Apple Looking Into LTE Connectivity Issues Affecting Some iPhone XS and XS Max Owners

[Hokie804]

For those of you have gone through the angst and frustration of your phone working fne one moment and then going to hell the next, how long a time is it that that you can use the phone before it becomes worthless?

LTE has been the only issue. Multiple times per hour, I see my signal bars fluctuate. Whereas my iPad holds very steady, and performs well in my area. As did my 6S.

Just witnessed the worst performance yet. It’s not the Network. It’s the device, itself.

 

[Pndrgnsvc]

LTE has been the only issue. Multiple times per hour, I see my signal bars fluctuate. Whereas my iPad holds very steady, and performs well in my area. As did my 6S.

Just witnessed the worst performance yet. It’s not the Network. It’s the device, itself.

 

[Pndrgnsvc]

Many thanks, Hokie, for your prompt reply; indeed it is apprecated.

 

[Hokie804]

Okay, I'm getting irate with Apple Support. They suggested that I switch to a different carrier! Verizon is the only satisfactory option when it comes to coverage. That's why my employer uses them, as well.

This despite my showing them old performance tests I ran on my 6S. The 6S had no problems on LTE.

 

[rjjacobson]

I am curious with all who have updated to 12.1 I have several questions. I use AT&T and it improved my LTE dramatically over what I got with earlier iphones and my Xs on 12.0 as well. Wifi is the normal I have always seen in which 2.4 ghz signal gets connected when i come home or get too far from my AirPort Extreme

Questions:
1) did your LTE improve with 12.1?
2 If it improved what carriers are you using?
3) If it did not improve and you are still getting poor LTE and dropped call, what carrier?

Wondering since it worked for me but my daughter got worse on Verizon, although rebooting today now better than 12.0 with 12.1 but we will see if it holds. What I see here looks random acros Verizon/AT&T and like but i was wondering

 

[Hokie804]

I am curious with all who have updated to 12.1 I have several questions. I use AT&T and it improved my LTE dramatically over what I got with earlier iphones and my Xs on 12.0 as well. Wifi is the normal I have always seen in which 2.4 ghz signal gets connected when i come home or get too far from my AirPort Extreme

Questions:
1) did your LTE improve with 12.1?
2 If it improved what carriers are you using?
3) If it did not improve and you are still getting poor LTE and dropped call, what carrier?

1) No. Mine is still horrendous.
3) I've had some dropped calls that I've never experience before on an iPhone. Verizon Wireless. I see others around here getting DL speeds in excess of 100mbps. Mine almost never exceeds 10mbps. I've seen uploads outperform my DLs. I've gotten less than 1mbps on speedtests before.

 

[rjjacobson]

1) No. Mine is still horrendous.
3) I've had some dropped calls that I've never experience before on an iPhone. Verizon Wireless. I see others around here getting DL speeds in excess of 100mbps. Mine almost never exceeds 10mbps. I've seen uploads outperform my DLs. I've gotten less than 1mbps on speedtests before.

Sorry to hear. Thanks was wondering. I also created in a new thread with a poll that asks the same questions about LTE, yes or no for improvement, carrier (3 choices, AT&T, Verizon and other) I am curious to see if this is slanted towards Verizon now that 12.1 seems to have improved LTE for some of us. It’s at: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/does-12-1-help-your-lte-—-yes-or-no-carrier.2153705/ feel free to add your vote t here want to see what the results of the update are.

Maybe it now is down to specific carriers while before the 12.1 it affected all carriers for those of us with issue? Not sure but I am curious enough to see if a pattern can be found that will help that I could pass on to Apple

 

[xaviertiong]

How about WiFi? My iPhone Max doesn’t like 5Ghz, keeps switching to 2.4 when other iPhone X in the household retain connection even if the signal quality is subpar. Then when the max connects to 2.4, the speeds are terrible, most of the time falling below 30Mbps on more than 460 downstream connections.

I am experiencing the exact same thing here. I had iphone 6 before switching to xs. With xs, I notice very significant difference between the two in term of 5Ghz connection.
[doublepost=1541861625][/doublepost]Other than 5GHz wifi connection, my LTE connectivity becomes really poor as well. I always call back to my home country with whatsapp during my commuting to work. The call always drops or reconnect or poor reception. I had an iphone 6 before. The difference is so significant that it becomes very noticeable and I eventually found out online that I am not alone. At first I thought it was the subpar connection of my home country, however after experience this over and over again with different calls to different persons and locations, I come to the conclusion that it must be my iphone xs. And I never experience such bad connection in my iphone 6 as well.

 

[Hokie804]

I am experiencing the exact same thing here. I had iphone 6 before switching to xs. With xs, I notice very significant difference between the two in term of 5Ghz connection.
[doublepost=1541861625][/doublepost]Other than 5GHz wifi connection, my LTE connectivity becomes really poor as well. I always call back to my home country with whatsapp during my commuting to work. The call always drops or reconnect or poor reception. I had an iphone 6 before. The difference is so significant that it becomes very noticeable and I eventually found out online that I am not alone. At first I thought it was the subpar connection of my home country, however after experience this over and over again with different calls to different persons and locations, I come to the conclusion that it must be my iphone xs. And I never experience such bad connection in my iphone 6 as well.

I first started wondering if there was something wrong on LTE, when I noticed other phones loading pages a lot quicker. Then I started numerous speed tests, and saw a drop off from my 6S and iPad Air 2

 

[youyou]

Guys i’m on my 4th, that’s right my 4TH iPhone XS Max 512GB phone.
I’ve been lucky enough to have them replaced under the 14 day return policy at Best Buy.
I can not believe what I’m witnessing. Apple needs to do something about this and own up to it. It’s now clear as day that it’s a hardware issue.
No GPS, most of the time on 3G, rarely do I get up to two bars of LTE, EDGE sometimes, dropped calls.
This is absolutely insane..

 

[Ifti]

So the title of this thread states Apple are looking into the issue.
Is that even true???

 

[rjohnstone]

I'm running iPhone beta 12.1.1 and my LTE signal is still garbage.
AT&T says it's not their issue and I believe them.
Same place with my old phone had perfect LTE. My iPhone Xs... barely holds onto a signal. Have to flip into airplane mode and back to get it to grab the signal again.

 

[Hokie804]

I'm running iPhone beta 12.1.1 and my LTE signal is still garbage.
AT&T says it's not their issue and I believe them.
Same place with my old phone had perfect LTE. My iPhone Xs... barely holds onto a signal. Have to flip into airplane mode and back to get it to grab the signal again.

Apple keeps trying to make me try other SIM cards from different carriers, but those are difficult to find in my area. My carrier (Verizon), has served me well. I too believe it’s a hardware issue, given my close proximity to a tower and moderate population density where I use it.

 

[PickUrPoison]

Apple keeps trying to make me try other SIM cards from different carriers, but those are difficult to find in my area. My carrier (Verizon), has served me well. I too believe it’s a hardware issue, given my close proximity to a tower and moderate population density where I use it.

Apple might want you to try other SIM cards because they know they aren’t having trouble with other carriers in your area. It’s not necessarily Verizon’s “fault”, it’s probably a combination of Apple and Verizon creating an incompatibility but if other US/Int’l carriers aren’t having the same issue, that’s meaningful. It could be something as simple as Verizon needing to upgrade the firmware in a radio or other piece of incompatible equipment.

There are maybe 10-20 million XS sold by now and the vast majority apparently aren’t having the problem you’re having.

 

[MultiMan]

There are maybe 10-20 million XS sold by now and the vast majority apparently aren’t having the problem you’re having.

How do you know that, do you work at Apple?

Most people with problems don't write on forums, they contact place of purchase or just endure with the problems until they buy another phone.

 

[jim29411]

How do you know that, do you work at Apple?

Most people with problems don't write on forums, they contact place of purchase or just endure with the problems until they buy another phone.

That is the problem. Most people are not tech savvy and just live with the problems or believe that it is an issue with the cell phone service and there is nothing that they can do about it. Very unfortunate.

 

[youyou]

Apple might want you to try other SIM cards because they know they aren’t having trouble with other carriers in your area. It’s not necessarily Verizon’s “fault”, it’s probably a combination of Apple and Verizon creating an incompatibility but if other US/Int’l carriers aren’t having the same issue, that’s meaningful. It could be something as simple as Verizon needing to upgrade the firmware in a radio or other piece of incompatible equipment.

There are maybe 10-20 million XS sold by now and the vast majority apparently aren’t having the problem you’re having.

Actually every single person I know that owns an iPhone XS has LTE issues. Every single one of them! And that’s a lot of people. I’m on my freaking 4th replacement! I have people by my side with an iPhone 7, 6S and X and they have full bars and I’m on 3G with 2 bars.
Give me a break. There’s an issue with the hardware in the phone and it has zero to do with the carrier.

 

[prithvi64]

I am using 12.1.1 (Beta 3), it has updated Modem firmware 1.01.30 (12.1) to 1.02.16 (1.2.1.1 (b2) and Carrier 34(12.1) to 35(12.1.1). with this updated firmware, it seems to be better now. Atleast, I am not facing any call drop which i had on 12.1.

 

[Hokie804]

Actually every single person I know that owns an iPhone XS has LTE issues. Every single one of them! And that’s a lot of people. I’m on my freaking 4th replacement! I have people by my side with an iPhone 7, 6S and X and they have full bars and I’m on 3G with 2 bars.
Give me a break. There’s an issue with the hardware in the phone and it has zero to do with the carrier.

I’m on my 2nd replacement. Are all your devices replaced through your carrier? I see some have gotten Apple to replace theirs, but I’m still dealing with Support. And have been since October 20th.

 

[youyou]

I’m on my 2nd replacement. Are all your devices replaced through your carrier? I see some have gotten Apple to replace theirs, but I’m still dealing with Support. And have been since October 20th.

I'm actually going through Best Buy directly.
14 Day return policy no questioned asked.
Brand New phone every single time.

 

[Hokie804]

I'm actually going through Best Buy directly.
14 Day return policy no questioned asked.
Brand New phone every single time.

Gotcha.

 

[Sci_Tech]

I’m on my 2nd replacement. Are all your devices replaced through your carrier? I see some have gotten Apple to replace theirs, but I’m still dealing with Support. And have been since October 20th.

Got mines replaced tonight from Apple. Bought it directly from Verizon and after having them trying to troubleshoot it they said I should go to Apple.

Apple ran their diagnostics and hardware seemed fine. I was told this would be a one time courtsey replacement and that if the connectivity issues continue then it has to be software related. Hoping this one resolves my issues.

 

[Ifti]

Got mines replaced tonight from Apple. Bought it directly from Verizon and after having them trying to troubleshoot it they said I should go to Apple.

Apple ran their diagnostics and hardware seemed fine. I was told this would be a one time courtsey replacement and that if the connectivity issues continue then it has to be software related. Hoping this one resolves my issues.

Had exactly the same. New one still has issues.

 

[rendermonster]

I just wanted to chime in here because I’m on T-Mobile. Presumably, the X (which performed perfectly in my area on T-Mobile) has the same antenna / modem as the XS. But my XS is very poor. Like you all, dropped LTE, poor connectivity on b/g/n in same areas the X performed great, and worst of all dropped calls, areas with no coverage (in the middle of a major city!)

I have spoken to Apple multiple times, and they have done nothing aside from make me wipe the phone multiple times. They then had me collect screen shots and stack shots during when / where it happened (I gave them about 20 examples over 2 days, the phone is almost unusable as a phone...). I have gotten no response for over a month now, and I think this might finally be the push for me to leave Apple, to which I’ve been very loyal for 20+ years. Upsetting there’s this big a downgrade on a NEW 1500 dollar phone...

 

[Sci_Tech]

Had exactly the same. New one still has issues.

Did they also have you setup the phone as new and not restore from backup? I can understand if I was having glitches or crashes, but I’m not sure setting up as new will do anything relating to cellular connectivity