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Find My iPhone says iPhone doesn't have any connection, can't find it. Why?

C

Cubytus

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 2, 2007
1,444
25
Hello all,

now I got an iPhone 3GS, I wanted to test the Find My iPhone function to see wether or not it would be localizable on a map. To my surprise, the iPad was localizable, as well as the MacBook running Lion, but the iPhone was deemed not to have any connection, although it was connected through WiFi, cellular network, and had localization services activated.

I restarted it to no avail. Apple support suggested a restore that obviously can't be done because its unlock depends on a jailbreak that was possible only because unlocker had the original carriers's SIM.

Why is it reported as having no connection, and why do localization fails?
 
Cubytus said:
Hello all,

now I got an iPhone 3GS, I wanted to test the Find My iPhone function to see wether or not it would be localizable on a map. To my surprise, the iPad was localizable, as well as the MacBook running Lion, but the iPhone was deemed not to have any connection, although it was connected through WiFi, cellular network, and had localization services activated.

I restarted it to no avail. Apple support suggested a restore that obviously can't be done because its unlock depends on a jailbreak that was possible only because unlocker had the original carriers's SIM.

Why is it reported as having no connection, and why do localization fails?
Click to expand...

On the phone:

Settings > iCloud > Find My iPhone

turned on?
 
Similar thing happened to my 4. Turns out that when I had upgraded to ios6 I pressed do not use find my phone in the initial setup. I did a restore and selected use find my phone and now works like a champ.
 
Where actually have you pressed "do not use find my iPhone" in the settings? When I entered my iCloud account, it prompted me wether or not I wanted to allow tracking, and I pressed "yes".

Interestingly enough, when I delete the new AppleID the technician had me create to solve a recurrent calendars issue, intending to use it only for iCloud, the iPhone still presents the previous AppleID, now used only for iTunes. I wonder where it is stored. The localization issue appeared when I was testing that all iCloud-related functions worked. Calendar issues seemed to be solved, only to reappear about an hour later, when I changed places and connected on another WiFi network whose location was known, in order to test localization capability.

Obviously a full factory restore is something I can't do since it will lose its unlocking and I won't be able to unlock again using only a foreign SIM card, as I put it in the first post.

Phone can find itself on a map, but often it states that it can't activate cellular data network, get a very weak signal or loses it. Any idea?
 
I have both an iPhone 5 and SGS2. I noticed that I can get my last known position of my Android device. But my iPhone 5 only shows up if it is connected and powered up, not otherwise. Is there a way to find the last known position time or history of the location of the iPhone 5 using findmy phone app?
 
Cubytus said:
Interestingly enough, when I delete the new AppleID the technician had me create to solve a recurrent calendars issue, intending to use it only for iCloud, the iPhone still presents the previous AppleID, now used only for iTunes. I wonder where it is stored.
Click to expand...
An iPhone uses an AppleID in many places, all independently. If you change one of these settings, it has nothing to do with the others.

Appstore
iCloud
iTunes Match
iMessages
etc
 
Applejuiced said:
Because the ipad baseband that you have installed 06.15.00 renders the gps useless.
Use the latest redsnow and downgrade your baseband.
Then your gps function will work and will be able to report your location.
And your unlock with ultrasnow will still work fine.
Click to expand...
The phone can locate itself on the map using, presumably, its GPS function. However, it seems there's no "communication" (don't know how to put it) between a request pushed from iCloud to activate the GPS chip and get a precise location.

Indeed, this is what I found independantly. The retailer who unlocked it is aware of this problem but upgraded nevertheless to make the unlocking job easier. As I understood it he will downgrade it for free, but as soon as I started handing the phone to him to get it done, the screen went black, then completely white. He advised me to try to fix the screen first because he needs to see what's happening during the process.

Murphy's law at work.

JAT said:
An iPhone uses an AppleID in many places, all independently. If you change one of these settings, it has nothing to do with the others.

Appstore
iCloud
iTunes Match
iMessages
etc
Click to expand...
I assumed the "iCloud" section in the parameters may have been the "topmost" one, uninfluenced by the other settings. Seems I was wrong.

Independant question: do an iPhone 3GS needs the original carrier's SIM to be able to unlock it, or any SIM will do, even if the phone is not activated?
 
Cubytus said:
It is running iOS 6.1.2, baseband 06.15.00.
Click to expand...

6.15.00 is the iPad 1 baseband that was used with Jailbreak and Ultrasn0w as software unlock. You using an unsupported baseband on an iPhone and there are known issues with GPS problems with that baseband.

If you really paid $100 for a local unlocker to JB and installl ultrasn0w, which available for free, you really got scammed. Should have pony'd up for the IMEI permanent unlock with the proper iPhone baseband for the 3GS.
 
It was far below that price, but still too expensive to my taste. Factory unlock was $160 for this model, and even the seller felt ashamed of it. I didn't have the necessary tools to perform the unlock myself, and it seems even getting a simple answer on the process either here or on big G is incredibly complicated. So yeah, I paid someone to take the worries on him (partly failed, I must admit), and he upgraded iOS as well.

But why is ultrasn0w using a baseband that apparently doesn't have anything to do in an iPhone, even if there's no software blocking from doing so?

This doesn't answer my last question, or is it?
 
Cubytus said:
It was far below that price, but still too expensive to my taste. Factory unlock was $160 for this model, and even the seller felt ashamed of it. I didn't have the necessary tools to perform the unlock myself, and it seems even getting a simple answer on the process either here or on big G is incredibly complicated. So yeah, I paid someone to take the worries on him (partly failed, I must admit), and he upgraded iOS as well.

But why is ultrasn0w using a baseband that apparently doesn't have anything to do in an iPhone, even if there's no software blocking from doing so?

This doesn't answer my last question, or is it?
Click to expand...

The unlockers that picked the iPad bb knew they were giving up GPS in order to have their iPhone unlocked. That is accomplished by installing a baseband that was not meant for the iPhone.
At least now you know why and what needs to be done to correct it.
Sucks that your screen decided to die now. When it rains...
 
Cubytus said:
It was far below that price, but still too expensive to my taste. Factory unlock was $160 for this model, and even the seller felt ashamed of it. I didn't have the necessary tools to perform the unlock myself, and it seems even getting a simple answer on the process either here or on big G is incredibly complicated. So yeah, I paid someone to take the worries on him (partly failed, I must admit), and he upgraded iOS as well.

But why is ultrasn0w using a baseband that apparently doesn't have anything to do in an iPhone, even if there's no software blocking from doing so?

This doesn't answer my last question, or is it?
Click to expand...

Because the 2nd production of the iPhone 3GS incorporated a baseband that was unlockable, but they found a way to flash it with a the iPad baseband that is unlocked on the iPad, so it was easy to unlock the the 3GS as well. Back then the ultrasn0w was the only way to unlock without using a SIM adapter. IMEI unlocks were not available. If you use diffeent browser, you can see the prices on the swiftunlock site and purchase it all online. I could not see it with Chrome.
 
As I wrote... It seems the GPS function works fine when called from the phone itself, but not when called from iCloud. I believe many people don't seem to care about this ability.

So instead of properly hacking the normal baseband in the iPhone, developers of the unlocking process went the dirty way and grafted a more easily-hacked iPad baseband in the iPhone? On the other hand... The iPad does have a GPS itself, so why wouldn't it operate the iPhone GPS properly?

I have believed and still believe that jailbreaking is a really dirty way to get things done, full of incompatible, unfilter-able, unstable or downright dangerous (for the life of your phone) software. This half-baked graft of an unlock proves my point once again.

My first concern was the calendar issue. After about 3 hours of call with Apple Level 2 service in California with incredible background noise as the tech told me she could hear, I finally managed, with her help, to maintain iCloud, iPad, MacBook and iPhone calendars in sync, on wifi, after creating a new AppleID for iCloud purposes, as she suspected a data corruption from having so many different devices trying to communicate with iCloud. I still don't know why whe didn't came up with that circumvention during the first, hours-long calls I had with Apple previously. I imagine what it would have been like for the tech to stay on the phone for hours with a customer with a foreign accent over powerful background noise and receiving screenshots in two languages not known.

As I tried other functions, I noticed Find My iPhone didn't actually find it, and reported it as having no connection, to which the tech advised me to restore software, wich obviously can't be done since I would lose unlock and still don't have what it takes to unlock again and since clear instructions are so hard to come by. As soon as I moved out of the coffee shop and added an event I just got by email as I was walking, back at home this even wasn't added.

Now, my main concern is the fluctuating cellular and wifi signal. I don't know if the calendar problem has any link with the former, but constantly losing connectivity surely doesn't help keeping the calendars in sync, and is a possible cause for draining the battery really fast. Without moving the phone, it can be anywhere from 5 bars to 2, to losing service. Is that a baseband issue as well?

Edit for Baggio: SwiftUnlock never answered my request about the exact process. Site appears as I presented previously in Safari and Firefox, plus, they are not answering their email. I can't rely on vapor, can I?

I have a hard time understanding how IMEI, database-based unlocks wouldn't have been available as it only depends on the providers.
 
Last edited:
Cubytus said:
As I wrote... It seems the GPS function works fine when called from the phone itself, but not when called from iCloud. I believe many people don't seem to care about this ability.

So instead of properly hacking the normal baseband in the iPhone, developers of the unlocking process went the dirty way and grafted a more easily-hacked iPad baseband in the iPhone? On the other hand... The iPad does have a GPS itself, so why wouldn't it operate the iPhone GPS properly?

I have believed and still believe that jailbreaking is a really dirty way to get things done, full of incompatible, unfilter-able, unstable or downright dangerous (for the life of your phone) software. This half-baked graft of an unlock proves my point once again.

My first concern was the calendar issue. After about 3 hours of call with Apple Level 2 service in California with incredible background noise as the tech told me she could hear, I finally managed, with her help, to maintain iCloud, iPad, MacBook and iPhone calendars in sync, on wifi, after creating a new AppleID for iCloud purposes, as she suspected a data corruption from having so many different devices trying to communicate with iCloud. I still don't know why whe didn't came up with that circumvention during the first, hours-long calls I had with Apple previously. I imagine what it would have been like for the tech to stay on the phone for hours with a customer with a foreign accent over powerful background noise and receiving screenshots in two languages not known.

As I tried other functions, I noticed Find My iPhone didn't actually find it, and reported it as having no connection, to which the tech advised me to restore software, wich obviously can't be done since I would lose unlock and still don't have what it takes to unlock again and since clear instructions are so hard to come by. As soon as I moved out of the coffee shop and added an event I just got by email as I was walking, back at home this even wasn't added.

Now, my main concern is the fluctuating cellular and wifi signal. I don't know if the calendar problem has any link with the former, but constantly losing connectivity surely doesn't help keeping the calendars in sync, and is a possible cause for draining the battery really fast. Without moving the phone, it can be anywhere from 5 bars to 2, to losing service. Is that a baseband issue as well?

Edit for Baggio: SwiftUnlock never answered my request about the exact process. Site appears as I presented previously in Safari and Firefox, plus, they are not answering their email. I can't rely on vapor, can I?

I have a hard time understanding how IMEI, database-based unlocks wouldn't have been available as it only depends on the providers.
Click to expand...

The only way to unlock was to flash to baseband that higher numerical then the one that Apple installed on the 2nd generation of the 3GS. This was well before find my iphone existed. It was purely done those that need an unlock solution for the 2nd generation 3GS with the newer baseband.

The process for IMEI unlock is to pay online and submit your IMEI to them. withing 24 hours you receive confirmation that is unlocked. You do a restore with the SIM of your choice and it's unlocked to use with any SIM. It's pretty straight forward. Now, if you want to IMEI unlock, you are going to have downgrade your baseband and restore back to 6.1.2. Also, the reason you are having signal issues is that that baseband was never meant for iOS 6.
 

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Cubytus said:
I have believed and still believe that jailbreaking is a really dirty way to get things done, full of incompatible...
Click to expand...

I agree.
It's very dirty.
Matter of fact after I use my jb iPhone I use antibacterial soap or wear gloves.
But anyway best bet for you would be to just get a factory unlocked iPhone next time so you don't have to deal with all that dirty stuff. It might get you sick or infected or something:D
 
Cubytus said:
As I wrote... It seems the GPS function works fine when called from the phone itself, but not when called from iCloud. I believe many people don't seem to care about this ability.
Click to expand...

When called from the phone, your phone thinks GPS is down and will give you an approximate location based on Wifi and Cell Towers, which is why you get that blue circle around your location. The same results when you call a normal iPhone from inside a building. It has no sight of the satellites so it will use other things in its arsenal to give you an approx. location. This is why you think your GPS works, but its known that the iPad baseband disables GPS on the 3GS.

Your thinking is kind of correct, in that the iPad had a GPS, but they probably used a different GPS chip, so the firmware in the baseband is no compatible. Either way, it does not work.
 
Applejuiced said:
I agree.
It's very dirty.
Matter of fact after I use my jb iPhone I use antibacterial soap or wear gloves.
But anyway best bet for you would be to just get a factory unlocked iPhone next time so you don't have to deal with all that dirty stuff. It might get you sick or infected or something:D
Click to expand...

It's dirty to him, because he was too impatient and didn't do it properly. He had know idea what he was doing and he was too impatient to try to find an IMEI unlock. Instead he had local install a hack that was the only thing available back in the iOS 4 or iOS 5 days.
 
Baggio said:
It's dirty to him, because he was too impatient and didn't do it properly. He had know idea what he was doing and he was too impatient to try to find an IMEI unlock. Instead he had local install a hack that was the only thing available back in the iOS 4 or iOS 5 days.
Click to expand...

Lmao:D
Poor guy having to deal with all this dirt...
 
Baggio said:
The process for IMEI unlock is to pay online and submit your IMEI to them. withing 24 hours you receive confirmation that is unlocked. You do a restore with the SIM of your choice and it's unlocked to use with any SIM. It's pretty straight forward. Now, if you want to IMEI unlock, you are going to have downgrade your baseband and restore back to 6.1.2. Also, the reason you are having signal issues is that that baseband was never meant for iOS 6.
Click to expand...
When you can see the actual website I guess it is pretty straightforward. But what happens when 1- customer service doesn't answer emails and 2- website doesn't display? That's right, it is impossible to place an order.

Applejuiced said:
I agree.
It's very dirty.
Matter of fact after I use my jb iPhone I use antibacterial soap or wear gloves.
But anyway best bet for you would be to just get a factory unlocked iPhone next time so you don't have to deal with all that dirty stuff. It might get you sick or infected or something:D
Click to expand...
Factory unlocked iPhones are very few and far between here. Blame the iPhone staggering price, blame the excessive rate charged by carriers to get an official unlock, blame the lenghty 3-years contract a customer must abide to if he wants a sub 300$ iPhone, the fact is, there are very few factory unlocked iPhones, and older iPhones such as the 3GS aren't represented.

I am unaware of phone to humans disease transmissions, although a cell phone is a very good vector of many diseases, as the most contaminated object we handle daily. Joke aside, jb on iPod Touch 2nd gen, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS seems like pure crap. Nothing seems to work right out of the box. And you can't deny grafting a different firmware isn't crude.

If it was clean, why are proper instructions so hard to come by?

dextr3k said:
When called from the phone, your phone thinks GPS is down and will give you an approximate location based on Wifi and Cell Towers, which is why you get that blue circle around your location. The same results when you call a normal iPhone from inside a building. It has no sight of the satellites so it will use other things in its arsenal to give you an approx. location. This is why you think your GPS works, but its known that the iPad baseband disables GPS on the 3GS.

Your thinking is kind of correct, in that the iPad had a GPS, but they probably used a different GPS chip, so the firmware in the baseband is no compatible. Either way, it does not work.
Click to expand...
I switched the phone to field test mode, but it kept on reporting "unknown" for all fields. Does it have anything to do with this purported incompatibility?

Even if only approximate location by cell towers was possible, why wouldn't it report that location to iCloud anyway?

Baggio said:
It's dirty to him, because he was too impatient and didn't do it properly. He had know idea what he was doing and he was too impatient to try to find an IMEI unlock. Instead he had local install a hack that was the only thing available back in the iOS 4 or iOS 5 days.
Click to expand...
I have had this phone for about two months. So impatience is not the issue here. However, getting 70-hour workweek doesn't leave much time. I wrongly assumed that the original owner would be able to factory unlock it from its carrier, but this was without taking the carrier's unwillingness to help.

By the time he managed to call them, three choices were left: either subscribe with them (I am already in a contract with my own provider and not willing to subscribe to the most expensive one), use the iPhone as an iPod, or go the unofficial way to unlock it, which I did, here, with a kind advice that led on a non-working website and non-answering customer service, or a local unlocker in a big shopping mall.
 
Last edited:
I think once you downgrade the baseband you will be fine and with far less issues since the gps will work fine and the baseband will be back to an iphone version so it should connect and keep signal a lot better.
What are you doing for the screen? Will you need to replace that?
 
That's what I inferred from the replies I got on this topic and the merchant's saying. Although I do blame him for not "finishing up" the work, he has been honest so far, as the phone started to act up right in front of him, losing then recovering signal incessantly. From what I read, there has been two productions of the 3GS, but ways to tell are not quite clear. On the good side: if I get to understand what problems are commonly encountered while unlocking an iPhone, maybe I will be able to do it myself later.

I read that this "grafted" 06.15 baseband was also reported to drain the battery faster than usual, in addition of instabilities. So I expect a much lower consumption after downgrading.

As I encountered no great success trying to communicate and place an order for an IMEI unlock, I was also liiking for a way to do it myself, but still don't know where to connect, how to request authorizations, if it requires some kind of license, etc.

Independant question still unanswered: do an iPhone 3GS needs the original carrier's SIM to be able to unlock it, or any SIM will do, even if the phone is not activated?
 
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