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No Signal iPhone Problems: Your Discussions

If you are sick and tired of your iPhone displaying ‘No Service’ or ‘Searching…’ in the top left hand corner, due to signal problems — join the discussion and have your say here.

On May 3rd I did an article entitled ‘Apple iPhone 3GS Or O2: Signal Issues?’, as I keep getting the message ‘No Service’ appear on my iPhone 3GS. Now I was not sure if the problem was with the device or my network service provider O2.

However, from the comments I have received back on this issue, it would appear that the problem lies at the feet of Apple and their devices. A number of people replied who are experiencing the same signal problems and not all of them are on O2, the problem has been happening to some iPhone users on Orange/T-Mobile and AT&T in the USA.

Another thing that has come from the comments, is that the loss of signal is not just happening on the iPhone 3GS, but also iPhone 4. We all know that there was a signal issue with the iPhone 4 when it released, apply named the ‘Smart Phone grip of death’. However, this latest issue does not seem to stem from that.

Someone that commented back under the alias iPhone user, stated:

Yes, I have the exact same problem. I thought perhaps I was the only one. Try turning off your 3G via settings > General > Netrowk > Enable 3G: off. This actually works really well and saves your battery. Its a shame though because I used to get full signal on O2 and I too have an iPhone 3GS. I live within the Berkshire area, i have been having this problem for about 4 weeks now and I am confused as to if the fault lies within the actual iPhone itself or O2?
Please let me know if this helps.
Kind Regards
.”

Thanks for the advice, unfortunately, it did not work for me — but it may help others hopefully.

So I put this to you Apple — PLEASE SORT THE SIGNAL ISSUE OUT, your customers are getting more and more disgruntled with the service you are providing (no doubt this plea will fall on deaf ears, so unfortunately — it is business as usual). Please keep you comments coming in, as the saying goes ‘strength in numbers’, so one day Apple may decide to take notice of their customers rather than lining their pockets with our money. Can’t wait for my upgrade!

Comments

29 thoughts on “No Signal iPhone Problems: Your Discussions”

  1. Peter says:

    There is no doubt that the iPhone is a poor phone. The signal handling by the device is broken and has been for a long time. Inside the M25 in London is historically close to 100% coverage and has been for decades, and yet an iPhone can loose signal, from my own direct experience in Bromley, in Fulham and amazingly just by Charing Cross. As it happens, I carry two phones. One the iPhone and the other an actual phone made by Nokia. Side by side comparisons are all the evidence I need to know that Apple has written poor software for their device.

    I was told by someone that someone had studied the effectiveness of the iPhone arial, and that it is as effective as other mobile phones. For me, and I admit I don't know the engineering behind mobile phones, this would leave the problem at the feet of the iphone software. I wonder what is the technology inside the iPhone that captures and presents the mobile signal to the operation system? It is entirely possible that Apple is not focussing on this part of their solution.

    I have used some real rubbish phones in my time (NEC Clamshell anyone?) but I am afraid in terms of signal access, the iPhone is simply the worst.

  2. iPhone? says:

    Mine just started today. First time owning a 3G S since I lost my 3G. I've had it for a few months now, and it just started "Searching…" and "No Service". I tried the you know what's standard troubleshooting, but to no avail. My wife owns a 3G, and here signal is A-OK. 4 bars. I'm in St. Petersburg, FL, and use AT&T. But from what I'm reading, looks to be a 3G S issue not a providers issue. Does this mean we have to wait for a firmware update or a complete iPhone upgrade, i.e., 5?

  3. dataghost says:

    I get this issue with an iPhone 4 (orange uk) and have tried everything, replacement sim, restore etc, out of dispair I have had the phone exchanged with apple out of warranty at my own expence and guess what?  The same thing is happening with the replacement.  Im at a loss what to do next.  I cant think of anything else I havent already tried  🙁

  4. Jasmine J. says:

    The turning off my 3G worked just fine! My signal was gone for a full day and I was so irritated that I finally decided to google around! Thanks SO much everyone!!!

  5. Mark says:

    I’ve been having the SEARCHING… NO SERVICE problems for a few months. Thinking about it is may hav started when i upgraded the sopftware to ISO 5.0 I’m on 3GS by the way. Only recently has it become so bad that i dont have signal for most of the day and then out of the blue i’ll get 4 or 5 bars for a minute of two. APPLE just say restore the phone but dont back up from old files i.e the synced info. According to APPLE these files may be where the problm lies.  I’m very doubtfull. I will say though that i’ve had my phone over 2 and half years and never had a problem until the last few months, I am restoring my phone as I type this… I did just update to ISO5.1 and that didnt seem to do anything. I fear that if this doesnt work APPLE will just advise me to purchase a new phone…but why should I??? the phone worked fine… now it doesn’t! Why should i have to pay for issues that they must have create in the updates.

    1. Sue says:

      I had the exact same problem when I upgraded to iSO 5.0 and exactly the same response from apple. It still hasn’t fixed the problem, have you had any luck?

  6. K79m83 says:

    I have a 3 iphones all 3gs in my house hold, the o2 one loses signal constantly where the orange ones work fine? i’m trying to find out who else has o2 issues! I live in east kent so any problems your having with signal and o2 let me know 🙂

  7. Fed up apple customer says:

    Mine is an iPhone 4 and I’m on vodafone. I’ve never had a problem with signal up until yesterday. I’ve had my iPhone 4 for a year.

  8. aleebalee says:

     I have 3G – constantly get “no service” “searching” when im indoors -as soon as I go in the garden or upstairs its Ok……O2say its apple fault, got phone checkd out and apple say its O2 signal  fault???  weird thing is  been with O2 for years and my samsung(O2) works  100% ok , any clues? its gonna be a LONG contract til september 13 🙁

  9. Boris says:

    I started getting “no service” readings on my 3GS (O2) a few days ago.  A soft reboot would usually ‘fix’ the problem for an hour or so, then I’d be back to square one.  Looking over the posts here and elsewhere on the topic led me to reject an upgrade to 5.1 (I’m on 5.0 and play to stay outdated for some time).  

    I decided to take it to the O2 shop today.  Of course, I would be wise to back up the phone before.  When I was backing it up (after a break of about a month), it dawned on me that I had recently downloaded a seemingly innocuous app (Shell Motorist).  As my problems started about the same time, I removed the app to see if there was any difference. Well, it seems that the problem’s solved; since removing the app I’ve had no more problems.  Perhaps some of the problems can be traced to apps that work perfectly well in most instances, but apparently not in all.

  10. Muhammed says:

    This 3gs i’ve had for a year, i had no problems until a few days ago when i was sitting in my room and then all of a sudden i get no signal. there is a tower about 5 miles away so i know its not that. I am getting really fed up with it!

  11. Gareth says:

    i updated my 3gs to iOs 5.1.1 2 days ago andi am also on o2 i have have got the same problem of no signal since i updated i live in Durham

  12. I have a 3GS also the same problem it had 4.3.3 so i updated to 5.1.1 thinking it was going to solve my problem and still nothing, i have it on GPRS and it barely works, and when it does people dont understand my conversations it cuts up and the worst part of it is that i have AT&T and we all know how those bills are!… they are one of the most expensive companies, which most of what they charge is profit because every mins cost them very cheap. I know this because i used to be a manager for several years.. Such big companies like Apple and AT&T should take leadership in this problem and provide a solution to these customers, at the end we are the ones that build their company ;)…

  13. Zoe Lafferty212 says:

    I am having the exact same problem and it is so annoying because I can’t use my phone for what I actually need it for and the 3G thing didn’t work do any ideas from anyone because I actually need to use it. I also have a 4s so I am quite annoyed as it isn’t even a year old!

  14. Abs says:

    Recently been having the same problem with my 3GS, o2 are totally disinterested in helping to resolve…….phoned from landline yesterday to complain about the signal problem, and walked away with a PAC code to leave o2.  They didn’t seem too bothered.  The ‘No Service’ is annoying, can’t talk to people.

  15. Ricardo says:

    Surprisingly turning 3G off actually has seemed to fix it for me! This is my second iPhone 3GS with this issue, my analysis on it is that when I have 3G i have full signal and when I don’t, I have nothing, and apparently when I turn 3G off it works. So for me there seems to be a conflict between the two. The only remaining question then is the source of this problem I haven’t updated my phone, I did update a large number of apps around the time of the problem but I have done a full restore with syncing my data which made no change. Baffled! If anyone can share there experience on changes that were made around the time of losing signal maybe we can pin point what the issue is.

  16. Bobby Atl ga says:

    Bobby Atl gaI live in Atlanta Ga I have been experincing this problem for two weeks now it has now started to do the same thing even when I go outside my friend don’t have this problem one with metro pcs and one of course with Verizon it seems that the greening SMART PHONE IS NOT SO SMART after all I’m seriously considering another carrier and phone with today’s tech and how much these phones cost apple/ at&t would stand behind there values but we continue to buy there product and service so I’m changing over to another good luck and God bless

  17. Cyril The Swan says:

    My 4s was not responding as normal earlier today, wouldn’t open message icon & froze. I turned the phone off & back on. It reopened with just 1 bar of signal where it’s normally full at home. Then signal went completely & would not return. Tried for hours resetting network, airplane mode on/ off without success. Thanks to poster who mentioned the new iOS 6 update as that has cured it although it did not work perfectly until phone was switched off/on after download had been done. I’m on EE.
    Find it under Settings, General, Software Updates. Make sure phone is plugged in to elec. Cyril The Swan

  18. Tartanjohn says:

    My 2 year old iPhone 4 developed this problem. O2 unable to sort it out with new sim and booked an Apple visit after trying the ideas in this and other forums. Suddenly noticed that the problem reduced (but didn’t stop) each time I swopped hands when holding the phone. Mmmmm?

    I had recently purchased a docking station and had to remove my iPhone cover to ease charging but didn’t always replace it. Put two & two together, replaced my cover and voila – problem totally solved.

  19. dazza says:

    hi i have iphone 4 with no service,only just started to do this so i did a restore on itunes and signal returned,great i thought so i restored my apps with itunes back-up and signal gone again done this 3 or 4 times same thing happened everytime does anyone have any ideas about this ……thank you

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