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What Is A “Carrier Settings Update” On An iPhone? Here’s The Truth!

    David Lynch
  • 1 year ago
    • Categories: Cellular

You turn on your iPhone and immediately see a pop-up that reads, “Carrier Settings Update”. OK, new settings are available — but what does this message mean, and should you update? In this article, I’ll explain why it says “Carrier Settings Update” on your iPhone, what a carrier settings update does to your iPhone, and show you how to check for carrier settings updates in the future.

What Is A “Carrier Settings Update”?

When you see an alert that says “Carrier Settings Update” on your iPhone, it means that Apple or your wireless carrier (Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T, etc.) have released an update that will help improve your iPhone’s ability to connect to your wireless carrier’s network.

Is It Important To Update Carrier Settings On My iPhone?

When your wireless carrier updates their technology, your iPhone also has to update in order to connect with that new technology. If you don’t perform the carrier settings update, your iPhone may not be able to connect to everything your wireless carrier offers.

Furthermore, a carrier settings update on your iPhone may also introduce new features such as Wi-Fi calling or voice-over-LTE, or fix software bugs and glitches that are causing problems for a lot of iPhone users.

How Do I Know If A Carrier Settings Update Is Available?

When a carrier settings update is available, you’ll usually receive daily pop-ups on your iPhone that say, “Carrier Settings Update: New settings are available. Would you like to update them now?”

But what if you want to check for a carrier settings update manually? There isn’t a “Check For Carrier Updates” button anywhere on your iPhone. There is, however, another way to check:

To check for a carrier settings update on your iPhone, open the Settings app and tap General -> About. If there’s an available carrier settings update on your iPhone, a pop-up will appear on the screen asking if you want to update. If 15-30 seconds pass and no pop-up appears on your iPhone, that means that there probably isn’t a carrier settings update available.

How Do I Update Carrier Settings On My iPhone?

To update the carrier settings on your iPhone, tap Update when the alert appears on the screen. Unlike other updates or resets, your iPhone will not restart after the carrier settings are updated.

How To Check If iPhone Carrier Settings Are Up To Date

If you’re unsure whether or not the carrier settings actually updated, do this:

  1. Turn your iPhone off and back on again by pressing the power button until slide to power off appears on the screen of your iPhone. Then, swipe the red power icon from left to right to shut down your iPhone.
  2. Wait approximately 30 seconds, and turn your iPhone back on by pressing and holding the power button until the Apple logo appears directly in the center of your iPhone’s display.
  3. Then, open up the Settings app and tap General -> About. If an alert doesn’t pop-up on the screen saying a carrier settings update is available on your iPhone, that means your carrier settings are up to date.

Carrier Settings: Updated!

Your carrier settings are up to date and next time you’ll know what it means when iPhone says “Carrier Settings Update”. I’d love to hear from you in the comments section below, and don’t forget to follow Payette Forward on social media platforms for the best iPhone content on the internet!

View Comments (63)

  • My MMS is on and I have all updates but still can't send photos through text messages. I was able to yesterday, but today it won't allow me to send photos. Any suggestions?

  • I have a new Apple IPhone SE 3rd generation. I just switched carriers and I have internet and all my Apps are working, except my phone.. I can’t call anyone or text. What is the problem?

  • I hit the “update” button several times a day, and my phone never actually updates. It’s been doing it for 5 months….

    • That's interesting, I've never heard of someone having that problem before. Try reaching out to your wireless carrier to see if they have a solution for you. Your iPhone may be experiencing an error when trying to download and install the carrier settings update.

  • I travel a lot actually and most probably what happens when I accept the carrier updates is that the country I just arrived at send their own local settings such as blocking facetime or voip or any service I am enjoying on my iPhone ?

  • I have done all this several times and contacted Straight Talk and went through all this with them. My phone has been hacked because my location comes up as Saint Louis, Missouri or Minnesota. I’m in Wymore Nebraska, ZIP code 68466 . I need to get rid of whatever is hacking my phone — that’s where the problem lies.

  • Hi David - I have an iPhone 6 running iOS 12.5.5. Over past week I have kept getting the “Carrier Settings Update” pop up. When I press Update nothing happens. There is no update option when I go into settings. The pop up happens about 20 times a day so I'm keen to resolve it. Thanks.

    • Hi Vicky! Have you tried going to Settings -> General -> About? Usually, when carrier settings updates are available, they should pop up automatically within a few seconds of opening that page in Settings. Hope this helps!

  • I accept the carrier updates, over and over, yet still get the pop up? Why is this happening?

    • Hi Christian, Carrier Settings Updates get released periodically. I'd suggest continuing to install them.

      • Like once every week? I assumed they weren't taking. I'll see if the message eventually stops, Thanks.
        I did recently change sim cards, same carrier but went from cdma to gsm

        • Hi Christian, that sounds about right. The frequency of Carrier Settings Updates varies from carrier to carrier. I'd imagine getting these frequent pop-ups gets pretty frustrating, but I'd recommend continuing to accept them. Best of luck!

  • I’ve noticed for the last three months that you cannot hear as well on FaceTime or on calls every sixth or seventh word is dropped or pixelated then the call is Dropped can I ask is this about flipping everything to 5G because I never had these problems before
    carrier is fido/ rogers

    • Hi Xandra, that sounds like a very interesting problem. While I can't say for sure that switching to 5G is what's causing this issue, I'm happy to help you test that theory!

      If you open Settings -> Cellular -> Cellular Data Options -> Voice & Data, you can select the type of network you'd like your iPhone to connect to. If you currently have 5G selected, tap LTE instead and your iPhone will start automatically connecting to 4G LTE networks in the area, rather than 5G. If you can make calls normally again, then you were right — 5G was causing the problem!

  • A few weeks ago I noticed I couldn’t hear as well on the earpiece speaker that once worked fine. Mind you this started before the update. I went through all my settings and so forth and couldn’t find the solution to this issue. I just now did a carrier settings hoping this would help it. I too have an IPhone XR help please.

  • Whenever I make calls my phone says “You are not able to make calls at this time, always allowed numbers can be reached.” why is it doing this? The carrier is up to date please help.

    • Is this a T-Mobile issue by any chance? I've seen this issue before and while I haven't found a solid answer on how to fix it, it sounds to me like parental control settings gone wrong. I would reach out to your carrier to ask them about it and see if they can get it resolved, but poke around your iPhone settings to see if you can find any parental control or call settings that might have been switched on. If you can't get it resolved, the next best thing is to try a new network entirely. Here is a guide about how to switch from T-Mobile to Verizon. You might even be able to save money by doing this!

  • It keeps saying “error occurred” when i turn the iMessage toggle on and off. it still says “waiting for activation. it’s been a while now. i’ve tried everything

  • I received an email stating that “due to a problem with payment method you provided, we couldn’t charge your account for you case. Then there appears a long case #. If you don’t update your information in 24 hours your Apple ID will permanently locked. To unlock your Apple ID please visit the link to log in to your Apple ID and update your your billing information.” https://applied.apple.com/update/billing. My billing is thru at& t not Apple. I’m really Leary about updated this because I called at & t about the email they think it’s a scam because my billing is thru at & t. What do you think. On the carrier update pop up it does not say at & t on it

  • Hello

    apple did a remote diagnostic and they said its a hardware issue that can not be fixed
    i did a hard reset and it did work for a few hours
    now its back to searching i can use internet but can not make calls
    whats next
    ty

  • I was gifted an iPhone with the pack and a pre-order SIM card which I disposed because I am in Nigeria and the sim type is not what we used in Nigeria. Now my iPhone always say activation required for my country carriers and I have try to activate it all to no avail pls help. I guess it should be an unlocking issue and I have tried different tutorial on youtube to unlock it and none of it happens to solve my problem

  • Help. As an elderly disabled Senior I am learning to use the XR given to me by my brother. The carrier is AT&T for cellular. I do not have WiFi. I tried the carrier update but it requires WiFi. No can do. Like your videos but what can I do now?
    Thanks!

    • Simplest solution I can think of to get that carrier settings update if it only allows you to get it through Wi-Fi is to go to somebody's house that has Wi-Fi and use theirs. I don't recommend using public Wi-Fi because it may not be secure. Other thing you can maybe do is have a friend nearby turn on their phone's mobile hotspot. This will show their phone as a Wi-Fi network that you can connect to so you can download that carrier settings update.

  • I've been annoyed by this "carrier settings update" for a couple of weeks thinking it was malware. I checked with my true carrier and they informed me that they had no such alert tied to my my iPhone account with them. Suspicion bells started going off. Thanks to this blog I happily touch Update and that was the end of that. To be sure, I followed the "check it" routine and it has been removed from my iPhone. ✔︎
    iPhone SE 2 13.5.1

    • I started getting those pop ups on my SE recently, too, and was suspicious. Thank you for posting this comment.

  • I did the carrier update , now when talking on phone the voice on the other end sort is muffled and hard to hear. I turn up volume still doesn’t sound good. HATE updates, always screwing something up. Agh!

    • Do you still notice this problem? Reason I’m asking this is because even though my iPhone is the 8Plus, my husbands is the SE and whenever either one of us receive calls, the only way the caller can hear and understand us speaking is if we place them on speaker phone. It’s frustrating as heck! We’re going to do the carrier update today to see if that helps. I had to google this information first to make sure it was legitimate.

  • […] check to see if a carrier settings update is available on your iPhone. Apple and your wireless carrier will frequently release carrier […]

  • Why do I keep getting notifications that Carrier Settings need to be updated but when I check in settings, it tells me they are up to date? Bogus?

  • My iphone 5s camera is blurring after the updation 10.3.2 i have restored it also. Service centre said there is nothing wrong with the camera. What to do?

  • On the iPhone 7, I get calls that they can't send or receive text. The carrier can't find nothing wrong. I know texting requires cellular data. And iMessage uses wifi. The phone says it has current update. Updating the iOS doesn't work. And updating or restoring it iTunes doesn't work. Any suggestions?

  • I have similar and more issues on my iPhone 6. It is not connecting to the network, or sometimes it will be fine, and then drop out. This started after I updated my software to 12.2 I really wish I could undo this update.

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David Lynch: David Lynch is an expert on cell phones, cell phone plans, and other tech. After using a flip phone into his early 20s, he learned the ropes about iPhones and Androids from a former Apple employee. Today, his articles and videos are read and viewed by millions, and he has been cited by major publications including Reader's Digest, Wired, CMSWire, Consumers Advocate, and more.