IPhone 3GS Signal issue

Hi there. I'm hoping someone can shed light on this situation or at least point me in the right direction.
I purchased a used 3GS. The first thing I noticed is that the signal was going from full bars to one, or No Signal. The first thing I did was replace the entire dock connector housing (includes speaker/mic and flex antenna) but ended with the same results. I restored the phone several times, and still nothing.
I checked the inductors and resistors next to the antenna connector (#7) which is a common area for damage. All are in place and working.
The odd thing is, when I have it plugged into my Mac, it works perfectly..
Can anyone relate to this? Or maybe know about any fix?

Sometimes, when laying flat, I notice mine gets a better signal. Perhaps when you plug into your mac, the signal is stronger because of that.
In my house, if I turn OFF the 3G part, my signal goes to full bars. If I turn 3G back on, I get one. My understanding is that in this case, two different towers are being used. The non 3G is closer to me and thus stronger.

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Iphone 3GS Email issue

I just purchased an Iphone 3GS (previous owner of 3G)
Had email setup through Push with my works Exchange server with out any problems.
Now, every so often I try to send an email with an attachment(or forward it)it gets stuck in my out box and won't send.
I have full signal!
Error: "Cannot Send Mail" An Error occurred while delivering your this message.
Ever since I have upgraded to 3GS I have been having issues sending email.
There are a few other people in the office experiencing the same problem with their 3gs, and all of the people with 3g are still not having any problems.
None of the settings at my job have changed at all.
Any help would be nice.

*Large Email and Attachment Test Results:*
I Sent a Voice Recording 1687 KB
In a little over a minute by bouncing in and out of EMail Folders, also periodically I would Press the Fetch Control the file was Sent at
12:52 AM Received at 12:53:56 AM
Sent from my iPhone 3GS
On Sep 24, 2009, at 12:39 AM,
Sent Multiple pictures (3), email size 484 KB. Process Below Select
photos from Camera Roll, by first pressing the File Action Control
Then select 1, 2, 3 then chose Share, email
Next I went to Mail, in the Outbox, or Inbox, then error message
saying Cannot Send Mai An error occurred while delivering this message
Now Go Back to Top Mail Folder Tree
Scroll Down to Sent Folder Tap, Status should show Connect...then
Sending 0-------------0
Observation:
+Many times at this stage, is where the Email with Attachment+
+Successfully Sends.+
At times for Larger Files over 500 KB, I have, had to go into other
folders, and back out and into Sent, I did receive the error again
repeated steps above and it went.
Patience ultimately pays off here.
Sent from my iPhone 3GS
This iPhone 3GS Email was Sent (Put in the Outbox at 3:53 PM.
To confirm the ability to still send email I sent another email at 4:44 PM, no attachment went through and was confirmed received by the recipient at 4:44 PM. Email continues to send, and receive bypassing the stuck larger email in the Outbox.
This Photo is 2.25 MB, all the while when asked to Fetch you will receive the Error on your iPhone saying Cannot Send Mail An error occurred while delivering this message. Though this documentation event is regarding a 2.25 MB file this happens as low as 81 KB, and I believe even smaller sizes. There have still been times when sending files up to 200 + KB that have gone through with little or no delay.
I tested this during an Apple iCare Support session and naturally the email with attachment happened to go through during the Support Phone call.
Checking the size of the attachments they probably weren't the best examples to test with, 55 KB, and 220 KB.
Going into Sent Box...Seems to be an accelerator for the Checking Mail...It also seems to have a positive impact on the sending of EMails with Attachments...I just discovered this but hope this will be valid.

Infuritated with iphone 3gs recognition issue

For the past month I've been trying to resolve an issue with an iphone 3gs running OS 4.3.4. This phone is not detected by any pc/laptop or itunes. This issue is heavily reported everywhere with a multitude of apparent solutions, I swear to god I've tried everything multiple times except doing a factory reset which i'll be damned if I do.
Now this iphone used to connect/sync fine all the time without issue, we didn't update or sync it with the laptop for about a month and during that period obtained an ipad 2. We set up the ipad 2 on the same itunes account without issue. Later I finally went to update to iOS 5 on the iphone 3gs. This is when I first detected the issue. The phone was no longer being recognized at all. It doesn't show up in my computer, itunes doesn't detect it, it doesn't pop up in the device manager when connected and even the camera isn't recognized.
As I stated, I've tried everything except factory reset.
I've tried;
1) Changing cables- the official one that came with it, one with iphone 4s, ipad 2 cable, spare cable, 3rd party short cable, 3rd party long cable. No difference. none of these cablesd allow the phone to be detected, none of the phones allow the iphone to pick up a charge from a usb connection EXCEPT the 3rd party black one.
2) Using all above cables on 2 different laptops, 3 different pcs. Exactly the same as above.
3) Everything on this page http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1538
- Apple Mobile Device Support is installed
- Have restarted the apple mobile device support service several times
4) Itunes is completely up-to-date I have reinstalled itunes about 5 times now, i'll be loathed to do it again. I've repaired, I've followed guides to completely remove all traces of itunes/quicktime/apple including from registry, and then reinstalled.
5) I've entered revovery mode and tried everything listed here http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1538
6) I've disabled and removed any potential 3rd party software including anti-virus.
7) I've tried removing potentially erroneous pictures created by apps or obtained by means other than directly from the iphones camera.
8) Tried removing lock on phone
9) Tried taking pictures on phone to bring camera up on windows.
10) Carefully and thoroughly cleared and cleaned the inner contacted for the usb connection cable on the phone.
11) Updated all intel based drivers (usb/motherboard) and reinstalled them.
NOTHING is working.
The itunes account for the phone is installed on a windows vista pc, as stated earlier it used to always work without issue. I can't see how the issue wis with the laptop as it is not recognized in the same manor on other devices.
There are 2 or 3 things that could be potentially causing the issue. My main thought is something to do with the install of the ipad 2. The ipad 2, on the same laptop, IS recognized, by both the laptop and itunes, in other words, there are absolutely no issues with the ipad 2 which the iphone 3gs has.
If I connect say my iphone 4 to the laptop (or any other device) it IS recognized. In other words every other apple device, be it iphone, itouch or ipad works with every laptop/pc i have except the iphone 3gs.
To clarify, the iphone 3gs is working absolutely fine on it's own, it just isn't being detected by anything. The iphone 3gs charges absolutely fine on a official apple power cable with plug.
My phone has never been and is NOT jailbroken.
There are some slight discrepencies to information in this article http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1538 pertaining to the Apple mobile device USB driver.
With the iphone 3gs, as mentioned, when connected, it does not appear in the device manager. All my other apple devices do appear. For example the ipad 2 and the iphone 4, however, slightly differently as described in the article. The apple mobile device usb driver appears not under "Universal Serial Bus Controller" but under "Portable device". When the iphone 3gs is connected "Portable device" isn't even listed (as the phone is not recognized).
Ive tried connected the iphone 4 on one cable then the 3gs on another but only the iphone 4 is detected on the pc/itunes still.
All I stated it as a potential issue I don't truly believe the installation of the ipad 2 is the reason as other devices work fine.
Another possiblilty is to do with the picture issue, this has been reported alot around the web and is by far the most bizarre issue. If this was indeed the porblem I'd be beyond infuritated, consider the phone has thousands of pictures from a multitude of origins, be it the camera, bluetooth, emailed, downloaded, another camera app, an editing app. Bare in mind this is over a number of yeears and has not caused issues, then suddenly, it is. And the solution, delete the pictures that didn't come directly from the camera, i don't even need to state how nigh on impossible that is, for myself, i'd have to delete every single picture to ensure I got them all. The problem there? As is the major problem? As is the reason I can't just factory reset? The phone hasn't been backed up in a long period of time, I'd be losing far too much. The bottom line, this absolutely should not be happening and there has to be a simple yet not obvious fix for this.
The final possiblity? The usb port on the phone is faulty? Now bare in mind it gets a charge from being plugged into a socket (non-usb) and also gets a usb charge from a single 3rd party cable? Could this really be the issue? Would it make sense a charge is possible but not detection? It's definately not the cable, so that would leave the physical port on the phone? As i stated earlier I've cleaned this properly and ensured there's no signs of physical damage. The phone is obviously no logner under warranty and I honestly don't beleive it's damaged to the extent it won't be recognized.
I've probably missed a fair few things out i've tried to resolve this, but this is lengthy enough for now. Any suggestions greatly appreciated. I would love to resolve this without having to attempt a factory reset or delete all the photos. If there was a way to mass send every photo at once via email or bluetooth I'd try that then delete them, is there? I mean i do NOT want to be doing this one at a time. I really need to get the phone detected so i can backup my phone and (if then possible) transfer the data to my new iphone 4s (in the post!).
I love apple but this issue is quite disgusting and it's very apparent and widespread, there's just too many possibilities to it and unfortunately all the above don't seem to be helping.
Thanks for reading!

It COULD be the photos; the Camera Roll was never intended to be permanent storage; it is for temporary photo storage until the photos can be transferred to a computer, just like you would do with any other digital camera. However, the problems that you have read about with corrupt images only prevents the Camera Roll from being accessible on the computer, it does not interfere with syncing.
It could also easily be a hardware issue with the phone. I consider this the most likely. However, here is something desperate you can try (desperate only because it may not work; it isn't going to hurt anything): Open a Windows command line with Administrator privileges, and type:
netsh winsock reset
For your photos, you have a couple of options.
Dropbox (www.dropbox.com) - Open a free Dropbox account on your computer, install the free Dropbox app, then copy the Camera Roll photos to the Dropbox Photos folder. They will appear in the dropbox folder on your computer as if by magic.
Picasa (picasa.google.com) - Open a free Picasa account. Purchase the MyPics app for the iPhone (not free, but inexpensive), and upload all of your photos to Picasa using MyPics
There are other apps with similar functionality, but these are the easiest to use.

My iPhone 4 signal issues are gone...

Well, like many of people here I had the obnoxious signal loosing issue that is affecting a staggering amount of iPhone 4 users. However, I never realized I inadvertedly fixed the issue until just 10 minutes ago. I had signal issues since Day 1.
Bear with me thru this small story. I saw here a thread on MacRumors about a user experiencing camera issues on his iPhone 4. Said issue was that the camera showed a green spot in the center. I was sorta curious but never really paid much attention to it. This was 4 days ago. Flash forward to yesterday.
I was on the Apple Store picking out a new case for my iPhone 4, along with the respective screen protector. While I was doing that I saw an empty iPhone 4 demo unit and I decided to test drive FaceTime. I fired up both my iPhone 4 and the demo unit and connected. Disaster struck, my iPhone suffered from the same green spot effect as the iPhone from the user on MacRumors. Knowing full well, it was a hardware problem I set up an appointment for today at 6:30 PM.
Flash forward to today 6:30 PM. I got there at 6:15 and the Genius helped me out right away. He saw the problem, diagnosed my phone and concluded as previously stated it was hardware problem. Obviously warranty kicks in. He takes out my Micro SIM card and puts in the new iPhone (this was a brand new, not refurb unit). He activates it and hands it to me for mini inspection. first thing I do is check the camera, and against ALL odds, the same issue plagued this new phone. The Genius and I were, to say the least, shocked. Same issue, different phone. Now, how does this relate to the signal loss? Well, I am getting there so hang on tight.
The Genius does a comparisson between my iPhone and replacement unit to find the exact spot. He then pulls out his and does the comparisson to find his iPhone 4 too suffers from the dreaded green blob/spot. He then tells me there is no other replacement unit for my iPhone and that I had 2 choices. Take my current iPhone and wait if a software fix comes along, or take the replacement phone with me. I decided to wait and keep my phone (it is a hassle to resotre everything to previous state). So the Genius reswaped the SIM card to my phone back and handed it to me. (My iPhone spent 15 minutes with out SIM card while the Genius did all his tests on my and replacement unit, and while he asked for 2nd opinions on the green blob issue)
I went on my merry way, but realized something now. No matter what position I held my iPhone 4 in, the signal never decreased. I held it the many ways I know the signal issue pops and nothing. No bar loss, no signal loss, no call drop. NOTHING. So there you have it.
I am theorizing that moving the SIM card had something to do with the signal issue, because the only thing I have done to my iPhone 4 differently is take out and reinsert the SIM card. Other than that no other changes to it. No setting change, no software change no nothing. Just reinsertion of the SIM card. Now, to prove my theory, I need people who can test this and see if this fixes their iPhone. I know it did on mine, but on yours?
Check it out.
PS - No, I did not have the green blob issue fixed.
My original thread is found here:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=955742
Many users are claiming (me included) the signal issues being fixed.

I have "death-grip" issue. Just ejected SIM card to test SIM contacting the SIM tray issue. I have a 10x loupe and inspected the area in question (SIM card gold contacts touching tray) and I found that there is a space between contacts and SIM tray. Under 10x magnification you can easily see how precice my SIM card was made and cut. There's also a relief rout around contact area. Also there is a thin film of some non-conducting material between SIM card and SIM tray where the tray supports the card. This SIM tray even has the IMEI and Serial number etched on it and under 10x magnification you can appreciate the fabrication and close tolerances even this SIM tray is made to.
I followed all instructions on the macrumors forum and this "DID NOT" solve my "death-grip" issue and I can verify with 100% certainty that the SIM contacts are not touching the SIM tray anywhere.
I do hope this helps others but I am still hoping that this can be rectified with software.

HT4623 Iphone 3gs tech issues.

I have an Iphone 3gs and I am having messaging issues. I can't picture text at all. Cant send or recieve. Can't print from my phone. My daughter has a Ipad and she can print from her Ipad. Also I can't send multiple people when sending one message.
To start from the begining I bought this phone and am using Straigt Talk service but it is an AT&T phone. I have an at&t compatible sim card. When I got this from someone they said that if I have the phone unlocked my phone will be able to use the text messaging. I have done this and it still doesn't work. Also this information was the same when I asked Apple at my local store.

StraightTalk is not a supported GSM carrier. Contact them for help setting things up for MMS messaging. (group text messages go out as MMS messages, not SMS messages).

IPhone 3GS signal drop and late texts.

My IPhone 3GS seems to have random signal loss, in places where it has previously had good signal. I have noticed that there is no pattern to where I lose signal, but it is reletivley frequent.
My iphone also sometimes does not recieve texts sent to me for a couple of hours after they were sent. It does not always happen, but I can have as many as five texts come through hours late.
If anyone is having similar problems and/or has found a solution for this, any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Best advice is to take it to an Apple store: But is there one in Kuwait?
Phil

Iphone 3GS Signal terrible

I just purchased an unlocked Iphone 3GS and am on a Vodafone network and the signal is awful. It drops calls mid conversation and is generally unusable. Does anybody have a solution for this?

You can buy a Vodafone sure signal box.
http://online.vodafone.co.uk/dispatch/Portal/appmanager/vodafone/wrp?nfpb=true&_pageLabel=templateCClamp&pageID=PPP0161

IPhone 3GS syncing issues.

Are there any known incompatabilities between iPhone IOS 4.3.5 and iTunes 10.5.2.11? Even after a restore, the sync is stuck near the beginning. This prevents any updates to IOS 5 on an iPhone 3GS.

You could do that, or just completely reset your phone and re-sync everything. You may have a corrupted file somewhere that is causing the back-up to take so long. When I had the problem, it went away when I deleted the news reader apps. I think the apps where causing the problem because I could read the news articles offline, so they were being cached and all that content was being backed up every time as well. If you have any app like that where you can use it without a cell signal, it could be that.

Iphone 3gs iPod issue

When I performed the update to the newest software, for some reason now almost every song on my iPod on my iPhone 3gs is on there twice. May be a simple fix, but IDK didn't happen until the update

Hi, I was having the same issue while updating with iTunes, the fix is to add your device to the "portal" with XCode. No need to have the new Xcode 4.5.
quick how-to:
1- In Xcode, go to Organizer->Devices
2- Xcode will ask you to add this device to the "Portal"
3- Wait until "The version of iOS on “Catarino’s iPad” does not match any of the versions of iOS supported for development with this installation of the iOS SDK. Please restore the device to a version of the OS listed below, or update to the latest version of the iOS SDK; which is available here." message appears.
4- go back to your iPad and proceed with activation.
5 - done.
hope it helps.

IPhone 3GS Battery Issue

Hi there.
My iPhone 3GS is cutting out after 10-15 mins when making a phone call showing the battery logo red and then re-booting when the battery is full, when it re-boots the battery is fine. The iPhone currently has ios 5.1, is it to do with that or something else?
Many thanks, Lewis

Sounds like you could have a corrupt app that isn't properly shut down after you hit the home button...
A couple things to try...
Hard reset - Hold sleep/wake and home down at same time until you see the white Apple symbol...then release both and allow for reboot.
Restore - in order to fix OS bugs...you need to choose the "set up as new iPhone" option when prompted... so since this starts clean, ensure that all contacts, calendar events, email account, notes, photos etc are backed up either in iTunes or in their background programs like Mail or iPhoto etc... Then once you have selected to restore and it wipes the phone, choosing the "set up as new iPhone" will get rid of the OS bug that could be causing the battery issue...
Of course try the cycle that I mention above first... along with the hard reset it may resolve and not require the full restore....

Itunes and Iphone 3gs syncing issues

I have tried to sync my Iphone 3gs (3.1.3) and Itunes (9.1.1.11) a couple of times. It has been about 2 1/2 hours into each sync and it appears to get stuck, or atleast very slow, not even a 1/3 of the way. Any help is appreciated.
Thanks,
Justin

You could do that, or just completely reset your phone and re-sync everything. You may have a corrupted file somewhere that is causing the back-up to take so long. When I had the problem, it went away when I deleted the news reader apps. I think the apps where causing the problem because I could read the news articles offline, so they were being cached and all that content was being backed up every time as well. If you have any app like that where you can use it without a cell signal, it could be that.

IPhone 3GS & iOS4 Issue

Since updating to iOS4, I've noticed that when listening to the iPod app I'm unable to load new updates into other apps, they just time out. Examples:
- Mail & Messages apps cannot send/receive messages
- Safari cannot open any web page
- 3rd party apps (Weather Channel, for instance) time out or I receive "Cannot connect to server" message
Once I stop the iPod app everything loads quickly. This happens on WiFi or 3G. I've already done a clean restore (not from backup), but I still have the same problem.
Another related issue is that occasionally when using the iPod app, if another app interrupts (a phone call, say) the iPod pauses (as it should) but then doesn't restart once the other process is completed (ending of phone call). I have to restart the iPod app to return to what I was listening to before.

Here's the issue I am having, along with a "solution" or at least what I've figured out. The main issue is that iPhone 4 is not getting mail appropriately from the GMAIL Exchange server.
- iPhone 3GS running iOS4 works fine.
- iPhone 4 has a problem reading mail from GMAIL Exchange server
Settings for both are exactly the same:
EMAIL: myemail
SERVER: m.google.com
DOMAIN:
USERNAME: [email protected]
PASSWORD: mypassword
USE SSL: on
With this setup, my iPhone 4 seems to get Push notifications OK, but fails when trying to get mail via normal sync (i.e. when you go browse the inbox). It will sit there "Checking for Mail" until it comes up with an error contacting server. Having tried all the other listed solutions (i.e. drop and re-add acct, reboot phone, toggle SSL, use 3G only, etc.) I had no results, so I played with it until I got a solution.
THIS IS WHAT I FOUND:
I can get the mail sync to work perfectly if I change my username from [email protected] to just myusername (delete the '@gmail.com'), but then I can't send email out. Switching back to the full [email protected] fixes sending emails but breaks the normal email fetching, so I suspect there is a bug in the iOS mail software that's appending an '@gmail.com' or stripping it depending on what you're trying to do, but these two should be consistent to avoid this problem... we need a FIX!

Iphone 3Gs Backup issues - "Unknown" time stamp 01/01/2001 01:00

Since updating to iTunes 9.2 for windows my phone will not back up or sync. I deleted the old backups thinking this was the problem. Now all I get after the backup running for 20 hours straight is an "Unknown" backup time stamped 01/01/2002 01:00.

If you have an iPhone 3G, then you cannot have upgraded it to iOS 6 unless you hacked the iPhone. Did you do so, or do you really have an iPhone 3GS?

Iphone 3GS syncing issues with Blueant Supertooth 3

Anyone having troubles syncing contacts to the ST3? My old iphone 3G (running the OS beofore 3.0) worked great, but with the new Iphone 3GS I'm gettting a "phone not supported" error from the bluetooth unit.
your thoughts...

Unlikley it's Windows 7. Maybe delete the iPod photo cache?... http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1314

IPhone 3gs activation issue - Belgium Mobistar

So here is my situation. I got an iPhone 3GS about 2 years ago from someone who got it from Belgium. The iPhone was supposed to be carrier unlocked and thats what they say on Apple's site. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1937
Now I had been using it and was working fine (it had the hacks in it though) and then last month I took it to the Apple store and asked for a battery replacement. Instead they gave me a refurbished one with the same settings.
The phone couldn't be activated since I didn't have the carriers sim. So used the *other* way to activate it and it ran fine on T-Mobile. But after a week the battery died and I restarted it and since then it keeps giving me "No Service".
I don't want to hack my phone but I don't have access to a sim from the belgium mobistar carrier. Is there any way I can get this phone to work?
How can I really know which carrier the phone is tied to, since there are two in Belgium and the woman at Apple support says its AT&T (bizare)
Also even if I somehow get hold of a Mobistar sim, will the phone activate even if Mobistar network isn't available where I am?
Really in a bad fix, appreciate any help you guys can give.
Thanks,
-Aamir

I understand the jailbreaking part. But I still don't think it's locked to AT&T. The phone could originally have been an AT&T phone before getting refurbished cause the guy at the genius bar told me that he locked it to the same carrier as my previous phone. Also said Belgium somewhere in the apple support section when I put in my phone's serial number, can't remember exactly where.
So second part of my question, if I get hold of a sim from the carrier, can I activate my phone even without network coverage for that carrier or do I need a connection to get it working for the first time?
Thanks.

IPhone 3GS Signal issue

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