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

The same happen to me in Buenos Aires with my iPhone 4S. I have a nice and expensive iPhone 4S working like an iPod and only well in WiFi

Here are some observations and a suggestion.

1)  I mentioned before, that the number of views of this discussion forum is fast approaching 100,000.  I suppose relative to all iPhones sold that is not a great percentage, but 100,000 still sounds pretty impressive to me.  Consider also that many people probably have this same Sim problem and are not viewing this discussion forum because thay do not know it exists.  How many people are REALLY experiencing this problem?  Who knows.  But I suspect it is more that 100,000.

2)  To the best of my knowledge, Apple does not consult these forums as a guide to awareness of product performance.  It may be company policy, but most of the time when I speak to an Apple employee they seem remarkably unaware of the "Top Stories" in the Apple Discussion Forum.  This, despite the fact that my personal experience with customer service at Apple is excellent.  So, as much as we of this discussion forum are confident SOMEONE important at Apple is reading all our posts and taking them to heart...I am not so sure.

3)  I have been told over and over that the best way to gain Apple's attention regarding a problem is to post a comment on their Feedback Site.  One comment about a problem is pretty worthless.  100,000 comments on the same issue, I'm guessing, will really get their attention.

4)  Some folks have mentioned a recall to address this problem.  Although such a thing is always a possibility, I don't see it happening.  Why?  When the brakes on a Toyota don't work, or that Toyata starts to accelerate without driver intention...well, that involves human life and the stakes are quite high.  For many reasons you would see the automotive industry eventually be forced into a recall program under such a situation.  But, a phone APPEARS to not nearly be such a life and death device.  Or is it?  My daughter's iPhone 4S developed a "SIM FAILURE" on the same day her car broke down in the middle of the very rural area we live at around 10:00 pm.  She is 17 years old and was coming home from high school play practice.  You can imagine the anxiety I and her mother felt when she did not arrive home on time.  She eventually walked about a quarter mile to a house of a stranger and had to ask to use their phone to call us.  Now, I am not saying that strangers where I live are not to be trusted.  But, in addition to being worried out of my mind, I was not happy that an inoperative iPhone 4S caused my daughter to be put in this situation.  My biggest concern now is...when will my daughter's iPhone become inoperative again due to SIM FAILURE?

5)  The more folks in this discussion forum who post a comment about this issue in Apple's feedback site the more pressing this issue is going to be perceived by Apple.  So, I like others, encourage all of you to do so.  If this seems like a lot of effort, I offer you these few sentences below that you could just copy and paste into the feedback site.

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

Feel free to use copy/amend/whatever the following as you wish:

Dear Apple,

I wish to register a strong concern about my iPhone's unpredictable inoperability due to failures somehow associated with it's SIM technology.  For me, I do not consider this just a significant lack of convenience, but a significant safety issue.  Should I need my phone in an emergency situation where it is experiencing  a SIM FAILURE, I believe the iPhone will have put me at risk.  I would ask you to please give fixing this problem your greatest priority and effort.

Sincerely, XXXX

I will do inmediately. Thanks for the copy you post it. I have copied and pasted it in iPhone feedback.

Please do this simple process that it takes 5 minutes and force Apple to know about our problem and concerns

Updated to 406 update. Reinstalled everything.

No difference, happened about 10 times in 1 hour when I was in a bar last night.

Going to take it to the Orange shop. Will let you know how it goes. It's seriously ******* me off now!!

I agree it is a security issue. Experienced the "no sim error" while riding my bike in the forest yesterday night, nothing serious happened, just wanted to tell my wife that I will be late. BUT if I had a problem...

Agree to give feedback to Apple directly, the link to feedback site is:  http://www.apple.com/feedback/

Feel free to use copy/amend/whatever the following as you wish:

Dear Apple,

I wish to register a strong concern about my iPhone's unpredictable inoperability due to failures somehow associated with it's SIM technology.  For me, I do not consider this just a significant lack of convenience, but a significant safety issue.  Should I need my phone in an emergency situation where it is experiencing  a SIM FAILURE, I believe the iPhone will have put me at risk.  I would ask you to please give fixing this problem your greatest priority and effort.

Sincerely, XXXX

Since I update my 4S to 5.01, connection shut down many times a day and got message as " SIM failure or No SIM". I have to rebot to resume connections!

I have had "No SIM" problem. I have received a replacement iPhone 4S.

Old S/N: DNPG...

New S/N: C38G...

Still did not work -> I have received a replacement micro SIM card from Vodafone Germany.

Now it works. Since 5 minutes. Keeping the fingers crossed.

I too am having better luck after replacement (vodafone.cz) sim. This problem is definitely related to compatibility with certain sims.

I finally had enough and went to the Apple store and they replaced the handset immediately - that was 2 weeks ago and not had a problem since so I know its deffo a hardware problem.

as i stated in my early post its a sim problem my new sim was also vodafone and this is the card i got from my local verizon store 11 days now and no problems.

Another update: talked to Apple and they recommended to update to 5.0.1, tried, with the following error: "..your iphone cannot be updated because your firmware is not compatible..." (not exact wording).

Talked to Apple again and restored my iPhone (see Placing your device into recovery mode http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1808 ).

Now I have 5.0.1 (9A406).

Still working. Since 5 minutes. Keeping the fingers crossed.

This is definitelly my most expensive phone ever :-(

Almost a month, and only silence from Apple... if we sum all the forums, there are more than 100,000 views... it´s not enough for you? Have you ever considered that is the same number of Apple fans that, at this moment, are considering not get any other Apple product? It doesn´t matter to you?

it might be that apple sees this problem as a 3rd party issue and not a device problem.This is the same kind of bad press apple is avoiding thus not makeing a 4g phone yet,4g is not ready yet the bugs are widespred and people would only blame apple for networks 4g problems.this sim card deal seems to me as a 3rd party problem same as if you plug bad memory chips in your computer and have problems.The sim i got with my phone was clearly garbage and these were installed by verizon after the phones are deliverd.They also carry the verizon name not apple.Again my phone was one of the first 4s its been 11 days now witha new sim no problems.

You´re lucky! I tried several SIMs, nothing happen! And all of them works quite well in my wife´s iPhone 4! for me it looks like a software/hardware issue (remember, no big problem before the update!)

my phone worked flawless for 3 weeks after the update,the guy at the verizon store put a sim card in that was clearly not the same as what came out.Is it posable the new A5 chip being faster causing older sim cards problems? they put a sim made for one of there 4g phones in my phone they said it was the only sim they had maybe a link?