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iPhone: 'no service' or suddenly dropped from service

A

albertwang

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 30, 2007
8
0
Notre Dame
Hi:

I have read some posts about iphone got 'no service' or dropped from 5 bar to no service. I have got same experience last week and finally solved it (by changing to a new iphone). Here is my story:

I got my iphone on the first day (Friday) and then activated it. Everything works perfectly.

Then from the second day (Saturday) I occasionally got 'No Service'. At first I thought it was due to ATT's bad coverage in school. But from the forth day (Monday) I totally got no signal anywhere. So I went to the local ATT store on Tuesday. The manager helped me to change a new SIM card and everything was fine: I could make calls and using every functions.

I thought the problem was solved by changing a new SIM card. But one day after changing the new SIM card, the iphone got 'No Service' again! I was using EDGE to browse the web when the iphone still had 3 bar signal, then suddenly the signal dropped to 0 and iphone showed 'NO Service'.

After that I made calls to Apple tech support and ATT support. I have spent over 3 hours on the phone and talked to over 10 representatives. They have tried everything like: reset phone setting, restore iphone, reset information from ATT... I also changed SIM card again. But no help. Finally the Apple thought maybe it is due to the defects from this iphone. They helped me to contact a nearby Apple store which still has some new iphone available, and changed my iphone on Friday. It just took 10 mins to change it. And from that on, all the problems solved! From Friday up to now, it never shows 'No service', and I have used EDGE and made calls for over 8 hours and got no problem.

So for those who are still troubled by this problem, ask ATT/Apple to change the SIM card or iphone.
 
interesting... i often find my phone dropping from 5 bars to no bars (and on a couple occasions, to no service). actually, it dropped to no service in nyc this weekend. i was shocked. i am on my third sim card (first one was fried in friday activation frenzy, and second one was replaced when i had to "relocate" in order to "port")... i'll pop into my local apple store and see what they can do for me. coming from verizon, i had originally chalked this up as crappy at&t towers/service, but apparently, this shouldn't be happening... good to know. thanks.
 
I'm not convinced that replacing it will fix network issues like this. Mine works perfectly everywhere but my office. same thing with all my coworkers who have cingular and at&t. I spent too much time at work to not have reliable service so I'm going back to Tmobile and returning the iphone tomorrow.
 
I'm believing it - I started to get no service last night while driving. It was odd, but whatever. Since then, I only get no service so far even at home, where it used to work perfectly.

It has been one day, so probably I should try more - but if this persists, that will be problem. I will visit AT&T tomorrow. :mad:
 
ruen - any luck with no service - me too!

I got the same problem.
Yesterday evening in the car on the way to the airport (LAX) I got no service. Now I'm in Montreal and still No Service. I had to use a Payphone at the airport - any one remember how to use one of those ;)


Anyway, I'm going to be here for 2 weeks and no cell phone - argh! If any one has an ideas what to do, please let me know. I don't think Apple up here will have iPhones around. And Rodger's replaces AT&T.
 
i've been with cingular/at&t for several years now. just before i got my iphone, i used an unlocked treo 680, and an unlocked nokia 6620 periodically (when i was sick of my treo). with both phones, i also experienced the same fluctuation in signal levels as with the iphone. this leads me to believe that it is not specific to the iphone, but a function of the network. now, i have no idea what about the at&t network is causing this, but it hasn't impacted any phone calls for me, only data-related tasks...
 
I've had similar problems with my iPhone where it would have "no service" and it would presist despite being in areas where I knew I had strong service before.

I tried to remedy it on my own - I would then turn on the airplane mode and turn it back off - I would then receive the message that "no SIM card available" I would then power off and power on and it would restore service.

This would happen to me all the time, but I was too lazy to bring it back to the store. I keep my phone on my belt next to my pager. I thought that perhaps it was the pager that somehow interfered with the phone so I switched to to the other side of my belt. I was also carrying the iPhone in my old Blackberry slipcase that had a magnet built into it for some of the Blackberry's features - I stopped using this case as well. I still had the problem for about a day, but then magically, I have not had a recurrence of this problem since then. I have since moved my pager back next to my iPhone and still have not had a problem.

It's been about 10 days since I've had the perpetual "no service" notice. Not sure why I had the problem to begin with, but I think perhaps it was the magnet in the Blackberry case.
 
No service with magnetic case

jrhee said:
I've had similar problems with my iPhone where it would have "no service" and it would presist despite being in areas where I knew I had strong service before.

I tried to remedy it on my own - I would then turn on the airplane mode and turn it back off - I would then receive the message that "no SIM card available" I would then power off and power on and it would restore service.

This would happen to me all the time, but I was too lazy to bring it back to the store. I keep my phone on my belt next to my pager. I thought that perhaps it was the pager that somehow interfered with the phone so I switched to to the other side of my belt. I was also carrying the iPhone in my old Blackberry slipcase that had a magnet built into it for some of the Blackberry's features - I stopped using this case as well. I still had the problem for about a day, but then magically, I have not had a recurrence of this problem since then. I have since moved my pager back next to my iPhone and still have not had a problem.

It's been about 10 days since I've had the perpetual "no service" notice. Not sure why I had the problem to begin with, but I think perhaps it was the magnet in the Blackberry case.
Click to expand...


your post helped me out alot. I experienced the exact same problem. In fact I was using a Treo case that also had a magnetic clasp. Quite a coincidence. Your message helped me get running again. Thanks.
 
Same thing happened to me yesterday and today - multiple times - with my iPhone (just now found this thread).

I get the "no service" indicator when I know I'm in a place that gets a very strong signal. Holding the on/off button down on the top of the phone and getting the Apple logo got service back for me the first time, but the second time I got the "no sim card" (or something like that) message. A few other times it's happened and I have to do the on/off button 2 or 3 times to get rid of the "no service" issue. Obviously something's wrong. Any more info from anyone on this? I'll likely be returning my phone to the AT&T store tomorrow.
 
I had this issue pop up out of nowhere on the second day with my phone.

Don't call Apple. It's a tower/phone communication issue that AT&T knows about and can fix. You might restore/reactivate the phone in iTunes first, though, just to start with a clean slate. I did.

Anyway:

I called AT&T, told them I had a No Service message for 12 hours straight when the phone had been working fine the day before in the same area.The nice lady put me on the line with a tech dude who asked me to power the phone off by holding down the button at the top for several seconds and then sliding the red power bar on the screen to "off." Then he force-sent a patch of "instructional" data of the same variety that the phone receives under normal circumstances anytime the phone is off.

He then had me turn the phone back on. I had bars! Then he had me call him with the iPhone so he could test the signal. All has been great since then: Full bars 24/7, faster Edge speed, and my battery lasts longer than it did on those first two days.

The guy said that I should cycle the phone off like that every so often and that the phone should remain off for two minutes, at least, to ensure that tower information is replaced.

Ha also said to clear the Safari cache every day, for what it's worth.

In short, the phone couldn't find and/or pick a tower. It's an easy fix if you can find the right people to talk to at AT&T.
 
Me, too.

My iPhone worked fine for two weeks then the "no service" thing started happening in places that I normally had 4 or 5 bars.

After resetting, hard resetting, and restoring, no joy. The Apple Store Genius put my sim card in another iPhone. Full signal. Put it back in my iPhone. No service. So they replaced my iPhone with a new one.

One Apple Tech wondered aloud if the internal antenna is shaking loose from its connection in iPhones that exhibit this behavior.
 
I had the same 'no service' message after having my iPhone only a few hours. Power cycling it seems to have fixed the problem. I hope this doesn't become a routine occurrence.
 
I had a similar experience. I removed the SIM card, turned the phone off by holding the sleep button for a few seconds and used the slider, re-inserted the SIM card. When I turned the phone back on all was fine again. It has been working now for two weeks without a problem.
Wonder if in some instances the SIM card is not seated correctly ?
 
Going on on mont of ownership and now mine is starting to do this.

I get lots of "call failed" or just no service at all. A moment later, full service.

Im thinking its the phone since it just started..
 
How to fix this issue

I had the same issue for about 2 weeks before I went to the local apple store and the woman at the ipod bar just reset my factory settings. I haven't had the problem since then (a week ago) and it used to happen a few times a day. She also told me that if that didn't work I could restore the phone via itunes and that if that didn't work I could send it in/exchange it.

Hope this works for everyone else as well!
 
Can't find server...

When you say 'no service' you are not talking about the message the iPhone gives you "Safari can’t open the page because it can’t find the server." Right?

Well, that is the problem I am encountering. I have found a way to fix it when I am a foot from my home network:

http://andrewescobar.com/archive/2007/07/06/change-iphones-wi-fi-dns-settings-to-connect-to-the-internet/

But can't find anything to help me when I am out and about in the real world..

Any suggestions? I would greatly appreciate 'em..

txs!
 
endlsdremr said:
When you say 'no service' you are not talking about the message the iPhone gives you "Safari can’t open the page because it can’t find the server." Right?

Well, that is the problem I am encountering. I have found a way to fix it when I am a foot from my home network:

http://andrewescobar.com/archive/2007/07/06/change-iphones-wi-fi-dns-settings-to-connect-to-the-internet/

But can't find anything to help me when I am out and about in the real world..

Any suggestions? I would greatly appreciate 'em..

txs!
Click to expand...

Did you read any of the thread? It is referring to the signal bars dropping to zero and "no service" appears there as if you have no rf signal.
I get this all the time and I am in a tremendous signal area. Never happened with any of my other ATT phones.
 
Me Too!! Cant Even Swap My Phone

i stay in india and i have an unlocked iphone..im experiencing the same problem.i jus got my iphone some 3 weeks bak..now tht i cant even swap my phone for a new one(as i lost da warranty for unlocking it) is there any other alternative...i really am worried..PLZ HELP
 
Similar No Service problem.. HELP :(

ok.. i have a problem jus like that.. but the only time i get the no service thing is.. like i can send text messages for a little while but after a while when my service goes down a little i still try to send a message and it goes about 3/4 the way and then says error sending message.. then it say "no service" and then after a while all my bars will come back.. but i still cant send messages unless someone sends me a messages and i hurry up and send my message before the other message gets to me.. then after a while the whole process starts again.. if anyone can help me with this please help.. it gets very aggravating.. it might be the hack i put on my iphone to unlock it.. i dont kno...

Thanks for any help
 
No Service solution

Six days it took messing around to find this...

The downloads you will need are; (Download all of these to the desktop for your own sanity)
iTunes 7.5
http://www.filehippo.com/download_itunes/?3402
Iphone 1.1.4 Firmware
http://www.tuaw.com/2008/02/26/ipod-iphone-firmware-update-1-1-4-released/
iBrickr
http://cre.ations.net/creation/ibrickr (This is windows ONLY)
Ziphone 3
http://www.ziphone.org/
Kiphone
http://iphone-freak.com/en/page2/page2.html

Ok so you've downloaded all of these, lets get started...

1. Upgrade your iPhone to Version 2 software through iTunes as normal, and wait for the Sim locked message. You need to do this to normalise your iPhone again incase any previous messing around did anything nasty.

2. Uninstall iTunes if it is a higher version than 7.5 and install iTunes 7.5 (You need to do this to avoid the annoying Error 1604). Some of you may have a problem on the mac when downgrading to iTunes 7.5 (Library error). You need to go to finder click on /Users/Username/Music/iTunes you should see the "iTunes Library" file. MOVE it somewhere safe. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO DELETE THIS FILE, if you do you will have to redo all your playlists etc, believe me I made this mistake (Thank God for Time Machine!!). iTunes 7.5 should launch away

3. Restore your iPhone to 1.1.4. Do this by docking your iPhone and hold down the Option key (Mac) or Shift key (PC) and click on restore. Point iTunes to the 1.1.4 firmware you downloaded earlier. Sit back and relax, you deserve a coffee.

4. Don't panic, you should get an "Error 10xx", usually 1015, this is ok. Take a sip of coffee, a deep breath and proceed.

5. Load up iBrickr, you will need a PC for this if you have a Mac or just fire up Parallels / VMWare. Luckily I had access to an old laptop. iBrickr should recognise your iPhone as being connected.

6. iBrickr (V0.91) has only two options, click the "Boot phone" button. The screen will turn red, this is normal, be patient it takes a couple of minutes to reboot.

7. You should now have have a 1.1.4 iPhone with a baseband from V2 (Who cares, its technical and we don't need to get into it here)

8. Run ZiPhone and use the "Do it all" option. Make another coffee, this takes 10 minutes or more.

9. You now have a jailbroken phone, with a "No Service" problem. Great.

10. Load up KiPhone. click on "iErase" (Mac) or "debug boot" and "Erase baseband" (PC). I HAD MORE SUCCESS WITH THE PC VERSION. The Mac version hung twice, it's your choice but for your own sanity maybe try the PC Version.

11. Enjoy, you should have full service back.

12. Dock with iTunes, it will ask you if you want to upgrade your iPhone, make sure to click the "Do not ask me again" button and click don't upgrade. Otherwise you will be back at square one.

13. Drink lots of beer, Apple you should be ashamed of yourselves, I wasted the majority of six days of my life to get this problem sorted. Pity-full. :mad::mad::mad:
 
I had the no service problem on my 2g iphone today. After hours with AT&T telling me that I am in a best coverage area,they show no problems and that maybe my phone doesn't work properly in my area (though it has had no problems for the last 5 months in the exact same area) I finally headed to Apple.

They immediately replaced my iphone without even looking for a problem with a SIM card or anything else. Though I couldn't convince the Mac Genius to upgrade me to a 3g, he did say when they run out of the old ones they will have to upgrade those still under warranty to the 3g for free if they have issues. My phone now has no issues and I have service again.

My advice to those googling for answers with this, like I was this morning, go to Apple and get a new phone.
 
hibernian56 said:
Six days it took messing around to find this...

The downloads you will need are; (Download all of these to the desktop for your own sanity)
iTunes 7.5
http://www.filehippo.com/download_itunes/?3402
Iphone 1.1.4 Firmware
http://www.tuaw.com/2008/02/26/ipod-iphone-firmware-update-1-1-4-released/
iBrickr
http://cre.ations.net/creation/ibrickr (This is windows ONLY)
Ziphone 3
http://www.ziphone.org/
Kiphone
http://iphone-freak.com/en/page2/page2.html

Ok so you've downloaded all of these, lets get started...

1. Upgrade your iPhone to Version 2 software through iTunes as normal, and wait for the Sim locked message. You need to do this to normalise your iPhone again incase any previous messing around did anything nasty.

2. Uninstall iTunes if it is a higher version than 7.5 and install iTunes 7.5 (You need to do this to avoid the annoying Error 1604). Some of you may have a problem on the mac when downgrading to iTunes 7.5 (Library error). You need to go to finder click on /Users/Username/Music/iTunes you should see the "iTunes Library" file. MOVE it somewhere safe. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO DELETE THIS FILE, if you do you will have to redo all your playlists etc, believe me I made this mistake (Thank God for Time Machine!!). iTunes 7.5 should launch away

3. Restore your iPhone to 1.1.4. Do this by docking your iPhone and hold down the Option key (Mac) or Shift key (PC) and click on restore. Point iTunes to the 1.1.4 firmware you downloaded earlier. Sit back and relax, you deserve a coffee.

4. Don't panic, you should get an "Error 10xx", usually 1015, this is ok. Take a sip of coffee, a deep breath and proceed.

5. Load up iBrickr, you will need a PC for this if you have a Mac or just fire up Parallels / VMWare. Luckily I had access to an old laptop. iBrickr should recognise your iPhone as being connected.

6. iBrickr (V0.91) has only two options, click the "Boot phone" button. The screen will turn red, this is normal, be patient it takes a couple of minutes to reboot.

7. You should now have have a 1.1.4 iPhone with a baseband from V2 (Who cares, its technical and we don't need to get into it here)

8. Run ZiPhone and use the "Do it all" option. Make another coffee, this takes 10 minutes or more.

9. You now have a jailbroken phone, with a "No Service" problem. Great.

10. Load up KiPhone. click on "iErase" (Mac) or "debug boot" and "Erase baseband" (PC). I HAD MORE SUCCESS WITH THE PC VERSION. The Mac version hung twice, it's your choice but for your own sanity maybe try the PC Version.

11. Enjoy, you should have full service back.

12. Dock with iTunes, it will ask you if you want to upgrade your iPhone, make sure to click the "Do not ask me again" button and click don't upgrade. Otherwise you will be back at square one.

13. Drink lots of beer, Apple you should be ashamed of yourselves, I wasted the majority of six days of my life to get this problem sorted. Pity-full. :mad::mad::mad:
Click to expand...

Up until step 5 everything went as described. I got the error from iTunes and loaded i Brickr, but i Brickr doesn't recognize the phone. It says to connect the iphone and it already is. I took it out and put it back in, but it still doesn't see it.

Am I missing something?
 
Hi hibernian56,

I did everything as per your instructions and went well, but now the issue is, I don't have sound and one popup keep coming up saying your iPhone needs repair it will not make and recv calls... ;(
Any idea how do I fix this ??

thanks for your help in advance.
 
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