iPad 3 Why 3G does not work after being on WiFi

<davidm_uk> I was not aware that I had specifically referred to a problem with only iPad3, my own iPad is a 2 variant. so apologies if my previous statement was misleading in that respect. Regards, Ct

I bought my new ipad 3 in Singapore and am currently using it in Manila Philippines. I am using the same cellular network and have 2 different sims for my ipad and iphone 4. My iphone 4 picks up good 3g signal, while my ipad does not even reach EDGE. Funny because the two units are just beside each other. I also tried a reboot but this did not improve the signal as seen in my speedtests. 0.03 MBps is not enough.

I hope Apple can Solve this problem ASAP. I'm pretty sure this isn't a network problem. :(

I'm on t-mobile uk with a iPad 3 64gb 4g and I have this issue. Very annoying indeed. Have to shutdown the iPad every time. 3G signal is full.

I've already had 3 iPads for various issues and now I'm out of my 2 week return period too. I don't want a brown boxed refurb after spending a lot of money a couple of weeks ago.

Torqen, you have an interesting point, in that the new ipad seems far more affected with this issue than other devices. I have been wading my way through the security and iOS improvements and updates to see if there was anything obvious to do with the new architectur of the new processor and caching. Nothing jumps out at you as you read the various bumfs from various tehnical articles and technical tests. Which brings us back to the question of availability of IP leasing by the Network providers.

I would be intersested if all those commenting here could leave the following details with their comments so we could try and build a bit of a network topology on the problem.

1) Do you have your Data Connection off when you know you are staying within wireless range and only switch Data Carrier on prior to moving out of range - the thinking behind this is that at that point you will get a fresh network lease.

This is no guaranttee of a connection of course since if an IP lease is not being broadcast as available by your nearest mast, you wont be able to connect anyway.

2) Of those that get a connection in this fashion, how many then turn their wirless of since they are no longer in range of it, therefore saving valuable power by not unnecessarily draining the battery.

3) Of those dropping signals on a regular basis can we have some confirmations as to geography, using the map App to give co-ordinates (the network topology I was talking about from a geo location perspective, along with Data provider details and type of plan - pay monthly or PAYG).

Routine maintenance on various aspects of the Data provider networks are ongoing all the time. I know this is a 24/7 fact from working in an allied industry looking after buildings with 60-100 million pounds worth of switchgear and data network hubs located inside. (The nerve centres of the industry)

4)

4) sorry caught the post in error

4) How many of those performing resets, follow it with a sync to their itunes to then confirm the settings are cached?

5) Can we have some feedback on battery levelas at the time of disconnects, dropouts, etc, so we can monitor the devices overall performance from a power availability standpoint.

6) How much traffic is being generated through the device at the time - IE what Apps are open and how many are using bandwidth.

There are many commented on these sites who have a wealth of experience in IT and communications and associated subject material. If patterns are formed, then just maybe, someone far more experienced than either you or me may just have the right information to pinpoint the problem and give an effective solution.

I have an ipad2, and I still get this problem ocassionally when tripping accrossthe road to my neighbours. I get one bar on home wireless, then it drops, and guess what, my ALWAYS on 3g hardly ever picks up the mast. slide the data carrier toggle off and on again and hey presto - I get connected. Isn't that strange. Hardly a <new> problem for a new device is it?

Oh and on point 6, for me anyway, I only get the fails to connect whilst I am moving from one wireless to 3g whilst I have an active App using internet bandwidth. With internet and email apps off, I always seem to have a signal!!!

Anyone any ideas please?

Many of us have a more severe issue than you are seeing with your iPad 2: turning data off then on again does NOT fix the problem - instead either a hard reset or temporary removal of the SIM is required in order to restore mobile data.

1. No i dont have it off, never needed to play with settings on ipad 1.

2. Again, im usually at homw with wifi or at work with wifi, so no dont usually switch wifi off, however if i stop on way to work i have full 3g signall but safari and all aps report not able to start cellular network.

3. Same map locations as work currently with ipad1 and phone.

4. Have tried syncing to itunes, (do so most evenings for new photos) hsant helped.

5. Battery can be nearly full or nearly empty, has made no difference since i bought it.

6. No idea what apps are open. But mail and twitter and other such apps always running so ipad should always be requesting data/moitoring oush etc.

Unlike your ipad2 my ipad1 always switched smoothly and without me needing to reboot from wifi to 3g.

Have raised a call with apple support. Reseting network cnfig seems to fix it for a few hours (but thats worse than a reboot as i loose all my wifi keys) tried changing sim pin, and tried switching off auto preference for networks, not helped. Tried toggling airplance mode also not helped. Have both a tmobile payg sim, tmobile contract sim, 02 payg data only sim, and orange contract ipad only sim. Same problem on all sims.

Having the same issue, was even seeing it more pronounced this weekend wile in South Carolina on edge service. The symptoms match what everyone else posted, switch from wifi to cellular automatically and while data services appear to connected, there is no connectivity. I have noticed sometimes switching cellular data off and on, although very rarely, does restore service. Most often the only way to restore service is through reboot. Which as many before have pointed out is annoying to say the least.

I wonder what the deal is with Apple deleting the original thread regarding this issue, seems a little like they are trying to hide something. Hopefully, a resolution is forth coming and will not take months before we see it. This is my first iPad with cellular data and at this point I would not recommend anyone buy one and I would not buy another on either.

With broadband your modem has a permanent IP.

This is what you all need to check first.

Dynamic and permanent IP subscription servicing is handled in different ways by the Master Record Servers which handle DNS caching and allocations on the main network. Apple is offering a broadband connection as part of the ipad devices services, as such its worth checking to see if your data subscription gives this connection guarantee.

Make sure you have been given a permanent IP allocation and not a dynamic allocation such as with mobile telephones.

What version of quicktime are you currently running? and was it installed in a User Account mode or Admin account mode?

Returning my "New paperweight" tomorrow and I do not even want a replacement because I do not want to risk wasting more energy looking for a solution to his problem, because it's really not my problem to fix, it's Apple's.I consider the last gen IPad to be Apples biggest failure product so far for a number of reasons. The biggest letdown may be the wi-fi/ 3G issues but also the battery charging time compared to the discharge time is laughable. I could use the IPad 2 approx 1-1.5 weeks from fully charged state until empty. The new IPad lasts 3 days and that is just 0.5 to 1 hour of total gaming time, approx 3 hours of checking mail, browsing in safari and the rest is just standby time. It makes me wonder just how much time Apple has been spending on research and testing of this device before release. Why did they not even take the time to fix a proper charger? There is not enough hours in a day to charge this product.

The new IPad feels more like a prototype than a new product. Just like the uninspiring title describes "The new iPad", not IPad 3. Ever since I first opened the box and felt like restarting the same iPad I jus sold (ipad2) a thought struck me "what did I just waste my money on"? "What is really better on this compared to IPad 2 ?" It just did not feel "finished"

I immediately felt like returning it and purchase back my IPad2, but I unfortunately decided to go against my gut feeling.

The only good thing that as come from this experience is that I have learned to trust myself more, and that I will never catch myself standing outside a Apple reseller like a sucker on a release day. I advice everyone to wait at least a couple of months before purchasing a Apple product, because you never know what you are going to get. One should also be aware that Apple has no real customer service, the customers have to rely on each other for real answers that goes beyond the length of "rebooting, restoring or reset" functions.

Hey, I'm having the exact same issue. A couple of times now since I've had my iPad 3 I got the "no cellular data connection" error message while I was connected to 3G with full bars. I had to reboot my iPad to get an internet connection. Is Apple working on fixing this issue?

I'm having the same issue in Australia using a new iPad and the Optus 3G network. My wife and I have a few iOS devices (iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad 2) and the new iPad is the only one with this problem.

Only a shutdown/restart will restore the 3G connection again.

I have managed to reproduce the issue on an iPad 2 by doing the following.

Turned cellular Data from Automatic to Manual in Settings\Carrier. Note that in Settings\Cellular Data - Cellular Data is on (needs to be to get the Carrier to display)

I have Data Roaming off and nothing set in the other two tabs on the Cellular Data page.

I started by turning from Automatic to manual, then after some 30 seconds a list of available carriers displayed. I selected my current one,3g, then returned to a safari browsing window and opened a google page Whats my IP

Having noted the IP I opened other pages and carried on browsing.

I then needed to check something in settings. as soon as I opened a the same settings page, I lost my 3g signal icon at the top of the screen, and the revolving circle was working in the Carrier page to show it was hunting for the network, even though I had set it manually a few minutes previously.

I returned to safari without doing anything further in settings.

When I refreshed the Whats my IP page I got the now famous [infamous] could not connect and network unavailable dialogues which I simply ok'd and dismissed. Watching for the top of the screen, and after a few seconds or sometimes a minute, the 3g icon reappearred.

At this point I refreshed the Whats my IP page and it refreshed alright with no further dialogues - but displayed a fresh IP address!!

Next I downloaded a free App from the App store called Netstat wich can be had free and has some basic displays showing your Ip and open sockets plus the state of the loopback interface on 127.0.0.1. Opened it and left it running in the background.

I then proceeded to multitask between various apps opening and closing them and switching between them, including Safari, Mail, Messaging and the Settings pages. Mail is set to push, and I noticed in the Netstat App that the dervers broadcasting on the push nodes, would regularly open and close, dependent on the send state.

The only time I had conection issues was when I was in Settings\Carrier page with the Automatic function OFF

Draw your own conclusions - but to me this smacks of an application scheduling bug, and in particular failure for the system to recognise a fixed carrier. E.G. could the iPad be suffering some kind of signal drift malfunction??

If i set my carrier manually, I would expect the routing table to be updated and fixed and the network search function to be suspended - it isn't - that does not seem right.

In automatic mode I then went back onto Safari and went here

http://www.robtex.com/dns/threembb.co.uk.html#records

This gives 24 hour information of various network modes and topologies of my Data provider - others can be found through similar searches on the robtex site.

Tapping on any of the highlighted links will take you to further pages with link and node (mast) information, last updated, active etc.

Drilling down through the various pages it soon becomes clear that most of the operators are sharing most of the masts available and, so it would appear leasing and releasing the available IP address space to subscribers, this include internetwork Mail servers etc as well.

So, my conclusion is that if end useers are suffering probs with their pads then the functioning of the bind and cache operations within the pad architectecture is not responding the way it should.

This problem is further compounded by the leasing structure of the global networks IP scheme.

The only suggestion I can make until Apple roll out an update to correct the IP bind and lease issue, is to refresh your browsers, dismiss the messages, then when your 3G logo reappears, refresh again - as a temporary workaround.

Please bear in mind that due to complexities of leasing and time zones (this is significant where IPs are broadcast in multinode environments - which is the standard- and on time crossing zones) then there will be a variety of factors that will decide on your reconnect on the fly.

My guess is that with a bit of spade work on Apple's part, this fault can be traced back to a hardware issue with a specific supplier and or part, and possibly an adapter driver coding problem with dynamic assigning and binding on the fly of IP leasing.

I can ONLY recreate this problem on my iPad2 when in manual carrier mode - AND ONLY when visiting the settings page for where this setting is found. this test was conducted without a wireless network being available. Will be retesting later at home when I am on wireless to see if the 3G icon which still normally displays behaves in the same way in that environment, and whilst moving in and out of my home wireless range.

Will update tomorrow after further testing. Regards, Ct.

I'm having this problem with the New iPad too. I don't have this issue with ipad1 & 2. Everytime when the 3G is not working, I have to restart the ipad. This is getting irritating 😠