iPhone issue

[supton]

Not sure if anyone else has seen it?

Got an SE less than a year ago. Nice phone, does what I want... except texts and calls.

I live in a lousy cell reception area, and it's really common for me to have no reception at home, and not much for a few miles around me. No big deal. Problem is, my phone acts like, once it loses the tower, it won't bother looking again. I have to go into settings, put into airplane mode, wait a couple seconds, then take out of airplane mode. Then it looks for a tower. And then it gets all my messages... This works until it loses reception again, and once again, it acts like a recalcitrant teen, and won't bother looking for any towers.

Wouldn't be much of an issue, except I just received two weeks of messages (all 4 voice and 2 texts), which would have been nice to have, real time and all.

I know I've power cycled it at least once, and while it's due for yet another update, I'm pretty sure I've had at least one iOS update since this issue started.

Any ideas?

 

[ruhroh]

Is your Settings > Battery> Low Power Mode on?

 

[PimTac]

Double check your settings. Do you have wifi in your house?

 

[Cujet]

Maybe you can enable push/fetch for email and this will force it to check the network regularly. Go to settings, mail, accounts, fetch new data, then make sure the push/fetch settings are on. From there you can select automatically, 15, 30, hourly or manual. Maybe try 15 minutes?

 

[Jimmy_Russells]

Settings > cellular > network selection > auto

This should be toggled on

 

[supton]

Low power mode not on.

WiFi in the house works good, and works good at work. Sometimes I can get Apple texts even if no cell service, but that requires my wife to have WiFi also (if it sends as regular text then it does not work).

Settings > cellular > network selection > auto

This should be toggled on

Not seeing this? Under Cellular I have data on, data roaming off, low data mode off, and Limit IP Address Tracking on. WiFi calling off, along wtih calls on other devices. WiFi assist is off also.

 

[supton]

Maybe you can enable push/fetch for email and this will force it to check the network regularly. Go to settings, mail, accounts, fetch new data, then make sure the push/fetch settings are on. From there you can select automatically, 15, 30, hourly or manual. Maybe try 15 minutes?

Email works pretty good, although Outlook likes to be a pain sometimes with "refreshing" nonsense (I had to disable data as it wiped out a gb suddenly of my data, so I no longer get notifications while driving).

 

[mk378]

Turning wifi calling on should make calls and regular texts work on wifi.

 

[Jimmy_Russells]

Not seeing this? Under Cellular I have data on, data roaming off, low data mode off, and Limit IP Address Tracking on. WiFi calling off, along wtih calls on other devices. WiFi assist is off also.

When was the last time you updated your phone?

 

[supton]

When was the last time you updated your phone?

Whenever it wants it. 16.1.1 although I see it wants another update, I should do that and see if it magically fixes the issue (I want to say, I did an update not all that long ago).

 

[Jimmy_Russells]

Whenever it wants it. 16.1.1 although I see it wants another update, I should do that and see if it magically fixes the issue (I want to say, I did an update not all that long ago).

Weird. Here is my screen (13 regular) on the same menu. I can’t see the SE being that much different. There is going to be a network preferences setting somewhere in there.

 

[supton]

Turning wifi calling on should make calls and regular texts work on wifi.

I feel like there was some reason I turned this off. Maybe there wasn't, I'll look into it.

 

[supton]

Weird. Here is my screen (13 regular) on the same menu. I can’t see the SE being that much different. There is going to be a network preferences setting somewhere in there.

 

[Jimmy_Russells]

View attachment 130483

You must only have one network available.

Try the WiFi calling on I guess? It might not be as good as the network but it's certainly better than nothing.

 

[supton]

You must only have one network available.

Try the WiFi calling on I guess? It might not be as good as the network but it's certainly better than nothing.

I'll give that a try next, but first I'm going to wait and see if this update does anything. See if it still does not automatically keep looking for a tower.

 

[alarmguy]

Besides turning on WI-Fi calling is there a reason you have roaming turned off?

 

[Vil_Riker]

Roaming can incur big $$

 

[supton]

I don’t think Tracfone even has roaming. Although sometimes when I can’t make a call it will tell me I am roaming, go figure.

 

[mk378]

I don't think any US company charges for roaming inside the US. Either it is no additional cost over your regular plan, or (more likely) it doesn't work. Either way you won't be charged.

Going to another country is different, including being near the Canada or Mexico border.

 

[zyxelenator]

You need wifi calling to be turned on. I also have 1 or no bars at home. Works like a charm on 13th iphone. Roaming enabled may help with signal from other tower. You should not be charged extra, those times are over unless you travel to another country.