings and set it up as new. If you don't qualify for the iPhone 7 program and your device is out of warranty, then it's time to consider purchasing a new phone because a no service issue is not something that Apple would offer to repair.

I agree that it is something to do with the iOS 13 update. Back in November I was part of this discussion group as my iphone 7 was giving "no service" messages back then, following update to iOS 13.2

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250905111?answerId=251785893022

I have tried this to no avail:

1. Make sure apps are set to “only whilst using”. 
2. Turn off location services. 
3. Restart iPhone. 
4. Turn location services back on

I have tried to no avail:

— a restore of my iPhone.

I have tried to no avail:

— Reset network settings

I have tried to no avail:

— eject the SIM, restart, reinsert SIM.

OK Got there Connected to iTunes through the Macbook

https://macreports.com/unable-to-activate-an-update-is-required-to-activate-your-iphone-fix/

4-Please follow the steps below:

1. Connect your iPhone to your computer
2. Open iTunes on your Mac
3. While your device is connected, force restart your iPhone. Here is how you can do that:
   1. If your device is an iPhone 8 or later: Press and release the volume up and then volume down button and then press and hold the side (on/off) button until you see the recovery screen below. Do not release the buttons until you see the recovery mode screen.
   2. If your device is an iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus: Press and hold the side and volume down buttons together until you see the recovery screen. Do not release the buttons until you see the recovery mode screen.
   3. If your device is an iPhone 6 or earlier: Press and hold the side and the Home buttons together until the recovery screen below appears. Do not release the buttons until you see the recovery mode screen.

I had the exact same issue...

I have an iPhone 7....my phone updated to iOS 13.5.1

Afterwards:

...'No Service' from my service provider. I was unable to make/receive calls, texts, or cellular data. I was only able to connect to WiFi.

I resolved my issue by resetting my network settings:

1. Settings > General > Reset (at the bottom)
2. Reset Network Settings

After I reset the network settings, the phone rebooted and when it came back up, the top left corner now said..... "Searching"

It didn't come up right away so I reconnected to my WiFi.

When I established connectivity with my WiFi, my cellular information kicked in.

I have no idea why it came up only after I reconnected to WiFi, but I'm not complaining.

Just to make sure it wasn't a fluke, I powered my phone off then back on......Service Provider information is still there.

Hope this helps

This thread is a bit of a mess. I am glad that the sim reinsertion/ network reset etc. has worked for some people. This is clearly a software problem. There was no hardware problem at 13.5. Apple has already unsigned 13.5 so a downloaded ipsw can't be used.

I am back to my 5s while my 7 sits waiting for an update.

Well some how my phone is working. I will list what I did but I am not sure what actually fixed it. (iphone 7 model A1778 not covered by the recall of a few years ago) Apple support said there was nothing further they could do. I could only enter DFU mode or set up as a new phone which left me with the message in the screen shot below.

I use Windows 10 and the current itunes to trouble shoot the phone. I switched to my daughters macbook and wet to a place with a proper highspeed (fiberOp). The phone was in DFU mode and the mac recognized it and downloaded 13.6. It went through the extraction and install and then gave an unable to update error. I unplugged the phone the plugged it back in to the mac, and after a few seconds I saw the install screen on the phone start. (apple logo with a thin progress line underneath) Then the phone went through a normal install as fresh phone. During the install I had an old sim card not linked to any account. Once the phone seemed normal I switched to a working sim and it found the carrier. As typical with apple, they either don't know or wont tell you what is actually wrong. If you are still under warranty you should be in luck .

I'm in the same boat. The update installed overnight and I'm stuck in cottage country without use of wifi or cellular networks. Very occasionally I'll see an email come through but it consistently says no service. When I switch from airplane mode on to off I very briefly see the bars for wifi but they disappear in less than a second. My phone has turned into a useless brick and I depend on it being in the middle of nowhere. Not impressed. Can't seem to figure out a fix.

My 8 plus did the same thing. Apple Support went through many things to try and finally said it was a hardware issue, but there are too many people online who had the same thing happen to them immediately after 13.5.1. This is a software issue Apple needs to fix!!