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Invalid SIM Card on iPhone 4S (5.0.1)

Seems to be a widespread problem, from what I'm seeing in the discussions:


I have an unlocked iPhone 4S (bought in France) and use it with Vodafone in Portugal. I was using the same SIM card that worked perfectly fine for over a year on my previous iPhone 4, and it also worked just fine in the 4S... until I updated to iOS 5.0.1.


The very next day I started having connections issues and invalid SIM card errors - requiring a reboot to temporarily fix it for a few minutes, until it lost connection again - the iPhone would still show it had a few bars strength, but was actually unable to make calls or use data. After a while it would go back to invalid sim message.


I replaced my old SIM card, and I though that was it... It was working fine.. until after 3 or 4 days, I find once again that I had a Invalid SIM message.



I've read reports suggesting that this might actually have to do with using other chargers than the official Apple 4S one - it sound kind of crazy, but just in case, I was also using a 3rd party charger when those issues arised for the first time. Anyway, I was now using my previous official iPhone 4 charger when I got the new error with the new SIM card.


Also, although the iPhone recommends using a non-locked SIM Card, mine has always had a PIN, and always worked through activations without a problem.



Other than being a real hardware problem with my new iPhone 4S (crossing my fingers it isn't!) my guess is that this is a software related incident - as this has just popped up after upgrading to iOS 5.0.1, and it would have been an amazing coincidence for SIM cards to go bust, or for the iPhone 4S to suddenly malfunction, afterwards.


Hope you guys can fix it soon, as well as the phone numbers not showing up the callers name in the contacts (that was a problem I was having from the very beginning, with iOS 5.0.0).

Posted on Nov 16, 2011 2:18 AM

Reply
366 replies

Apr 14, 2012 7:18 AM in response to ptnik

My 4s started showing those pesky "Invalid Sim" messages about 3 weeks ago, first everytime I charged it, then every 4-5 hours. I hard rebooted it, updated network settings, went to official carrier to get a new SIM. Nothing worked, so I had to take the plunge and performed a clean reinstall of the software ( 5.1 ) Set it up as NEW phone and now it worked like a charm ! the Phone is faster on 3g and battery lasts a little longer..It´s been 3 days already and the clean reinstall using 5.1 seems to do the trick

Apr 14, 2012 12:50 PM in response to ptnik

I almost feel silly posting this after all of the stuff that I've seen people trying. It's very frustrating and I went through it too. I had to get a new sim and then it happen again and then I tried the same things a lot of you tried posted here and on you tube and had no luck.

I did finally get it working and I haven't had any problems for a while now. For some reason I always felt it was related to my voicemail. For me it would always receive and send calls until I activated my voicemail and then I would get the invalid sim and no sim messages all the time. After many restarts and restores I tried this. I called and reset my voicemail and had them text me a new voicemail pass code. It worked. No problems since. I know this isn't going to work for everyone but I feel after watching these posts for weeks and trying the many things that you've tried that I needed to post this. Good luck

I have an iPhone 4s 32G with AT&T and its updated to 5.0.1.

Apr 27, 2012 12:32 PM in response to lifeguard89

I have tried everything under the sun. Soft restarts (several times a day - bordering on insanity), full backup & restore from backups, restore as new, SIM swaps, EVERYTHING!!! And I'm already on the most up-to-date version 5.1. I'm at my wits end now. This is absolutely ridiculous!! It shouldn't even be happening!! My phone is only 4 months old. Apple needs to sort themselves out. You can't keep doing this to your customers.


If anyone has any other ideas about what to do - I would greatly appreciate some advice.


I'm in the UK and on Orange. I spoke to Orange and they said this is a well known issue to Apple and that their advice is to do a full restore as new which is meant to solve the problem for about 90% of the people who have it. Well, it would appear I'm in the 10% for whom this doesn't work. Any other suggestions???

Apr 27, 2012 10:45 PM in response to voula_72

You've only had it 4 months. This is crazy. These things are expensive. They should give you a new phone. What is the warranty. Did you use a credit card. Some companies will will offer a protection plan if you use their card for the purchase and help you to resolve this. You shouldn't have to go through all this if the phone doesnt work. Go back and demand help. Even if they were to give you a refurbish at least it would work. Go in and demand to speak to a manager at the apple store you got it at and get them to do something. Four months is way with reason for apple to give some kind of replacement. Go make some noise. Tell them you're not leaving until you get a phone that works. Four months and all these problems. That's bull$h!t. Good luck.

Apr 29, 2012 8:58 AM in response to stuart hatfield

There are at least 30 fixes from what is written here and you will drive yourself crazy trying them all. Don't put up with this get a new phone. This can take numerous try's and there are no guarantees they'll work. Go back and get a new phone. You have a right in the USA to even ask for a full refund if the product sold is defective. Use this to your advantage. I was lucky it only took me three weeks to fix mine. Some people have been going through this for months.

Good Luck.

Apr 30, 2012 2:09 PM in response to Fxpmorro

HURRAH!!! SUCCESS!!! I got a new SIM card today - which although is a micro SIM like the one I used to have, it looks different. They must have changed the micro SIMs. Fingers crossed all is well. So far - no errors at all. No INVALID SIM flashing across my screen. It's early days still but hopefully this did the trick. The key will be if I manage to wake up and not have that dreaded message on my phone in the morning.


Thanks to everyone for your suggestions and help. I'll keep you posted if anything goes wrong!!


:-)

May 6, 2012 2:34 AM in response to ptnik

I've had my iphone for a week. I had to take my SIM card out to get numbers off it. When I put it back in the phone showed an 'INVALID SIM' message. Aaaagh. Anyway :


I got this off another blog & it works!! So simple - even I could manage it and I'm a technophobe.


1. Choose the Settings app.

2. Turn ON Airplane Mode.

3. Reboot : Press the big button on the front and AT THE SAME TIME press the top right-hand button (the sleep one) until the screen goes black and the Apple logo appears.

4. Turn OFF airplane mode.


The SIM should be working !!!!

May 6, 2012 3:27 AM in response to ptnik

Let me share my thoughts with your regarding the iOS 5.1 "fix".


I sincerely believe Apple didn't really fix the issue, but just found a away to work around it... and that isn't really as elegant as one would hope.


In the places where I'd previously be more prone to have the Invalid SIM/network problems, I have now found that I sometimes get recurrent "network reboots" - as seen by the signal strength bars going from full to zero, and back to full, in a continuous loop.


Meaning, I think the "fix" Apple implemented is just: when they detect the network drop problem, they "reboot" it, just like we previously did manually, by either turning Airplane on/off, or rebooting the iPhone.


For the most part... it should have the intended effect - although it doesn't really address the *real issue* of what might be causing this behavior in the first place. But, just like before, I suspect this is an issue that keeps becoming more frequent over time. Just yesterday, I once again received a "tried to call you" SMS, and when triying to call back - even though it showed full signal strength (and not being in a problematic area) - I couldn't even get a call signal, and had the 3G data indicator jumping back and forth to "none", "circle", "none", "circle".


Just like before, my iPhone was showing full bars, but was effectively unable to do voice calls (either incoming or outgoing). I had to manually set it to airplane mode and back again, and then it finally got "online".



I fear this will become increasingly more frequent, just like the issues we had before the 5.1 update... and that the problem with the 4S isn't really ever going away. Which is a real shame, considering all the previous iPhone generations never had this sort of problem and could handle every kind of SIM card without any issues, as well has being "bullet proof" to all kinds of network conditions. Looks like they've gone a step backwards this time. 😟

Invalid SIM Card on iPhone 4S (5.0.1)

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