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iPhone 4S "no service" problem

hello all,


Just got my iPhone 4S 18hrs ago and it wen to "no service" like 3 times (so far)!!

  • I have changed carrier setting to manual I can select my network but still "no service"
  • I turned on then off "airplane mode" it goes searching... then "no service"
  • it only work when I restart or reinsert the SIM


Is this common? do I have to worry ?


Appreciate your inputs.


Thanks,

Abdullah

iPhone 4S-OTHER, iOS 5, iMac, iPad

Posted on Oct 22, 2011 11:40 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 24, 2011 2:48 PM

I had the same problem today, once I put the phone on airplane mode then turned it off it showed service again. If this continues I will take it back to the store.

729 replies

Apr 17, 2012 5:24 AM in response to abds2000

Greeting to all! I do experience all the problems that you are posting! iPhone 4S working fine first month and then little by little experiencing the No Service problem until I got the eternal NO SERVICE. I change sims, carriers, update and restore many times and nothing! I got a factory unlocked iPhone 4S in the Apple Store of RomaEst, Rome, since I live in Argentina and no carriers offer the phone here in Argentina right now. There is no an official Apple service that can handle the warranty of this product that I know here in Argentina.


So I will not have the disgrace to experience having the iPhone changed many times as many of you had, and still having the same problem.


Some friends are going to Rome and they will take it straight to the Apple Store. I hope that they may receive the same charm and quick service that I got when they sold me the phone, since they will be there for a couple of days hoping at least to get a new one. I know that maybe it will not be the best solution since many of you are changing many phones and the problem continues.


It is a real nightmare all of this!


Please Apple at least recognize that something is going on around the world or with some of the phones. We have many posts here and you can find a lot about the subject if you search the Internet. You have our emails, please at least tell us something about it to the ones who post something here.


We paid a lot for the iPhone because we trust you and the quality of the iPhone. But if we have right now a phone that does not work as a phone, either access the Internet via 3G, what we got as many posted here is a very expensive and heavy weight iPod. Tell us something please! Thanks if you read this post!

Apr 20, 2012 12:36 PM in response to Begging for a Solution

I finally have partial solution, btw my front camera is not working, when i switch to front i get black screen


like that argentinian guy i had same problems with my iphone. But this time I did restore and


MANUALLY SELECT NETWORK, SWITCH FROM AUTO TO MANUAL AND SELECT ONE PROVIDER.


that fixed it,no more service problems, and i can use airplane mode disable it and enable it and it works


after 1 month of restore i could not manually select service, you need to do this after fresh restore


<Edited by Host>

Apr 20, 2012 6:56 AM in response to ninjatropic

I notice, that manually select network helps to reduce the Searching time. And it will end up either some signal reception or No Service faster. I swapped the SIM (factory unlock) with other provider here, and intermittently got the signal and no service. I'm not sure if the towers are not ready for iPhone 4S, or this iPhone 4S is carrying an issue.

I saw on another forum regarding corrupted sync between iPhone and the iTunes which leads to "no service" issue.

Here's the link:

http://forums.imore.com/iphone-4s-forum/224371-those-who-having-no-service-call- failed-problems-2.html#post1811055


Anybody can confirm about this corrupted sync?

Apr 20, 2012 11:03 AM in response to ninjatropic

Nothing was fixed, i thought i had a fix, phone worked for 2 weeks after restore when i set the network to manual, but now same problems again, no service, had to do network reset few times, and now even network reset does not work, I have to do complete restore again.


What a bunch of crap this phone is. And they dont even allow to fix my phone in my country, because I am going home from thailand.


This is the biggest **** you to customers I have ever seen. The warranty should be global like for ipod touch.


But now, fat slob Wozniak knows how to save money and other apple greedy dirty ceos.


This is my first iphone and I am already ******.

Apple deserves to bankrupt, they dont take this stuff serioulsy.


Now I will have to wait like 3 weeks to be without my phone, they will send my phoene to headquarters to check it and then probably replace it, maybe they will give me refurbished crap of a phone with bad battery.


I AM SO ******!!!!!!!111


DONT BUY STUFF FROM APPLE ANYMORE; I AM WARNING YOU; THIS **** *****;


THIS IS OFFICIAL APPLE FORUM AND EVEN THORUGH APPLE GREEDYCEOs ARE RICH AS ****, THEY CANT GET SUPPORT TO ANSWER HER ON THIS FORUMS


THIS IS ****** UP COMPANY; I HAVE NEVER SEEN SOMETHING LIKE THIS; WITH THAT CRAPPY ITUNES; BUGS IN THE PHONE, I REALLY HOPE GOOGLE WILL KICK THEIR *** WITH THEIR PHONES; I REALLY WANT THIS TO HAPPEN

Apr 21, 2012 1:47 PM in response to ninjatropic

I think this is to do with the 4s not being able to switch between 3G and 2G in some locations, I seem to have fixed mine with switching of 3G in the locations I know to be an issue (home), I must add our 3GS does not have this issue as it switches to 2G if the signal is not acceptable


The 4S is on 5.1 but so is the 3GS, some times the 4s Sayers it's on 3G when I know it's not, and calls/ texts cannot be made, when turning of 3G it seems to work fine


Please share your experiences


Come on apple this must be a 4S issue

Apr 28, 2012 11:19 AM in response to tech4life

Have had 4S almost 6 months, no problems in or out of U.S. Then 10 days ago, "no service" suddenly appeared. Nothing I did helped, Verizon couldn't help. No wi-fi either. Wanted to look at forums before I called Apple. Tried a few things here, no luck. Then I got to this one, as soon as I went through the steps you posted on March 4, the phone came alive, back to normal. No idea why it was fine all this time, then not, I had not changed any settings. And I'm not betting the farm yet, it sounds like maybe 5.1 might be buggy. But at the moment I don't care. Tech4life, thanks so much!

Apr 30, 2012 4:05 AM in response to mrains

mrains wrote:


I think this is to do with the 4s not being able to switch between 3G and 2G in some locations, I seem to have fixed mine with switching of 3G in the locations I know to be an issue (home), I must add our 3GS does not have this issue as it switches to 2G if the signal is not acceptable


The 4S is on 5.1 but so is the 3GS, some times the 4s Sayers it's on 3G when I know it's not, and calls/ texts cannot be made, when turning of 3G it seems to work fine


Please share your experiences


Come on apple this must be a 4S issue


This did it for me, I have no 3G coverage at home and the phone works fine but as soon as I travel to work it struggles to do anything whilst trying to connect to the 3G network so I turned off 3G and it's fine, kind of poor though and the last time I had this problem was in 2004 on an old Nokia. I'm going to try a different SIM though just in case.

Apr 30, 2012 6:49 AM in response to jkstacey

I just came back to Jakarta noticing that my iPhone 4S went back to normal. It appears, the previous city I was in, probably having tower not ready for the new Qualcomm chip inside iPhone 4S or new searching mechanism in iOS5. Just another theory...

I used my old Sony Ericsson M600i and it worked just fine, either locked in 2G or 3G or autoswitch.


In Jakarta I suffer battery drain though, as if I check with *3001#12345#*, the iPhone tends to keep looking for better network, which leads to drain the battery.

SIM card probably is not an issue at this point, as no provider in Indonesia provides 128KB sim. I am curious to see how well 128KB SIM card will perform.


Also, the data connection reliability is quite low, as sometimes I failed even just to send Whatsapp message.

Well, I guess that's the network provider to blame, not the iPhone.

May 4, 2012 4:01 PM in response to beatrixfromcoldwater

I'm currently noticing, that iPhone 4S having "No Service" only when I'm in 2G or EDGE only coverage.

It appears that it keeps trying to connect to 3G. When I turned off 3G switch, it keeps Searching for network. Sometimes, iPhone found the network, but It's unreliable to make a call or even check balance.


Maybe this is not happen to all of you, as it WAS NOT happening to me either.

Can't find the root cause yet. Already tried DFU restore, and any other means mentioned, but it's not the ultimate solution.

One thing I haven't tried: change into 128KB SIM.

But still, I can't figure out why 128KB SIM would help EDGE connection. Worth to try, but can't find 128K SIM Card here so far.

May 7, 2012 11:59 AM in response to firnue

iOS 5.1.1 just released recently.

There's a statement that it fixes bug regarding 2G & 3G switching

"Addresses bugs that could prevent the new iPad from switching between 2G and 3G networks"


I did notice that occasionally got No Service issue, and my battery went down due to this issue (unable to switch to 2G whenever I'm on EDGE or 2G only coverage).


I need to download the ipsw first and use DFU restore (or a regular restore) method since the network here is sloww...

If anybody got a chance to test it earlier, please do post your experience.

May 7, 2012 2:20 PM in response to mrains

if you read the change log correctly if states that the fix is FOR IPAD USERS ONLY meaning this update wont fix your iphone's issue apple is still working hard on those and i you have issues like that may i suggest contacting your provider and asking them for a data update on your phone usually what you do is hit ##873283# and hit call on your dil pad and it should say starting update and if it says succeded your device with reboot its radios and you will losse signal for a few seconds and it should come back on if this doesnt fix your issue please contact your provider.

iPhone 4S "no service" problem

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