Sim Card Failure No Sim with iPhone 4S Anyone Else?

in Spanish:

TENGO LA SOLUCION!!!!

EL TEMA ESTA EN EL TAMAÑO DEL COBRE DE LA MICRO SIM, YO PEDI 2 MICRO SIM DE MOVISTAR ARGENTINA Y CON LAS 2 TENIA MIL PROBLEMAS, SIM INVALIDA, ERROR EN LLAMADA, NO ENTRABAN LLAMADAS NI SALIAN, AUN TENIENDO SEÑAL EN MI IPHONE 4S 16GB LIBRE DE FABRICA INGLES.

LA SOLUCION ESTA EN PEDIR UN SIM COMUN QUE TENGA EL CHIP DE COBRE LO MAS PEQUEÑO POSIBLE, SON DE LAS MAS NUEVAS, Y LUEGO CORTARLA A TAMAÑO MICRO SIM CON EL CORTADOR (PARA NO TENER DUDAS) O CON TIJERA. LO TENGO FUNCIONANDO HACE 4 DIAS SIN NI UN SOLO PROBLE CUANDO ANTES EN UNA SEMANA NO PUDE USARLO DE TANTOS PROBLEMAS QUE TENIA, SALUDOS PARA TODOS NICOLAS DESDE ARGENTINA!

I agree about the update seeming to cause the problem- I had no problems till today and it just got non-fixable at the moment- I have taken the thing out several times- restored- turned on and off- I can't decide rather to go to the AT&T store or Apple based on all the discussions I have read- This is beyond frustrating- this phone is no good to me other than for use of a flash light and clock without a functional SIM!😠

I'm also having the same problem!...What's a disspoinment! I tried to reset, reboot...everything else but it's till not working! Painful thing is I am currently in overseas and I have to send it back to Australia (where I bought it) to get if fixed or replaced! Just feel like smashing it down the ground!

Update: got worse since iOS 5.0.1, happened about 5 times today, going to genius bar on Thursday, problem is how to get photos off the phone as I have a Windows 7 and they import upside down and cannot be edited!

I am very dissapointed with my new 4s, I got it 2 weeks ago from australia, it is factory unlocked, when it was ios 5.0 it went to searching for carrier every 20 min, and my battery last about 8-9 hours fully charged and no games 3g, wifi and 10 min of talking avarage, now after update (fully restored two times as new phone) it is even worse! Battery lasts 6 hours in iddle with all functions off (wifi, location services) and now I get sim failure and invalid sim every 20 min and when I try to make a call, also when it shows full gsm signal it is actually offline nobody can call me or sms, i can notice it only when trying to make a call as it goes to searching or to invalid state after this. I tried my wifes sim from iphone 4 same problem and she has no problems at all with my sim in her phone! I will never buy a new phone from apple so early better wait for halve a year or so.

ok, now a complete update with my issues:

- phone looses range regulary, after that the no sim issue comes, followed by no service. A hard reset or trying to call somebody multiple times helps for like a couple hours

- often when having carrier range and I try to call I get clicking sound and then after 30 seconds it says that call failed. After two-three attempts it starts connecting properly

- battery lasts short... no need to elaborate on that, you all know it

- yesterday I played around with the phone on wifi, later on I turned Bluetooth on and drove home having phone in my pocket. At home the phone was off and pretty hot. I couldn't turn it on for 15 minutes...

My first iPhone -> and I am negatively surprised with all those issues. Never had such a bad experience with apple before...

I am counting on a quick 5.0.2 release to address those basic issues, as not being able to make a call with a phone is to me an EXREMELY BASIC issue.

I just buy brand new iphone 4s 32 gb and same problem,Service is looks like working, but when i try to call someone its fail down and again tryin to search network its finding sometimes,sometimes not .So all people waiting information or update from APPLE ! Is there any one have good news ?

According to T-Mobile in Germany (and the Netherlands), the iPhone 4S "Invalid SIM" problem can be resolved by getting a new SIM-card. Apparently the latest SIMs have a different Infineon chip.

Source (in German through Google translate): http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=de&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&la yout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.t-mobile.de%2Ffaq%2F1%2C1951%2C18-_%2C00.html%3 Fvgn_form_encoding%3DISO-8859-1%26q%3DAktivierungsproblem%26query%23FAQ_5391&act =url

So, I tested my iPhone 4S with a brand new T-Mobile SIM card (which I had to BUY) and there are no more SIM problems and everything works GREAT now.

So yes, it is in my case a software problem because before iOS 5.0.1 I had no problems at all with my old T-Mobile SIM. It seems ridiculous that Apple has suddenly stopped supporting the older SIM cards, and now forces consumers and mobile providers to quickly buy new types of SIM.

This may cause grief and global SIM shortages if you ask me, and Apple still hasn't said or done ANYTHING to inform or help us.

Same problem here with Tele 2 Sweden as carreer. I have SIM card failure messages every so often (maybe once every other week so far, then it takes 2-5 reboots before I get the SIM card to work again). I also get the No Service message fairly often, and unlocking the SIM with the PIN does not always work.

This happened to me even on 5.0.0, just updated to 5.0.1 and I read online that other users report it might make things worthe but it is too early for me to tell.

I just tried taping over the part of the micro-SIM which is clearly in contact with the metallic ridge of the tray and will see if it helps. At least it worked after reboot.

Has anyone considered the case they have on their iphone 4s? My wife just got a 4s brand new yesterday. Within an hour of putting on a hard rubber case, we got "sim failure" and "Invalid SIM".

Taking the case off, then rebooting the phone (sometimes rebooting 2x) fixed the issue. I'm not sure if rebooting more than once really was needed and it was more about a timing thing... .timing in how long the case was "off" giving the phone a chance to start working again?

The case we used was a very rigid rubber case. I'm wondering if maybe odd pressure is being applied to the sim tray over time due to the case, causing it to either ground out the sim or make it lose contact.

Post #4 in this thread: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=403474 is what made me put 2 and 2 together.

As a test, we kept the potentially offending case on the phone overnight. When we woke up, SIM FAILURE again. She's taken the case off now and for the past 5 hours has been OK.

The issue has been reproduceable based purely on the case on the phone.

Does anyone else want to try this? See if its their case?

Or has anyone gotten this error and not had ANY case on it?

I have a hard plastic case around mine. Had it from the very beginning. I will try without it for a while. It seems taping the part of the SIM card in contact with the metal part of the tray is not helping.

I had no case on my 4S on October 20 when I got the "sim failure". Re-booted and got it again in an hour.

Got new sim at AT&T and have not had the problem since. Have tight case on phone now with no problem.

For me it seems to have been the sim card causing the problem.

Just started having this issue today after having my 32gig 4s as of the first day they were released. Only way I can fix it is to take the sim card out and put it back in and that works for about a few hours or so, then "SIM Card Failure". Thanks Apple, I am becoming more and more dissappointed with every product I buy from you recently. Called the store and they are out of stock for a replacement. So I guess I have to make due with a useless phone for a while. I assume Apple doesn't even pay attention to these forums anymore as nothing ever gets fixed. Do I have sucker written on my face somewhere?

Got the same problem. I bought the factory unlock version in Hongkong. The first phone I tested, just showed invalid sim. So they gave me another one. After 24 hours, it started to show invalid SIM, and needed to be turned off and on again. It happened about 6 times in 48 hours.

This is driving me crazy, I bought mine from Canada and flight the next day to Kuwait

I am using the phone now for four days, the SIM failure issue happened few times at the first day then again on the third day, when I decide to change the cutted normal SIM from VIVA (Kuwaiti Operator) to a new micro SIM.

Same issue happened with the new SIM so I decide to upgrade to 5.0.1, and thats when the nightmare begun, SIM failure happene every 5-10 minutes and phone will note recognise the SIM unless I restart the phone.

Now the strange thing I noticed is that when I turn off ''Cellular Data'', the problem of SIM failure simply disappered. and if I just turn it on, SIM failure will happen after 5 minutes.