My iphone 4s just keeps losing signal (searching)

Adam, from the QA point of view, all we know is how YOUR phone seems to be going into the Searching mode. It's a very good start if you can consistently duplicate the results, but Apple will want more than just that. If this happens for all MMS sent from any Froyo phone to any iPhone running iOS5, then that can be a more a conclusive analysis. However, I doubt that is the case, since there are still millions of Froyo out there (as of last week, 30.4% of all Android phones were still running Froyo; Android has a 47% market share of smartphones; there are 91.4 smartphones currently in use). Most likely, there is another component to this puzzle. Perhaps Froyo on a particular phone, or when it crosses carriers, or something else.

Just got this bug last night for the first time. My GF was sending me a pic over MMS from her android phone and it didnt go thru at first. I think she resent it and I eventually got the pic but then I noticed the searching problem. I figured maybe it was a bad tower or something but when I got to work it was still doing it. 😟

Replaced the sim over lunch. No dice. Going to try a restore tonight. BTW my iPhone is an iPhone 4 not an s.

My 4s started doing this yesterday. I performed a a restore and it appears to be working. I cannot at this point attach blame to any particular MMS, but I did get a text yesterday from a friend I had no texted with in a long time. I will ask her what phone / network she is on.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3679434?tstart=0

it's not imessage, it's CDMA Android to GSM iPhone 4s

Hi,

Sounds like this is a growing problem, my iphone4 has just started to do the same thing. I have a full signal for 20 seconds then it drops then searches then a signal. I'm pretty sure no one has tried to send me an mms or picture of sorts. Seemed to start when i tried to sync my iphone with my new pc.

I will probably try a factory reset today but it's very frustrating to have to waste time doing that when it sounds like it may not be the longterm answer.

fingers crossed..

Try downloading the latest 5.0.1 firmware 9a406. This was quitely released by apple. Chances are that you are still using 9a405 firmware..

This has helped my signal issue a little bit.

Hi,

I've checked my software version and I have the latest. It's absolutely killing the battery on the phone so now i'm starting to worry. I'm in the process of backing up the phone and will then venture into restoring it but i've never done this beforeso i'm a little apprehensive that being said the phone is becomming unusable with it's current problem.

Thanks for the reply..

btw, the new firmware is a quiet update and is different from the existing 5.0.1.

You will have to MANUALLY update it yourself (even if itunes says "your devie is up to date").

Check this out:

Download 5.0.1 iOS 9A406 For iPhone 4S [Direct Link] | Redmond Pie

There are 2 versions of 5.0.1,

9A405 and 9A406. Got to your phone settings and check which one you have.

I manualyl updated to 9A406 and my lost signal issues have improved...

My signal is now more consistent and no longer randomly loses connections..

Thanks for the tip jpiz and normally I think you'd be right but I forgot to mention that i'm on an iphone4 and not 4s so i'm not sure that update will work for me. I've read else where that there is a 'comms classic' issue in the diagnostic on the phone (which I have multiple times) so i'm pursuing that line of enquiry.

It's alleged to be link to mms messages from another platform crash the iphone repeatedly, i've tried disabling mms with no joy so i'm now restoring the phone..will keep you posted..

thanks again.

My 4S was already on 9A406 but was still losing signal hence I stopped using it one month ago and am waiting for the next OS update

There may be a problem with your SIM card because iOS 5.0.1 has been known to "fry" the actual sim card. Follow the instructions here to fix network and signal problems on the iPhone.

I changed the sim and same problem, am now using the same sim that was in the 4S in an IPhone 4 and it's working well

I've noticed that alot of you are saying that the problem is caused by the sim card, network settings or something of that nature. However, I'm not really convinced. I have gotten the problem to stop once by doing a restore(I'm on 5.0.1.), a complete content and settings wipe then restoring it but not using the back up.

But then I ran into the problem of my push notification not working. So I did a restore from backup. Now my signal problem is back but I have push notification.

So with that said(and the push problem aside), I think it has more to do with the authorization certificates related to the signal than the hardware or the firmware version.

Well the firmware is the software, shouldn't fresh firmware fix the certs.? Unfortunately, that has not been my experience. I think that the certs are part of the bios (the main program that can't be modified without tapping into the device). Thus, if the certs are loaded wrong to begin with then it can't be permently fixed without modifying those specific files.

Anyone else agree or see what I'm saying?

I have confirmed that the problem was due to an Android phone with a NON-STANDARD MMS program sending me MMS pictures. That caused my phone to crash. My cousin has an Android phone but does not use the normal MMS program, hes using a 3rd party app. This app causes the issue.