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Why are my bars Changing?

DoNoHarm

DoNoHarm

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Oct 8, 2008
1,138
46
Maine
When I leave my iPhone on my desk the signal fluctuates between four bars and one bar throughout the day. it's either one bar or four bars and I don't change the phone at all. what could be causing this?
 
DoNoHarm said:
When I leave my iPhone on my desk the signal fluctuates between four bars and one bar throughout the day. it's either one bar or four bars and I don't change the phone at all. what could be causing this?
Click to expand...

AT&T's cell towers. Now that Apple implemented their recommended signal algorthm its showing how signals really fluxate.
 
And the phone picks the tower with the "least amount of resistance." I am right on the line of 2 time zones at my house and my phone is constantly changing the time throughout the day(before I put it on manual).
 
pmkoch said:
And the phone picks the tower with the "least amount of resistance." I am right on the line of 2 time zones at my house and my phone is constantly changing the time throughout the day(before I put it on manual).
Click to expand...

That must be annoying.
 
-Interference (Other electrical equipments)
-Weather
-Obstacles (objects between the phone and the cell tower)
-Sci-Fi stuff we can't understand

And the phone adapting to all of this. (Someone correct me if I'm wrong)

(Just in case: It happens on all phones in the entire globe.)
 
So Cal info

This is all iOS 4.0. I live in So. Cal and went to Seattle over 4th of July weekend. When I left I had 5 bars everywhere in my house. When I got back (still pre iOS 4.0.1) I would only get 2, 3 and sometimes 4 bars. I wonder if there is some tower upgrade/maint. going on over on the west coast and just happened to be around the 4.0.1 upgrade?
 
jp70 said:
This is all iOS 4.0. I live in So. Cal and went to Seattle over 4th of July weekend. When I left I had 5 bars everywhere in my house. When I got back (still pre iOS 4.0.1) I would only get 2, 3 and sometimes 4 bars. I wonder if there is some tower upgrade/maint. going on over on the west coast and just happened to be around the 4.0.1 upgrade?
Click to expand...

That sounds about right. The 'old' 4 and 5 are now 3, 4, and 5.

Your signal didn't change, it's just showing up differently.

See chart:
https://www.macrumors.com/2010/07/1...isplay-changes-in-ios-4-0-1-and-4-1-detailed/
 
i keep getting the same thing....five bars at home, but other places that i always seemed to get 5 bars of service are now up and down and i haven't upgraded to 4.01 yet...earlier today i watched my phone start at 5, drop down bar by bar all the way down to edge and then wham back up to 5 bards of 3G.

kind of weird and i dunno if i'm just paranoid now about the signal or if my 3GS did this too
 
thanks for the responses people. Yeah, when I say I "don't change the phone at all" I'm referring to the location of the phone. So it will be on the corner of my desk and switch between 4 and 1 bars all the time. I have noticed this with the new OS as well as the old OS. It definitely seems more common (to get one bar) with the new OS. By the way, I have a 3gs.
 
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