The Iphone native weather app is not working properly, not updating, confusing some times. Is anyone else experiencing this?

Hi Joe,

Thanks for your detailed reply. I didn't really expect that anything had been fixed; I was just frustrated that after silently following this issue for the past two weeks, things seemed to slow down, if not stop altogether. I have been following your posts with great interest over at MacRumors because it seems to me that you and I are a lot alike. You have been very methodical, and very precise with each and every step, which is exactly how I like to do things. The big difference is that you have the patience to sit down and write about it. I wouldn't have had the patience to write out each and every step after having all of the assorted "support people" waste my time the way they have yours! I know what it's like because I have been there before on other issues. I always find it very disheartening when I realize that I know more about the subject at hand than the support people do. I especially dread the "erase and restore" option because I know full well that they have nothing better to suggest, they have run out of options, and it's not going to solve the problem, but they always want you to go through the lost time and aggravation before they'll consider going further.

Having said all of that, this afternoon at 4:04 PM Eastern standard time I was attempting to demonstrate to my brother the very problem that we are all experiencing by asking him to turn off his Wi-Fi and attempt to update the native weather app over the cellular network. (For the record he has an iPhone 4S running iOS 6.0.2, and I have an iPhone 5, also running iOS 6.0.2., both on the AT&T network.)

Much to my astonishment (and disappointment, and dismay, and disbelief, and relief?) his weather app updated over the cellular network! I then turned the Wi-Fi off on my phone, and went to the native weather app whereupon mine updated immediately as well!

As I write this, it is now 5:06 PM Eastern standard time, and we have both updated the native weather apps on our phones about half a dozen times each over the course of the last hour, all via the AT&T cellular network. Each time (for both of us) the weather information has updated immediately. Has someone fixed something somewhere just this afternoon? I have not been able to successfully do this for the last two weeks, and now I have been able to do it on many successive occasions over the course of the last hour. Is it really fixed? Is anyone else's working properly again?

Brian

Hello Brian,

Thanks much for the kind reply.

VERY GLAD to hear that your weather app, as well as your brother's are both currently updating over the data

network!!! Perhaps there are some engineers/technicians behind the scenes working on the problem.

As of this post, my weather app still fails to update over the data network, but as we have said previously, it works perfectly over wifi. (Wifi is not always available everywhere).

I understand completely your frustation at the sometimes lack of interest/knowledge exhibited by support personnel. You make an excellent point when you say that it is "disheartening" to realize that you know more about the subject than the support people do. This is extraordinarily apparent when going into AT&T or speaking to them on the phone. It is also true that the support technicians are not interested in proceeding further once you have informed them of each step that you have taken to resolve the issue (erase and restore, hard reset, etc...) because they really have run out of options. One option that they DO have though is to take your inquiry and pass the information along to their technical dept. I had to practically beg the AT&T tech on the phone to pass along the link to this and other threads to his tech dept. Why? I don't know. If there is an issue out there that a lot of your customers are experiencing and you don't know the answer as to why...wouldn't getting tech ops involved be one step in the right direction?

Anyhow, I continue to try and come up with some sort information that will shed light on the matter and help everyone out. I am not an engineer or a scientist or a genius. I'm just your average guy looking for a solution.

Thanks again to all of you for your continued input.

Cheers everyone,

joe

Same problem here, I'm using an AT&T iPhone 4S, it stopped working a few weeks ago on 5.1.1, so I tried everything, even multiple restores, and updated to 6.1.1, nothing works.

It will update over wifi, but not cell data, you can't even search for towns, I've called AT&T & apple several times I even went into my local AT&T store to see if their display iPhones would work, they didn't.

Worse yet is the sales people had no idea they weren't working, and everybody I talk to hasn't heard of this issue, they all say "get a different weather app" and I want to punch them when they say that!

I like and prefer the native weather app, it's perfect for me (when it worked).

Joe,

Glad to hear you share my sentiments. I certainly share all of yours!

Well, it is now 7:33 AM EST (I'm located in New York State), and at 15+ hours later, my weather app is still updating properly via the AT&T cellular network! So it has gone through a busy period of the day (yesterday afternoon/evening), a slow portion of the day ( the wee hours overnight), and back into a busy portion of today/this morning, and it is still maintaining proper updating.

One thing that I forgot to mention previously is that I DID send a suggestion email about this issue to Apple (as was suggested on one of the other (MacRumors?) forums. I don't know if that played into this in any way, shape, or form, but I just figured I'd mention it.

Good luck, and best to all,

Brian

I have had this same problem, and so has everyone else that I know with the latest iOS.

I do not understand how all these apple and att employees that use the phone has not done anything about it.

Yes its a basic weather app that has no bells or whistles but it does come in handy.

Apple and ATT need to stop blamming each other. I do not have an engineering degree but I can easily figure out that it is ATT. Works on wifi, does not work on ATT cellular. duh

Well, here I am again, with my tail between my legs, back because as of about 11:30 AM EST, the problem has returned. I was foolish enough to believe that because the problem was absent for 19.5 hours, I was going to put it behind me and move on. I was WRONG!

One thing that I noticed this time that I hadn't before (and I'm sure that it was like this, but I just hadn't paid attention to it) is that the location-based city had not updated itself, either. Maybe people have mentioned this before and I just didn't notice, but I thought that it was just the weather that hadn't updated. But the fact that it doesn't update my location leads me to believe that this is a problem long before the request to update gets sent to AT&T, Yahoo, or Apple, in whatever combination and order.

My guess is that there are multiple bugs located locally right on our phones, specifically pertaining to the iPhone's GPS location, AT&T's data network, it reaching Yahoo's servers, and time of day. (Oh yeah, remember New Year's Day when "Do Not Disturb" stopped working?)

Hello Brian

Sorry to hear that your hopes have been dashed and that the issue has not been resolved. I too thought it had been fixed when my phone updated for 1 hour over AT&T's data network a few days ago. It has since failed to do so at all, except over wifi. All I have is a blank blue page with Orlando, the current time, and "Update Failed" at bottom of screen.

So, here is a rundown on what I have learned.

1. This issue started for me in late November, with my iPhone 4.

2. It does not appear to be specific to ios 6.0.1 or 6.0.2 as some people who are experiencing the issue are running ios 5.x and even 4.x as was the AT&T tech whom I spoke with 2 days ago when his device failed to update.

3. Erasing and restoring the operating system (even without installing data from a backup) does not resolve the issue. Neither does a Hard reset, resetting Network settings, toggling on/off Airplane mode, or reboot after reboot.

4. The issue appears on iPhones 3GS, 4, 4S, and 5 (yes all of them).

5. It does not matter where you go...I travel all over the US...the issue appears everywhere.

6. All other apps on my phone work perfectly using mobile data (4G/LTE)...even location based apps work.

7. There does not seem to be anyone, as far as I have been able to ascertain, who is on the Verizon or Sprint Networks having this issue. If there are, please let us know. My family and friends who are on these 2 Networks are reporting no problems.

8. This problem occurred for users on the Meteor Network in Ireland a couple of years ago, and is now affecting some users on Vodafone in the UK. The problem was resolved with a firmware upgrade by METEOR.

Read here:

http://forums.meteor.ie/t5/Apple/Iphone-Weather-App-Not-Updating-Using-Mobile-Da ta-After-Meteor/td-p/14661/page/6

9. My phone was tested at the Apple store against 3 inhouse Test phones. The weather app on all 3 test phones failed to update over the AT&T network, as did the Apple Genius' own personal phone.

10. The common thread here: AT&T.

11. Silence from AT&T.

Yes, the silence is deafening. However, they are literally SHOUTING at all of us "We don't care about customer service!"

I once said that I would never use AT&T again as a service provider. But, I believe in giving second chances for the most part, and I gave them one. That will not happen again, and they can rest assured of that promise.

As in all aspects of life, when you settle for less, ultimately...that is exactly what you get.

All the best,

joe

I'm in Eureka, MO same darn problem.

I'm in Houston, TX & experienced the same problem a few days ago (today Mon Jan. 19). I tried various adjustments without luck & finally came to Apple Support on Sun. Jan 20. Disconnecting WiFi allowed the weather app to update correctly. I then turned WiFI on & weather app failed to update. I have iPhone 4 with updated IOS & on At&T system. Since Sun evening weather updating but WiFi off. The only thing this seems to confirm that problem probably lies within AT&T.

John Margo

Same for me. AT&T, updated to the new OS yesterday (1/29/13) but no joy! I have AppleCare. I'm going to call Apple and see what the scoop is.

UPDATE - I just called Apple and spoke with Summer. We tried a number of things that a lot of us had tried before. The following was successful, however, in fixing the problem on my Apple iPhone 4S on AT&T:

Settings

General

Reset (at the very bottom)

Reset All Settings (phone will ask you twice and will then shut down and restart)

Youi will not lose any of your "stuff" but you will have to sign back into your wi-fi if you're connected that way,reset your location services for your native weather app, you'll loose your current back ground picture and if you'd need to shut off your stock ticker, it will have turned back on.

It worked for me and I'm glad to have my weather up to date again!

UPDATE: Well, I'm not going to be foolish and claim that it is fixed, but the problem went away for me on its own at approximately 4:30 PM EST Sunday (Jan. 27), and the native weather app is still updating properly (and speedily) over the cellular network as of right now (10:45 PM EST Tuesday, Jan. 29). I have done NOTHING to my phone. I just keep turning off wi-fi to test it, and then turn it back on after it has properly updated. That's it.

UPDATE: Thursday, January 31 at 8:00 AM EST, and the native weather app is still working properly for me over AT&T's data network, further being tested by the fact that due to a power outage in my area, I have had no wi-fi for the last 2.5 hours. So I am at 87.5 hours and counting with it still functioning properly. Any news on your end, Joe?

Did you see my update (Frogmom09)? Have you tried my solution? I have had no problems since I executed per the directions I provided. I hope this helps you.

Frogmom09 wrote:

Did you see my update (Frogmom09)? Have you tried my solution? I have had no problems since I executed per the directions I provided. I hope this helps you.

Yes, I read your update, thank you, but I have no need to try your solution.

Did you carefully read both of my updates? I am no longer having the problem (for the last four days) and I did nothing to correct it, leading me to believe that AT&T and/or Apple fixed it on their own. Joe (K9Lover) had already attempted your repair in his first post in this thread (Dec 26, 2012 11:51 AM) to no avail, as have many others on both of the MacRumors and iClarified forums. I think your attempt at Reset All Settings was more likely a coincidence in timing since it seems to have repaired your problem after mine had already resolved itself (on its own) on Jan. 27, 2013 at 4:30 PM EST.

My only reservation is that both Joe and I have had previous, temporary "fixes" that went away on their own. Joe's lasted about 36 hours, and mine was about 20 hours. The fact that I have gone almost 96 hours does give me hope that maybe this time it will be permanent... Thank you for your followup.