iPhone keeps saying searching?

MattMJB0188 said:

I have a new 4s.* Got it on Oct 14th and have had zero problems.* Well all of the sudden it constantly says "searching" and will then say AT&T then freeze for a second then go back to "searching."* I have an AT&T MicroCell which has given me no problems.* I disconnected that and the same thing happens, so I know its not my MicroCell.* I reset the network settings to no avail.* Will restoring through iTunes help and afterwards will it put my phone back to the way it was? Anyone experience this?* I doubt my phone is defective.* Could this be an iOS 5 bug?

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I don't know if restoring through iTunes will help but I doubt it's an iOS 5 bug as there would be many threads here about it already.

MattMJB0188 said:

Restoring from iTunes fixed it. I hope it doesn't do it again. I remember a few weeks ago seeing a thread like this on here. Of course, I couldn't find it.

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I have seen this before on my phone. Also noticed that it happened when the signal was weak.

I dont have that problem but I noticed when I restart the phone it takes a good 10-15 seconds for the 4S to connect to AT&T and display signal on the top left. It searches for a while.
All previous iphones I had used to do it in 1-2 seconds. No big deal but is it like that with all iphone 4S's or just mine?

Every once in a while, after the phone has been one for a few weeks, I have to power-cycle my iPhone to get it to connect to the AT&T network.

My gf has a Verizon 4S and her phone is constantly searching. Apple told her to reset network settings but it still happens every 2hrs or so. I'm going to walk her through backup/restore on itunes tonight.

I'm glad you said something because I thought it was just isolated.

I came to post a thread about that, glad I don't have to. My 4s has been working fine up until yesterday evening. Data is slow or not working at all, so no iMessages no web browsing. Constantly have to hit the refresh button on the page to get it to load and even then it's slow. I've reset the network settings and I guess tonight when I get home I will try to restore from iTunes.

Well the restore via iTunes did not work. My gf's phone had to be rebooted 2x today. Off it goes to the apple store for replacement.

I'll update when I get to Apple. In the meantime, I found out more info about Verizon iPhone 4/4S having network search problems:

http://community.vzw.com/t5/iPhone-4/No-service-Searching-on-the-iphone/td-p/481590/page/54

I guess it's not as isolated as i thought. I'm pretty lucky my 4S doesn't have a problem but my gf is pissed since her phone is affected.

Applejuiced said:

I dont have that problem but I noticed when I restart the phone it takes a good 10-15 seconds for the 4S to connect to AT&T and display signal on the top left. It searches for a while.
All previous iphones I had used to do it in 1-2 seconds. No big deal but is it like that with all iphone 4S's or just mine?

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I noticed this day one first power up. I started sweating, thinking, oh god, tell me i didnt get a lemon.

But, i've been through 6, and i have 2 friends with them. same exact deal on all of them. I guess it just takes a bit to get that initial fix compared to old iphones.

If you notice, if you put it into airplane mode, then when you turn airplane mode off, it gets a signal very fast.

Well we went to the apple store to try to get a fix or replacement. The genius there only did a hard reset "that can only be done in store". I don't know what the hell that means but if it's just home and power at the same time, then it's not a fix. I'll be calling the 800 # to complain because it's not really a fix and I fully expect the phone to go searching again in 2 hrs.

I heard if you use less asterisks* in your posts, your phone will work. Just messing with ya.

Take it to an Apple store.

aphexacid said:

I noticed this day one first power up. I started sweating, thinking, oh god, tell me i didnt get a lemon.

But, i've been through 6, and i have 2 friends with them. same exact deal on all of them. I guess it just takes a bit to get that initial fix compared to old iphones.

If you notice, if you put it into airplane mode, then when you turn airplane mode off, it gets a signal very fast.

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Oh good, so it's not just my 4S.
Thanks.

SoIsays said:

Well we went to the apple store to try to get a fix or replacement. The genius there only did a hard reset "that can only be done in store". I don't know what the hell that means but if it's just home and power at the same time, then it's not a fix. I'll be calling the 800 # to complain because it's not really a fix and I fully expect the phone to go searching again in 2 hrs.

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Maybe we should type 'genius' with the quotes. He/She was SO full of it! A hard reset can be done anywhere. If that's all he did, I suggest you go back and speak with a manager as that 'genius' did not do anything. There is NO way I would let a wanna-be tech get away with tricks like that.

(I was once a computer tech, but I have no respect for those with that title who try to prey on peoples' ignorance. Its just not right.)

jbachandouris said:

Maybe we should type 'genius' with the quotes. He/She was SO full of it! A hard reset can be done anywhere. If that's all he did, I suggest you go back and speak with a manager as that 'genius' did not do anything. There is NO way I would let a wanna-be tech get away with tricks like that.

(I was once a computer tech, but I have no respect for those with that title who try to prey on peoples' ignorance. Its just not right.)

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After 2hrs, it went back to search again. That "genius"/check-in guy at Pentagon City tonight is a dismissive idiot. Didn't even try to explain the specific action he did and didn't even consider all the other things that were done including the hard reset. A call to AppleCare to have a replacement 4S was made and should be arriving in 3-5 business days. My gf will be writing her account of horrible service and I'll be writing as well to complain about the genius and his not so genius fix. I feel bad for her since she's the lowly doctorate student who's life revolves around her phone to generate business and make small time money to pay for books and rent and food and etc.

MattMJB0188 said:

That didn't work for me. My phone was fine all day then all of the sudden it didn't say AT&T anymore and only said searching. It would would come back with full signal strength for about 5 seconds and once it went back to searching the device would freeze for a second. It was constantly on searching. Airplane mode DID NOT WORK, neither did resetting the network settings. Only thing that worked for me was doing a backup and restore via iTunes.

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Sorry, my post was in response to Applejuiced. We were just commenting on how the iPhon 4S takes longer than previous models to acquire its initial signal. Totally unrelated to the problem you're having.

Maybe something got corrupted in the OS, and doing a restore fixed it?