My iphone 4s just keeps losing signal (searching)

Okay here is my story...

Purchased my phone on Nov 4th nothing but problems with coverage. AT&T support reset network,replace sim card and finally restore phone to receive "tweaked 5.0.1" update. Nothing worked keeps searching for signal.

Replaced phone worked fine for 24hrs then the dreaded searching for signal error came up again.

Replaced sim card still acting up!!!!

Okay dig deeper.....

I noticed that my sister asked me if I received a picture she had sent which I did not.

So she sent it to me again and low and behold I lose signal.

No really!!!!

Asked her to send it to my wife same thing she lost signal.

Okay the fix.

With iMessage turned off the iPhone could not process the picture and in the process I lost signal

Turned iMessage on....... Shazaam problem solved.

Hope it works

Ok guys/gals, had my 4s for 4 weeks now and it worked perfect. Until yesterday evening, the phone started cycling through 5 bars and 3g to searching every 10 seconds or so. So 10 hours, 2 iphones, and 2 simcards later the phone was working fine. Someone started sending me some MMS pictures and boom!! Problem stats all over again. This soooo frustrating as I use my phone for business as well as a main line phone. Please hurry and come up with a solution someone. And by the way im using a white 4s

No good news yet

Hope Apple is watching and listening as this is so frustrating been an iPhone user close to 4 years (3G,3GS,4&4S) and this the first time I have been very disappointed given that the 4S is the first phone in my life to disappoint me

Same thing happened to me AND a friend who both have AT&T and iPhones 4s. Another friend with Verizon (Droid incredible) tried to send a photo yesterday. It sent both iPhones into the freeze-searching-four bars of signal-freeze-searching pattern, draining the battery. The only reason I figured this out was because she tried to send me the same MMS today and it did the same thing, despite my restore of the phone this morning (which stopped the searching pattern until she tried it again). We put two and two together so I'm having the same problem as Hector is. Unfortunately his solution is null and void for me- my IMessage is already on.

I called support who wanted to blame AT&T, we called AT&T and sat on the phone for thirty minutes trying to figure it out together... The problem is not with AT&T. They could see the two messages I was referring to and they said they were delivered fine. The guy also reset me on the network, twice. He could see what I was seeing with the "searching" pattern. So back to the AT&T support guy and me... He tried what he could think of and passed me onto a senior tech specialist.

He offered me a new sim card from AT&T ( I told him I'd been on here and that wouldn't solve the problem) and then a replacement phone. I asked what would prohibit this from happening again and he had no answer. It's a hardware problem or a weird unknown between AT&T and Apple. They will have to get on it...

Not a lot of answers... I just lost an hour and a half of my life between trying to figure it out and being on hold, my friend is about to have to do the same thing, and now I have to go get a new phone tomorrow ( and I've been warned they may/may not have one in stock).

Happy New Year huh

I had the same problem after my friend tried to send a picture message to my brand-new AT&T 4S. Doing a restore seems to have fixed the problem for now. *knock wood*

I, too, am crossing my fingers for something in the next firmware update to fix this.

Same problem here with my iphone 4 and my wife's iphone 4. My sister-in-law had sent us each a photo via SMS via her Android phone. As soon as she did, we began losing signal.

Tried turning off iMessage but that didn't help.

Went to Apple Store and got new iPhone. It worked fine until another photo was sent to me from Android phone. Now same problem again.

I have an update.

I have verfied through testing that this is caused by the photo being sent. I don't know how to fix that, but I can fix the issue overall but doing a complete VDU reset of my iphone then restoring a recent backup.

I have iphone 4s tunning on 5.0.1. I had the same problem before; phone has stable signal for 10 seconds and looses signal for 10 seconds and just keeps doing that. AT&T and Apple were useless In troubleshooting it; they only tell u what u probably have done.

I have tried two solution that worked for me:

1. Restored the phone, but the problem came back a month later.

*2. Switch the sim card from another iPhone 4/4s.

---remove and put your sim (with its holder) in the other iPhone and have their sim put into your iphone until signal stabilizes longer than a minute. Return sim card to original owner.

These worked for me hope it works for those that are/were frustrated as me.

I just started having this same problem today after having the phone since it's release. I am currently attempting a restore and if it comes back, I'll have to make a visit to the Apple store.

What a surprise! Got a new phone (that's how they resolved the problem. ahem) and less than two weeks later THE SAME THING HAPPENED.

Currently I am on the phone with support. AGAIN.

I've got news for them if they think I'm going back to the Apple Store. They had the nerve to ignore the case notes and my "genius" gave me a hard time!

Here's all the info that my friend (with the same problem) and I've figured out, with the help of her helpful genius who replaced her phone:

Whatever Android update that happened a month and a half ago, does not get along with our iphone 4s'. When a picture is sent, it messes up the slot where the SIM card is. Replacing the SIM will do nothing. The store is seeing this problem constantly and is just replacing phones. The helpful genius said that Apple Support needs to catch up.

Come on Apple. JUST FIGURE OUT WHY THIS IS HAPPENING. I'm about to become an Android user. Siri isn't worth it!

I'm actually on my 4th iphone.

iPhone 4S #1 - Worked great for MONTHS, then stopped. I went to store they gave me a new iPhone. Told me if it happens again, try a new sim card so..

iPhone 4S #2 - Stops, so i get a new SIM. This doesnt fix it. So apple gives me a new phone, guy tells me if it happens again try setting up from scratch, dont restore from an old backup. So i do, i sync my same apps though, but i dont restore.

iPhone 4S #3 - Stops working again, so the guy gives me a new phone, tells me and promises me up and down i wont have to come back, last time he promises.. well worked fine for weeks, thought problem was fixed. then yesterday at mall, it stops, so i walk into apple.. and i get

iPhone 4S #4 - got it YESTERDAY, at around 6pm... well TODAY at around 11pm, the phone stops working agian... same **** error.

So i dont know what to do anymore, i cant work like this, apple has no answers, guy yesterday says he thinks its a software issue bit no release date on new iOS yet... they dont even have any 4's.

I sold my old 4, bought a new one, had to pay an upgrade fee (i wasnt eligable for a free upgrade or a cheap upgrade, i paid the big upgrade price of about what, $400 was it?)... cant even use it...

not sure what to do now... ive already tried a new sim, gone through 3 replacements already after i bought the phone... tried removing the sim pin, disabling iMessages, no sim lock ever, go in/out of airplane mode, nothing seems to work.

Guys the only thing that worked for me was a full factory restore from my Mac. The reset from the phone and network settings reset did not work. As soon as a did a full restore from iTunes I've been working flawlessly.

Yeah thats the only thing that works for me. If i do a restore, it'll work fine from anywhere from a day up to a week or so. Im lucky that my contacts/mail are from an exchange account so when I reset it from the road, i can put in exchange details and get my contacts. But its really a pain in the neck to keep having to do this. Obviously theres some kind of software glitch, per what the apple tech said as well. I shouldnt have to keep restoring my phone (after 4 phones even) to get it to stop that SEARCHING

What about the apps don't you lose these if you restore from scratch?

For me I have stopped using the iPhone 4S till the next release am comfortable with the iPhone 4 for now