iPhone 12 losing service

I have a 12 Pro Max, AT&T, and not only have I never dropped a call but my calls stay connected in areas older iPhones would drop the call every time.

I don't say that to dismiss anyone's experience, but rather to point out that I believe this is a carrier issue and depends upon the configuration of the cell towers in your particular area. The fact that some people have seen improvements after a recent Verizon carrier upgrade only seems to underlined that point.

One thing I know that makes some degree of difference is the fact that I do not have 5G on my cell plan, so my phone never connects to a 5G network or 5G frequencies - it's LTE or below only.

Same exact issue with two iPhone 12’s in my family. One an iPhone 12 and the other an iPhone 12 Pro. Only happens when on the road, and I’m in an area with some 5G towers, so seems to be when switching between towers. Have to fully toggle airplane mode on/off to recover.

It’s not the SIM cards or the carrier services . I work for a Verizon indirect agent and we have been experiencing this same issue for a while now . It became way worse with the new 12 series release . It’s insane . You pay $1200 for a dang phone that can’t even hold service . Apple needs to get involved and see what is going on with their phones . Again, it’s not just the 12 series, the SIM card , the carrier , or a require of a network settings reset . Something is wrong with the phones . I’ve seen the “no service” issue happen with the iPhone 7’s , 8’s, X’s, XS’s, 11’s , and now the 12’s are doing it super bad .

Yes, there are reports of the same issue with several carriers, but the problem is the same. The carriers need to change the way they configure the broadcast bands that the iPhones use. I don't understand why this didn't affect the iPhones until the 12 series came out, or why most iPhone owners aren't experiencing the problem of weak signal and complete signal loss, however.

extraordinarilysmart wrote:

I seriously doubt this has anything to do with the carrier, any carrier. I have changed 5 (!), yes five, different carriers in 3 different countries and the problems were the same, regardless of who was providing the service or whether it was a virtual or physical sim.

What you don't know is whether the carriers you switched between share the same towers and thus the same equipment and switching gear at the cell site.

joxesCA wrote:

Went this morning downtown to get a coffee. Went inside the store. When I got back to my car and I looked at the phone it was saying "No service". Go figure out. I looked at the Android 5G and the device did not lose service.

So nothing with the carrier otherwise the other device will have lost service too.

So software and/or chipset issue.

Actually, that proves nothing.

Sadly, other phone vendors do not list the band capabilities of their devices that I have been able to find, so my theory that cell towers are asking iPhone 12s to switch to frequencies that are not properly configured on the tower seems most likely.

joxesCA wrote:

Went this morning downtown to get a coffee. Went inside the store. When I got back to my car and I looked at the phone it was saying "No service". Go figure out. I looked at the Android 5G and the device did not lose service.

So nothing with the carrier otherwise the other device will have lost service too.

So software and/or chipset issue.

I’m not sure you have proved anything in this observation. The two different devices are likely to support a different subset of bands. It is more likely than not that the tower assigned them to different working frequencies within their bands, if they were even assigned on the same band.

I don’t doubt you are seeing poor cellular performance. What we don’t know is what is causing it. Radio waves can show what seem like strange behaviors, particularly at microwave frequencies. You don’t even know whether your iPhone and Android devices were talking to the same tower, or whether the radio links were getting a clean signal from the tower. There is insufficient information to make any useful conclusion about cause.

Got the Verizon iPhone 12 mini delivered on launch day and have been plagued with this problem. It’s so frustrating. It seems like it can’t switch from tower to tower? More frequently happens when driving. Tried turning off 5g went to LTE only (no luck). Seems like the 5g signal is constantly weak.

confirming what others say - the only way to fix the phone is to go to airplane mode for a few seconds then back on

i do have the silicone MagSafe case and magnet wallet. With or without the wallet no change. But haven’t tried using the phone without the case. It does seem to have slightly better signal with the case off though

Not "everyone else."

My iPhone 12 Pro Max has never dropped a call, nor has it been an issue for any of my friends also on AT&T.

The issue isn't confined to Verizon, but many more Verizon customers seem to be affected.

Personally, I wonder if this is, in part, to blame:

PC Magazine: Here's Why Verizon iPhone Users Must Turn Off 5G Right Now

Update: So I’m back after dealing with the Apple the last couple weeks. Ultimately, diagnostics didn’t pick anything up. They had me reset my phone as a brand new phone thinking that it may have been something faulty on the back up. I gave it a shot and to no avail, nothing changed. They gave me a new phone and that didn’t make much of a difference. I will admit that the recent iPhone and carrier updates have decreased the frequency of issue and allows the phone to continue to search for a connection instead of just going dead. It still happens enough on a day to day basis to be ticked off with Apple or Verizon, who ever is to blame, after paying 1400 IPhones. Seeing that the updated made a difference so I am assuming they’re working on the issue and after enough updated this issue should be resolved.

T Mobile new users here. Four new iPhone 12 minis. Two of the phones dropped signals routinely . Could not call each other in the home - straight to voicemail. Went shopping outside out area - one phone signal the other kiddo standing right next to me no signal. One of the phones also the missing texts issue. toggling airplane mode off-on seems to fix the issue of finding cell signal but also using in home WiFi. The two phones that had most reliable in home service were on T mobile WiFi; all the settings between phones are identical as best we know. Perhaps difference in user restarting phones or closing out apps affects signal reliability? Does not seem to be carrier issue- we T mobile ; I hope apple fixes this. For the desperate - toggling airplane mode was the only thing that made a phone use our WiFi for signal; resetting networks didn’t do that. Hope some apple engineers are reading this.

similar problem; 4 iphone 12 minis on T mobile.

toggling on to off for Airplane mode helps us. resetting networks not really.

some of the phones with the same settings have signal in the same room some don't.

think it has something to do with how individual users , turn on/off their phones and/or close out apps. The phones that "work" are using or in home wifi the most. Toggling the problematic phones from airplane mode immediately hooks them up to our wifi. Pretty wild that the same brand new models will have variability in performance in the same house (with same network/wifi settings) based on different user habits.

I’ve spent a few hours now with Apple support. They ran a diagnostic on my phone that showed no issues. Asked me to reset the network, turn off find my phone, uninstall and reinstall the eSim and factory reset the phone. All of these things I’d already tried anyway but I gave them another go anyway. Nothing has helped.

The last tech I communicated with suggested it was a carrier issue. I told him my family has one member with an iPhone 8 and two members with Samsung phones on the same carrier network and no one else was experiencing data dropouts. I also pointed him to this thread. His final advice was to take the iPhone back to the carrier I purchased it from.

[Edited by Moderator]

It seems likely there are several different problems which all look similar from a user’s viewpoint. It isn’t just one phone, iPhone 12 family has several very different hardware configurations.

I now accept you are never going to be happy with your iPhone 12. The best advice I can offer is to return it and buy from a different manufacturer.

I have the same problem with the iPhone 12 Pro Max. When the iPhone switches between 3G and LTE, I see a 3G or LTE icon and the maximum level of communication. But cellular communication and the Internet don't work. You can only fix it to restart your iPhone or turn your flight mode on / off. It seems that the iPhone can't switch correctly between stations or cellular modes