iPhone 6 Plus - Searching - No Service

[Southern Dad]

I searched the thread and found some old threads about this but nothing recent. My DD13 has my old iPhone 6 Plus 128 GB AT&T. A few weeks ago, it started going into "searching" mode unable to find a carrier. It was on 9.3.3. I updated her to 9.3.4, still had the problem. Took the SIM card out and tried it in my iPhone 6s Plus 128 GB AT&T it worked. I put my SIM in her iPhone, it did not work. Bad SIM ruled out.

After a fruitless call to AT&T where they suggested that I purchase a new iPhone for her on the NEXT plan for only $xx per month, I wiped the device and did a full restore setting it us as a new iPhone. Still searching. As a "Hail Mary!" I updated it to 10.3 and it worked! Until last night. Now it's searching again. I went though a full restore to 9.3.4 and then to 10.4 and got it working. This morning? It's searching again.

Looking on the AT&T forums, I have seen a few people mentioning this. On Twitter, I found that several more people are talking about it. Some of them are Sprint, not AT&T. This seems like an Apple issue. This iPhone is, and has been in an Otterbox Defender for over a year.

Any ideas? Suggestions?

 

[MiniGeek]

Just a long shot here, and this will depend on your carrier's settings... with the settings on my iPhone 6 I go to Settings-Cellular- and then I see a screen that says "Cellular Data". That is on. Below that is Cellular Data Options. From there I go to Voice & Data and in that menu I have 3 options--LTE, 3G and 2G. I spend most of my time in regions where 4G or LTE is weak or not available. When I was having issues with my 2nd replacement iPhone losing the network while my husband's connection was stable, I realized that the one difference between our phones was that his was set to 3G and mine was set to LTE. After I changed mine to 3G, my connection to the network has been just as stable as his. (The battery life on my phone has also improved remarkably, although I have taken other steps to improve the battery life as well, but I wonder if my phone trying to find LTE when it wasn't available most of the time was also causing faster battery drain.)

As I said, it's probably a long shot that this might do anything for you. It may very well be a hardware issue with the phone itself.

When this phone does appear to find the network, see if it is able to make and receive phone calls. When my first replacement iPhone 6 was having this type of problem and it's connection to the network was off and on, I realized that even though my phone appeared to be on the network, it actually was not. It wouldn't make or receive calls.

I have been of the opinion that the iPhone 6x line is such that if one squeezed them, one would derive therefrom a refreshing citrus drink, but I suppose in reality there are many more iPhone 6's that work correctly than not, it's only the people who are experiencing problems who are online discussing it. Best of luck to you.

 

[Southern Dad]

I had posted of this problem on Twitter. AT&T my carrier? Silent. Apple Support? Silent. Both AT&T and Apple Support were linked in the tweet. Sprint contacted me, with a list of suggestions. I'm not even a Sprint customer and yet, this guy reached out to me from their technical support. We went through all the steps that people would normally think about. Reset Network Settings, checked for carrier update, turn off an on airport mode, change settings in cellular data, etc.

Finally, I reset the iPhone completely, downloaded new software, and set it up as a new phone on 9.3.4, then I no choice but upgrade it to 10 if I wanted to restore all daughters settings, accounts, media, etc. That was last night. It seems to be working again as of this morning.

Sprint did tell me that if I wished to switch carriers, they accept iPhones from AT&T for trade in, as long as they power on. They aren't required to connect. When the iPhone 7 comes out, I may be switching. AT&T should think about monitoring their Twitter support accounts. I also met several people who have experienced the same problem on Twitter.

 

[MiniGeek]

Wow, that's good marketing for Sprint, isn't it? I'm glad you got the phone working. (You've got iOS 10??? Not an option here yet. Maybe Apple isn't rolling it out internationally yet.)

Did you ever contact Apple support? If the phone should fail again, maybe they can help. I don't know how much support they provide if one is outside the warranty, but I got more free support than I expected even without Apple Care. My problems started about 4 months after I got a brand new phone, then continued after 30 days later with a replacement phone which they provided (they said issue with phone #2 was their fault and therefore their responsibility, so they replaced that one as well at no cost to me.)

 

[Southern Dad]

Wow, that's good marketing for Sprint, isn't it? I'm glad you got the phone working. (You've got iOS 10??? Not an option here yet. Maybe Apple isn't rolling it out internationally yet.)

Did you ever contact Apple support? If the phone should fail again, maybe they can help. I don't know how much support they provide if one is outside the warranty, but I got more free support than I expected even without Apple Care. My problems started about 4 months after I got a brand new phone, then continued after 30 days later with a replacement phone which they provided (they said issue with phone #2 was their fault and therefore their responsibility, so they replaced that one as well at no cost to me.)

Yes, I contacted The Apple Store at Mall of Georgia. Unfortunately, that iPhone is out of warranty so they couldn't help without sending it out of warranty repair.

I switched to the iOS 10 Beta as a last hope because I wanted to try a second iOS. When it worked, I was overjoyed. So was the thirteen year old that uses it.