You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

💡 Did you know?

⏺ If you can't accept iCloud Terms and Conditions... Learn more >

⏺ If you don't see your iCloud notes in the Notes app... Learn more >

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Iphone 4s No Service Fix

I know alot of people are so angry about this problem and i am one of you but i managed to follow this issue inorder to find a solution and finally after alot of work, i managed to find the problems that cause it and found a solution for every case possible.

let me start with the problems that cause this issue.


CASE 1 (SIM Cards): Iphone 4s requires a specific sim card wiring technique different a little bit than before.


Solution 1: Simply contact your carrier and order the newest sim card available. ( 128K better than 64K ) and it case the new micro sim card did not work, order a regular sim card and cut it to the size of the micro sim.


CASE 2 (Carrier Network) : Iphone 4s has 2 antennas giving it the ability to connect to 2 signals at the same time causing the signal to shift from one hotspot to another without cutting the network. but to achieve that, the connection between the two spots must be perfectly synchronized and from the same type ( ex: 3g to 3g or edge to edge or gprs to gprs or 2g to 2g. any light mismatch will cause the phone to lose the signal and never be able to abtain it back ( No service will appear, and you are forced to restart your device or reset network setings ). and unforunately, we dont have the option in the iphone 4s to restrict our device to a specific network type unlike older devices. Im not sure that apple can fix this issue with an update, its the responsablity of the network companies to remove such errors from their infrastructures.


Solution 2: Order the 2g only sim card or a 3g only sim card, and it will work perfectly untill a better solution is found " but both solutions have advantages and disatvanteges. The 2g line will let you obtain a very good signal all over the country but you will not be able to connect to 3g network.

while the 3g line will let you obtain a good signal only in specific areas in the country but you will be able to use cellular data. or if you have a factory unlocked device, you can try to swith to a different carrier


Case 3 ( Iphone Software ): Sometimes, when you udate your device firmware or download any ios, there is a possibilty of an orror to occur without being noticed and that error will not also be noticed during the installation of the firmware, ending up on your device causing fialure.


Solution 3: 1- download latest itunes 10.5.1

2- download a fresh ios 5.0.1 ( from itunes not from iphone device )

3- Go to DFU mode, Open itunes and restore as new iphone (to avoid any remaining traces of previous corruption or error)

4- Go to Settings --> Phone --> Sim Pin and turn it OFF

5- Turn On airplane mode and wait 15 seconds

6- Turn OFF airplane mode

7- Go to Settings --> Carrier --> Automatic ( turn it off and select your network manually )


Case 4 (Iphone Hardware): some series of the 4s and specially the first serie delivered, had a problem in teir sim reader, and to help you more to identify this seire, simply go to Settings --> General --> About and check the model number if it starts with MD2 then you are not lucky and you phone may never work with your carrier


Solution 4: if you have a factory unlocked device, please consider changing the carrier and give it a try 90 % of the times it work, other than that, you must take your iphone back and order a replacement.


I will be happy to answer any question

< Edited By Host >

iPhone 4S, iOS 5.0.1, Factory unlocked brand new device

Posted on Nov 26, 2011 4:50 PM

115 replies

Nov 27, 2011 11:42 AM in response to Community User

Case 1 -> Solution 1 -> I must to wait 5 days for new simcard because she will be delivered by postoffice ;/

but i am wondering why all work on iOS 5.0.0 and broke after update to 5.0.1 ???


Solution 3 -> already done, and nothing changes


Solution 4 -> I have factory unlocked device but i must buy some prepaid simcard and cut microsim.

i will do it tomorow morring



we have some information on when iOS will be updated to 5.0.2?

Nov 27, 2011 3:16 PM in response to Community User

I cut down a 128Kb SIM to a MiroSIM size and the phone is working great.

I couldn't set or edit "My Number" setting on Settings->Phone and it read "Unknown". I move the SIM back to my older iPhone 4. Changed in there and put it back in the iPhone 4S. To my surprise the correct number remained and now I CAN EDIT it.

Facetime and iMessage activation is not working but that was always like that with iPhones.


OH, and my model starts with MD2.


Regards

Jul 6, 2015 2:58 AM in response to Community User

marcosbsas thats good, now you are one step close to achieve it all, simply keep your new sim card inside your 4s, and go to itunes and perform a restore as new and register your phone with the simcard inside, that will fix it and you will be able to use facetime and imessages

Jul 6, 2015 2:58 AM in response to CuDaK

CuDaK what is your carrier ?

please give it a try and try a different carrier network and let me know the result

Nov 27, 2011 10:44 PM in response to Community User

EDDERGHAM


I have a 4s product number (from invoice, phone is not with my right now) MD234C/A. It came with iOS 5.0.0 (baseband 01.00.11) and worked perfect prior to upgrading to 5.0.1 (baseband 01.00.13), then sim failueres started. My current solution is changing operator (also it has other type of SIM card, visually) and it works just fine. Although I do not know what visual difference of cards mean because finally they all have same 6 pins connecting to exactly the same places in sim reader in the phone...


  • If Case4 is real, how it can be affected by firmware?
  • Also, can you give more deails on deffect you reffer? I'm a microelectronics engineer and it is quite interesting to me. The only thing I can guess is something with voltage aplpied to the SIM; as far as I understood standard says sim can support 5V/3.3V or 3.3V/1.8V, not all together; may be sim reader supports only one combination? But again, how it was working prior with baseband 01.00.11...

Nov 28, 2011 12:33 AM in response to Community User

My problem with my iphone 4s is, after one successful text message, I cannot send another text message because the signal is gone already. Then it will start to search for the signal, after the signal is back, that’s when the time I can send another text message or even a call. But that is every one successful message sent. After that, the signal will be lost again. What should be the perfect solution for this? Thanks in advance.

Iphone 4s No Service Fix

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.