Iphone 3GS cannot detect SIM card

Hi My iphone 3GS cannot detect the SIM card.
The phone shows full bar for service provider but 3G unable. It cannot receive incoming calls and make outgoing calls.

I am assuming you updated to version 5.1.1, not 5.0.1 since no legitimate version of 5.0.1 is available.
Where is this iPhone from and what means did you use to unlock it?

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ITunes doesn't see my iPhone 3gs. The sim card was pulled out while the 6.1.3 was installing. How do I restore the phone?

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Selling IPhone 3GS...SIM card questions

Thank you in advance for any help you can give me. I bought my mother an iPad and, for her needs, it really replaces her iphone 3gs so I bought her a simple cell phone to replace the iphone so she can just make calls from it. This simple cell phone came with a new sim card in it. I was planning on selling my mother's iphone 3gs on ebay with her old sim card in it. I erased all content and settings on this iphone so is it okay to sell the iphone with her old sim card in it or should I remove it? In the past, I have sold my old erased iphones with the sim card still in it and now I don't know if that was a mistake. Is there personal info on the sim card that somebody can access even after the iphone was erased? Thanks much.

As when data is erased from a hard drive, if not securely erased the erased data can be recovered by a data recovery utility.
The chances of someone going to that trouble with a SIM card and there isn't much they could do with it anyway if the data was obtained, why take the chance. It isn't your responsibility to include your no longer activated SIM card with a phone that you sell for someone who is interested in using the iPhone in a way that is not designed or intended. The iPhone is designed to be used as a phone - to be activated, and whoever purchases your iPhone will need to get a new SIM card from AT&T or use their existing AT&T SIM card from another phone if they are an existing AT&T subscriber in order to activate the iPhone with their line/number with AT&T as designed and intended.
More than likely no harm done or no need to worry if you include your SIM card but why have any concern about it whatsoever?
To each his/her own.

IPhone 3gs shows no Sim Card installed in newly unlocked phone.

My uncle has just givin me his old I phone 3GS which was locked on Orange.
He has paid for the phone to be unlocked and orange have emailed over the confirmation that it is unlocked and how to unlock it.
This is where the problems start. Windows recognises that there is a phone and I tunes tries to activate the phone but it cannot and the No Sim Card installed message appears (even though there is a brand new Tesco I phoen sim). I have taken the phone into recovery mode and restored from there, however this has still not resolved the problem.
Once the system restores the software the phone restarts to the menu screen and the same message appears.
HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!! it is so frustrating.

"The SIM card inserted in this iPhone does not appear to be supported"

Use of Iphone 3Gs with another SIM card

I purchased an Iphone 3Gs in France from Orange without a contract, i.e. paid the full price and therefore it should be unlocked. I now want to use it for trips and put another SIM card in it. Now after resetting it, it simply tells me that the SIM is invalid... Any suggestions?

Call Orange. Even though it should have been unlocked, they still lock it until you ask them to unlock it. They're obligated to unlock it, so don't let them tell you otherwise.

Brand new iPhone 3GS 32GB, put sim card in, turned on, Slide for Emergency.

I just bought an iPhone 3GS with 32GB black, I used the pin to eject the sim card socket, and put the sim card in.then i pressed the silver power button at the top right corner for 3 seconds, it turned on with the gray apple. Then it comes to "Slide for emergency" with this itunes icon.
Now what do I do?

Ok seems to work. Thanks very much. Connecting to iTunes solved the problem. I presume I was one of the few cases where the iPhone didn't work without being hooked up to a computer first.
(I had read reports about this happening to people after they had upgraded, or 'jailbroke' their phone, but since I had done neither of these things, I was worried)
All iPhones have to be activated through iTunes. Usually it is done at the store when you buy it.

IPhone 3GS not recognising sim card????

I recently upgraded from an iPhone 3GS to an iPhone 4. As I had bought the phone from Orange I was able to keep it and had planned to give it to my daughter to use. Before handing the phone over to her, I deleted all the information on it. I can't remember how I did this, but it was built into the iPhone menu and left the phone, just as it was when I first bought it, asking for configuration, language settings, enable locations settings etc., The iPhone was working BRILLIANTLY before this and I had never ever experienced any problems with it at all.
My daughter is now the not so proud owner of my old 3GS, she can not use it. She has put her Orange Sim Card (contract) from her "old phone" into the 3GS and it is not saying "No Sim Card". I have also tried to connect this 3GS with iTunes and the iPhone emblem is visible in the menu on the left hand side of the screen, but when you click on this emblem it throws up a similar message saying the does not have a sim card in it (when I know it does because I put it in there).
I have spoken to the iPhone support at Orange who had me doing various things in trying out various Orange sim cards within the 3GS and it would not recognise any of them. The support guy got me to carry out a "software" reset (by pression the home button and on/off button at the same time), the sim card was still not recognised. His final words were, it's got to be the phone and you warranty has run out. He seems to think it is a software problem....
I had recently updated the IOS to 5.0.
Can anyone offer any explanation as to what may have gone wrong, has my old faithful 3GS just had enough or is it something that I could have done to "bugger it up".
All ideas or explanations appreciated.

So Melopez.........am I hearing you right???
If Apple have provided their customers with Software that, basically "buggers up their phones", what are they doing about it.
Surely we could be making some sort of claim against them.................I now have an iPhone 3GS that's only use is as a door stop, or maybe a paperweight (as a result of their so say, software bug). On the last occassion that I synced my 3GS I was informed that there was an update, so I updated it. There was nothing on this update saying "if you are the owner of a 3GS, IOS 5 is not compatible with this software, so our advice to you as a loyal customer of ours is do not update your phone as you won't be able to use it afterwards". Too much to ask for really!!

Wil iPhone 3GS work without SIM card?

I am getting ready to upgrade to an iPhone 4. Someone had told me that after I take my SIM card out of my 3GS that my kids could still play the games we have installed on it. That it would continue to operate like an iPod Touch. Is this true?

Yep:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3406

HT1414 iphone 3GS not seeing SIM card

I have a 3GS iphone and it will not see the sim card installed. The sim works in other phones.

See this support document for help with SIM errors. http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4148

HELP!!! iPhone randomly reset and now it won't detect SIM card?

Ok so here's what I was doing when this all happened.
I had called the Linksys support for a new router I just bought that wasn't working right. After waiting about 8 mins I was connected to a gentlmen in India, we worked on my problem for about 10mins or so and then all of sudden my phone just reset, or at least went to the apple logo and just sat there.
then after 30 seconds it started ringing (before it fully restarted) and it was the tech gentlemen call me back. So I slide the thing to answer and the screen froze with the slider on the right but not unlocked but I could see the time and my back ground, just no buttons and I could still hear him and talk to him.
After we fix my problem with the router he hung up, but my phone was still froze and then it started ringing (a friend had tried to call me before it reset while I was on the phone so I assume it was him again). I couldn't answer and it just kept ringing and ringing so I held the wake button and slide the red slider to shut it off.
Left it off for 30 seconds or so then press and held it again to turn it on. Now it says restore need, connect to itunes!
ok, so I did and after wait about 30sec to a minute after connecting it to itunes it comes up with this error:
*"iTunes cannot activate your iPhone because the SIM card is not inserted or a SIM PIN is required. Disconnect your iPhone, make sure the SIM card is inserted correctly and, if you use a SIM PIN, tap Unlock to enter it, and then reconnect your iPhone."*
What the heck?! I've had it randomly reset once before about a month and a half ago and which point I did have to restore, and it did and it worked fine after that.
The SIM card IS in there, and I have no idea what my SIM PIN would be, nor do I see the option for it they speak of! And this happened about 9:30pm, well after any Apple or AT&T stores are closed! I even turned off the phone, took the SIM card out and put it back and it still did the same thing!
What would cause this to randomly just mess-up like this? I loved this phone when I got it but now that this is the 2nd time this has happened and much worse I'm pretty ticked about it. And it's not like I hacked it or unlocked it or whatever that is even called, the only things I've put on my iphone are music, pictures, and programs I all got thru itunes!
PLEASE HELP!

Hi Guys,
I'm writing this from the UK. Got an iPhone 3G bought a few weeks ago and activated (no jailbreak or other stuff)it. It worked fine but last night it gave the same error as originally reported in this thread.
Went into the O2 store (this is the provider selling iPhones in the UK) and they told me is the SIM card. Got a new one but still the same...
There is something going on here because I've seen lots of claims with the exact same description. Its almost like there is a bug in the software that gets activated on the 3rd of January.
Will go tomorrow again and ask for a new phone.

I upgraded iphone 3gs to ios6 but now iphone will not recognize SIM card

Hi,
I upgraded both ipad 2 and iphone 3gs to ios6. I don't see any issue with ipad 2 but now iphone will not recognize SIM card. "Please insert a SIM card" message

You say "... but now panorama is not working". Panorama never was supposed to work before iOS 6, so you'll be using it for the first time with iOS 6.
The way to enable panorama is to open the camera, click the "options" button at the top center, and select panorama.
Does this work on your iPhone? If not, what symptoms of failure do you experience?

I was updating to OS5 and instead my iPhone went back to factory settings. Now the iPhone doesnt read my sim card and cannot be configured. Please help

I was updating to OS5 and instead my iPhone went back to factory settings. Now the iPhone doesnt read my sim card and cannot be configured. Please help

Nothing happened, i managed to get my computer to recognise it and now restoring... but it says 3 hours remaining?! Will i lose everything?

Can I backup anything on my Iphone 5s onto my sim card or only thru Itunes?

Can I backup anything from my Iphone 5s onto the sim card or can a backup only be done thru Itunes? I ask because if I ever change from an Iphone to another model, I'll loose all my info like contacts correct?

Norma Ortiz wrote:
Can I backup anything from my Iphone 5s onto the sim card or can a backup only be done thru Itunes? I ask because if I ever change from an Iphone to another model, I'll loose all my info like contacts correct?
You cannot write to a SIM card on an iPhone. Your backup options are to iTunes on your computer or to iCloud and you can set this to happen daily and automatically. The backup will only restore to another iOS device. However, you can SYNC your contacts, calendar, notes, Reminders and other data to either iCloud or to applications on your computer. If you get another iPhone you can restore the iTunes or iCloud backup to it. If you switch to a different phone or think you might your best solution is to sync to common apps on your computer such as Outlook and Address Book in Windows, or Mail, Contacts, Address Book, Calendar and Reminders on a Mac. Alternatively, you can sync everything to Google - mail, contacts, calendars, etc. Google sync is compatible with both iPhones and Android phones. And I think Windows Mobile, but that I'm not sure about.

How do I activate a used iPhone 3 with no SIM card for use as an ipod touch?

How do I activate a used iPhone 3G with no SIM card for use like an iPod Touch? It was apparently on AT&T previously and I have another iPhone 3 that is active on AT&T if that is helpful. Thanks!

Copied from the link provided.
Follow these steps to use your iPhone without a wireless service plan:
Insert the SIM card from your new, activated iPhone or one that was previously used to activate the original iPhone.
Connect the iPhone to iTunes on a computer connected to the Internet.
Once iTunes activates the device, you're free to use the iPhone as if it were an iPod touch.

I have an iphone 4 for verizon and i am going to switch phones and get a droid motorolla 4g phone and the droid doesnt have a sim card. does my iphone 4 have a sim card that i can put in the droid? can i buy sim cards separately online for the droid?

i have an iphone 4 for verizon and i am going to switch phones and get a droid motorolla 4g phone and the droid doesnt have a sim card. does my iphone 4 have a sim card that i can put in the droid? can i buy sim cards separately online for the droid?

Brandon2184 wrote:
The iPhone 4 uses a "Nano SIM"
The CDMA iPhone 4 does not use a SIM at all. There is no SIM slot. It is a pure CDMA phone.

Iphone 3GS cannot detect SIM card

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