iOS7 1x \ 3G problem?

[evancg]

My girlfriend and her daughter both have iPhone 5's purchased in February. In September they both upgraded to iOS7 (now 7.0.3). Her daughters phone works fine.

 

Her phone constantly jumps between 1x and 3G. LTE works fine (we're in a spotty LTE area). When it's not on LTE, it stays at 1x, occasionally jumping to 3G, but regardless of what it's on, data simply doesn't work. The working iPhone5 and my HTC One will sit happily with two or three bars of 3G coverage, and her phone is jumping back and forth. WiFI appears to work fine.

 

We've restored the phone. Wiped the network settings. We took it into a Sprint store where their tech checked it, wiped it, etc, and said they can't fix it. They've ordered a replacement (refurb, I imagine).

 

I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this? The Sprint forums have a four page thread with similar issues but no real resolution yet. What concerns me is a couple people noted they received replacements and it didn't fix the issue (bad luck? user error? account level issue?).

 

Any suggestions on things to try? And how do Sprint refurb replacements compare to Apple refurb replacements? I'm sure I could just get it swapped at an Apple store but the nearest one is two hours away...

 

Any suggestions? Considering she's basically been dataless for a month+ she's handling it all very well, but I fear my time is running short...

[snowmobiler487]

I haven't noticed issues with my 5 on iOS7.  I can say that Apple replacements are all brand new while a replacement through Sprint is likey a refurb if they have any available.

[evancg]

I haven't noticed issues with my 5 on iOS7.  I can say that Apple replacements are all brand new while a replacement through Sprint is likey a refurb if they have any available.

 

Yeah, that's what's frustrating - one phone with iOS7 works perfectly. The other doesn't. Sadly, according to this thread https://community.sprint.com/baw/thread/134621?start=0&tstart=0 this isn't the only instance of it happening, but neither Apple or Sprint are really saying anything yet. Probably not enough reported issues I suppose.

 

Also, since it's an iPhone5, I suspect Apple may replace it with a refurb too, wouldn't they? I had never heard that all replacements they do are "new"...

[Steven800]

try popping the sim tray out and back in again. I got a 5c the other day and similar issue. popped the sim tray in and back out and did ##update# and now everything is working perfectly. 

 

Yeah, that's what's frustrating - one phone with iOS7 works perfectly. The other doesn't. Sadly, according to this thread https://community.sprint.com/baw/thread/134621?start=0&tstart=0 this isn't the only instance of it happening, but neither Apple or Sprint are really saying anything yet. Probably not enough reported issues I suppose.

 

Also, since it's an iPhone5, I suspect Apple may replace it with a refurb too, wouldn't they? I had never heard that all replacements they do are "new"...

[anthony.spina97]

My girlfriend and her daughter both have iPhone 5's purchased in February. In September they both upgraded to iOS7 (now 7.0.3). Her daughters phone works fine.

 

Her phone constantly jumps between 1x and 3G. LTE works fine (we're in a spotty LTE area). When it's not on LTE, it stays at 1x, occasionally jumping to 3G, but regardless of what it's on, data simply doesn't work. The working iPhone5 and my HTC One will sit happily with two or three bars of 3G coverage, and her phone is jumping back and forth. WiFI appears to work fine.

 

We've restored the phone. Wiped the network settings. We took it into a Sprint store where their tech checked it, wiped it, etc, and said they can't fix it. They've ordered a replacement (refurb, I imagine).

 

I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this? The Sprint forums have a four page thread with similar issues but no real resolution yet. What concerns me is a couple people noted they received replacements and it didn't fix the issue (bad luck? user error? account level issue?).

 

Any suggestions on things to try? And how do Sprint refurb replacements compare to Apple refurb replacements? I'm sure I could just get it swapped at an Apple store but the nearest one is two hours away...

 

Any suggestions? Considering she's basically been dataless for a month+ she's handling it all very well, but I fear my time is running short...

Have you tried turning LTE off when you're in a spotty area? At my house, we are literally at the edge of LTE coverage, so I usually can only get 1 bar of LTE before dropping to 2 or 3 bars of 1x or 3G. The way the iPhone works is when it can acquire an LTE signal (or when it thinks it can) it will drop form 3G down to 1x, then go to LTE or it will sit at 1x until it fails to hook onto LTE, in which it will go to 3G (which it may take awhile to get from 1x to 3G after failing to connect to LTE). 

 

When I enable LTE on my iPhone, it will immediately drop to 1x from 3G, and it will sit there while it tries to connect to LTE, then it fails to connect to LTE, hangs at 1x for a minute or so, realizes it was stupid for trying to connect to such a weak LTE signal, then it goes to 3G. Then, I may try to open a webpage, which causes it to go "Hey, maybe I should look for LTE again," so it drops to 1x, sits there, then goes back to 3G and doesn't load the webpage. On the other hand, when I disable LTE, my iPhone will almost immediately connect to 3G, and then data works pretty darn well! Yes, it's only 3G, but that's why I have 50 Mbps Wi-Fi

 

Anthony

[evancg]

Thanks for the tips guys. I will give both of these a try. I feel like I've already tried both of these things, but who knows at this point!

[evancg]

Okay I tried both of these things. No luck unfortunately.

[Boosted20V]

My mom's iPhone experience just this. Since the 7.0.2 update, it could NOT authenticate a data session over 1x or 3G, LTE worked fine when in range. The phone would attempt to connect to 3G, then bounce back to 1x. When using either, however, it gave an error for the data session. As in, even slow 1x data wouldn't work. I found a few threads of people complaining about a similar situation. We went to the Apple store today. The "genius" tried to tell us it was a Sprint issue and that he really couldn't explain it. He claimed they would replace the phone for a measly $270. After asking to speak to the manager, they waived the fee and swapped the device. I restored a back up to the phone, works perfectly now. SOMETHING got botched with 3g/1x authentication with the 7.0.2 update. Another iPhone on my account went straight to 7.0.4 from 7 and it was fine. Just a heads up for those experiencing this.

[evancg]

My mom's iPhone experience just this. Since the 7.0.2 update, it could NOT authenticate a data session over 1x or 3G, LTE worked fine when in range. The phone would attempt to connect to 3G, then bounce back to 1x. When using either, however, it gave an error for the data session. As in, even slow 1x data wouldn't work. I found a few threads of people complaining about a similar situation. We went to the Apple store today. The "genius" tried to tell us it was a Sprint issue and that he really couldn't explain it. He claimed they would replace the phone for a measly $270. After asking to speak to the manager, they waived the fee and swapped the device. I restored a back up to the phone, works perfectly now. SOMETHING got botched with 3g/1x authentication with the 7.0.2 update. Another iPhone on my account went straight to 7.0.4 from 7 and it was fine. Just a heads up for those experiencing this.

 

Neither Sprint or Apple have made any clear statements as to what happened. It was definitely a 7.0.2 update problem, as every single reported case of this specific issue occurred with 7.0.2. The only reliable fix seems to be getting a phone with 7.0.1 or earlier and going straight to 7.0.3 (or now 7.0.4). Managing to bypass 7.0.2 always seems to solve the problem.

 

From my understanding, the iPhone5 for Sprint and Verizon are basically the same phone, and when the phone is first booted is when it's decided whether it's a Verizon or Sprint phone (maybe done during manufacturing?). My best guess is that the 7.0.2 update somehow screwed up that setting on SOME iPhone5's, causing a Sprint phone to look for Verizon networks or something crazy like that. A few comments noted that the phones could probably be fixed by sending them back to Apple as they're the only ones that can reset that particular setting, but obviously it's a whole lot easier to just swap it out for a working phone that doesn't touch 7.0.2.

[Boosted20V]

Neither Sprint or Apple have made any clear statements as to what happened. It was definitely a 7.0.2 update problem, as every single reported case of this specific issue occurred with 7.0.2. The only reliable fix seems to be getting a phone with 7.0.1 or earlier and going straight to 7.0.3 (or now 7.0.4). Managing to bypass 7.0.2 always seems to solve the problem.

 

From my understanding, the iPhone5 for Sprint and Verizon are basically the same phone, and when the phone is first booted is when it's decided whether it's a Verizon or Sprint phone (maybe done during manufacturing?). My best guess is that the 7.0.2 update somehow screwed up that setting on SOME iPhone5's, causing a Sprint phone to look for Verizon networks or something crazy like that. A few comments noted that the phones could probably be fixed by sending them back to Apple as they're the only ones that can reset that particular setting, but obviously it's a whole lot easier to just swap it out for a working phone that doesn't touch 7.0.2.

 

Agreed on everything. The phone we were swapped to was on iOS6 and when updated to 7.0.4 everything went swimmingly. It is BS however that Apple won't acknowledge the issue.