IPHONE 4s call failed??!!!

Updating to the last version of the firmware completetly fixed for me...

I cannot make calls, receive, send texts or use the internet Nothing works. I have to reset network settings evey minute.. My flatmates have the same iphone and the same provider and they are all fine!!!

Now.. Thanks a lot for the "turning of 3g" tip, but really.. What is the point of having a 3g phone if we cannot use the 3g?

The problem is persistent and it happens everywhere... I just would like to know what the problem really is...

wow, thats crazy. completely not at all what i'm experiencing. sounds like its related to your account and hence possibly your sim card. you say your flatmates have the same phone. perhaps try taking your sim card out of your phone and putting it into your flatmates phone. see if the issue persists. if yes, then clearly either your sim is messed up, or something related to your account on your carriers end is messed up. it makes no sense that you've been through multiple phones and experienced the same issues. the only common denominator is the sim card and your account. it could be something as simple as that. post back and let me know what happens...

I will get another sim card, but this time I will go to apple store with the sim, my laptop and they will set everything up from scratch... fingers crossed...

I have related my troubles elsewhere in this forum. Don't know what thread it was, could probably search my user name if interested. (Am I the only one that finds this forum really really complicated to find answers to like problems that are actually grouped together??)

Anyway, thought I'd add to this discussion because it's more recent than others I've read. I have had many of the same phone network problems with my 4s. I am living in Thailand but purchased my phone in the USA. It's a 64 MB Apple-unlocked GSM for (supposedly) using on GSM networks anywhere, such as what we've got here in Thailand.

My original phone provider here was AIS, which is Thailand's #1 phone service provider. My old iPhone 3G was on that network and I never had any issues whatsoever with them before. In fact, I still have the 3G and still use it on that network without a problem.

When I bought the new 4s, I went to AIS for a new micro-sim which allowed me to keep my same phone number as my old phone since I've had it for six years now. At the AIS shop after setting up the micro-sim it was fine. Once I got it home, I had the "no signal" message on the phone. And was unable to connect to AIS at all. Next day I went back to them and they set me up with a new sim and a dual sim deal where I could use the two phones on the same number. The difference being that I could only use one at a time by activating that specific phone's sim as needed at that time. And of course, my 3G had the larger sim and the 4s the micro.

The 3G had, and to this day has, no problems, good reception, 4 - 5 bars. But the 4s had the same "no signal" message all the time. At times when I was away from my home, I would get a signal on the 4s, but at home it was a no-go. Of course I considered there was a signal issue in my area from AIS. But then why would the 3G have constant 4 - 5 bar signals??

After dealing with swapping the two phones for a week or two, I went to another phone provider with my problem. DTAC is the #2 company here, and I was willing to change if my problems were solved using their service. Well, after they set me up with their DTAC sim, I had a strong 4 - 5 bar signal, but I knew trying it at home would be the test. When I got home, I was happily surprised to see a signal there. It was weaker, 2 - (sometimes) 4 bars, but at least there was a signal!

I called a friend to test it out, and he told me that my voice was breaking up and he couldn't hear me most of the time. All the while I was showing 2 - 4 bars signal strength. And, when I'm away from my home, there seems to be no problem at all, which I find very strange. It suggested a reception problem at my home area, even though I was showing what should be an adequate signal strength. But all the while my old 3G (still using AIS) was absolutely fine.

I've tried every tip and trick related in this thread. I tried the 'turn off 3G' thing (which when I did I totally lost my signal!), I tried the 'show caller ID' thing (which for some reason will show it's ON, and sometimes show it's OFF) and it doesn't seem to matter either way. I've re-set the network, re-set the phone, updated to iOS 5.1 and all to no avail.

Beyond the obvious frustrations of buying a $850 phone that's crap, it is even more maddening that Apple has neither fixed the problem - or even acknowledged that there is (or isn't?) one! What kind of company can treat customers that way and stay successful??

Anyhow, that's my story. And I may have omitted or forgotten to relate some specifics here, but feel free to post a reply or question in response. I am NOT happy with Apple right now, and their stuff was something I always heartily recommended to friends and colleagues in the past. If this doesn't get resolved soon, I will trash both the phone and my new MacBook and buy another mfr's product just for spite! And I have a sneaking suspicion that the ultimate fix for all our 4s problems, will be that we'll have to purchase a new iPhone 5 when that's out! Grrrrr!!!!

After SIX replacement iPhone 4Ss, almost as many completely fresh new OS resets and downloads, all the latest OS updates, new SIM, and trying all the "tricks" recommended in this forum - NOTHING has fixed the repeated CALL FAILED and my callers not being able to understand me problems after almost nine months. And since these problems occur anywhere I travel in North America, it is clearly not a local cell tower problem. Also since the unintelligible conversation on the caller's end occurs when I use VOIP APPs like SKYPE, VIBER, and TANGO, but do NOT occur when I use my old iPhone 3G while sitting in the same spot, it is not a carrier or signal problem, but CLEARLY an Apple iPhone 4S problem. And like the above forum post writer and so many others, I am totally disgusted with Apple for not only not addressing problem, but for training their in-store personnel to not acknowledge that there is a problem at all. The only "trick" to overcome the unintelligible conversation that seems to work for me most of the time, is to switch to "Speakerphone" and hold the microphone a few inches from my mouth. Why the tech media refuses to even mention anything about this worldwide problem is a frightening statement about how they are intimidated by the power and influence of Apple. I urge all readers experiencing these ongoing dreadful problems to contact your local and national media tech editors to expose this shameful negligence and arrogance of Apple.

If you have a call failing issue and updating your iOS does not fix your problem, try each of these steps until you resolve your issue:

• Make sure that you are in range of the cell network by checking cell signal indicator bars.
• Reset your network by tapping Settings > General > Network
• Reset your iPhone by holding down the sleep and home buttons until the Apple logo appears
• Try Settings > phone > show my caller ID. Just visit and let the device load your settings.
• Try disabling airline mode.

Thanks Guys hope this'll help.

• Resetting network - doesn't work.
• Resetting the phone - Seems to work but temporary.
• Caller Id - is on by default I have disabled this a few times when phone certain people and the issue is the same regardless.
• Airline mode is disabled by default and if airline mode was enabled you would not be able to make any calls

Caller Id and Airline mode have nothing to do with the issue It has to be either a phone issue or network issue

At the moment I have Tried Hard reset, Soft reset and I was going to replace my sim but a friend of mine has an iphone 4s that actually works.

So we swapped sim cards and my phone had the same issues regardless of their being a different sim in it, so its not a network issue and has to be the phone I think it maybe a hardware issue probably the modem within the phone itself. but then again it doesn't explain why some phones work and other phones have these problems.

What I think

Apple have supplied a bad batch of phones which majority of us have purchased so the only way I think this can be resolved is to continue to replace the phone until we get one that is not apart of the bad batch.

I know this is frustrating but there really is no alternative (from what I can see) we literally have to do a lucky dip and hope we get the right one.

What apple should do though is for those who replace the phone due to the problems their having they should at least compensate us for the lack of support and for the inconvenience it has caused.

That is me again

So.. I have got a new phone from apple and a new sim from O2.. Apple guys have set the phone as a new phone and I have not even connected the new phone to Itunes.. and guess what? IT STILL DOES NO WORK PROPERLY!! 'Call Failed" and " message could not me delivered"

So, it is not the network, it is not the phone and it is not some problem with backing up from Itunes.. However what I found out is that if I keep the 3G off, it gets better. Someone has mentioned the 3G issue above somewhere, but..... Would that be an option? we buy the most expansive 3G phone in the market, but cannot use the 3G feature? What a joke!!!

well adript and martin if those steps u've done are not working and you're facing the problem then try to update your IPhone software it'll help 100 % because sometimes your iPhone software stopped working but sometimes it shows to much problems................in simple words iPhone 4s needs to update the software with latest iOS and it'll resolve your issue with the passage of time iPhone's software getting slower and slower or some how it would stop and show problems so here is the only solution for your iPhone try to update your iPhone and your problem will resolved.

Thanks Guys.......................😉

Nope. You are totally wrong with this. I am running the latest software, and still have the same problems.

I've posted what may seem to be unrelated info here, but I'm trying to post all the problems I do have, so others can possibly relate to them and comment on some of them.

Here's another recent one:

Today, after having some relatively good luck since switching (sim card) to a different carrier (DTAC) here in Thailand, I had a weird thing happen. I had gone into town to meet up with some friends at another friend's hotel for a few beers. I had no issues with my phone during the day, and no issues with it on the way to that hotel. When I got there, I wanted to use the hotel's wifi and went to log onto their system.

I noticed then that I had a 'no signal' message in the top left corner from my phone service. Up until I had gotten there it was fine. I tried to reset the network settings, did a soft reset, tried a hard reset, and had no luck with either. I put the phone into airplane mode for the time being as not to drain my battery while the phone searched for a signal.

When I left there a couple hours later, I walked down the street to a friend's bar. It was literally 50 meters down the same street where I had been. When I checked the phone and moved it out of airplane mode, there was a good strong signal from my phone carrier that I didn't have just 50 meters up the road from where I now was.

From all my observations to this point, there seems to be a definite problem concerning signal reception related to the phone itself, and unrelated to the carrier. It's good in some places, non-existent in others. It's strong at times, and 'no signal' at other times. That's not a carrier problem, that's a phone problem. Conclusively proven by the fact that I'm still getting a consistently strong signal with my old 3G phone on my old carrier, which I had to scrap with the new 4s because it was giving me a constant 'no signal'.

And I still say (mark my words!) that Apple will continue to let us suffer with our over-priced iPod 4s's, until they come out with a new iPhone and expect us to shell out for that when it comes. There's no way that I believe that they're looking into solving this problem, while they are most likely focused on getting their new product out there to fleece the unsuspecting consumers into spending yet more, more, and more!

Way to go Apple.

have you called O2 and told them to update your profile on their end. they should know that you're using an iphone 4s and add that info to your profile. often what carriers will do is reset your profile, and then manually add your imei (phones unique electronic identifier number), and your sim card number, and delete all previous records of prior phones you've had on your account. this tells the network exactly which phone is connected to your account, and could possibly fix your problem. carriers treat iphones different from all other phones on their network, and sometimes use special settings specifically for iphones. as a last resort i would call o2 and find out of they could reset your settings on their side, and then manually enter your info into their system. it still sounds network related to me... hope that helps.

Apple_iPhone4

Thanks a lot

I have done all that.... to be precise.. 3 times. At one point, O2 disconected me completely for 24 hours. And the problem persisted.

I still did not connected my iphone to Itunes and did not up date it. I have done everything everyone mentioned above.. Nothing works...

Well.. as long as I do not turn the 3G on, the phone works just fine.

well MOO DANG if you've tried everything and didn't get what you need i guess this would only happened when the wrong use of iPhone so you should go and visit the nearest APPLE store and replace your iPhone 0therwise you may harm your iPhone before it shows more problem replace it buddy.....................those step i've told you should work infact those steps are working.

http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/iphone_user_guide.pdf read it 🙂

ummm.....adript buddy have you tried ERASE ALL CONTENTS SETTINGS AND IPHONE well this is the last option that'll resolve your major problems if you haven't tried please try it i'm pretty sure that this option will solve your evryproblem if you still don't know why your iPhone has failed the call here i've the guding of iPhone 4s read it hope you'll find something useful http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/iphone_user_guide.pdf 🙂 Thanks