iPhone 4S "no service" problem

Chiming in...

I have an iPhone 4S, MD239PA model, came with iOS 5.0.1 (9A406) out of the box, and the first 3 weeks was fine, suddenly the phone heats up while using a SIM with Alternate Line Service feature (swapped with other non-ALS SIM, and didn't heat up). Update to iOS 5.1, and after 2 weeks, the phone having "No Service" issue, or shows "Searching..." status for some time (and eventually "No Service") while on good coverage (old phone shows 4 out of 5 signal bar).

2 days ago, succesfully got signal, quite happy that it can reach network, but I was so impatient, so that I tried turning on Airplane mode, and turn it off again, then no more luck -- "No Service" again.

Tried out all suggestion around the web, but none really fix the problem.

Haven't tried to change the SIM to 64K or 128K though. I'm a traveller, and I would like to be independent for using any kind of SIM card.

I had ipad2 running with any SIM Card you like, and had no problem with batteries nor signal.

I wish the baseband or any setting used for this ipad2 can be transferred to my iPhone 4S.

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!

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>

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?

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

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

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!

Glad to help any more issues or questions just let me know.

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.

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.

After the supplier tried every trick in the book (and every solution that's been suggested here) he returned the phone for a new one and it did the same thing within minutes of turning it on. Replaced it again (same sim card) and it's been working fine for about a year now. B

I have iOS 5.1 updated in my iPhone 4s. I am having the same issue, I am not getting incoming calls. "Says that my mobile is switched Off" i have even replaced my SIM. Then i changed my service provider from Airtel to Vodaphone, still issue same. i had to switch off and on to get incoming calls. Any body help me with this.

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.

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.

Downloaded 5.1.1 on my iPhone 4s and still have issues with 2G/3G switching, so the 4s is still not sorted with this update

Come on Apple