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

Got the new 32GB iPhone 4S today from AT&T, activated the phone was working all morning, I started experimenting with Siri and a couple minutes later the phone was hotter than usual and I get Sim Card failure, and Bad SIM messages. The phone now only says No Sim. I get home take out the SIM card and put it in my previous iPhone 4 and it works just fine. I then put in a blank micro SIM into the new iPhone 4S, but it still says NO SIM. Thinking the SIM reader got fried some how already.



Anyone else have this problem maybe a bad batch out there, or I just got an unlucky lemon?



I made an appointment for the genius bar tomorrow, but I seriously doubt they will have replacement stock of the 4S already. Guess I will find out what my next course of action will be tomorrow trying to get a replacement since new orders are taking 30 days to ship I am afraid I will have to wait awhile to enjoy the new features of my already paid for phone 😟

Posted on Oct 15, 2011 1:53 AM

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Posted on Oct 15, 2011 4:55 AM

I'm having the same issue... 😟

1,365 replies

Nov 15, 2011 6:42 PM in response to robsdoghouse

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.

Nov 16, 2011 12:26 AM in response to robsdoghouse

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.

Nov 16, 2011 1:44 AM in response to robsdoghouse

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.

Nov 16, 2011 4:21 AM in response to robsdoghouse

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.

Nov 16, 2011 8:06 AM in response to robsdoghouse

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?

Nov 16, 2011 10:16 AM in response to robsdoghouse

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?

Nov 17, 2011 1:46 AM in response to robsdoghouse

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.

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

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