Update to iOS 5 Signal Problems?

Hi

I experienced this loss of reception problem when upgrading a 3GS phone from 4.3 to 5.01. I discovered that by taking out the sim card replacing it with another sim card (can be from your friend's phone etc) and then replcing your own sim back into the phone that the reception issue dissapeared. At each sim swap you need to boot up the phone but give it a go and i'm sure your problems may disappear......cheers

Dude!!! I had this issue weeks ago and had to get my iphone wiped. I didn't have problems until I got on this someone about sending me some pics I asked for weeks ago. The problem started immediately after that. That's some bs. I have an Iphone 4 on IOS 5.0.1

I called apple support and hope that they will report this issue to their engineers. I'll do the restore when I get home but this is ridiculous. Why is it just T-mobile? Is this malicious intent?

Have you looked at the threads about it?

It's anything but just on T-Mobile.

It's a worldwide problem affecting many networks. With the only common thing between them being the iPhone 4S.

In Ireland people from O2 and Meteor suffer from it, in South Africa is MTN and many other countries out there.

No, I didn't go past this thread because it fit exactly what had just happened. I haven't experienced the problem with any other provider and can't really recall if I've received pictures from anyone else. My main thing was that I didn't want to drive to an Apple Store to get it fixed. So I''m going to do the restore when i get home and hope that works. And when I called Apple Technical Support and spoke to an Adv Tech Support person she said she never heard of this problem before. Well I'm like well obviously you don't read the posts in the community forum because tons of people are having problems. I swear I like my iPhone but this is ridiculous. I'd rather have a regular cell phone and an Ipad or something else instead.

Tried it and it didn't work

I have an iPhone 3GS which was purchased from the Apple store as a Xmas gift for my wife. As soon as I got it I installed IOS 5.0.1. We live in a fringe signal area and we both use Talkmobile SIMs (Virtual operator using the Vodafone network). I have a Sony Xperia Mini Pro which works fine whereas the iPhone is virtually unusable due to intermittent signal.

The people at Apple support have been polite but not much help. They seemed to attach no significance whatever to the fact I had installed 5.0.1 Following the advice on this forum I have disabled 3G and have noticed an immediate improvement to the signal strength and consistency. Why aren't Apple Support aware of this problem - it would have saved hours of wasted time.

Thanks for helping me out with advice.

Pete\'s crappy iPhone wrote:

The root of my problem is picture messages sent to me from a tmobile phone, I proved this 100% and even did it simulated it with 2 other iphones that went searching right away and the pic never comes though. A full restore from itunes solves the issue until a tmobile carrier sends another pic and the base band crashes. I do not know why this happens but it is 100% the root of my searching issue.

I agree with Pete's root cause as I've experienced it myself on my phone and my wife's phone. We've been experiencing what we thought were random signal search loop problems since October. The odd thing was both our phones would almost always go into the search loop within minutes of each others. I have an iPhone 4 running 5.0.1 and my wife has an iPhone 4s also running 5.0.1. We've been to the genius bar 4 times, had many phone calls with AT&T, had phones replaced, sim cards replaced, erased, restored, restored as new, you name it, we've done it all to keep this problem from recurring.

I think now we may have discovered a prevention mechanism. This past week, we correlated the timing of our phone's going into signal search loop with the sending of an MMS message from a friends Verizon Droid. Both our phones entered the loop and we both restored. Long story short, the Droid friend asked my wife if she got the pic, she said no so he resent. her phone immediately went back to signal search loop. To verify, the friend sent me a normal text which I received followed by a MMS pic which started my phone into signal search loop for the 2nd time that day.

So the work around that seems to be working.....turn off MMS messaging. At least until AT&T and/or Apple provide a patch. I will also add that prior to the 5.0.x OS, I never had a problem receiving MMS messages from my droid friends. Seems to me, this is an Apple defect.

My god I hope you're right. Phone number six for me.

A few weeks ago my iTunes came up with a new update. Ios5.0.1 ??????? Didnt this come out a few months ago? I had already installed back then. Anyway I thought and hoped maybe this may have some patch to fix the signal loop problem that I have had ever since I installed ios5. No go!! Added a couple of things but still no go on the signal loop problem. Constant call failed, searching, no service, SOS. I'm sorry apple but if you are not going to address this issue I will be forced to jailbreak my phone as the only thing I have found that can fix this issue is using red snow. Im all for being a loyal customer but I am missing one key thing here from you. A working phone I can rely on.

Good day , i can confirm that update 5.1 fixed the call drops/no service problem and other issues for 3 x iPhone 4S around my workplace.

Now , i don't know if this is a fortunate event or Apple got it right this time 🙂

I've tried everything that has been suggested to rectify the problem with dropped calls and no service without any success,after many months waiting for apple to rectify the problem,if you call the help line they deny there is a problem,obviously they don't take any notice of the forums, or there isn't sufficient phones with the problem to warrant their intervention.I can only see one solution and it is to change to Android,then at least I will have a phone.