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iPhone 6(S)/Plus Unable to select network while travelling abroad

I

icymountain

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 12, 2006
560
623
Hi,
I have an iPhone 6s with iOS 13.3 and am travelling abroad. When I get out of airplane mode, my iPhone shows "no service" and I cannot see where to choose another cellular network without data. I would like to mention that "data roaming" is turned off, but I have connected to networks in this mode successfully in the past (and I fear it is the only way for me to avoid atrocious charges).
I searched and found a number of places that mention a "Settings->Cellular" menu but I just do not find it. Has it been moved ? (or even better, removed ?). In any case, I am wondering what is the way to achieve what I am trying to do.
Thanks!
 
Before you left the country for where you are now, did you have your phone unlocked?
 
eyoungren said:
Before you left the country for where you are now, did you have your phone unlocked?
Click to expand...
Whether his phone is unlocked or not shouldn't matter, if its his home country sim that is in the phone he is simply roaming and should be able to connect to whatever countries networks the phone picks up.

That's how it works with UK phones any way.
 
Whenever I land in another country I always turn the phone off and then turn it back on instead of just taking it out of airplane mode.
 
MisterSavage said:
Whenever I land in another country I always turn the phone off and then turn it back on instead of just taking it out of airplane mode.
Click to expand...

I have to say I do this as well when traveling abroad. I'm not sure if makes a difference, but I have not run into any issues when I turn off and turn my iPhone back on connecting to a network.
 
nburwell said:
I have to say I do this as well when traveling abroad. I'm not sure if makes a difference, but I have not run into any issues when I turn off and turn my iPhone back on connecting to a network.
Click to expand...

I just looked on AT&T's website and they do recommend it: "International travel tips. How to solve a service issue • Turn your phone off for one minute and then back on"
 
Thanks for the replies.
Unfortunately, I turned my phone off and back on, and still get "No service".
 
icymountain said:
Thanks for the replies.
Unfortunately, I turned my phone off and back on, and still get "No service".
Click to expand...

Have you traveled abroad before? I had to contact AT&T and have International Day Pass enabled on my account. Once you do that it stays on for future trips.
 
MarkX said:
Whether his phone is unlocked or not shouldn't matter, if its his home country sim that is in the phone he is simply roaming and should be able to connect to whatever countries networks the phone picks up.

That's how it works with UK phones any way.
Click to expand...
In the US, if you purchase a phone from your carrier (other than Verizon) it's locked to the carrier. That means you are dependent on your carrier's international plan when you leave the country. You cannot insert a local SIM and expect it to work - because the phone is locked.

You have to ask for an international unlock if you want to use a local SIM outside the US.

Now if you buy from Apple the device comes unlocked and it doesn't matter.
 
I have had the same issue with my X for a while now. What I do is I usually wait for the automatic selection of the network to finish (to no result), then turn it off and choose the network manually. Turning phone off and on again is sometimes helpful, but not always the case. I am honestly pretty irritated with this as I travel quite often, but at least the workaround turned out to be useful for me.
 
eyoungren said:
In the US, if you purchase a phone from your carrier (other than Verizon) it's locked to the carrier. That means you are dependent on your carrier's international plan when you leave the country. You cannot insert a local SIM and expect it to work - because the phone is locked.

You have to ask for an international unlock if you want to use a local SIM outside the US.

Now if you buy from Apple the device comes unlocked and it doesn't matter.
Click to expand...
Uk phones are locked on certain carriers here too but your phone will still work abroad even with your original sim inserted.

As long as roaming isn't blocked by your carrier you should have the ability to connect to a foreign network and will be billed according to your carriers overseas charges based on the country you are in.
 
_karrol said:
I have had the same issue with my X for a while now. What I do is I usually wait for the automatic selection of the network to finish (to no result), then turn it off and choose the network manually. Turning phone off and on again is sometimes helpful, but not always the case. I am honestly pretty irritated with this as I travel quite often, but at least the workaround turned out to be useful for me.
Click to expand...

This solved it.

I now understand better what is happening. By default, when "automatic network selection" is disabled (I had to have this in the past as I was travelling in a country where one network was consistently worse than the others and the phone would always go to this one by default for some reason), then the "manual network selection" menu does not show up until the search fails (my feeling is that it should always appear, and just be greyed out when it is not applicable).

Also, it appears in a sub sub menu of the "mobile data" category (I see I have UK English setting), which I also find to be a bad name choice (my cell phone provider will let me use regular texts and voice calls for a regular surcharge, but data would be crazy expensive; thus it is awkward that the search for "roaming" only reveals the "data roaming" switch).

Thanks everybody for your answers!
 
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I have found this issue almost an year ago when I was flying to Germany. after that it all works fine for me.
 
icymountain said:
This solved it.

I now understand better what is happening. By default, when "automatic network selection" is disabled (I had to have this in the past as I was travelling in a country where one network was consistently worse than the others and the phone would always go to this one by default for some reason), then the "manual network selection" menu does not show up until the search fails (my feeling is that it should always appear, and just be greyed out when it is not applicable).

Also, it appears in a sub sub menu of the "mobile data" category (I see I have UK English setting), which I also find to be a bad name choice (my cell phone provider will let me use regular texts and voice calls for a regular surcharge, but data would be crazy expensive; thus it is awkward that the search for "roaming" only reveals the "data roaming" switch).

Thanks everybody for your answers!
Click to expand...

That's some good detective work!
 
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