iPhone 4s losing data connection multiple times/day

I haven't experienced any adverse effects nor have I encountered the problem again. I'm not ready to say it's a solution quite yet because that particular issue hasn't occurred that often in my case.

I agree that there is some confusion on this thread. I specifically found and contributed to this thread due to data connectivity issues using iPhone 4S on AT&T. My iPhone 4 on AT&T worked flawlessly for nearly 2 years. Less than 24 hours after buying my iPhone 4S, I couldn't get any data on AT&T's network at all.

I spoke to a rep at the AT&T store and he said that he's heard of a lot of problems with the 4S and had personally referred 10 people to the Apple store last week alone! He said it was a hardware problem with my phone. I made an appointment at the Genius bar that very afternoon and they, in a very nice way, essentially pointed the finger back at AT&T. The Genius bar employee said that his 4S had been working flawlessly until December 2011, when things started working poorly. We both live and work in Chicago. We ran a few speed tests side by side. Sometimes his phone would time out, sometimes mine would. Apparently this was something he was able to live with. I am not. He told me that he could swap my brand new phone, but not with a new one - only a refurb, and that it would likely not fix the issue. Since this would be a foolish move, I walked directly back to the AT&T store and returned the phone for a full refund, and set my contract back to its original terms.

Something is going on here with the 4S that either Apple or AT&T are refusing to publicly acknowledge. I don't have the patience for this sort of thing. I deal with technical challenges all day at work, I don't need this in my personal life. It should "just work" -- especially if you're going to pay $300 for a phone. I'll get off my soapbox now.

I'm currently in the market for a second, used, iPhone 4. I won't be touching the 4S again (on AT&T anyway).

Summary

iPhone 4 on AT&T - Chicago, IL - No data connectivity issues

iPhone 4S on AT&T - Chicago, IL - Data network completely unusable

I lost my connection a few times yesterday but I continuously left my wifi setting on and auto join off. Are you leaving wifi off as soon as you leave the hotspot?

I leave wifi on all the time now. With that location setting off, my problems are back to just normal AT&T poor connection issues 🙂

I have an exact issue, and I wasn't sure if it was isolated or not...

I have a 4S on AT&T and I've only started noticing this problem on 5.1. It will work with no problems for hours on end then randomly, out-of-the-blue I completely lose data. My signal bar shows full strength but any speed test or website I attempt to load just endlessly sits there, I've never waited long enough to see if it ever times out, but it just indefinitely loads. The exact solution isn't very clear either, sometimes I can cycle airplane mode, or sometimes I have to do a full restart, and oddly sometimes I have to do a combination. It doesn't happen in any specific place either, I live about an hour north of Denver, CO, in a pretty high-tech region. Even while traveling around and switching towers it doesn't solve it. I never remember having an issue with this prior to 5.1, or if I did, just a quick airplane mode cycle appears to solve the problem

On similar note, I've noticed that sometimes the indicator appears stuck. Usually any where between 0-3 bars, I can walk around and go to the usual places to get service and nothing changes. I had a 3GS up until the 4S came out, and while AT&T had massive bandwith issues, I never had this type of issue before. Speeds range from 0.25-1.5 mbps, and when it's working correctly it loads decently fast.

Not really sure what's going on, but it's sure annoying.

Same issue. Dallas TX. Full bars on 4G. Lose only data. Phone and text still work. Sometimes calling the phone from another line corrects the issue, sometimes not. Sometimes a hard restart corrects it, sometimes not. Wife never complains of this issue on white iphone 4s. I have black 4S. Issue was definitely noticed prior to iOS5.1. Battery life suffers during periods in which no data (I think this is due to all apps constantly trying to get the data I requested). My phone also gets warm. Noticed most when at work; however have noticed problem in multiple locations. Very sporadic. Have been very disappointed with 4S. Upgraded from 3GS which I had no problems with.

It would be interesting to know which of the "Switching antennas" is in use when these data losses occur. Maybe if it was an issue with their new "switching antennas" a quick software fix to only allow 1 antenna would suffice. I would gladly give up a little signal strength to have a working phone.

Oh and Randroid...the location services fix did not correct the issue for me. Still having data losses.

Still going strong for me with Loc. Services fix. I have not experienced any data issues since flipping the switch last week when Randroid initially posted it. I am still on 5.0.1 (9a405) with a launch day white 16GB 4S on AT&T.

I'll give it another try...maybe the data loss was caused by something else...i'll let you know

I'm on day 9 with thr new sim card and no data loss. I can't believe it because I've seen so many people who replaced the sim and it did nothing. I would at least recommend trying to replace it and see what happens. In my case, and I wasnt very optimistic it would fix it, I've had no problems and perfect data speed again. This will be my last post for now unless it comes back but I think I'm fixed now.

Yeah, mine hasn't had a drop out since. I've had a couple hiccups in apps and thought it was broken again, but everytime I go to Safari and do a test and it loads up (slow sometimes). There are many factors that could cause slowdowns that appear to be similar but are not.

This is much better than the old behavior where Safari would never get past the first 1% of the loading bar and ping would show no data going through.

Does one need to go to an AT&T store to get a new sim card or are they available at Apple's stores?

Same here Facebook would not load and I freaked out but went to safari and it load fine. Ha. I still don't understand why I needed a new SIM card but whatever it's fixed so I won't ask questions.

Yea go to AT&T store. If you start a tech support case they will replace the SIM card for free, if you just walk i'm not sure they may or may not still replace it for free with out a tech support case. I called so that's the only direction I know.

Just out of curiosity are you all restoring your new phones from iTunes? I had this problem for months. New SIM card didn't fix it. New iPhone didn't fix it. Finally just erased all settings and manually set things back the way I had them and now finally I don't experience this problem anymore. Hope this helps someone.

Did you lose app data?

I'm still confused as to how the app backup works. I thought that once a phone was wiped, app data was lost (unless it was restored from a backup).

Though I had a backup mess up a week ago and several of my most recently-downloaded apps were not included when I restored from backup. I moved one of the manually from itunes, however, and the data was still there.