iPhone Network Lost
The iPhone has a quirk that is starting to become a hindrance. Every time the phone goes through a patch of dead air where there’s no cell signal, it pops up a dialogue box saying “network lost”. This obviously could be useful at times, but it’s bad for two reasons:
- Firstly, we, the collective public of mobile phone users, have coped without such a pop-up on all previous mobile phones, we’re happy with a little icon telling us how much signal we have, so it’s cute, but redundant.
- Secondly the iPhone is a computer – its so much more than a phone, so a pop up message indicating network loss interrupts other applications and thus gets in the way.
A good example is in the car when using InstaMapper‘s GPS Tracker.  Once interrupted, the tracker is no longer the foreground application, so it can no longer stop the phone from sleeping: consequently the screen goes off, and position and speed can’t be read without turning the screen back on and unlocking the phone – not something to be doing whilst driving.
There has to be some way of disabling this that I’m missing; or it needs to be an option in the next OS release!
I think you can disable that message, I used to get it but don’t anymore
Hmm, I’ve never had that message. I’ve got the latest firmware which I assume you have also?
Think much of Android G1? Looks like a damp squib as I predicted (to myself!).
Yup. I was on 2.0.1 and 2.1 within hours of their release.
It only happens when you have your Carrier Selection set to a specific carrier, instead of ‘automatic’. Change it to “automatic” and it should go away.
Unfortunately for me, i have to keep my carrier manually selected, so until someone releases a patch or something, im stuck with the message.
My Neo Freerunner running Qtopia doesn’t do that..
You are bragging that you have a phone that wants to be an iphone, but fails?
… which is not surprising considering that the freerunner is a lot older and cheaper than the iPhone which is largely subsidised by the phone companies (if it weren’t then the $400 price tag would be way higher – it’s the economy of scale that brings the price down). I’ll be very interested to know how the N900 stacks up, which is what Chris tried next.
Well, I’ve managed to stop the error, and it was Sam’s comment that got me there, but curiously it’s the opposite of what Sam described. If I have “O2-UK” selected as my carrier then I don’t get the message (i.e. a “specific carrier”) but when I use “Automatic” the error returns. Anyhow thanks Sam – you got me to the right place.
This is somewhere Android is going to really win. Being able to go to the source, see what’s happening, and if desired, change it is definitely simpler. This of course can be counterbalanced by the stability offered through Apple’s steady and controlled platform evolution, which will mean Android won’t be for everyone.
Since the 3.0 upgrade, I get this *annoying* message.
Thanks to the reply above, it seems the reason is when a specific carrier is specified instead of “automatic”. Changed it to “automatic” and no more message.
I am having the same problem. Mine is an unlocked iphone on 3.0 for T-mobile. If you switch to automatic then every time the signal goes out it tries to find AT&T which takes time and uses a lot of battery. Since it is never gonna find AT&T I find it easier to select, manually, T-mobile. It gives me better signals and saves batteryl There shoud be a way to delete a network or get rid of the message. Help if anyone knows how?
I live in Switzerland, and I have to leave it on manual otherwise it switches to a foreign network (and you know how much it costs when receiving a call abroad!!!).
The dumbest thing is that if I don’t look at my phone for a whole train journey, then I have to dismiss a dozen of those messages next time I pick the phone up!
Considering the signal is usually only lost for 1-2 sec at a time it has no use whatsoever!
I don’t have any signal where i attend college so when i leave the campus my phone as 20-25 “network lost” messages i’ve got to dismiss before i can use the phone. I fear one day it will have 100s and it will come at a time when i need to make a quick important phone call.
3g, unlocked, usa, t-mobile, manual or automatic selected, still have the same problem.
I get the message and its set to Automatic. My house is on a Dead Zone and those pop up messages accumulate over time. If I’m home for 1/2 hour, I have to sit there, clicking Dismiss about 25 times before its over…until the next time. Please help
I hate this alert message sooo much, apple doesn’t think very much about software usability. I just moved to a dead zone apparently, and now I get this alert about once every 2-5 mins. Rogers tells me I will be charged for using other networks, so I can’t use the ‘automatic’ setting.. which doesn’t seem to help much anyhow.
I can barely watch a video or use an app now..
Apple cares about usability, they just do not experience this as a problem themselves in the US i believe. I live near the danish border in germany and trust me i hate this message.
It is the most useless popup i have ever seen in my career in the software business.. But there are also other useless popups on the iphone like “Data roaming turned off” etc…
What seems to surprise me is that i cant seem to find a hack for this even for unlocked iphones?
Best to have a strong signal before choosing “carrier” that way the “automatic” setting is available immediately.
I use a jailbroken G2 OS 3.1 with t-mobile in the US (Georgia). I didn’t have the “network lost” pop-up message problem until I installed swirlymms2. Now I get it all the time and it is annoying. I have changed the “select network” settings from automatic to manual (t-mobile) and backultiple times and it does not make a difference. Here in the US you can only roam to other carriers in areas where your own carrier is not available and that is not applicable to my situation. Anyway, automatic or manual network selection does not make a difference. Can anyone help?
It’s driving me mad also , apple sort this out !
Hello I have it also in Belgium.
Here is what I noticed:
My three last iPhone have the problem and they are official unlocks. I even changed the sim and the problem was still there.
My first iPhone V1 from the US was a Jailbroken one.
My conclusion is that since the jailbreak I’m dragging something along in the iTunes back up and that everytime I get a new iPhone the “bug” comes with the previous profile restore I upload.
What I will try next is a full restore of the iPhone and I will not sync my back up profile after the restore and see if I still get the message.
Yeah i get this same problem now, ever since updating the firmware
Voila, following my previous comment I solve the problem once and for all
This problem was following me from one iPhone to a new iPhone and with different sim cards.
So for those of you who’s problem was not solved by selecting Automatic Network selection or a Specific Network >>
I did a full restore of my iPhone via iTunes and after that I DID NOT SYNC it with my previously backed up profile. I created a new one.
I did of course lose my data but at least the problem is solved. No more message when the network is lost, better use of the battery and better network reception!
It was worth it !
I am on O2 and was getting really annoyed with this message. I’ve now switched to automatic and don’t get the message. Thanks for the solution!
Hi to everyone!
I’m on Spain and I own the 3GS iPhone.
This message start to apears in my vacations
in Greece. I don’t know exactly what setting (if any)
was changed for this foreign operator.
I do some testing with a friend that has the same phone.
We drive outside the city, to find “dead” signal spots.
My phone showed the error message 4 times, his phone: none.
I would try a complete restore, but I believe that reload the
network operator configuration file would be better. Anyone know how
to to that?
Thanks!
Diego
Problem fixed! Both my wife and myself have an iPhone and I was the only one getting this really annoying message. I simply needed to set the carrier to automatic instead of selecting my phone network provider. Now, remember that seeing the Automatic setting being displayed is not enough, you need to check it. No more lost network since then
switching to automatic fixed it for me and it’ll work for you.
Wait until your in a strong signal area-options-carrier-automatic.
Message gone.
Apple is very user friendly but restricted, jailbreak and you’ll fall in love with your phone again!
Changed from manual to automatic but issue persists .. Fed up with these messages .. Moreover the screen goes black n no button works
Hello!
I have a locked iphone 3g to O2-UK.
I now live in Bulgaria. I have a new O2 sim inserted but there is no signal. I can only select Automatic, but it does not find any bulgarian carriers. What to do?
Haha! I was being plagued by these suckers until I google’d and found Mr. Boakes lurking at the top of the results with an ever helpul blog post.
Switched to automatic, hoping this works for me too!
THANKYOU SOOO MUCH! Thought the problem would stop with iPhone4 and nearly cried with frustration when it didn’t. Googled and found this solution, set to Automatic and bob’s me uncle. Wish I’d done this 6 months ago!
my phone won’t let me select automatic, the box is there but it won’t click onto it? can anyone help? please! before I lose all sanity! x
Sam’s suggestion worked perfect for me… I set the network to “Automatic” and voila! no more annoying popups about the signal.
Yeah, the openmoko phone is tempting, but the shared minutes and unlimited 3G data on O2 here in the UK makes the iPhone comparably inexpensive, and I don’t have time to hack it at the moment