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

I have had my 4s for a few weeks.  Yesterday it started the "SIM Failure", "No SIM card installed" scenerios.  Per suggestions found here, I have gotten it to work temporarily by shutting it down in airplane mode and then once I turn it back on, turn off airplane mode. This doesn't always work on the first try.  I have also had success taking out the SIM card and putting it back in.   ALL OF WHICH seem to be only temporary.

The failure has happened while using SIRI, using my headphones, as well as in the middle of a call.  Not sure if any of these are related.  Luckily I still have my old phone so am not caught without a phone.

AT&T suggested I wipe-out my phone and restore from a back-up.  I think this would be a temporary solution as well.  So, unless I have to, I am not trying this.

I am not near an AT&T store, so they are mailing me a new SIM card free of charge.  Hopefully, this will take care of this annoying problem.

Hi Adamtha!

Thanks for your idea... i just did a somewhat the same with yours...

What TO DO:

• REMOVE your SIM
• Connect your iphone to iTunes

       (using your USB cable, it should syncautomatically)

• DO the FULL RESTORE
• After the full restore, your iphone will RE-START/ REBOOT
• Once RE-STARTED, you may notice that it will try to connect to iTunes
• Your iPhone may ask you to insert your SIM (you iTunes will askyou also)… so you may now INSERT your SIM
• Then REGISTER your iPhone and do the SET UP as NEW IPHONE
• Finally DISCONNECT your iPhone from iTunes

Try sendingsms now… I just did this and mine is working now and under observation. If your regular network signal is not so stable, try also to turn your CELLULAR DATA ON….(but try to modify your APN if your not in an unlimited data plan, so that youwill not be charged for your 3G connection)

I hope thisprocess will work also for you

MyLocation: Philippines

SIM USED:Smart

thanks again adamtha!

I have another error. My carrier doesn't offer 3g, so when cellular data is enabled - my iphone 4s loses the network every 5 min. When i switch off cellular data - it stops losing the network, but i have no edge

IOs 5.0.1, iphone 4s, Carrier: Kyivstar, Ukraine.

Hey Adamtha,

Glad that I was of some assistance and you seem to be one of the few lucky ones that had their phone restored cleanly. I hope that the restoration was all you needed and that it will keep.

I currently have the Iphone 4s white 64 Gb my previous one was 64 Gb black. This current one is running OS 5.0 (94334) Model is MD261B with Firmware 1.0.11.

The saying goes if it aint broke don't fix it...out here in Kenya I don't think that its necessary for me to have the latest software upgrade and having not only seen the drama its creating and having surffered two months with a very serious "sick" phone I do not feel that its worth taking a chance to try and find out if the upgrade will work.

My other Iphone 4s had no issues with Battery life until after the update together with all the other issues mentioned here to do with invalid or failure of the Sim card which now works well on the current phone. This phone however has battery issues but I can leave with that for now until Apple gets to the bottom of this.....if ever...

If I was in the USA I would try the update cause returning the phone there would be far much simpler than here...but on this side of the world its a completely different ball game and as long as my phone is working ok for now....I will leave it as is...

Thanks again...I hope the rest of the guys in this predicament get some help soon....it's pathetic that such a high end phone could have such poor PR personel...unbelievable....its like Mercedes or BMW refusing to acknowledge and make amends to an issue with their cars that interferes with operational efficiency, Unheard of! Even when there are only 100 units out of 12 millin sold world wide..because they listen to their customers and understand the importance of damage control!

I am trying hard to stay positive about Apple's handling of this matter but honestly its hard when we seem to have been left to come up with our own solutions.

So dissapointed with APPLE. They are horrible lately. I just left the Apple store after waiting for so long. Turns out the guy tells me to come home and restore the phone and I should be ok. After all this work, my phone is still saying no SIM card. IN addtion, my battery is terrible. Dies every night even tough is fully charged. I DO NOT and WILL NOT reccommend the iphone to anyone EVER again. Big mistake. I love apple products but this is quite a dissapointment. I use my phone for business.

OMG IT'S HAPPENING ABOUT 30 TIMES A DAY. Formatted, on latest update. It *****!

yeah true every one is disappointed by apple blunders after steve jobes. please apple try to restore your repute as apple is a quality oriented company and we love using apple products because of quality. give us a sollution for firmware 1.0.14 with ios 5.0.1 9a406. tried every thing but no fix. i think people should work quickly for a jail break as this is the solution to even down grade your phone. hope we get a good news soon as the money seems to be wasted right now.

Just to let everyone know, share my happiness ))) Using my Galaxy S2 for 3 weeks now, and NO problems!!! )))

My iPhone 4S 64Gb still collecting dust on a shelf.

Slowly becoming samsung s2 fun... and couple people with me... good buy apple.

Was waiting for iphone 5.... now waiting for galaxy S3 .... but I know... apple does not care...

mohsinali

soory, but you will not get any good news.... it is almost 3 months... I have this problem... and the only working solution was to change the bloody apple phone to not apple phone.

hi jeombagoiu, can you please tell us that your base band is 1.0.13 or 1.0.14 because people with baseband 1.0.14 ios 5.0.1 buils 9a406 having trouble even after trying every thing. 

Hi mohsinali !

Working Fine

- 4S 32gb white (5.1.0 /9A405) firmware 1.0.13

So far working fine: (after performing the steps i posted here)

- 4S 32gb black (5.0.1 / 9A406) firmware 1.0.14

I did the same step (working intermittently) at least with improvement.... i will restore again if the performance is not tolerable

- 4S 16gb white (5.0.1 / 9A406) firmware 1.0.14

thank you

Hey guys! I've got it WORKING! I've tried everything: resetting settings, upgrading to 9A406, etc. Right now i have no more issues of my network loses, and carrier connection loop! The answer was in the sim-card shape. The original microsim from my carrier made my iphone lose my network every 3-5 min! But the full-size sim card, but cut off with scissors fixed the issue! Try it for yourself! (My FB profile) and maybe it would resolve your issue! Hope that helps!

I do not know what happened but after I turned on and off airplane mode and reset all network settings somehow my iphone 4S started working normally. Before I did this too, but nothing helped. Now, miraculously everything worked.

Hello tarasfrommiamy,

have you got any network and SIM-cards problems since then?  If not, can you do your magic with my 'the most amayzing iPhone yet' ? My mobile network operator is famous 'life)'.

cleryson wrote:

 

So dissapointed with APPLE. They are horrible lately. I just left the Apple store after waiting for so long. Turns out the guy tells me to come home and restore the phone and I should be ok. After all this work, my phone is still saying no SIM card. IN addtion, my battery is terrible. Dies every night even tough is fully charged. I DO NOT and WILL NOT reccommend the iphone to anyone EVER again. Big mistake. I love apple products but this is quite a dissapointment. I use my phone for business.

Totally sharing this.

I've got my 4s (5.0.1 9A406, modem 1.0.14) as a gift, and it was bundled with a "Sim failure" head-ache. Before obtaining a working iphone, w/o any success I was trying:

- get newer sim card (same operator, MTS Ukraine, both sims was cut from full-sized)

- restore to the freshest firmware (although it was the freshest)

- turn the flight mode on before reboot

Nothing helped, each 2-4 hours I was getting Sim failure & No service, fixed only after reboot.

I've managed to replace it with another 4s (BTW huge thanks to appleworld.kiev.ua for their good will), and now I have no issues with the same SIM card, just different 5.0.1 (9A405 now, and modem 1.0.13).

Apparently Apple has two 5.0.1 versions (which smells on itself). And the most actual 5.0.1 is worser (for me) than the previous one. Suspicious that I saw posts here that it vice versa helped somebody. Probably Apple doesn't rush to downgrade modem just because it was giving problem to the majority of operators, and 1.0.14 fixes it for majority, for the price of minority happiness.

Well, this philosophy is rational, no offense. What su*ks - is the time (2-3 monthes?) it lasts without a sollution, and without even aknowledging the problem.

I was loyal to Apple so far, but now I'm in doubts.

How many Apple-monthes should it take to fix a phone main purpose?

What have Apple learned from antenna hardware lesson if it's not able to cope with *software* bugs now?

How much should iPhone cost now to stay profitable enough to provide good old quality?