Iphone5 not connecting to LTE

[bmattox79]

My wife and I were in an area pretty well saturated with LTE today in central jersey. Her phone connected to it instantly and was running fast 15 to 20 Mbps, my phone would not even connect to the LTE I toggled it on and off toggled airplane mode, I checked and made sure all the roaming and cellular settings are the same (both are iPhone 5) but nothing the phone would go into 1x after each toggle like it was looking but LTE didn't light up her phone didn't disconnect the whole tone in the area. Any ideas or anyone else experiencing this?

[Faction]

Hmmm. My LTE signal disappears every now and then, sometimes I think it's my phone but I just had it replaced last Wednesday, same LTE here and there so I'm guessing its the tower that's down the road from me. Might be a network issues.

[COZisBack]

My wife and I were in an area pretty well saturated with LTE today in central jersey. Her phone connected to it instantly and was running fast 15 to 20 Mbps, my phone would not even connect to the LTE I toggled it on and off toggled airplane mode, I checked and made sure all the roaming and cellular settings are the same (both are iPhone 5) but nothing the phone would go into 1x after each toggle like it was looking but LTE didn't light up her phone didn't disconnect the whole tone in the area. Any ideas or anyone else experiencing this?

 

Forgive me as I don't have a iPhone, but are you sure you had LTE enabled in your settings and not just 1xRTT/EVDO? The next thing I would try is restarting your phone.

 

Good luck and enjoy your ForGees!

[jroepcke51]

Forgive me as I don't have a iPhone, but are you sure you had LTE enabled in your settings and not just 1xRTT/EVDO? The next thing I would try is restarting your phone.

 

Good luck and enjoy your ForGees!

I had the same problem this past week in Tampa.  I went into General Settings and reset all network settings and rebooted.  This worked.

[bmattox79]

Do I have to go through the whole iPhone setup again if I do that? Last time apple wiped my phone it didn't activate right and I got the "could not activate cellular data network" for two days till I did a restore so I'm petrified of doing anything like that again lol

[bmattox79]

I had the same problem this past week in Tampa. I went into General Settings and reset all network settings and rebooted. This worked.

[nobius]

Do I have to go through the whole iPhone setup again if I do that? Last time apple wiped my phone it didn't activate right and I got the "could not activate cellular data network" for two days till I did a restore so I'm petrified of doing anything like that again lol

He's talking about just resetting Network items. You lose things like saved WiFi passwords.  I've never needed to use it, so no guarantees.

 

Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings

[bmattox79]

K cool next time I'm in that area ill try it

[Dfarley]

My wife and I were in an area pretty well saturated with LTE today in central jersey. Her phone connected to it instantly and was running fast 15 to 20 Mbps, my phone would not even connect to the LTE I toggled it on and off toggled airplane mode, I checked and made sure all the roaming and cellular settings are the same (both are iPhone 5) but nothing the phone would go into 1x after each toggle like it was looking but LTE didn't light up her phone didn't disconnect the whole tone in the area. Any ideas or anyone else experiencing this?

I had the same issue a few months ago when I was traveling through Chicago - I then called Sprint and after speaking with three different reps I finally figured out that they had the wrong SIM id attached to my account (my old 4s was still on my account). Once they plugged in my iPhone 5 SIM number it worked perfectly, could be the same issue you're facing.

[koiulpoi]

Do I have to go through the whole iPhone setup again if I do that? Last time apple wiped my phone it didn't activate right and I got the "could not activate cellular data network" for two days till I did a restore so I'm petrified of doing anything like that again lol

If that happens in the future:

Connect to WiFi

Open the Dialpad.

Enter "##873283#"

#" (it spells ##UPDATE#)

Hit Call

It should say "Starting Service Update"

Wait for "Service Update Complete"

Done! You have a data connection again!

 

I had the same issue a few months ago when I was traveling through Chicago - I then called Sprint and after speaking with three different reps I finally figured out that they had the wrong SIM id attached to my account (my old 4s was still on my account). Once they plugged in my iPhone 5 SIM number it worked perfectly, could be the same issue you're facing.

This is actually what I was going to recommend checking. If the UICC (SIM) doesn't match up, oftentimes 1X/3G will provision properly, but LTE will not. This is generally something that can only be fixed over the phone or in a store.

 

I'd also recommend, as was already mentioned, doing a "Reset Network Settings". It's a rather harmless update.

 

If none of that fixes it, you might just have a defective device and will need it replaced.

[bmattox79]

If that happens in the future:

Connect to WiFi

Open the Dialpad.

Enter "##873283#"

#" (it spells ##UPDATE#)

Hit Call

It should say "Starting Service Update"

Wait for "Service Update Complete"

Done! You have a data connection again!

 

Anyone know why it seems to make a difference of working and not working if you are connected to WIFI?

[koiulpoi]

Anyone know why it seems to make a difference of working and not working if you are connected to WIFI?

The provisioning info has to come from somewhere. If it can't activate cellular data, well, WiFi data will have to do.

[bmattox79]

I had the same issue a few months ago when I was traveling through Chicago - I then called Sprint and after speaking with three different reps I finally figured out that they had the wrong SIM id attached to my account (my old 4s was still on my account). Once they plugged in my iPhone 5 SIM number it worked perfectly, could be the same issue you're facing.

i just looked at my phone through sprint.com and see that sim card serial #iccid does not match the one in my settings/general/about, so that would be the reason im not connecting to 4g.  when they changed the iccid on their side did they have you do anything to the phone like wipe it and start from scratch or just power cycle?? im almost willing to not have LTE at this point after having all the issues i had last time going to the apple store.  2 times at the apple store and they made my phone useless. 

im wondering why this time im not getting a sim lock message invalid sim, my first time at apple they switched phones and sims but left the old sim number registered,the phone would work for a few then lock itself out, it took me looking on the website to find this out.  Second time the girl wiped my phone set it up there and told me not to restore from anything i had saved.  once on 3G i could not get onto any data and got the could not activate cellular data network error, bounced from apple to sprint told to go back to apple, morning before going to apple i did a restore and everything was fine..sorry long winded but again freaked out my phone will go useless again if i mess with anything

[bmattox79]

restoring the phone from itunes would have no affect on the iccid because that is a fixed number on the sim card correct...i could put that card in any phone that would accept it and that would be the number right?? so restoring it after my issues didnt change that number somewhere and make it wrong?

[Dfarley]

restoring the phone from itunes would have no affect on the iccid because that is a fixed number on the sim card correct...i could put that card in any phone that would accept it and that would be the number right?? so restoring it after my issues didnt change that number somewhere and make it wrong?

I did not need to wipe or restore my phone on iTunes; Sprint simply had to update the internal database to reflect the sim number that was in the phone and once that happened I was immediately able to connect to LTE.

 

On a side note, restoring on iTunes shouldn't be that difficult as long as you backup your phone right before you restore. It can be time consuming, but it shouldn't cause that many issues.

[dcmike]

You can fix this yourself simply and easily. Just log in to sprint.com, open the drop down menu labelled "manage this device", and select "activate a new SIM card". Boom done.

[bmattox79]

You can fix this yourself simply and easily. Just log in to sprint.com, open the drop down menu labelled "manage this device", and select "activate a new SIM card". Boom done.

I saw that option that's exactly what they are going to do If I call them for it right?

[dcmike]

Yes sir, except after waiting on hold for who knows how long, you may be asked to walk through several useless troubleshooting procedures first. Then you'll have the fun of reading and confirming a 20 digit number over the phone . That's why I suggested using sprint.com instead but by all means if you're more comfortable calling, then go that route.

 

If you do end up calling, politely but firmly insist all you need them to do is change the SIM card they have on file for your account. I've found the more details you provide them, the more confused they become. Well, tier 1 techs at least.

[bmattox79]

Nope sounds good ill go online later and do it, they always want to try the scripted steps even though I know what the issue is, thanks for your help

[bmattox79]

You can fix this yourself simply and easily. Just log in to sprint.com, open the drop down menu labelled "manage this device", and select "activate a new SIM card". Boom done.

should i have my iphone on or off while i do this??

[dcmike]

It won't matter whether your phone is on as the change occurs on the network side of things.

 

To simplify it, your SIM card is your "key" to the LTE network. It contains a unique number known as an ICCID. Each time an LTE device wants to connect to the network, it transmits it's ICCID number. The network then checks to see if this number is associated with a subscriber, and if so the device is granted access. 

 

So when you make this change to your account online, you're simply telling Sprint, "hey, when you see this ICCID please allow it to connect and use whatever services bmattox79 subscribed to!"

[bmattox79]

It won't matter whether your phone is on as the change occurs on the network side of things.

 

To simplify it, your SIM card is your "key" to the LTE network. It contains a unique number known as an ICCID. Each time an LTE device wants to connect to the network, it transmits it's ICCID number. The network then checks to see if this number is associated with a subscriber, and if so the device is granted access.

 

So when you make this change to your account online, you're simply telling Sprint, "hey, when you see this ICCID please allow it to connect and use whatever services bmattox79 subscribed to!"

Thank you!

[bmattox79]

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who posted, finally changed today and headed out to a known LTE Area and bam! Baby beautiful LTE! Thanks again

[schmidtj]

I've had my iPhone 5 for a few weeks and I too have the disappearing LTE issue.

I've tried all the fixes mentioned above and I still find my phone in 3G when I know

there is an LTE tower a few blocks away.

It is an annoyance.

If I notice it I just turn cellular off and on and 99% of the time LTE pops back on.

IMO it's an iPhone issue.

I have a iPad on Verizon LTE and notice it looses LTE occasionally as well.

So maybe in some way it's just the nature of LTE?

[shawneyboy123]

You can fix this yourself simply and easily. Just log in to sprint.com, open the drop down menu labelled "manage this device", and select "activate a new SIM card". Boom done.

Will this charge me like it does when you activate a phone? Or is it free of charge. Just don't want a $36 charge out of the blue for nothing really.

 

 

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