iPhone 6 woes

[MiniGeek]

I've had quite a journey with my iPhone 6 devices. Yes, that's plural.

Got my new iPhone 6 in Sept/15. In January, it started randomly rebooting itself when it wasn't being used. When it powered back on, the wifi was disabled and not able to be toggled on. I was able to get it working again by the usual steps--turn phone off, then on, home/off button reset, reset network, reset all settings...Over the 3 month period, there were chats with Apple support and a visit to the Genius bar, where no hardware issues were found. I was advised to restore the phone using iTunes. Eventually, it came to that, as the reboots increased in frequency and the efforts to get the wifi back had to become increasingly aggressive. One day, the bluetooth also stopped working. I restored the phone to factory specs using iTunes. The Wifi and bluetooth remained nonfunctional. The phone was replaced under warranty.

I've had the new iPhone 6 for 31 days now, this is day 32. On day 30, it lost the cellular network. Lots of the usual troubleshooting steps to try to bring it back, hours on the phone with Apple tech support. I am now in a rural area with a satellite internet service, so restoring with iTunes is pretty difficult, to say the least. The service came back for nearly 24 hours, then quit again. In the middle of the night and with spouse's iPhone 6 data plan and hotspot, I was able to do the restore of my phone with iTunes in about 2 hours (as opposed to the 30 or so the satellite service would have taken). The cellular network was back, I restored my stuff from a backup on my computer and went to bed. This morning I awoke to no cell service. But through a bit of toggling this and that, I can get it back, and it's there now...but could be gone in 2 seconds. Or minutes. Or an hour.

The SIM card works just fine in my iPhone 5. Works beautifully. In the 6, it is unreliable now.

I am waiting for my Apple tech to get back to me. I have had him reopen my support case and emailed him details of everything I have done.

I am in a rural area now with no easy physical access to Apple techs. I was in a large city with access to a Genius Bar when the first phone malfunctioned.

It has been suggested to me (by a non technical person) that since I have had issues with 2 phones it a row, it must be something I am doing. (Never mind that my iPhone 5 always worked flawlessly. If it hadn't, I wouldn't have stayed with Apple.) I have never dropped my phone nor gotten it wet. It is in a cover. I am a retired lady, my phone does not see rough usage. The phone is not jailbroken. All apps and the OS are updated. I think it is reasonable that I can expect to be able to use my Apple apps on my Apple phone. I read. I take pictures and videos. I use a browser, I use Facebook and Messenger, I get email with the native mail app, I listen to purchased music. Oh, and I text, use iMessage. And make the occasional phone call, LOL! I have some other apps that are pretty low demand...not powerful gaming apps by any means. The hotspot has barely been touched...haven't really had much chance to. In fact, I don't think I have used it at all. The hotspot in my 5 got used a LOT. I don't think I am doing anything unreasonable or wrong with my phone.

My phone is a gold model, 64 Gb. Are these known to be a problem?

I'm waiting for my Apple tech to contact me...my SIM card has some rub marks on it and I'm wondering if he is leaning toward blaming the SIM card. But the SIM card works great in the 5. I left it in there for a few hours to try it, and it didn't quit on me when it was in the 5. I even used the 5 as a hotspot for my computer last night when a storm on the east coast knocked out my satellite internet service for a while. Not a glitch.
[doublepost=1461773145][/doublepost]At the moment, cellular service on the iPhone 6 randomly cuts out. The last time it did it this morning, I just left it alone and it came back on its own. I am resisting the urge to do anything more with this until I hear back from Apple.

I had posted a thread here before asking about the wifi turning off when the lock screen was on. When I would pick up my phone and tap the home button to show the lock screen, I would see the 3 G on and not the wifi. The wifi was actually a bit slow to come back even once I got out of the lock screen. Since I did the restore last night, that is no longer happening with this phone. The wifi just stays on. The battery is going down pretty fast. In 4 1/2 hours I'm down to 73%.

 

[MiniGeek]

And I'm adding that I just realized that even though my phone may indicate it is connected to the cellular network and I see the cell network name and number of dots, I am unable to make or receive phone calls with this phone. The same SIM card placed in the iPhone 5 works just fine. I think this phone is done.
[doublepost=1461777876][/doublepost]Well, here's one bright spot anyway. Since I downloaded the 1.88 GB worth of 9.3.1 iOS last night, I don't have to redownload it again today. My tech doesn't come on shift for a couple of hours, and this phone is basically nothing more than a fancy camera and e-reader at the moment...So I'm going to restore to factory, set it up as a new phone, and see if I can make or take a phone call with that. If not...then I think we know where the issue is. iTunes is slowwwwwwwwwwwwwly 'extracting the software', and we're going to have the phone as per brand new and see if that works.

 

[MiniGeek]

Did not work. Phone has no cell service and carrier settings are absent on a phone restored to factory specs. My cellular provider is saying this is Apple's issue and there is nothing further they can do. Using the iPhone 5 in the meantime, which is working just fine.

 

[iThingsGurl]

The elaborate account of your experience is quite appreciable. I'm sure it will help a lot of people who have similar issues in the future. Thank you.

Apologies for I may not be able to address all your problems, but I'll give you my opinion on those that I can. Firstly, it is definitely not because of anything you are doing, and certainly not due to any apps installed by you - the fact which was reiterated by setting up the phone as new and yet the issues remained status quo so to speak. Also, there have not been any known issues with a 64GB Gold iPhone 6, hence we can strike that off as well.

I'd suggest you to have your SIM card changed. This will not solve your problem - for I believe the issue is probably with the hardware of your iPhone - but it will give the Apple Tech Support one less reason to pass the buck to the cellular service provider. It will add to your long list of trials and errors, and will save your time when you contact the tech again. While there is no logic to this, nor a technical justification, at times certain "old" SIM cards do not work on certain devices, but work fine with the device they are "used to work with" (I know it doesn't make a lot of sense).

Having said that, it is more likely than not that your phone will be replaced by Apple (again!). If you are at your current location for a longer time and don't have an Apple Store nearby, you may be required to mail your phone to Apple. They may need to inspect it first and then send you a new phone. At an Apple Store, you may walk-in with your old phone and walk out with a new one pretty soon and it'll be easier to demonstrate your problem in-person rather than on a phone call.

 

[MiniGeek]

Well, here's how the saga ends. Hopefully. The last person I spoke to at Apple figured that the problem arose because the replacement phone was from the U.S., while my SIM card was from a Canadian cell phone carrier. It worked for a while, but 30 days in, the network caught up to the fact that this phone was not built to work with that SIM card. (I thought you could unlock a phone and put whatever SIM card you wanted to, and the original Genius Bar in the U.S. did say my replacement phone was locked to my Canadian carrier. Oh well...) The Apple rep said that phones from the U.S. were not meant to work with a SIM from a Canadian carrier and sooner or later, this was going to happen. She said they would replace my phone with a phone from Canada. This phone is being shipped to me, at no charge (because she said Apple was responsible for this and I had already been inconvenienced enough). When I get the new one, I'll return the old one.

I'm thinking there probably wasn't ever anything wrong with the replacement phone in the first place, it just wasn't going to work with my carrier. My carrier did try.

The active SIM card was newly issued to me with my first iPhone 6. This is the card that was placed in the replacement iPhone 6 that I was given when I was in the U.S. I now have it in my iPhone 5 so that I won't be without a phone until the new 6 arrives. The tech from my cell carrier said the SIM should work in the replacement iPhone 6.

So the iPhone 6 is freshly erased, turned off, and put away to await shipment.

They've placed a hold on my credit card so I won't have to wait until they receive my old phone before they send out the new one. My phone is in mint condition, I'm sure they won't find any reason to keep the funds.

This notion that iPhones made for use in one country won't work with the SIM card of another country will require some investigating. We spend a lot of time in the U.S. and we had my husband's old iPhone 5 unlocked because we had planned to pop a Verizon SIM card in there and use it on a 'pay as you go' basis. We've never heard that this wouldn't work. Before I had the phone replaced in the U.S., I contacted my Canadian carrier to see if their SIM card would work, and they figured it would if the phone was unlocked. But the Genius Bar said the phone was locked to my carrier.
Today the Apple tech said that if you need to replace your phone, you need to get the replacement from the same country where you got your phone.

So...I dunno?

Spouse says maybe Apple doesn't know what the problem is either and it's just easier to send me a new phone.

 

[MiniGeek]

Replacement phone is here, activated with the same SIM card. Restored from backup. Redownloaded most of the apps, a few songs. (Why doesn't restoring from an iTunes backup on my computer get my songs back on my iPhone, at least...not to mention the apps???) I had one nasty moment where I looked at my phone while here in the office and saw that dreaded "No service", but I picked up the phone and the network came back immediately. Hopefully just a weak signal in this room.
The Apple staff were awesome, but I really don't want to have to go through something like this again.
I did gain fresh appreciation for my trusty iPhone 5, though. Had it been bigger than 16 Gb, I wouldn't have minded sticking with it. Once I got used to the lack of touch ID.

 

[MiniGeek]

I contacted my carrier and told them exactly what happened. I am trying to prevent an issue where, 30 days in with replacement phone #2, I find myself with no cellular service. The tech from my cell carrier found this quite interesting. He put in an order to unlock my current iPhone to hopefully prevent any further problems of this nature. Normally that would cost $50 Cdn, but I'm not being charged for this. So far, replacement iPhone 6 #2 is working fine, and even the touch ID is performing much better than it ever did with the other 2. If I can go 30 days with no issues, I think I will consider this solved.

 

[MiniGeek]

This notion that iPhones made for use in one country won't work with the SIM card of another country will require some investigating.

I am updating to add this: I was on my cell carrier's website, and there is a page there to check for compatibility of smart phones purchased from outside the carrier's region. I happened to have the IMEI of phone #2 handy--the phone that came to me from a U.S. Apple store, the phone that Apple said was not ever meant to function on a Canadian carrier. I typed that in, and my carrier said that that phone was compatible with their network.

So I would say no one really knew what the problem was with that phone. Nice of Apple to replace it, though