iPhone 5 - Disable 3G?

Just checked my i5, no you cant turn off 3g.

I've got the 4S with iOS6 ans I have the option to turn off 3G. Not usr eif this is still avialable for the 5.

stellamaris5 wrote:

I've got the 4S with iOS6 ans I have the option to turn off 3G. Not usr eif this is still avialable for the 5.

No option to turn off off 3g(4g) just to turn off LTE.

You can.

Settings/General/Cellular/Enable 3G then just slide to off.

Well, that is the option on my iphone 5 in the UK on the O2 network.

Message was edited by: Dos

Have just edited my previous post as I realised that info was important.

Thats good to know, my US iPhone 5 definately doesn't have that option.

Just an update to the info on this page, which I read and was helpful before I just put in a call to Orange...

I'm on Orange (or EE as they're now known) in the UK, using iPhone 5 with the latest OS update (6.0.1). After talking to EE (someone VERY helpful in customer services), she informed me that there is no option to turn off 3G for the iPhone 5. I assume she was talking about generally for the handset, rather than just on Orange.

She did however give me some good advice:

Go to Settings/General/Mobile Data. There should be an option to enable LTE. Note that this option was not visible to me until I'd turned Mobile Data off and then on again (bizarrely). Unless you happen to be in one of the small number of areas in the UK which has 4G, this MUST be turned off, otherwise it can worsen your 3G and voice signal. Not sure of the technical accuracy of this, but sounds reasonable to me.

Then, go into Settings/Carrier and turn off automatic network selection (if it is turned on). This will give you a list of the networks your phone can see. You must select EE(3G), otherwise you get the same problem as above. The straight EE option (which for me was the one selected under the 'automatic' setting) looks for 4G.

Hopefully all this is of help to others. I'm not sure if it has solved my particular problem yet...I have signal problems when at home for voice calls and I was advised to try turning off the 3G, thereby pushing calls through 2G (which should be better for voice alone). The fact that you are UNABLE to turn off 3G on the iPhone 5 probably means this suggestion won't work, but at least turning off 4G/LTE may make a difference.

And an update...I think the lack of 3G option only applies to iPhone 5 on the EE network. Just sat with a friend who has an iPhone 5 (on O2) and he has the 3G switch visible on Settings/General/Mobile Data.

As it turns out you can lock it to the edge network.

General>Settings>Mobile data

mobile date on

Enable LTE off

Data roming on

go back out of settings, hold down the power and front button and keep holding until the phone goes off, turn it on again and hey presto!!!

However you have to do this every time you then turn 3g or 4g or LTE back on again.

Sorry, scrap that, it seemed to work then later is reconnected to 3g - sorry

It seems it depends on carrier settings. I put today one2free SIM card to unlock iPhone 5 and at first I saw only 3G toggle. Later on I got message that I could update carrier settings which I did and presto, no 3G toggle anymore, just LTE. Annoying.

I've had the same problem as the OP regarding the inability to switch off LTE & 3G on the iPhone 5, using the EE network in the UK.

After accepting the last carrier update on the phone itself, the 'Enable 3G' menu became 'Enable LTE'. When this option is disabled, the data connection defaults to 3G, whether a 2G (GPRS) signal is available or not. Prior to the carrier update, it was possible to use the less battery-intensive 2G connection for data, when I chose to use it.

I spoke to AppleCare about this & I was told that the carrier updates are in the hands of EE UK. AppleCare are unable to let me overwrite the carrier update with a previous version & EE UK can't/won't do it either. Having contacted EE UK, they told me the only way to switch off an available 3G data connection was to switch off data completely, within the cellular menu.

This inability to manually switch off an LTE & 3G data connection on my iPhone 5 means that its battery will be depleted unnecessarily sooner than I'd like, but I no longer have any control over that. Had I known that the carrier update would have had this effect, I'd never have installed it.

The same problem applies to all of the carriers making use of the EE mobile network, including T-Mobile, Orange, Virgin Mobile, Vectone & Ikea Family Mobile, when used with the iPhone 5, as the current carrier update is likely to be EE 13.2 for all of them.

It'd be useful if users in this same position could downgrade their carrier updates themselves, but this doesn't seem to be currently possible. :(

I contacted AppleCare about trying to downgrade the latest EE 13.2 carrier settings update on the iPhone 5, but their response wasn't of any help, unfortunately.

Despite trying to reset network settings & all settings, the carrier remained as EE 13.2, leaving the LTE menu in place, which continued to prevent manually choosing a 2G data connection.

However, it is possible to downgrade the carrier update & replace the LTE option with the old 3G toggle, by erasing all contents & settings & then restoring from a backup. The backup does not restore the carrier settings, because those settings are not saved when the backup is made. Restoring network settings should really do the job, but it doesn't.

Just make sure you've made an appropriate iTunes/iCloud backup before wiping your phone!

After I restored the phone from the backup, Settings -> General -> About showed the carrier to be T-Mobile UK 13.0

After a couple of seconds, the carrier settings update pop up appeared. Declining it then stopped the upgrade to EE 13.2. Unfortunately, this pop up appears every time I go into this menu, but it's a small price to pay to be able to switch off 3G when I don't need it.

I would be useful if Settings -> General -> Reset had an option to reset carrier settings updates, to overcome this problem. It'd also be nice if carrier settings updates displayed sufficient information to allow users to make a informed decision about whether they actually want to install the updates at all.