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

Oh my, there are some jokers on this site!

Firstly, not every iPhone 4S buyer is from the USA.

Not every country does things the same way as the USA.

In The UK, you can buy an iPhone from Apple that is sim unlocked for any carrier and it DOES NOT

come with a sim card. This is the same for countless other countries.

Secondly. Congratulations to the poster that only got the sim fail message after 24 hours. Why do you think that everyone else shares your problem exactly and that all will fail at no less than 24 hours? Sorry to tell you that mine fails after 5-20 minutes along with many other people's 4s's.

My sim has been replaced by a brand new one. Still fails

I tried a pay as you go (pre-pay) sim.. still fails.

I have tried resetting it countless times.. still fails.

I have tried running it as a new iPhone (not restore from backup).. still fails.

I have tried re-seating the sim.. still fails,

I have taken a can of compressed air and blasted in the sim slot.. still fails.

In all instances, the sims have and continued to work fine in the old iPhone 4.

None of the fixes posted in this or several other forums has done the slightest bit of good.

The phone is being picked up tomorrow and a replacement will be sent. I am going to try

that and if it still fails, will abandon the 4S.

Everyone try to be more open minded about everyone elses problems and not so convinced you know the answer to them.

The thought occurs, and I wonder if anyone else has thought of this.

Is it possible, with the sheer amount of these phones being produced,

that Apple (or the manufacturer) may have accidentally sent out some, as unlocked, that are, in fact, locked

to some carrier somewhere? Perhaps that is why our sim cards refuse to work

for more than a few minutes.

Got my 32GB black 4S from AT&T today. Worked fine for about an hour then got "SIM Failed" message and "Invalid SIM." Restarted phone and things worked. About an hour later -- same problem.

Went to AT&T who told me that sometimes the card is not in just right. I said give me a new card anyway and they did.

So far so good (about 4 hours).

Then I saw all these posts and another which describes a fix based upon surmised contact of SIM tray metal with tracing on card. That author (and others) suggested adding a little masking tape to prevent contact. If that is true, it feels like a tolerance buildup problem in the hardware and we who are experiencing it must be victims of the "worst-on-worst" case.

Ditto

Got my phone Friday. Turned it on on Monday. Worked until tonight ( Thursday ). Multiple restarts -> still saying "No SIM". Took SIM card out and put back in multiple times. Still no go.

Locked 32 GB ATT phone - California

Black Verizon iPhone 4S 32GB

The SIM Failure message I got previously went away for a couple days but reappeared again, and this time reboots did not bring it back AT ALL. Finally, I popped the SIM card out, put it back in, but it still didn't get a signal immediately - after a little bit it randomly started working again, but who really knows - it might just disappear again at any time 😟

My phone appointment with Apple was useless because no one picked up the phone during the appointment window when _they_ called me, even after SEVERAL MINUTES. And of course, in true Apple style, no one is commenting on this issue even though many people are clearly affected by it.

Hey Jainash I believe you mate.

We bought iPhone 4S on Sunday at Optus. They opened it in store and installed their SIM.

Phone has only recognised the sim for short periods but mostly sits on 'Invalid Sim' and 'SOS Only' messages.

I went back to Optus today and got a brand new sim card. Phone worked for 30 minutes then failed again.

Have made appointment at Apple Store for tomorrow (Saturday). My wife is so annoyed by all this as she is a manager and has been without a phone all week.

I think she wants a standard 4 if we get a replacement tomorrow. The iPhone 4S unfortunately has a definite issue. We are not confident to get another 4S as its a 2 hour each way drive for us to the nearest Apple store.

I wish we could keep it as I love Siri.

OK, I am going to make things worse!

I got another new SIM and restored my phone back to factory settings, and started using it as per normal.

No real problems, but then, BAM SIM FAILURE!

Now this is a NEW MICRO SIM, NEW iPhone 4S started from scratch.

And yet, still SIM FAILURE.

lukefromcampbell wrote:

Having the same issue with an iPhone 4S, 32GB black on the Telstra network in Australia.

1. After reboot, the phone is fine for around 30 minutes, then calls stop going through - incoming or outgoing. The signal bar still shows good service levels, but outgoing "Call Failed" and incoming calls head straight through to voice mail. Funny enough, data is still working ???

2. After another 10 - 15 minutes, service bar flattens out to indicate poor / no reception, but Telco network indicator is still present. At this time, web browsing fails, times out.

3. The phone will remain this way from anywhere between 10 - 60 minutes and then I get the "SIM Failure" message across the middle of the lock screen and "Invalid SIM" / "SOS Only" in the notice bar.

4. I reboot the phone, goto 1.

I have returned the phone to the store of purchase and they replaced the original SIM. This made no difference whatsoever.

I have also noticed the SIM lock seems to take a lot longer to unlock, in the vicinity of 15 seconds after PIN entered.

Also, battery is draining considerably quicker than any previous iPhone. I have gone through two full charges in one day. Maybe related to lack of signal and phone searching for coverage???

Update on my last post.

Two days ago I disabled my SIM pin which immediately stopped the "Invalid SIM" issue and I now have constant network coverage. However, despite this every time I attempt a call, it will take 2 - 4 attempts for the call to go through. The failed attempts are either "Call Failed" message immediately, or the call seems to go through and the call duration timer starts counting, but neither me nor the receiving party can hear anything. After a few tries the call goes through. So no more rebooting handset to recover from failed SIM message, but I do need to use the SIM pin so I'm waiting for this issue to be fixed properly. Also, I assume it is costing me connection fees every time I place an empty call, so this also needs to be fixed.

The issue with excessive power consumption is still ongoing. I have been going through around two full charges daily, with minimal browsing / call / general usage. I read on Apple support somewhere turning off mobile data, location services, bluetooth, wifi, notifications, icloud sync increases battery life, so I went ahead and turned pretty much everything off. After disabling all non-essential services I can report that battery life has improved. Previously overnight battery drained between 60 - 70 %, but with these changes it's down to an overnight draw of around 10%. This fix is obviously unacceptable long term, however it seems to have fixed my issues for the time being, and hopefully I can put up with it until Apple release a fix.

I am loving Siri and the respone times of the UI, and also love the quality of the rear facing camera and HD video. However functional issues with the mobile network and excessive power draw by standard apps, and I'm thinking I'll be switching back to my 3GS until they've sorted this mess out...

****My Update*****

New SIM works for me. It did look like I got a white one over the normal Orange you see from AT&T.

Now I have a battery problem though. My wife does all sorts of stuff on her phone all day long and by 5-pm she still has a 50%+ charge. I hardly do anything, turned off every notification and I'm lucky if I can make it home at 5 with 15% left. God forbid I should play a game. Talked with AT&T and they will exchange except they have a 28-day lead time because they are still shipping phones for new purchases and no AT&T store near me has one in stock. I'm also moving to a new state so won't be at this address in 28-days UGGGGGHHH!!!!

Guys and Gals,

It's not the hardware, it's the software.

I had the same issues, and I backed up the iPhone 4s, and hit RESTORE.

Once restore was done on iTune, I've had no issues for the past 5 days.

I never replaced the SIM card that originally came with the phone, so trust me, it's a software issue, you'll need to just restore and reinstall iOS5.

Update on my 4s 64gb, it has been a week since my first post in reseating the sim card. No issues with sim any more.

I got a brand new phone and a nother new sim, and still having the same issue.

I'm going to try one more replacement, and if it still doesn't work, then I give up.

Got the same problem. I bought the iPhone 4S w/ AppleCare+ from the online Apple Store in the UK (live in the Netherlands). My phone starts with 3 bars (Vodafone) and drops in a matter of minutes to the "invalid SIM" error. I've also tried older SIM's (cutted) with the same result. What should I do? Already tried the no PIN suggestion.

Got my new SIM card today. So far so good. They gave me a second SIM card just in case this one died too. I will be able to activate this 2nd SIM over the telephone in the event I need to (saving me a trip to the ATT store).

Got my fingers crossed

Something I found searching google from last years iPhone 4 release. I'm not sure if someones already suggested this, sorry if this a re-post. It may be relevant. If anyone tries following the linked guide, please be extremely careful! You screw up your new iPhone, it's your own fault.

http://wooservers.com/20100710/fixing-iphone-4g-no-sim-installed-problem/