All connectivity dropping repeatedly.

Question

All connectivity dropping repeatedly.

The details:

Device: iPhone XR (64GB)

Software: 18.3.1 (Latest, until just now)

Cell carrier: SimpleMobile (Tracfone - TFW 62.0 - [Verizon])

Local ISP: Charter 'Spectrum' (with an excessive amount of bandwidth)

WiFi Router: It works just fine.

DNS resolver: 1.1.1.1 WARP by Cloudflare

User's level of incompetence: "Pretty high sometimes, but not in this particular area."

The situation:

I woke up this morning and, as usual, made my coffee, grabbed my phone, and sat out on the porch to start my day with sunshine, doom-scrolling and AI "art".

At first, everything is fine - MMS is functional; browsers are working; GPT-based LLM neural networks are sucking up enough electricity to charge my iPhone to 100% every time I hit the "generate" button; my local water supply is technically poisonous; children in the DRC are mining the raw materials used to make our modern psychological prisons; and my coffee is, at best, mediocre...

Then, for seemingly no reason, my connectivity starts to drop, CONSTANTLY, within seconds of reconnecting.

I know it works - it will load a page (or some elements of a page), then will drop and reconnect. My family is nearby, using the same WiFi and cellular networks, streaming video and social media-ing away, no issue. I go inside to check my laptop. Yep, nominal, everything works like I knew what I was doing when I set it up.

Obviously, the problem is with my iPhone's WiFi, so I turn it off and let it just use cellular...

Same issue.

Obviously, the problem is the opposite, and "cellular assist" is the issue, so I turn it off to switch to WiFi only. Only, "cellular assist" was already off and...

Same issue.

Obviously, the problem is my 1.1.1.1 app, so I turn it off and just let my ISPs do whatever they want with my DNS queries...

Same issue.

Obviously, it's some small glitch and I just need to put my phone into airplane mode for a minute and let it fix itself...

Same issue.

Obviously, this has to do with my phone's "low data", "low power", "limit IP tracking", etc. settings...

Same issue.

Obviously, it's some not-so-small glitch, and I just need to restart my phone...

Same issue.

OBVIOUSLY, this should not be happening. Will I reset my network settings? No, I, finally, just this last week, called up Tracfone and had them force my iPhone onto Verizon towers with a new sim to have actual usable cell signal and data. I find it very unlikely that I will get another customer service rep who just does what I ask and doesn't say the phrase "Have you tried turning off and back on?"

After enough restarts, it works. I do not need advice on how to fix it. If such an issue recurs and persists, I am all-too-happy to transfer right back to my old S20 Ultra that does exactly what I want it to do at all times.

My question is: Why did this happen?

Not "what did I do wrong; what setting do I need to change; what do I need to reset; how do I blah-blah-blah; etc", no, WHY, EXACTLY, did this happen?

What set of internal instructions caused my phone to drop the signal in the first place, then start noticeably draining battery by trying to constantly (every few seconds) reconnect to any form of wireless?

This is not a new issue, there are posts dating back to over half-a-decade ago about this same exact issue. So, why does it happen?

Apple, Microsoft, Google, etc, all have a habit of dancing around similar questions or finding inexplicable workarounds with no real answers, which seem to only exist on third-party chatrooms for some reason. Don't dance around it, just answer the question: WHY DOES THIS HAPPEN?

I'm not asking anyone how to fix or prevent it, I'm asking what causes it in the first place.

Any takers? I've got a crisp virtual high-five for anyone who can enlighten me.

iPhone XR

Posted on Mar 15, 2025 11:07 AM

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Answer 1

Mar 15, 2025 11:37 AM in response to Biomechanical_Meatbag

The MOST common reason is installed VPN. Do you have a 3rd party VPN installed, even if you are not using it? If so, delete the VPN profile in Settings/General/VPN & Device Management/VPN. Don't just turn it off; delete the profile. If that fixes it, you can try reinstalling VPN.

After that, you need to reset network settings. This will only reset Wi-Fi passwords; it will not result in any data loss.

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Answer 2

Mar 16, 2025 4:54 PM in response to Biomechanical_Meatbag

Biomechanical_Meatbag wrote:

That leaves two possibilities that I can think of:

Either the bug was there to begin with, and is (likely) completely unrelated to any and all external factors, or, there was a silent OtA update that was pushed to my device without my knowledge.

Apple has NEVER pushed an update on any product without notifying the user. So if you didn’t get a notification it didn’t happen.

I'd be willing to bet it's the former, and I'd like to know exactly what that "bug" or "internal set of if->then instructions" that caused this to happen was.

As I've said before, there are posts of this EXACT same issue from many, many people through the the last half-decade, so this is far from a new or unknown issue. So: What does Apple know about this? What is the source of this issue? What have they done to correct it? Why is it STILL and issue after such a long time?

How many, out of 2 BILLION iPhones sold?

A device designed for wireless communication being unable to wirelessly communicate is a pretty big issue, so why would this ever happen in the first place?

Most likely, in your case, because there was a hardware FAILURE. Unless you haven’t reset network settings to see if that fixes it.

If you want to know what Apple knows about this, ASK THEM. No one in this user-to-user forum can help you further.

For personalized support

Best way:

Install the Apple Support app on your iPhone or iPad - you can contact support directly from the app, and the tech will have (with your permission) access to diagnostic data on your device

Other options:

- Click on “Support” at the top or bottom of this page
- Go to Contact Official Apple Support

(Note that both of the above have options to receive a callback or chat)

- Call Apple Support; the phone numbers are in this link→Contact Apple for support and service - Apple Support
- Make a Genius Bar appointment at an Apple Store→Genius Bar Reservation and Apple Support Options - Apple
- Find an Apple store or Apple partner service provider→Find Locations

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Answer 3

Mar 16, 2025 3:07 PM in response to Lawrence Finch

I do not have a VPN installed. The closest thing to it is the previously mentioned 1.1.1.1 WARP DNS resolver app, which is only client-side, and (as already stated) disabling that was one of the first solutions I tried (to no effect).

On the contrary, since the app is so simple and directly mirrors your devices connection attempts, the WARP app was actually the reason I got to see this happening in real time - watching the app attempt to connect, only to have the phone itself continuously (nearly once per second) reset the connection attempt.

I feel like I'm beating a dead horse here since I went to so much trouble to explicitly request from this community an explanation as to the root cause instead of a solution, but I am not asking for "how do I fix this". I am asking what [internal command / line of code / series of protocols] could lead to this kind of behavior from my device in the first place.

I understand that "it it ain't broke, don't fix it" is not necessarily something that applies to software - sometimes software really does just inevitably end up following its own flawed design and executing things in such a way that a bug is brought to light - but the fact remains: everything (my phone, my apps, the router, etc.) was working just fine, and has been, for a very long time. So what, EXACTLY, did my phone do to make it act differently today than it did yesterday?

It wasn't an OS software update.

It wasn't an app software update (since I always turn off auto-update in every available way).

It wasn't a hardware update (obviously).

It wasn't my external devices (since they were all operating just fine and the problem was resolved without changing a single thing.)

That leaves two possibilities that I can think of:

Either the bug was there to begin with, and is (likely) completely unrelated to any and all external factors, or, there was a silent OtA update that was pushed to my device without my knowledge.

I'd be willing to bet it's the former, and I'd like to know exactly what that "bug" or "internal set of if->then instructions" that caused this to happen was.

As I've said before, there are posts of this EXACT same issue from many, many people through the the last half-decade, so this is far from a new or unknown issue. So: What does Apple know about this? What is the source of this issue? What have they done to correct it? Why is it STILL and issue after such a long time?

A device designed for wireless communication being unable to wirelessly communicate is a pretty big issue, so why would this ever happen in the first place?

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All connectivity dropping repeatedly.

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