Q: iPhone 4s losing data connection multiple times/day

Same problem here - 4S on 5.0, AT&T 3G in the Kansas City area. I have to turn airplane mode on and off at least twice a day to restore my 3G connection. It's just 3G, too - calls always work fine.

I have the same issue.   I logged a bug report as well.  THanks for posting the link.  Do mind sharing what iphone you have.  I am on my second 64GB phone (same problem on both) and know several people that have the 32GB with no issues.  So I am wondering if this is spacific to the 64GB phone.  I dont really think it is but at this point I there is no telling.  Apple stores say its the carrier but I dont think that is the case either.

4S 64GB here as well.

32gb 4s here, and again the replacement phone AppleCare sent me still has the same issue.

As I posted very early in this thread, I had a ton of problems. I went to apple and they wanted me to try one last thing - restoring my phone and setting it up as a new phone (as opposed to restoring a snapshot of a previous phone or backup). Several weeks have gone by and I haven't had the issue since.

Hi There, I have a 4s 16GB on O2 in the UK with all the same syptoms. Some or part of the following seems to have made the problem a lot less, although not perfect.

1. Settings > General > Network > Cellular Data Network > Reset Settings

    This initally made no difference but did bring up the "Personal Hotspot" Option

2. Turned on Personal Hotspot which also activated the Bluetooth and Wifi

It appears to die again when I turn off the bluetooth for some reason !

Now my data seems to work fairly normally, I have installed the Speedtest.net app to check it,which is excellent.

Previously I tried various combinations of settings, deleted various Apps and reinstalled, and restoring both from Itunes and Icloud. Also I tried updating to IOS 5.1 Beta 1..... still no cigar.

Hope this helps

I have the same annoying problem... 64gb

I have a theory about what is going on here, which for me, I've verified with my own experience.  Theory:  whenever the flow of data is interrupted, for whatever reason, the software cannot compensate, and loses the connection completely.

I had posted a few weeks ago that I was having a lot of problems losing the data connection when my home ISP was acting up.  So, the wifi would drop out, and I would also lose all data connection on the phone even through 3G, even when the wifi was re-established.  At the same time, I had programmed in my work wifi, which is very spotty. At work, my phone would search for the wifi, not find it, and again lose the data connection through 3G.  Since then, my home internet connection has resolved (wifi works smoothly), and I deleted the wifi set up at work.  No more lost data problems.

Until....last week.  I lost the ISP connection at home.  I rebooted, wifi restored, but the phone would not connect to data, and I needed to reboot. And then, the email server at work crashed.  As expected, I couldn't get my work email, but I also lost all data connection for my comcast and gmail accounts, too.  Any bump in the data road, and the connection is lost.

So, for me, as long as everything is stable, I'm fine.  Much of this instability is probably not immediately noticeable -- how often is a wifi connection wonky, or even possibly the 3G connection?  I'd be interested if others tested my hypothesis:  strip down to what you know is stable, and see if that helps.

I have the same problem and airplane mode doesn't fix it, I have to reset my network settings...  64gb 4s

I am having the same issue as most of you guys. My iPhone 4s 16gb will work fine sometimes -- and pretty fast, too -- but after not having used the phone or the 3g data for sometime, the internet will either be extremely slow or non-responsive on the 3g network. During these times, my phone will show full bars. Sometimes, restarting the phone will do the trick, but other times, even this doesn't seem to help. Like some of you guys, I've also noticed that coming off of a wifi network also triggers the slow 3g.

The funny thing is, I didn't notice this problem until last week. BTW, I live in Los Angeles. Hope Apple can get to the bottom of this because I'm coming from using GSII for a couple weeks and it didn't have this kind of problem. Also hoping this is a iOS 5.0.1 issue and not a hardware issue.

Next time if a restart doesn't work try Settings -General - Reset - Reset Network Settings.   That's the only thing that works for me and I have also only been having the problem since 5.0.1 update. 

Note: By resetting the network settings you lose your saved wifi passwords, which is extremely annoying but it always works for me.  

I wonder if it's the type of WiFi network the phone connects too bc mine usually only does it after being on campus which is a very secure network where I have to use my ID and password to join...

I have the 4S 32GB. I am in Connecticut on AT&T

The problem has been better of late, but it still pops up from time to time. When it does, I usually try airplane mode first, and then I try settings - general - 3g network  and turn it off and then back on again. If that fails, I just reboot the phone. My Wifi passwords are a pain so it's easier to reboot the phone than to actually reset the wifi password using a network reset.

On rare occassions, even the iphone reboot will not resolve the issue. At that point I usually give up and try it again later, and it seems to work.

The issue still seems somewhat random, but it does tend to happen either when I leave/enter my wifi zone, or after a period of inactivity with the phone in 3g range.

I have 5.0.1 also and I am hoping it's merely an OS issue.

My method above worked for about 36 hours and now we are back to square 1 !

Do you think this is the sort of thing that Gizmodo or similar would be interested in ?

Apple don't want another antennagate and this might pressure them to fix it. There appear to be no common factors, we are all over the world, different Networks, different sizes etc etc.... there must be more people out there suffering this problem. It isn't an app issue as I reset my phone to "New Phone" yesterday and had exactly the same problem..... This is wierd !

I think it's totally worth a shot to try to get some press on this issue.  Personally I've heard way more about people having data issues than these 'alleged' battery problems.  ..not sure why that's the issue the press seem to have latched on to.  I'm used to having an iPhone, and the battery life that comes with it.  What I'm not used to, is the phone not working.

I spoke with someone in Apple Tech Support, over the phone last week and notified her of this message board thread and how people, globally, are having problems with their 4S's.  She found the thread and said she would bring it to her supervisors attention and then to their weekly manager meeting.  She was hopefull that iOS 5.0.2 would solve the issues.  However, looking at the change log, I don't see any antenna or modem fixes in the log. at least as far as major fixes are concerned.

I'm on my 2nd phone, and so far have not been able to remedy anything.  The local Apple store says they get multiple complaints a day, and it's a carrier issue and the local area is congested.  Their plan is to just replace handsets until the problem goes away.

..you would think that a single message thread with (closing in on) 7,000 views, (not to mention all the other data issue threads on here), would be getting some attention.

Obviously this is a major issue that is not contained within each global carrier. This is pure hardware or software related. ie. an Apple problem.

As a last ditch effort I'm going to load IOS 5.1 beta 2 (i'm got a dev account) tonight what I get home. I'm loathe to give Apple bad press as I would definately consider myself a "Fanboy" but this is taking the mikey. I've waited months for the Iphone 5.... then got the 4s... paid through the nose for it .... and virtually rebuilt my old 3gs to try and keep it going in the LONG wait  ! I'll let you know if 5.1 beta 2 does anything !