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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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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 15, 2011 4:55 AM

I'm having the same issue... 😟

1,365 replies

Dec 28, 2011 5:46 PM in response to iCooperBoy

Greetings iCooperBoy,


Just speaking for myself...No need to be sorry to comment. After all, that's what this Discussion Forum is for! Also, you bring up a VERY good point and you give yourself as a good example. I would offer two additional points to make things even less certain. 🙂


1. I have NO idea how many people this applies to, but in my own personal case I rarely go to this actual forum to keep up to date with all these Sim-ister activities affecting some iPhones. I have e-mail notifications set to ON for discussion forums of interest to me. So all posts are sent to my iPhone as e-mails. For example, that's where I read your comment. I find this set-up more convenient than going to the Apple Support Forum web site. I am assuming that for folks like me, all these "e-mail views" of forum posts do not contribute to the total number of views registered for the forum. Again, I have no idea how many folks this applies to, but that would bring the number of views closer to the actual number of people experiencing the problem. This is a monstrously anecdotal point on my part. I may be the only person who views comments via e-mail instead of going to the actual forum. So I have no idea how much e-mail notifications should affect how we interpret the viewing data.


2. Speaking of anecdotal points...it is my experience that most of my friends and acquaintences that have iPhones do not use this forum or even know it exists. If they have a problem with their iPhones they usually go to the Apple Store, or call Apple support, or go to their cell carrier. So, I assume there are additional people experiencing this SIM problem, but this forum is totally unaware of them and their numbers.


In the end, I guess what I am saying is that I am as confused as ever about the numbers. But, I do believe your post encouraged me to reflect about this in a way that has entitled me to say that I am now confused at a higher level than before. 🙂


Best, Mr. Luigi

Dec 28, 2011 9:47 PM in response to Dabratisaurus42

Rule of thumbs, 3 people i know WILL NOT buy iphone after my monologue about "high quality" apple iphone and thinking about competitors, 2 people wanted iphone for new year now they got galaxy s2, so lets see how many people switch from apple, give it 3 or more months. i am it manager in a big company and people listen carefully what i say about tech stuff, and i have nothing good to say about iphone.

Dec 29, 2011 12:12 AM in response to robsdoghouse

My iPhone is now just a very expensive iPod.


iPhone4s factory unlocked worked fine after I believe is a month's use then when I updated to iOS 5.0.1 I started having "invalid sim" for the first few days then it became very frequent. Its alwas "searching" for signal and texting is next to impossible. and also even after removing the sim card my iphone doesnt even realize that its gone.


I tried the following suggestions but still nothing:


1. restored to ios 5.0.1 (...406 version) - 3 times

2. asked my carrier(which is an official apple partner in philippines) to replace my sim card. (done this twice)

3. used different sim cards other than my original carrier ( 3 diferrent sim cards from another carrier)

4. borrowed and used my brother's sim card tray for his iphone 4

5. and lastly prayed really really hard for anything to work.


This DID NOT WORK for me.


I was told by someone who worked for an Authorized Apple Dealer that I have to go to singapore ( for some reason, Mailing it in is not allowed so I have to go there personally) and request for a replacement unit. I can't do this since I live in Philippines and actually buying the plane ticket and staying in singapore would not be cost effective.


Im not entirely sure why this is happening. But my iPhone was fine (signal, battery is no problem) when it was running on iOS 5. It is after I updated to iOS 5.0.1 when I first experienced the problems.


Hope Apple fixes their mess. FOR A PREMIUM PHONE, THIS SHOULD BE THE LEAST OF THE WORRIES FOR CONSUMERS.


BTW, my iPhones is 16gig black, model MD235B, version 5.0.1 (9A406), firmware 1.0.14

Dec 29, 2011 11:45 AM in response to robsdoghouse

ზოგს საერთოდ არ აწუხებს ზემო აღნიშნული პრობლემა, ზოგს აწუხებს და IOS_ის განახლებით პოულობენ შვებას 🙂, ზოგი კი ხელით გადაჭრილი სიმ-ბარათის გამოცვლით(ქსელის მომწოდებლისგან დამზადებული მიკრო-სიმით) ჭრის პრობლემას, ზოგი კი ვერაფრით ვერ ჭრის ამ პრობლემას და IOS_ის შემდეგი განახლების მოლოდინში არიან ჯერ-ჯერობით.

Dec 29, 2011 5:18 PM in response to mrfbuyer7

Hi mrflbuyer and others,


Just a reminder...Please copy and paste your comment into Apple's Feedback site. In addition to the very important support all of us offer each other on this Discussion Forum, we need to influence Apple's corporate decisions regarding this SIM problem by letting them hear directly from as many of us as possible.


The link to the feedback site is: http://www.apple.com/feedback/


I am sorry to hear that you have fallen prey to this snarly dilemma.


Mr. Luigi

Dec 30, 2011 8:59 AM in response to robsdoghouse

I solved it! IMPORTANT: This only solved it for me.

I went to a local mobile shop and asked the seller to check my iPhone.

He checked it, and said that everything is OK, but my sim card is cutted in a very important spot and even showed me that another sim works,

so I just bought a new sim and all works!

iPhone 4S iOS 5.0.1 (9A406) model MC918LL, Israel.

Dec 30, 2011 12:54 PM in response to ranger40swift

After 2 weeks of test and checks I've replaced the phone and now everything seems to be ok, the phone is working fine now since two days.

The guy in the Apple Store told me that someting is wrong with the sw 5.0.1 that doesn't write the firmware well and then the phone can't exit the "loop" even if you restore it again....

Whit my previous phone I've done everything:


update ( restore ) to 5.0.1 9A406

2 different Vodafone sim ( Italy )

tape on the sim

new sim tray ( "stolen" from the iphone of my friend )

no sim pin

"manual selection" of the operator

reset network settings


My suggestion is to try first the things above or at least the upgrade to 9A406 and a new sim and then go to the Apple Store to replace the unit.

My "new" iPhone, probably refurbished but perfect, is now rel. 5.0.1 9A405 but I'll not do anything!!!

Jan 1, 2012 12:00 PM in response to robsdoghouse

Hello,

I bought my Iphone 4S on 17th of December in Turkey. With my activation, I confirmed to update the software, IOS 5.0.1

I noticed that there is always a sim card failure, then I called the AVEA operator, and they requested from me to change the micro sim for free.. I changed it but the problem is going on. I notice this problem 15 times maybe in a day! I need to restart my phone several times..


Then, one of the technical staff of the operator told me that turn back to Ios 4.3.5 software, but when I manually tried to do that, I couldn't, the firmware is not appropriate it says.

So what do you recommend to me? How can install IOS 4.3.5 now? Would it be a solution?


Thank you..

Jan 1, 2012 10:40 PM in response to robsdoghouse

I'm having the same issue. Five days ago without any reason my iPhone 4 indicated that SIM-card is invalid or SIM-card not found. I can't call and receive calls, can't use Internet. I install iOS 5.0.1 three or four weeks ago. May be this is the reason of my trouble? Now MiPhone function as iPod and I don't know how work out the problem! I thought to purchase iPhone 5 as my next phone, now I begin to think about Android.

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

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