iPhone XS Max poor signal

I’m at this time almost certain that it’s a problem with your network settings. I know you’ve tried this before. What I think is that your carrier needs to update their software. I would look around your area to see if someone else with a phone like yours is having the same problem. I’ve been reading about this problem all around the world and sometimes it’s a defective phone and most of the time it’s the network you’re using. Have you switched phones at your carrier? I’m at this point thinking it’s not Apple and it’s your carrier. You need to definitely change the phone out and see what happens. Don’t look in one direction to solve this problem. If your old iPhone is still getting a good signal and your new phone isn’t getting a good signal that leads me to your carrier’s network settings. Sometimes one tech can do things that another tech can’t do. This happened to me before. I called to reset my network settings and the tech tried but didn’t succeed. I called and asked for the manager and the problem got solved. Don’t stop looking for the solution. I’m a person who loves to find the solutions to any problem. I’m a firm believer that if you keep trying you’ll succeed. Good luck.

My old phone was getting a good signal. I traded it in for the XS max. Now

I have signal strength problems. I’ve spent hours with my carrier and

apple. I’ve changed my sim and despite Apple and the carrier changing

settings and a new sim I still have this problem. I’ve spoken with

different techs at Apple and the carrier.

On Wed, 14 Nov 2018 at 9:04 am Apple Support Communities <

No it's not a network settings problem as it cuts across multiple carriers. Furthermore I shouldn't have to deal with this kind of a process to get my $1,200 phone working properly. The problem is that Apple uses an inferior Intel processor and yet still charges customers a premium price for their device. There's a reason why Apple has billions of dollars in profits, they over charge the customer.

You clearly have no idea. We are talking about our phones not functioning as phones. I’ve personally had five new iPhones, 1 xs, 3 xs maxs and 1 XR. Guess what. Reset network settings on all of them, even had the carrier Verizon do the same thing. Phones still don’t work as phones. Meanwhile everyone else with any other phone not named xs xs max or XR have just wonderful luck with reception. So tell me how it’s my carrier and not inferior hardware problems. I still have my X and it does everything it should and have never had to reset anything EVER this years iPhones feature intel modems (I believe) and bar none they aren’t working as good as the Qualcomm modems in the prior iPhone models. Apple needs to figure this out. I’m tired of people telling me I need to try this and try that to get a phone to work. It should work straight outta the box

You got it right. It should work straight out the box. This is a very expensive phone to be having this issues. It should work as phone it is. Me too. Having same. Even Apple change my iPhone XS Max , I'm still having the same problems with signal. Apple should recall this phones. That's it.

So those of us not having issues or who have better reception than past devices are what, mistaken?

I understand your frustration, and that's why Apple offers their 14 day return policy; no phone will work for everyone.

There have been about two or three people on this thread who say they have as good if not better reception with these new phones. The majority have serious issues. That doesn’t make anyone’s experience right or wrong. It doesn’t mean the people who have issues are mistaken or the people who have better reception are mistaken. It just we each have different experiences and with many different carriers in different countries. A 14 day exchange on a $2000 phone LOL. I spent over a week spending time with apple support They’d take over an hour taking data from my phone then take 3 or 4 days to get back to me then want more data. The phones with issues should be recalled and we should all get phones that work as well as yours.

That's the thing; I think location, cell frequencies in use, etc. are the culprits, not the phone hardware.

I have no proof either way, all I can relate, as you do, is my personal experience.

If the phones were just bad, no one would have a good experience, and that's not the case.

Note we have seen issues in the past where a majority did experience problems, and it generated far more posts than this thread has.

That doesn't help if YOU are the one having issues, I realize.

All I can say, is if you can return your phone, you may want to. Otherwise Apple will do all they can to solve software issues, although no one outside the company is privy to their development schedule.

Define reception? I'm not talking about how many bars of service I have, i know those things are arbitrary and don't tell the whole story. My point is this, I have an Iphone X, works perfect. I take the SIM card out of it and put it in an iphone XS Max, same location, and attempt to make a call to my wife, sitting 10 feet away from me. Her phone rings and the XS max instantly says call failed, I try again, call failed, etc. I did that 15 times in a row, and not a single call would connect. I put the SIM card back in my iphone X, call my wife, and low and behold, it connected and was still connected 15 mins later when we hung up.

I put the SIM card BACK in the XS max, call my wife, it connects, then fails after 10 seconds, called again, fails after 5 seconds, called again and it failed instantly. I have done that with 5 new iphones, even the XR that has a different modem than the XS or XS max, and it still wouldn't work as a phone. I even did that test with a verizon rep, and she couldn't get two words out before my phone would disconnect. So if I were you i'd buy a lottery ticket with the luck you are having with your new iphone, as you sir are an anomaly.

I'd be curious as to your cellular provider and how much you use your phone away from WiFi and how many calls you make and receive in a day. That may tell more of the story.

And I'm not the only one in my town to experience this. Two other people have either the XS or XS Max and they both are experiencing the same problem. In fact, we can't even call each other with our phones, they simply refuse to hold a call. And if they do connect, they fail within seconds, and the phones "signal bars" go blank, it shows no service, then it says 1x and finally ends on 3g. All 3 of them do that.

This tells me it's not a location, or provider issue, it's a phone issue. I'll change my mind when I can see something that tells me different.

As of today I have simply upgraded to a new Iphone X with more storage, and will wait for the next round of new iphones to come out in 2019. My job relies on the ability to make and receive phone calls and I can't risk it with anything that fails to perform.

I have AT&T and there are notable areas around me that have been known to all as "drop zones" - reception is just poor in those areas because of a lack of cell towers and geography.

Driving through those areas would always result in a dropped call on previous iPhones including my iPhone X/

I have been able to make and retain calls in those same areas on my XS Max and no, AT&T hasn't added any towers.

Likewise, there are a couple locations where I could never usably use LTE - there might be a bar or two but any attempt to use data would just spin forever.

I can use LTE in those same areas with my XS Max.

It's not a miracle worker - there are plenty of areas where I couldn't get a usable signal before and still can't.

But overall, my experiences have been as good or better with my XS Max than they were with my X or the 8 Plus I had before that.

I put the SIM card BACK in the XS max, call my wife, it connects, then fails after 10 seconds, called again, fails after 5 seconds, called again and it failed instantly. I have done that with 5 new iphones, even the XR that has a different modem than the XS or XS max, and it still wouldn't work as a phone. I even did that test with a verizon rep, and she couldn't get two words out before my phone would disconnect. So if I were you i'd buy a lottery ticket with the luck you are having with your new iphone, as you sir are an anomaly.

To do a fair comparison, I'm curious if they would let you try that same trick on a Pixel 3 or Note 9 (assuming they use a compatible SIM) and see what happens.

I just up graded today from an iPhone X to an XS Max and within the 20 minutes drive home I lost phone signal 3 times with 2 dropped calls on a route I do daily .

I’ve never lost signal before on my X on this route .

This is a brand new XS Max I just upgraded to at my local EE store .

I’ll be contacting Apple ASAP

I too have the same network issue on my iPhone XS MAX (physical dual SIM, Hongkong version). Network reception is really poor on both networks. The major problem is if I am connected to cellular data (LTE), network becomes zero in every 2 minutes. So if I am on call (say Whatsapp), the other party cannot hear anything for the 10-20 seconds and then again it starts reconnecting when the network reconnects. During re-connection, you can clearly notice the signal strength from zero to 4-5 dots.

This network drop is happening very frequently and it is a pain to bear with. Tried all possibilities (resetting network settings, carrier update, reboot etc), but all in vein. This looks like a hardware issue. What's the way forward ???

Why would I need to have data roaming switched on to make a phone call?

Not being smart. I really would like to know what’s behind that.

If I’m in an area where other people using the same carrier and a different model iPhone have full cellular coverage and I only have one or two bars why should I need to have data roaming to get a better quality voice call.

This is a long shot — so don't complain if it doesn't help. Anyway, in Settings > Airplane Mode Off...

Cellular > Network Selection > ...

...If it's set to Automatic, turn it Off and then tap on your Carrier's name below that setting.

I only suggest this as it solved an issue on my iPhone 7 Plus which was taking a long time to connect with that Network Selection setting on Automatic. But after turning that setting off, connection is immediate. ...Yes, it's a different problem, but it's related — so perhaps worth checking that Network Selection setting.

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Hello Marimarg, I also start experienced this issue like 2-3 days ago. Okay my story start, I use iPhone 7 Plus for 3 month just now. I don't have any problem currently before updating iOS to 12.1. What happen after I update is my audio receiver got problem which if i make a call, i got a very slow voice from receiver. I try finding answer from this apple website too but only found temporary fix which I need to gently rub my audio receiver, but still cant be clear like before. Then this Sunday start the issue with my signal, before this my signal bar maintain at 4 bar without any problem. If I play games like PUBG or games which got PING, normally would be around 50-70 ping. Then, I try all the method like reset network setting, restart my iPhone, turn on and off aeroplane mode but no luck. Weird thing is, if I change my data to LTE, my signal bar change from 2 to 4 bars, sadly it don't stay long, around 2-3 minutes then drop again to 2 bar. I also test my brother sim which also same as mine. Insert into my iPhone 7 Plus but still the same issue while my brother use my SIM and got maintain 4 bars (tested by playing games around 30 minutes on iPhone 5S). So I dont think this is hardware issue. 😟