Q: iPhone 5 and "NO SIM CARD INSTALLED" error

I have the same issue.  My iPhone 5, left on overnight, will display No SIM until rebooted.  I've only had it for 2 nights (since release), but it's happened both nights.

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.

I'll try going to AT&T tomorrow and getting a new SIM.

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

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.

Good info. Glad to hear it may just be bad sim cards and not the phone.

You can add me to the list of people that has this issue. Only thing that works for me is taking the SIM out and rubbing it on something (my shirt for example) and popping it back in. I'm heading for the AT&T store on Tuesday to see if I can get a new SIM.

I had the sim switched out yesterday at AT&T since the  have not had any further issues and hoping it stays that way. I just wonder how many people actually have the same problem but do not post on the forum.

My iphone 5 worked till today. 3 days. Now it says "No Sim Card". Tried reset in settings, rebooting it, restoring it, removing & cleaning the sim, .....No luck !  Will go to Apple Store tommorrow. I have a feeling alot of this might be happening with the new Nano Sims. Might be a faulty batch?? On Rogers in Canada.

My iPhone 5 is having the same problem with the "NO SIM CARD" message. It seems to happen every 6 to 8 hours. I turn the phone off and then back on and it is ok for a while. I have an appointment with Apple on Tuesday.

I have 16gb iphone 5 and I am having the same issue. The first 3 times I was able to restart the phone and it worked fine. The last time took a hard reset to get it to work. I will also be headed to ATT for another sim card in the morning.

- Chris

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!

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.

I got 4 Verizon iPhone5's.  My wife's reported NO SIM.  Apple replaced the phone (he tried replacing the SIM first).  No problems with the new phone!

I can be added to this list. I am on ATT got my phone Friday charged it overnight last night for the first time and woke up to NO SIM CARD INSTALLED. I had to remove the SIM used a soft cloth to clean it and after restarting the phone it seems fine for now.