I've been using iPhones since 2009 and have always enjoyed how easy they are to use and administer but lately my faith has been shaken a bit.

Bought a new 128GB iPhone 8 for the wife (she had a SE that was starting to get old and balky and she doesn't want the newer bigger phones) and set it up and everything went smoothly as usual until yesterday when she tells me the phone won't make calls anymore and there is a message about a failed cellular update.

I came home and followed the instructions on how to update it and nothing I tried worked:

multiple reboots
network reset
multiple hard reboots
connecting to iMac and doing update via that (was what Apple had advised)
connecting to iMac and doing wipe and restore
connecting to iMac and putting into DFU mode

No matter what I try I get this:



So now I have to go to the Apple Store and deal with them trying to fix or replace this. One week old!

99 percent of the time that message means there is a problem with your SIM card and/or phone company and not a problem with the actual phone.

quote:

Originally posted by PowerSurge:
99 percent of the time that message means there is a problem with your SIM card and/or phone company and not a problem with the actual phone.

I had my wife take the phone to an AT&T store and they told her it was an Apple issue and to go to the Apple Store and see a Genius Bar tech.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
I had my wife take the phone to an AT&T store and they told her it was an Apple issue and to go to the Apple Store and see a Genius Bar tech.

I’m not surprised. I have ATT and the people at the ATT stores are generally useless. They’re only interested in sales.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:

quote:

Originally posted by PowerSurge:
99 percent of the time that message means there is a problem with your SIM card and/or phone company and not a problem with the actual phone.

I had my wife take the phone to an AT&T store and they told her it was an Apple issue and to go to the Apple Store and see a Genius Bar tech.

Had a similar issue when I purchased a new unlocked GSM iPhone X off fleabay and I was told that it would function fine just transferring my old SIM card from my 6S iPhone. After getting that message and contacting Apple, they said the same, go to the Genius Bar. I contacted my carrier and spoke with a tech who said they've had similar problems with folks purchasing these unlocked, GSM phones and he said that they would send a new SIM card immediately. I contacted my carrier when I inserted the new SIM, they activated it and that did the trick in my situation.

It sucks, but nothing's perfect. I imagine the Apple tech genii will get it straightened out one way or another.

Not certain Apple should be the target of your ire, though. Wasn't it an at&t cellular update that broke it?

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:


Not certain Apple should be the target of your ire, though. Wasn't it an at&t cellular update that broke it?

I suppose, but I'm reading that it's some sort of Apple hardware issue that occurs in certain models that doesn't like the AT&T carrier update and they know about it.

I will probably ended up getting another new iPhone from Apple, I'm just annoyed that all my work to transfer everything from the old phone and get it all tweaked has been for nothing.

swap the SIM card with your SIM card from your phone and try it.

Update: all is well again

I had made an appointment to go during my lunch break at work, luckily we have an Apple Store 5 minutes away.

I explained the situation to the girl, she sighed and sort of nodded and rolled her eyes like this wasn't her first cellular-update-hosed-new-iPhone.

It was NOT the SIM card as she took that out of the new bricked one and put it in the old SE I had brought along and cellular service came right up.

She actually thanked me for running all the things that I did, as she was able to skip that and go right to running a HW diagnostic and lo and behold, the phone had a bad cellular module or whatever it's called.

Walked out 20 min later with another new iPhone and the cellular update completed there to be certain.

Glad you got a new phone and everything is good.

Thanks for the update, PASig. Glad for you it was quickly and easily resolved.

Glad you got sorted. The few times over the years that I have had an issue the Genius bar folks have been awesome. My only complaint is they are an hour away for me.

With over one Billion iPhones estimated to be currently in service world wide there are bound to be some issues!

Excellent, I heard many stories of good experiences with their Genius Bar. Glad in the end it worked out!

quote:

Originally posted by just1tym:
Excellent, I heard many stories of good experiences with their Genius Bar. Glad in the end it worked out!

Those guys and gals are legit. I've used them for the wife's phone. Her Apple refurb 6S at the time took a crap a few months into service. Brought it in and they ran some diagnostics, couldn't solve problem and gave her a new one.