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 5 and "NO SIM CARD INSTALLED" error

I got my iPhone 5 today and everything worked beautifully for 3 hours. I made one phone call and about 10 minutes later when I stepped onto and airplane I noticed the phone saying "NO SIM CARD".


What's going on here??? How can I fix? I've read about this same thing happening to the 4 and 4S. Are those fixes the same for the 5?


I'm on a trip and won't have access to cellular networks unless this is FIXED. I'm kinda ****** since this is a BRAND NEW IPHONE 5.


Someone please help. :-/

iPhone 5, iOS 6, NO SIM CARD INSTALLED errror

Posted on Sep 21, 2012 5:30 PM

Reply
234 replies

Sep 23, 2012 2:43 PM in response to Interface7

mine is at&t 64 GB and after experiencing three episode of no SIM I went to ATT store and replaced the sim card yesterday. So far it is working but if recurs I will try with Apple to get a new handset. I am not sure if this is sim card issue or hardware problem. att rep told me there are thousands of these incidents since release on Friday. if this continues I may ask for a refund. also this phone shows one less signal bar than my wife's 4.

Sep 23, 2012 4:40 PM in response to Franknjan

im with rogers canada

got my iphone 5 last friday

saturday morning comes, my phone experienced the NO SIM CARD INSTALLED

then apple asked me to buy a new sim card which i did

then called apple again because its the same thing


so apple rep told me to restore the iphone, while restoring it, the iphone still didnt detected the sim

but after 3hours, miracle happens,


I GOT SIGNAL.!!!!


then today sunday... i see that message again 4x again

Sep 23, 2012 5:21 PM in response to Interface7

My iphone5 reported the no SIM card problem yesterday but after a few restarts it worked fine. I made an appointment with an Apple genius anyway. They checked out the phone and couldn't find anything wrong, but they swapped it out for a new one anyway. They transferred my sim to the new phone and everything seemed ok. As I was driving home with the new phone I got the no sim error again. I pulled into an AT&T store and they gave me a new SIM card. So far so good.

Sep 23, 2012 10:26 PM in response to Interface7

So it does appear that the common denominator here is that it is the AT&T iPhone5's that's having issues, more so than any other carrier - at least with respect to this 'NO SIM INSTALLED" issue.


I will not even bother to begin messing around with the phone to get into a SIM card that may or may not work with cleaning since I read from many of the replies that they repeatedly did so but only for it to recur over & over again.


THERE MUST BE SOMETHING ABOUT THE AT&T CELL TOWERS SYNCHING UP WITH OUR NEW iPHONE5's. Because the bigger problem to me besides this 'NO SIM" is that I have long & multiple periods o f time that I have "NO SERVICE" at all these past 3 days. With only 1 tiny little bar no matter where I am in the city. Can't make calls. Can't text either.


So, I will go back to AT&T tomorrow and show them this forum and tell them to re-activate my old iPhone4 until they have a permanent solution to this problem between them and Apple. Getting a new SIM isn't the only problem I'm having. NO SERVICE is the bigger problem.


THANK YOU ALL!

Sep 23, 2012 11:48 PM in response to GalFridayOrganizer

Actually I'm on Verizon and it just happened to me tonight. I took the case off and it came up with No Sim. Took the sim out and blew it off. Put it back in and it came up with Search for service then it went to No Sim again. Took the sim out again and cleaned the contacts with a little alcohol and haven't had an issue since. If it happenes again I'll just take it to Verizon and get a new sim.

iPhone 5 and "NO SIM CARD INSTALLED" error

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