My iPhone 7 is showing only 1 bar of connectivity at home. I think this is a new problem, I don’t particularly remember having any issues with it previously. A 2020 Cellular iPad Pro using the same service provider gets a full 4 bars of connectivity when sitting right next to my iPhone.
Is this likely a hardware issue that’s just developed? The phone is old enough, I might consider replacing it with a newer iPhone, assuming y’all don’t think the same thing will happen with a new iPhone. Has hardware changed significantly between my iPhone 7 and my cellular 2020 iPad Pro such that the difference between the full four bars on the iPad Pro vs. the 1 bar on the iPhone is likely because of newer technology?
Signal does seem to be poor. I used to listen to YouTube videos using the cellular service when walking the dog outside. I’d turn off WiFi before heading out and then fire up the YouTube player letting it use the cellular signal to startup and play the video. Currently if I turn off WiFi, YouTube can’t even seem to list videos. It displays the UI elements, but the actual list of videos never actually show up. I assume (perhaps incorrectly) this is because YouTube can’t get enough bandwidth to even get lists of videos to appear.
My iPhone XR that I have had for 5 yes started dropping calls. I purchased a new one since this is my work phone. I think 5 years with a phone is pretty good these days.
Yep. I double checked with an internet search and the 7 had the whole Intel vs Qualcomm modem thing going. Basically the Intel modem sucked and everyone wanted the Qualcomm version. Apple has moved back to all Qualcomm (I believe), so it’s not really an issue anymore. At least until they start making their own modems in the next couple of years.
Thanks everyone. I realized I had completely forgotten my most basic debugging skills and had missed the obvious step of rebooting the iPhone. That brought everything back to working and am now getting 3-4 bars of reception.
I wasn’t planning to replace it anytime soon, it does need a new battery, so now I’m thinking given @geewhiz’s experience combined with this connectivity problem, maybe it makes more sense to just completely replace it, instead of paying for a new battery, having more problems down the road and then having to replace it anyway.
That is a head scratcher because the Model says XR but when I look at my work purchase order it shows 2017. I was willing to swear I did buy another phone between 2017 and 2022.
If you value the camera at all, definitely upgrade. The camera has come a long way since the 7. Of course the new phones are a lot faster, have more memory, etc. My favorite part of the last two models is the form factor though, I love the square sides.
Something of a necro, I admit, but I thought this would be the best thread for my ramblings. My new iPhone 14 (don’t ask how I ended up with it, it wasn’t something I wanted, but a long story) decided this morning to, well, not quite sure what really. In my office I noticed it had gone into SOS mode. Then, my wife tried texting me and got nothing, so called on my office phone. In response to something she asked I attempted to log into a bank site and when it texted me the security code…nada. Nothing came through. I tried texting my wife and got the message not delivered message.
Oddly, i could text with a colleague who had an iPhone (my wife’s phone is Android), and some other colleagues, who I think have iPhones but I’m not totally sure. But no banks or websites or whatever could send me texts. I could actually send a text to my wife’s email address, but trying to send it to her phone number bombed out. Very odd.
I finally called Verizon when I got home and after over an hour on the phone seem to have fixed the issue. They nuked the eSIM and replaced it with a new one apparently. The original eSIM, I dunno, went belly up or something. It now (fingers crossed) seems to be working. But man, what a pain.
I wonder if it is the whole eSIM thing? So bizarre.
SOS mode just means you were disconnected from your carriers cell network (if you didn’t know, it just means you can only make emergency calls on a competitors network if they have a tower near), but you must have still been on wifi since you were able to access your bank and text other iPhone users. Apple Messages will work on wifi, you don’t need cell coverage to use it. So your wife’s SMS won’t work, but other iPhones will still be able to communicate with your phone, you must have been on wifi.
If you weren’t on wifi, than I have no clue what is going on. I have heard of esim problems on a new phone, not an already established one going corrupt.
Also in Messages you can tell who is on an iPhone by the color of the message balloons. Blue is other iPhones, green is SMS.
Oh, I was on wifi all the time, at the office and at home, but was unable to get messages at all most of the time. it was not until they reset/reauthorized an eSIM that it all worked again. The SOS thing, which I knew what it was, was intermittent until late in the troubleshooting process. I was not able to receive any messages from anything other than someone on an iPhone oddly enough, or perhaps it was only those on the work network or something.
Anyhow, it seems to work now, with the reauthorized eSIM. The phone is new, got it December 29th, but not brand new, and no issues until today. Very weird, but seemingly ok for the nonce.
That’s not odd, that is the way it works. Messages just needs wifi to work, it doesn’t need cell coverage. So that is why you could still communicate with iPhone users.
Yes, but at the same time I could not communicate with anyone else. Any attempt to send me texts from outside my network did not work, and the only thing that more or less successfully sent from me outside the campus were texts to an email address rather than a phone number. That might be a wifi thing I guess, in that it was treated like email rather than SMS or whatever. I really don’t know much about how messaging works to be honest.
Yep, got that :). But the reason it was down was the mystery. Turns out it seems there was an issue with the eSIM. It’s what that issue was that still remains unknown.
I was at the grocery store yesterday, and tried to access my Hannaford app, to see what juicy coupons they had this week. I don’t bother signing in to the store free WiFi, as I’m only checking a couple of things; never even set that up. Usually there is no issue, but yesterday the phone simply refused to use the 5G (or any) cellular connection to access the Internet. I fiddled with the phone settings and it seemed everything was on, etc.
I have an unlimited data plan, and it has worked fine, even though I use very little data actually. But now I can’t use it at all. The phone makes calls perfectly fine though, from the car in the middle of nowhere or anywhere else. It just won’t access the Internet without WiFi it seems.
I wouldn’t be that ticked–it’s going to take a long call to Verizon I’m sure, but w/e–except that Xfinity sent me a new cable modem/router supposedly so I can access the higher speeds they oh so graciously granted me in exchange for their horrendously overpriced monthly charges. And that requires me to disconnect the existing modem/router, and use the app on my phone to set up the new equipment.
Which of course requires me to have Internet access via my phone, without WiFi.
Who knows? Maybe it’ll work anyway when I try it later today. Stranger things have happened. But I’m kind of ticked at the iPhone (or maybe just eSIM). None of this every happened with physical SIMs, dang it.
EDIT: Hmm, well, did the Xfinity upgrade easily. I don’t know if I actually fixed my phone issue, but toggling 5G and LTE priority for the cellular data seemed to eventually prompt the device to connect with LTE (no 5G coverage at my house still). And wonder of wonders, the Xfinity setup app…worked. Seemingly flawlessly.
I think I figured it out. It’s not my phone, it’s…the grocery store! In the parking lot, no problem. 5G or LTE connects to the Internet, apps run, all is good. Step into the Faraday cage of the damn Hannaford’s, and…poof! No data service. Hell, no voice either, except maybe at the very front of the store if you stand just right.
Which is a pain because what do I want to connect to the Internet for, while in Hannaford’s? Why, the Hannaford app, of course! The one with my digital coupons. The one that gets me to buy more than I might otherwise. So, they manage to hurt their own sales by having their store be a jamming device.
