iPhone 4S drops 3G, have to restart phone to get it back

I've been having similar issues with my phone dropping 3G (going to Edge and even 'o') - toggling airplane mode or a reboot typically fixes. I've restored the phone and setup as new, but the problem remains.

What's interesting is that I'm seeing this behavior on two different 4S phones and one that is a 4. I've only noticed the behavior within the area around my house, which leads me to believe this is perhaps a carrier issue. All phones started acting up around the same time. All phones are running iOS 5, so I'm hoping it's either carrier or software related.

I have the same issue as most people on this thread. Turning off SIM PIN did not work. Only thing that helps on the signal loss, is to turn off the cellular data altogether under general - network, in my case. This is not a long term solution, but now I can at least send text messages and make phone calls.

My new iPhone 4S is in the same situation.

I really hope the 5.0.1 will help! It´s good to know they are beta testing the update, and have even released it to a select few end users with these problems. But they shouldn´t wait WEEKS to release it!

Come on, Apple – I need a fix now! I´d absolutely like to be one of the testers with this new Over the Air update (though not beta tester with restoring the software)!

Have you got a new Sim card ? The are defective Sim cards that are causing problems. Ask for a new Sim card and if that Did not help a new iPhone

Hi,

Yeah, the sim cards are quite new, and I got two of them; one is one year old and the new one is only a few months old.

The last thing I tried this morning, was removing the sim code on the oldest one. So far I´m on 3G, but I guess the real test will be when I go to a 2G area... I´ll report later!

I´ve also heard about defective sims on other sites, but is this something Apple is stating also? Any source/link is appreciated!

I have an iphone 4 - after upgrading to IOS 5 my phone will not reconnect to the cellprovider if it looses connection - it just keeps on searching and ends up with no service(even when in a good-connection area). Did not have the problem on IOS 4.x.x.

Only fix is to reboot the phone (airplane mode does not help)

I do not have at dataplan so dont know if data is an issue.

Will try the pin thing but dont really believe it will help.

Copenhagen, Denmark.

Clearly, it's a software bug given that it occurs not only on iPhone 4S. Let's hope that coming 5.0.1 update fixes it.

Suggest everyone experiencing the issue report back to apple: http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html

Ok, so I just got my replacement 4S delivered to the house. Since I was able to recreate the "No Service" error on the first 4S, by going to a certain part of my neighborhood, I went out to try and recreate the problem.

I'm happy to say that the new 4S switched between 3G and the E network successfully without going to "No Service". It might be too early to say, but it appears to have in fact been a hardware issue.

I'll keep you posted.

Of course, it is a hardware issue.

iOS 5.0.1 is released according to several sites. Does it solve your problems?

Ok, here's todays results:

I got the phone on Tuesday, tried different things to get a stable reception, but always got No service when it switched from 3G to Edge.

On Wednesday I tried to remove sim pin, but my phone refused to do.

This Thursday morning I removed the pin with an old cellphone, and my connection sticks! I now see that E pops up when 3G is unavailable. Quite happy with this, but it's a puzzle anyhow in my world!

Still don't know what happens if I enter an area with no data at all.

So far, so good for me! But I hope for an update soon anyway!

Yeah, update is out OTA :-)

Will apply promptly!

I installed the update yesterday, then turned my PIN lock on again.

My 4S has worked just fine after that. 🙂

The update was were easy to install directly. Go to iPhone's settings and click install. It took just 1 min. I hope the update helps. However, there is no statement that this update could fix 3G phone network or mobile network drops.