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iPhone 4S dropping network and data at random

Hi,


I've been using an iPhone 4 on a Vodafone contract for the past 16 month and just bought an iPhone 4S direct from Apple. It arrived on Friday morning and I got it set up correctly as far as I can tell.


When I first turn it on, it works lovely and exactly as I would expect, able to make calls, send texts and access the internet via the cellular network. However, at what appears to be random, the network will disappear (no bars of signal) stopping me making calls and texts, but still allowing me to access the internet. Sometimes, the Internet goes, but I can still make calls and texts. Other times, everything is gone and I get "No Signal" where it normally says Vodafone UK.


So when trying to fix this problem after it's noticed, I try putting it into Airplane mode and back out. The phone scans for a network and goes back to the same state as before I tried this fix. I have tried resetting network settings, but this doesn't change anything. The only thing that actually fixes it temporarily is turning the phone right off and back on again.


At this stage I assume this is a bug with the software, but I wondered if anyone else is experiencing anything like this? If no one is, I will take it up with Apple, but I don't really want to do that as I love the new phone so much!!


Cheers, Stuart

iMac (late 2009), Mac OS X (10.6.3), 27" i7 Quad-Core, 4GB RAM, 1TB HDD

Posted on Oct 16, 2011 2:53 AM

Reply
1,022 replies

Nov 8, 2011 3:19 PM in response to Stuart Mchattie

I have the same problem from new my 32gb 4s.

Can show one bar of signal but you can't make a call.


It's almost like the iPhone 4 problem but they moved the signal graphic up a notch so it shows more signal than it actually has.


What with no audio on my phone on outgoing calls also I'm wishing I'd stuck to my 3GS which gave no problems.


I went from £40 a month to £60 for a phone which you can't trust on calls.


Grrrrrrrrr

Nov 8, 2011 3:28 PM in response to killhippie

killhippie wrote:


I think some variants of the 4S do have that option, its an AT&T thing, my 4S has the settings for the networks APN as its a sim free model. Call Apple and log it as an issue, point them to this page, I am going to do that, T-Mobile in Germany have it appears been issuing this as advice for people with similar issues. Also people in Australia have reported the problem. I am sure Apple know, but more people saying it to them will not hurt.

How do you get a sim free model and what is the network's APN? I had to return my 4s through ATT because I can't turn 3G off resulting in many garbled and dropped calls.

Nov 8, 2011 3:47 PM in response to Stuart Mchattie

This is across the board problems as the 4s being an epic fail. I got mine on 14 Oct release day. I returned it yesterday and went back to my iPhone 4.


With my iPhone 4 and my daughter's phone, we were driving and comparing signals and various points. Her phone consistantly had more bars than mine. I believe the iPhone has always had this issue but it's coming out tenfold with the 4s.


I am not an Apple developer but iOS5 was in beta all the way up until it was released. Perhaps it was rolled out prematurely as there appear to be quite a few bugs present.


At least I can make and receive phone calls on my iPhone 4 unlike the 4s.

Nov 8, 2011 11:39 PM in response to Stuart Mchattie

I have had my ATT 64g 4s for about 5hrs. All the sudden it says "Searching", at one point it said "No network" and even got signal for about 2 minutes. Now its just stuck with "searching" for the last 1hr. I have reset all settings turned Cellular data & airplane mode on/off multiple times, Hard reset and multiple re-stores & nothing.


I waited almost a month after the release date to get my phone & I end up getting a faulty one.


The one thing I noticed is that if I remove the sim card with the phone On it doesn't say its missing. My 3GS would instantly notify me if it was missing.

Nov 9, 2011 1:25 AM in response to dekko

I do agree... Same problem here that my 4S drops signal completely and show "Searching" for a long period of time.


Hope this can be solved by software. It should really be solved fast and not by waiting "some weeks" for a 5.0.1 that solves maybe other bugs...


Not happy with my upgrade from 4 to 4S with regards to reception and network...

Nov 9, 2011 1:28 AM in response to Stuart Mchattie

I am in Singapore and I have been troubled by this issue for nearly 9 days already. Went to my shop and they switched out for a new SIM card and still the problem persists. I am extremely disappointed and hope that this is not a widespread problem. Everyday the signal gets reduced to no bars and no matter how hard I tried I could never get the signal back up until I turned off and on my phone. Only then will the phone be normal. But after sometime especially when I leave my 4S on my desk for a couple of hours I returned to find zero bars again. I am really stressed and traumatised and paranoid because I do not know how many important phone calls I have missed. Every time I enter a lift now I have to pray hard that the signal does not go away. Help!!!!! Is the problem so minimal that nowhere does Apple acknowledge the problem? FYI I did not have this problem with my iPhone 4.

Nov 9, 2011 8:55 AM in response to Stuart Mchattie

Just wanted to report in and say that I've switched the SIM PIN off nearly a month ago and I haven't had any problems at all.


I contacted T-Mobile an hour before the solution was posted here and they answered a week later, offering to switch the SIM-card. Obviously that wouldn't have helped. They don't have a clue about what they are doing.


Personally I think the problem is a hardware bug in combination with a software bug. So everyone who has these problems and needs a solution now (and can't for whatever reason turn the SIM PIN off) and can't wait for a software update, should send their 4S in to get it replaced with another one, that hopefully isn't faulty.

Nov 10, 2011 4:03 AM in response to Stuart Mchattie

+1 Here in Denmark.


Phone drops connection and it does have something to do with SIM LOCK - However I not really sure what that switch actually does? I have it set to off now.


Btw, I have changed the SIM PIN into another in contrast to the one I received from Tele Comp.


This is what happend the first time I saw this: I had put my phone into airplane mode. When switching off again Phone said "searching" (with rapid batt. drain). It did so until reboot. After that I have just experienced the same thing randomly.


I'm coming from a Blackberry (what a way for BB to be shining..!)

iPhone 4S dropping network and data at random

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