MicroCell not working after download of ios5

Guess I've been lucky in that I've never had any issue with my AT&T microcell and my 3G, 4 or 4S phones with any version of iOS 4 or 5.

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Outstanding! I don't understand how some phones on 5.1.1 work and some don't. And just to be clear when you say it works you mean "it connects automatically upon range and stays connected until you leave" you don't have to play the stupid airplane mode game just to have it to connect for 15 mins then drop off to the one bar in your home. Just for the **** of it, after a stock restore of the phone, what settings Have you change, if any? Also, when my phone drops the tag (MC), it will switch to ATT and show that I have 5 bars then a couple seconds later the bars will go gradually down to the one bar I get in my house. I pretty sure that's the culprit when my phone spoofs that I have 5 bars it disconnects from the MC.

Yes, pretty much works without issue. When I drive up to the house my phone has no service though it still showing bars (because I lose service about a 1/2 mile down the road) but it connects to the microcell immediatly and stays connected. Don't have to fool with the phone at all. The only issue I've had with the microcell was about 6 months after getting it it would lose connection every night and I'd have to power-cycle and move it to where it could get a GPS signal. But it was sitting next to a wireless router and I found that moving to the other side of the house solved that.

I also have a co-worker who has one and he's never mentiioned any issue with his numerous iPhones (including my own).

Besides the 3 phones that I've had there have been other iPhones (friends & family) that haven't had issues either. I'm thinking it's not an issue with iOS. Other than issues with individual microcells it could be something to do with ISPs, network setup, routers, etc. If anybody would like to start tracking setups here's mine that works:

Comcast ->Apple Airport Extreme->Apple Airport Extreme->Netgear 5-port 10/100 switch->AT&T microcell

The placement of the microcell nor the wiring has made a difference for me. It's definitely ios 5. (iOS 5-5.0.1 the issues started) My microcell worked great before I upgraded my phone. I have also replaced the microcell several times. It's hard to believe no one can figure out this problem. I tried to call apple about this issue but they wanted $70 since its been over the 90 days.. Even though it's wasn't working during the 90 and I directed the issue toward AT&amp;T when I should of been talking to apple. I'll wait till the next update here then We're going to switch phones. And based upon your experience already with the iOS 6 it's looking pretty certain....

Okay - let's recap from months of this discussion. iPhone 4 has a single antenna. Iphone 4s (running iOS 5.0 or above) has two antennas which are supposed to "intelligently switch" between competing towers for the best signal. Upgrade an iPhone 4 to 5.0 and common sense says software is searching for competing signals but can't switch to non-existing second antenna. Microcell is competing "tower." iPhone 4s (running ios 5.0 or above) is then confused.

I have both iPhone 4 and iPhone 4s. iPhone 4s has zero microcell connect issue while iPhone 4 (after ios 5.0 upgrade) has the seemingly random "searching" issue. Thus, I can certainly rule out equipment issues.

But, the issue may be a bit more than just the iOS being the problem. We have an AT&amp;T cell tower close enough to throw us a weak and variable signal, perhaps enough to confuse the "single antenna/double search" iPhone 4/iOS 5 setup. It would be good to know if those folks with 5.0 upgraded iPhone 4 and no microcell issues have no competing towers nearby. That would give much credence to my above theory since the iphone 4 single antenna would not be getting confused.

Anyone agree with me?

This does not gel with my experience.... although I agree with you that the root cause has something to do with iOS 5's "intellegent switching".

We have two iPhone 4 and an android device. Our weekend place is 7 miles from the closest (weak) AT&T signal, so without the Microcell, we have no signal at all.

Before iOS5, all was well... all three phones connected to the microcell as soon as we pulled into the driveway, and all calls - outbound and inbound - worked fine. Never saw the "Searching" banner.

Post-iOS5, both iPhones frequently go to searching mode, and even when they show link to the MCell, inbound calls often fall to voicemail immediately. I have found that even if I'm in searching mode, if I place an outbound call, that will trigger the phone to link to the MCell. The call may take an extra second or 2 to connect, but it does work. The headache is inbound calls.

The Android phone still works flawlessly.

I've tried ALL of the suggestions in this thread - resetting both the MCell and the phone, getting ATT to replace my MCell, etc. No change. What I ended up having to do was to sign up for a Vonage line, and remember to forward my iPhone to that number when I arrive and unforward when I leave. It kinda *****.

I'm hoping that iOS6 will make a difference, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

"Intelligent switching" may have only been designed to look for regular cell towers' parameters and sees the m-cell as missing a few screws. :-)

Unfortunately, doesn't fit my situation either. Seems pretty clear that it was the switch to 5.0 that killed the functionality. Both iP4 that we had worked flawlessly until we upgraded to 5.0 when the searching phenom started. My job got me an iPhone 4S which also doesn't work on the Microcell with 5.0. The good news is that the new antennae provides significantly better signal at our house so I'm not in dire need of the MC. My wife's iP4, on the other hand...

Your 4s also does the "searching" thing? Or does it not connect at all? If it's the latter try the unplug and reregister everything routine, which has worked for others. Also, register a friend's android phone to see if everything else in the line up is okay (m-cell, ip, cables, etc.)

I dunno about that ideal... My iPhone 4s and iPhone 4 on the latest OS always connects to the microcell upon restarting and turning airplane mode on and off. (and stays connected for about 10-15 mins then drops off to att in which i get one bar. It will never reconnect unless I do either of those) Therefore, I think the parameters are correct as it does recognize the microcell at first. It appears that the boot/airplane mode signal settings are configured differently then the ones that take effect after the boot/15mins or so. After then ...Something is causing it to perfer the one bar of AT&amp;T vs the 5 bars of the microcell.

I have the same issue as most here -- Great signal for about an hour, then suddenly goes into "Searching..." mode where it can neither send nor receive calls. Toggling airplane mode is all it takes, but not worth it to do this every hour. Definitely a pain during the night -- I'm on call, and can't receive a phone call when "Searching..." Or maybe that's not such a bad thing!?

Yeah, I dunno bro. There's gotta be someone out there in the IT/Computer field that can figure this out. I've messed around with i file, changing the settings in the wireless settings to stay on 3G n vice verse per some other posts but I've yet to have any luck. Someones gotta know what to do

Okay gang! I hope that I don't jinx everything by going ahead and saying that I think the problem may have fixed itself, at least for me. Check this out. This past Saturday morning I awoke to find the microcell blinking on the lowest light (the one that indicates whether data is transmitting). When it blinks, there's either a problem or software is downloading OR you need to cycle (disconnect/reconnect) the microcell to bring it back to normal after there has been a download that requires everything to get back in sync. In any case, I did recycle the microcell Saturday morning and ever since then, knock on wood) I have had no "searching" on my iPhone 4 with ios5. Go figure!

I called AT&amp;T prior to doing the recycle and the agent in the microcell group admitted that they have recently been informed of the search problem and that they're working with apple on a patch. Perhaps my early Saturday activity, which led to the blinking, was the patch download.

Has anybody else had a somewhat miraculous fix like this?

I think you may be onto something. I didn't catch the blinking while downloading an update, but since Sunday, I have not seen "Searching". I also don't want to jinx it... but it's looking promising.

Anyone know how to tell when the last update was installed on the microcell? or a version number?

I've still got 5.0.1 on the iPhone 4s. What iOS are you using? I'd like to update but am really skittish about changing anything now that the microcell is consistently working.

Also, it would be great to hear from all the others who have stuck with this discussion since the "searching" problem started with the 5.0 iOS roll out in November 2011.

Please post your status!