iPhone 4S "no service" problem

Here is an idea, instead of just complaining about it here, sit in the AT&T store for 30 minutes or so and show them it goes right back. If they can see it is not reliable, they have to do something to help you out, they would be afraid of losing you as a customer, or they at least should be. I had a phone that was so unreliable, I contacted them I was months out of warranty and months until my upgrade, they were able to allow an upgrade to any phone except an iPhone (I had an LG incite, I think), at no additional cost. Their last resort would be to cancel your contract and allow you to sign with Verizon, Sprint, and now T-Mobile.

What I can suggest as an attempt; is to remove the back cover and unplug all of the connectors without removing the board. Inspect the components on the board, make sure there is no burn marks. Then plug all the cables back in and test. I have had the cable for the camera, which has a plate to keep it in, come slightly unplugged during a soft fall. This cause the camera to act weird and go in and out. It is at least worth a try.

I'm having the same problem as you, I've had it for a while now. I went to France back in December where the phone worked perfectly while roaming however when I arrived back in Ireland the phone displayed no service straight away. I can pick up service when I manually select my provider (3 - Ireland) however the phone will not pick up 3g coverage and I am only able to make one call and receive one call after rebooting the phone. This means I have to reboot (holding two buttons) an awful lot during the day which is extremely annoying! I've gone into the '3 store' on multiple occassions and rang customer care a few times too, still with no joy. I had resigned to the fact that it was something wrong with the hardware..... UNTIL I went to Spain last week and guess what the phone worked perfectly again. I could make calls and pick up coverage on the automatic carrier selesction mode..... This left me very puzzled.

I hoped the phone might reset itself over there but when I got back home, I was back to the same old story.... Absolute Mystery!

I have an iPhone 4s by the way

I have restored my phone to factory settings, reset network settings, all the tricks in the books and nothing has fixed it. I have put my sim into other phones and it works perfectly and even put my friends sim (same network) into mine and it wouldn't work either.... The phone is updated to - 6.1.3 (10B329), and it is out of warrenty 😟

If anyone has any clue what is going on I would be extrmely grateful for your help 🙂

Welcome to the club. We all are in the exact same boat. I really think the software update did something to specific 4s phones, but Apple would need to fess up and admit, then offer to repair for free. Other than that, it's time to move over to the Android ecosystem.

I finally hooked up my phone to my Linux box, and ran the idevicesyslog app to see what was going on. After telling it to do a complete wipe and watching the activation process,

As soon as I get to the "Next" option after choosing a wireless network, it says "Activating your iPhone".. Still says "Searching.." in the top left.. and this pops up in the logs

May 11 19:07:08 iPhone CommCenter[59] <Notice>: Saving log files as /var/wireless/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/Baseband/log-bb-2013-05-11-19-07-08-*

May 11 19:07:08 iPhone CommCenter[59] <Notice>: CSI state dump requested: Modem Bootup Failure:

Every time I do that that's the error.

Now I'm going to try and see if I can pull off that Baseband log somehow.

I have been having the exact same problem, seeing all these other posts has made me realise that there's obviously no easy fix and that I will NEVER buy another apple product again (especially seeing as this is the THIRD iPhone I've had in 3 years!)

They're losing alot of business by not fixing OBVIOUS PROBLEMS experienced by HUNDREDS of people.

I've tried pretty much all of these 'fixes' and nothing works.

Time to go to another brand of phone I think, and never return to overpriced, overrated iPhones again!

Thanks for your "help" Apple 😁

Has anyone else been quoted £139 to replace the phone? Mine stopped working on Saturday 11th May (No Service/Searching). Tried all the same things listed as recommended by Apple - reset the settings, DFU restore, all failed. Diagnostic on the phone in the shop also failed to show any problem.

Is there any commonality to these posts, other than the same problems? Is the problem better or worse with certain networks or in certain places?

I have the same problem of dropped network and the phone's abject refusal to go and look for another automatically, but only in France. My phone works fine in the UK on O2. It works fine in other countries too, but just refuses to work in France, or Lyon to be more exact.

I'm suspicious of the French networks and I think I've got the problem down to being caused when it changes from communicating with one mast and then another. I live on the corner of an old building in Lyon and loose the signal when I move from one street (with direct line of sight to the Part-Dieu mast) to another (with direct line of sight to the Croix-Rousse mast). If I stand still or reset on either street it's OK. I know that there is a clock issue on the Orange internet network, is that significant? Is it significant that Lyon is also one of the first cities to embrace 4G?

I have been a rabid Apple supporter since the 80s...and have purchased 7 iphones over time for me and family. This will be my last Apple product as this problem is simply unacceptable. Apple has told me point blank that I must purchase a replacement iPhone for an as new 1.5 year old phone because of something they did. This is theft, and as ardent an Apple supporter as I have been it is beyond anything I have ever experienced from a company.

Hi! If it's a new iPhone than its surely your Sim card problem, however it can also be a hardware issue. Having network issues in iPhone is surely a common thing. However I have read this blog, it identfies and tells how to solve iphone iPhone 4 network problems (both hardware and software issues).

http://blog.brokenlcds.com/iphone-4-network-problem/

Hello!

2 months ago my sister started having the usual iphone 4s wifi connectivity problem after the 6.1.3 update and had a phone replacement under warranty. Than later on she realized while on vacation in portugal that the replaced phone has exactly the same issue and she had to take a retour to madrid to get another replacement from the apple store. After using the phone for 2-3 days this time she faced the problem being discussed under this topic and her phone has not been able to pick up gsm service ever since. I'm starting to get suspicious that the so called refurbished replacement phones are all fixed up defective phones which easily go off service in no time. Now she is in Turkey where there is no official apple store and support. We as a family are using 3 ipads, 2 iphone 5, 1 iphone 4s,1 iphone 4 and an ipod nano. Unless this issue keeps on going like that those are going to be the last apple products we and our close friends will ever have. I don't know if this message somehow reaches somewhere that real preventive and solution oriented action will be taken but I sure am going to keep following this. The fact of the matter is that the inadequate one year warranty (unlike the other 2 year of the rivals) will be over in 2 weeks and we won't have a chance to replace the phone until then. The earliest we can make it to an apple store is 26th of august which is 4 days after the deadline and I'll be fighting to get this replacement done under warranty no matter what it takes and keep this post updated...

To wrap up, the first time I had to encounter using apple service ended up creating more problems including 2 replacement phones within 2 months period of which both of them turn out to be faulty again. Apple has to start taking quality of the service in hand unless they want to loose serious customer base!

THis is the third time it is being replaced. Apple's unwritten rule is after 3 failed attepmts with a replacement, if the customer request a "new" phone they can get it. so she can ask to get a brand new iphone 4s, assuming this are still considered new, they might even upgrade her to the 5.

Asking them to do anything is worth a shot, the genius bar is usually willing to to all they can, I had a MacBook Pr 3 years out of warranty that had a component on the board fail and catch fire, when I talked to them they pulled some strings and had the manager approve a 10% discount for a in-store purchase. I ordered a Retina when they were released and had to preorder, they even did a return and recharged me to honor the 10% discount.

Thanks for the tip! Well, especially the lack of communicaton for a month half of it being on vacation due to the Cellular Network problem is really frustrating and sure does require a better treatment than getting a refurbished replacement for the 3rd time.

Btw, I just found out that the replacement devices themselves have also an additional 90 day warranty which means the date I can get the phone to an apple store will still be under this warranty period.

My iphone 4s cannot pick up signal for ages after being turned off and back on again. I need to keep turning it on and off until it eventually manages to connect. It just says no service and this has happened a few times and sometimes it is unable to pick up nything for over a day. The wierd thing is that if it is on and connected to the provider and i travel somewhere with no service when i come back into service it will pick it up. It is only when I turn the iPhone off?

I was advised to pay £139 to get a new iPhone 4S recently. Phone is due for upgrade at the end of November, but I think I'll just try another make, such as Nokia or Samsung. I'll miss Apple's features, but I won't miss their crap customer service and faulty goods.

Hi Friends,

iPhone 4S "NO SERVICE" RESOLVED

Never get carried away if you see "NO SERVICE" on your iPhone. I had suffered a lot with this and I really wanted to get rid of my iPhone 4S. I used to have "NO SERVICE" issues at many locations.

But had full faith in apple and thought of doing a study on it.

I purchesed a new smart phone (android os, not apple) and a new SIM card of another service provider.

I found that the new smart phone too losing signal with the old SIM card (ie the SIM card with which I used to have "NO SERVICE" issues in my iPhone). I was losing signal with the new android phone and the old SIM card, almost at the same locations where I was having "NO SERVICE" with iPhone and this old SIM card.

Then I tried the old SIM card in different standard Symbian mobile phones, and I never had any low signal issue with the old SIM card. I was not losing signal at any location.

When I was using the old SIM card in my new android smart phone, simultaneously I was using the new SIM card(of a different service provider) in my iPhone 4S and I never had any "NO SERVICE" issues at all, at any location.

I had given my new android smart phone to my wife. Her SIM card and my old SIM card were of the same service provider, and she started having low or no signal issues.

So my studies, though expensive, revealed that the "NO SERVICE" issue is a combination certain service provider's signal+smart phone os(android or ios). I never had signal loss with any Symbian phiones, in any of the locations where I was loosing signal with android smart phone or iPhone.

Hope apple will look into this, or already looked into it and solved.

I had ported my service to the new SIM card service provider, and till today, I am using my iPhone 4S which never gave me "NO SERVICE" issues. I often travel to different cities in India, and I never had any issues anywhere.

My wife too opted for my new service provider and she too have no signal issues at any location. She still uses the android smart phone. When I buy a new iPhone 5S, I will give her my iPhone 4S.

SO PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, DON'T CHANGE YOUR iPHONE, CHANGE YOUR SERVICE PROVIDER (A REPUTED SERVICE PROVIDER).

OF ALL THE PHONES I USED, iPHONE IS THE BEST PHONE.

Suresh R Nair

surely@rediffmail.com

Mob +919833283153.

Flat No 304/Himachal CHS Ltd,

Juhu Lane, Andheri-West. Mumbai 400 058.

INDIA