cellular update failed, ios 14.7.1

guys I'm having the same issue with an Iphone 11 Pro.

After installing 14.7.1, my phone can no longer reconnect to cellular data reliably... I have to restart it several times and then occasionally it connects but calls can sometimes drop.

I've done everything that can be done:

• Made sure everything is up to date.
• Backed up entire phone, did reset, nothing...
• Brought the phone to local apple store where genius plugged it in, did a factory hard reset, and then VOILA! it was working again... (Before he got it working he explained to me that if this didn't work, bottomline I was going to have to buy another phone because apple doesn't operate on antennae related issues)
• Untillll! Later that night I try to make a call and notice my phone once again has the "cellular update failed" pop up...

I also spoke to apple over the phone after the issue happened again. Told me it's most likely hardware related (but I'm convinced it's this stupid update!) and that I could go to apple store to get it repaired... Contradictory information and passing the ball around at it's finest..

Not sure what apple is doing, but I feel scammed

I have the exact same problem. Woke up yesterday morning to the cellular failed error message after an overnight update to iOS 14.7.1. I've tried every hack I've found online except a factory reset, because I can't back up my phone either. I had to update my desktop to Big Sur, and now when I plug the phone into the desktop it won't back it up. Grrrr. I love my Apple products, but hate the bugs in the updates. Talked to customer support yesterday afternoon. Guy said he'd never seen my problem. And made it a carrier issue. Then put me on hold to talk to a manager and I had to hang up after five minutes to head to an appointment.

This exact same problem has happened to my husband’s phone. We’ve tried all the things we possibly can: Soft reset, taking SIM card out, network reset, and still NOTHING helps. Not sure what is going on but it sure is frustrating. Calling AT&T tomorrow.

Ok, I finally got my phone working on Friday. I had to call Apple 3 times. The first time I was cut off, but managed to get the phone backed up to my Mac, which I couldn't do before. The second time the tech got me to the point where I was downloading 14.7.1 again in order to reinstall it. He said that it would take about 20 mins then just follow the prompts, then he ended the call because he thought it would go ok. Nope. The download stalled. Didn't show any progress on the bar. I waited about 10 mins to make sure, then I called back again. The final tech said, "you don't need to do that", and just had me restore the phone from the backup. That fixed it. It's been working fine all weekend, so I'm presuming it will continue to be fine. Oh, and before I called Apple on Friday I called Telus, and right away the tech said, "we've seen this before, it's not our problem, it's the update, I'll connect you to Apple." So, Apple knows that this is a problem.

Update:

Last night I tried inserting another sim card in my phone. Restarted the phone a couple of times and it managed to connect to cellular data. I ejected the sim and put my normal sim back in. It worked and I got a new pop up! Something about "Cellular data update available". So I clicked update. Nothing really happened but I was sure this would solve the problem.

Nope! Today at work my phone again disconnected from cellular data. The only way to get it to work temporarily is to restart it 3 or 4 times.

Same issue with my wife’s XR. 14.7.1 installed overnight and woke up to the same thing. Went to our cellular carrier and got a new SIM card, tried every kind of reset, and restored from back up. Nothing has worked yet and the earliest appointment available with Apple store is 3 days out.

I am having a similar but not identical problem. Problem arose from allowing iPhone 7 to automatically install iOS 14.7.1 I can connect to both WiFi and cellular networks from iPhone. With both networks on, there is no error message but I cannot make calls and I cannot answer calls. I tried next with WiFi on and cellular off but it was the same. I next tried with WiFi off and cellular on, and got dead silence, the same as before. I made appointment and took it to Apple store. He connected it to an iPad and said it is operating. Then forced off and on. The speaker button was grayed out. He said that meant I can no longer use as a regular iPhone. He said that I could use it with Bluetooth earbuds but it would not operate as as regular iPhone. He said that Apple had a similar software problem two years ago with iPhone 7 and it gave away an iPhones to those affected. He said it ended the program. We have another iPhone 7 and I did not have it set to allow auto update. It is at 14.4.2 and it works perfectly. I tried using the Bluetooth ear phones and that did NOT work. Apple knows its update caused the problem. It appears to have created it for the purpose of killing iPhone 7 near when the iPhone 13 will be announced. Can the iPhone install an earlier version of iOS 14? I will not buy an iPhone 12 this near iPhone 13. I am on AT&T network.

I think I found a fix for some of the problems with 14.7.1 described above. Here is what worked to restore service and stop the daily intermittent SIM failure errors after the 14.7.1 update to my XS and my wife’s 12. We are using eSIMs on AT&T. I removed our plans using Settings>General>Reset>Remove all cellular plans. Then I added them back using the QR codes on our carrier’s eSIM setup cards. This appears to have completely resolved the SIM failure problem on both of our phones!

Before I tried this we had driven ourselves crazy rebooting, erasing cache and network settings, turning airplane mode on and off, wifi on and off, near and away from our wifi network, gotten a new physical SIM card for my wife’s phone, turned roaming and wifi calling on and off. Nothing worked until I removed all cellular plans and added them back.

See if the following article can help: iPhone Cellular Update Failed? - Payette Forward

Sorry that didn't help. Your next step would be to contact Apple Support directly. To do so, simply select the "Get Support" link in the upper right-hand side of this forum's web page.

Please post if anyone gets their iphone fixed, please!

I am happy

If breaking my phone with software is the way to prompt me to buy a new phone, maybe it is time for an android.