Why Does My iPhone Say Searching? Here’s The Fix!

View Comments (121)

• I dropped my Iphone SE 13 and it lost the ability to make or receive calls. "Searching ` then No Service". Texting and every thing else still works. I put in a new Sim Card - no luck. I ordered a new phone, and have 14 days to cancel the deal Do you think this is worth repairing. My phone is only 14 months old. Thanks.

• I need help from yesterday sim is not working its showing searching and sometime no service

• Same problem with searching on upper left of iPhone after all the above steps followed help

• I helped down the power button while holding the right upper top of my phone until the apple appeared then after about 30 seconds I restarted my iPhone 6 and and Verizon replaced the searching and I was abil to use phone and texts to everyone then the next day the searching was back on top left of phone and I back where I started please help

• MY IPHONE 6 KEEPS SAYING SEARCHING AFTER RESETING THE NETWORK

• My issue is that I am in an area with no cellular coverage whatsoever and good W-Fi. iPhone intermittently allows phone calls & texts, but is currently showing searching and refusing to do either.

• My iPhone 6 says "Searching".
  I tried resetting network settings and also shutting the phone off and on. I also took my SIM card out and put that back in. I wonder if, since my phone is 6, they no longer supported it? I have not tried a DFU restore yet, as my iCloud storage is full and I do not want to lose my phone contacts.
  My wife has an iPhone 6 also and hers works fine. I have no damage to my phone. I also checked for Carrier Settings Updates and there were none. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
  Contact me at Floridasprague@yahoo.com
  Thank you, Chuck
  P.S. I Recently downloaded the Coin Base app two weeks ago. It seems like that’s when the problem started possibly.

• After resetting as well it works for some time then it says Searching again.

• thank you for this! i only had to reset the network.

• This was a great tutorial. Thank you for your Help and sharing what you know.

• I tried all the options and none worked, I only succeeded after I upgraded the software using wi-fi. The phone is ok now

• My phone keeps saying searching on the carrier and im with t-mobile

  • If you have followed all the steps in this article and still aren't having any luck, it might be possible that T-Mobile does not cover your area. Also, try reaching out to your carrier to see if there is an outage or something wrong with your account.

    • when reset my network settings do I have to put the passwords in for the WiFi and does it reset my apps cause I have apps for school on my phone and I don’t want to lose any data

      • Resetting your network settings will require you to enter in your Wi-Fi passwords again, but it will not reset any app data. Make sure you have your Wi-Fi passwords written down before you do a network reset so that you can enter them in again.

• My iPhone 6 was searching constantly. I used the DFU. After about 15 minutes the phone was able to receive the carrier. However, it started searching when I left the house. Upon returning home it started working again. The signal is on the lowest signal bar.
  Thanks for the help. At least it works.

• please my iphone network is always searching

• Please iphone 6s network is always searching, any help!

• I did step 3 three times and that worked. Lucky I didn’t stop at twice!,

• i have repaired my iphone 7 saying searching 3 times but it keeps saying searching after a day of working perfetly

  • Please were did you repair it please help

• my phone searching mode and does not let me do anything

• Thank you very much. I had to reset my network settings. Everything works well now.

  • Would've been nice if I could do any of these steps while my phone is unactivated :|

• My iPhone 6 and 6Plus same problem searching and no servide after reset.

• Great stuff and insight. However still saying searching. Great because I never thought of these diagnostics which are useful

• pretty sure apple wants you to buy a new phone I wouldnt be surprised if the send a bug to make your phone fail ,they have done it before remember battery problems just as iphone 8 was coming out ?

• Went through all of the steps, and the DFU restore worked, I was amazed. Back in business.

• Very detailed guide, thank you. Just about to try the firmware reset - I cant use the phone (except via WiFi) so Ive nothing to lose now! Thanks again.

• Thank you very much as final I resolved my iPhone

• Super awesome, super happy. Thanks David. My iphone6 is working again, I hope it last until I can get another. Dont know how long it will last, but at least I know what steps to take. It took only three steps and BOOM searching disappeared. Thanks again.

• I was a big time Apple Fan, until a couple of issues happened with my mac and ipad. Just wanted to say the same, I tried all the possible steps ever you can imagine, but the SIM is still searching! One of my friends told me he had the same issue and he was asked for 20k Indian rupees (Almost $300), I mean I can litteraly buy a new phone for that amount. Highly disappointed!

• Hey so this really helped, turned out I had to factory reset my network settings. I was pushed into the pool by a friend of mine, thought I broke it. Thought this wouldnt work and was stupid. Glad I tried it, thanks a lot for the article!

• Step #3 worked! But like another poster suggested, it took three attempts! Yay

• Unfortunately, this did not fix the problem. However, I now feel confident that I need professional assistance. I too often jump the gun only to find out it was something I could have done on my own with clear step by step instructions. So thank-you. I will add that although my iPhone 6 continues to say searching I am able to call, text, receive calls and texts and go online. I occasionally will get a message send failure or learn that a text was sent to me yet I never received it. So off to Apple I go - or Verizon.

• I have an iPhone 6 which I have owned for quite a few years. One day this searching problem happened to me and I tried everything on this page. For a few days, my phone started to work again but then suddenly started to say searching again. I took it to an Apple store and they told me that either my antenna was broken, or that my SIM card reader was broken, neither of which they fix. (They also told me that this problem is currently really common among the iPhone 7, all editions of it.) I then took my phone to this really great place called ubreakifix, where they offer free diagnostics of any electronics, all their prices are really reasonable, and they are well certified. They opened my phone up and unplugged everything, then replugged it and behold my phone was working in perfect condition. I'm putting this out there just in case anyone is still having these problems, and like me, does not want to pay an arm and a leg for a new phone.

• ive had my iphone 7 for almost 2 years and its worked fine, but now when im not home on the wifi i have either "searching" no just nothing at all. ive turned my phone off and on at least 9 times today and nothing has changed.

• It just happen to me.. i tried all of suggested on yor web but none of them work.. but suddenly my battery fully drained.. then Im charging my iphone 5s using usb connect to laptop, when my phone turned on the problem solved, now it back to normal. (My iPhone 5s problem is it keep searching for network after i changed my battery)

• Pooched

• Hi.
  Thanks for the great post.
  Hasn't fixed my phone unfortunately so looks like I'll have to visit the iPhone shop.
  Thank you

• ok, iphones are s***

• thanks alot

• Thank you. This was very helpful.

• I have an iPhone 6 and after several attempts to resolve this issue at the apple store, repair stores and fido - I have been unsuccessful. I have an old iphone 4s that was not working either so I decided to do the above steps and it fixed my old phone. Since this was successful, I tried doing it on the Iphone 6 however, it was unsuccessful. I tried the steps 2 more times in attempt to see if it would help, it didn't. I have a feeling its the phones carrier update that is causing the issue. With the iphone 4s, it prompted with a carrier update after the DFU finished and I pressed no. I noticed the version of the carrier of the phone thats working - iphone 4s version is Fido 24.0 but on the iphone 6 the version is 34.0. For some reason, the DFU did not remove the carrier update on the iphone 6 but it did on the 4s. Do you know if there is anyway I can remove the carrier update on my iphone 6 ? or how I can resolve this. I really want to thank you both for getting the 4s back up and running because now I can acutally use my phone.

• I have an iphone 5c... still. Yes older model now and its been working pretty good for me until now. It says searching. I did the restarts, network reset and a few other things. Nothing worked. I finally gave up and went for the restore and it didn't fix it. So then I had a brick. But I looked online that if you have trouble activating you iphone you can try a recovery mode option. THIS SAVED ME! Some how the connection reestablished and I was able to activate my phone a restore all my backed up data. So... RECOVERY MODE for anyone going all in with the restore and doesn't work. Try it BEOFORE you dive into hardware. I am also finding out that the searching issue is still reocurring. After I got it fixed an hour or so later it did it again. All I need to do now is restart my phone and it fixes it again, reconnects and I'm good to go. So I'm thinking there might be an update in my apps that is causing the problem (apps are well known for causing problems, talk to any apple support). So I turned off auto updates in itunes and hopefully that will stop the problem from reocurring. Good luck all!

• BUT IVE TRIED EVERYTHING

• Thanks! I needed to reset my network. All fixed!

• In the past, these things have worked. However, this last time my iphone 6 is not responding. The phone is out of warranty and the carrier says its not their problem, although it reads network not available. I was already aggravated with the carrier but now I'm furious.I have repeated the same exact steps for the past 3 representatives.

  This is a very helpfull article and easy to read and understand.

• I am experiencing the same problem i am using iPhone 5s ever since Sunday its been saying searching and I dont know what else to do please help

• I have the Iphone 7 and have the "searching" problem. I can send & recieve texts, use apps on wi-fi, but nothing else. I went to Verizon and was told I needed to get a new phone. Step #3 was the one that did it for me. I will respond tomorrow if it doesn't stick. Thanks so much for this post. I felt I needed to leave a comment to be sure I showed my gratitude for your efforts in writing this post.

• Tried all the steps up to the DFU step. Looks like its a lost cause. But thanks for your help.

• Thank you for the info. Followed steps and it worked.

• I have spent literally hours arguing with apple in store about my device. My iphone6 has been in perfect condition. It all of a sudden started saying no service after I did the 11.2.1 update. Then it started to say searchig. My carrier (Rogers) said some people were having the same issue. I went to the Rogers store and the guy told me about 5 people came in that evening with the same issue. I asked for help online and they told me yeah a cell tower may have affected it, but it will work in the morning. My cell service came back for four hours and then started doing the same thing. Rogers looked into it and said the service is working so I should try some resets or a new SIM card. I went to the apple store and they did some resets. The guy got the phone to work by doing Reset All Settings but then it went into the Rogers Edge network (where it does not say LTE and just says E in the corner). He told me to take it to my phone store (Rogers) and get them to replace the SIM. Well as soon as the guy did that it went back to the same old problems ... searching and no service. I went back to apple and they told me it has to be my device. I ended up buying a new phone ... I was very annoyed cause it made no sense to me how my phone stopped working, then worked for a bit, and then stopped again. The girl who helped me told me about their 15 day return policy so instead of just letting it go, I persisted to fix my old phone because I knew there was noooo way it was done. They also gave me a new SIM just incase. The next day I called apple care and they told me I should go back and get a diagnostic done on it and then ask them to delete the whole thing and start fresh. I had my new SIM in the old phone again because I had been attempting to revive it with apple care on the phone. The guy at the store took the new SIM out and put it back in my new phone so I could get texts of when they'd see me at the apple store. (the rest is below)

• When I finally got my appointment I told the girl how apple care on the phone said I should request a diagnostic (however, the girl was not willing to give me one and told me that won't tell me anything .. I don't know anything about phones but I did argue this .. she still was not willing to do it) ... she was willing to wipe the entire phone to see if that could solve the problem. Well after she wiped the phone she took the new SIM out of my new phone and put it into my old phone. Then all of a sudden my old phone started saying the SIM couldn't be read. I was livid! It had been reading the last three days while I'd been trying to fix the phone. Her response was pretty much well your device isn't working already so this just goes to show it is the device. She told me no service and searching could have do with the antenna in my phone. Then she started to tell me how the SIM is a new problem but nonetheless the device. I said the SIM is down here and the antenna would be up here wouldn't it .. she also said who knows what happened maybe something happened like I dropped it (but I hadn't). I said how do you even know it was the device forsure before this because you wiped it to see if that'd solve the no service/searching issue and if the SIM had been left in who knows if it would've been okay and then I'd actually know if this would solve the no service/searching problem ... let me tell you we had it out ... then 15 minutes later she turned it off and back on and the SIM could be read but my phone still said no service/searching ... she just reminded me I did the right thing by purchasing a new phone since it def. was the device ... I left the store annoyed but still had it set in my mind it was indeed some sort of stupid software issue. The lady who I spoke with on the phone for applecare even told me she highly suspected it was a software issue of some sort ... I got home and persisted at fixing it again ... I came across someone saying online if you go into carrier settings and instead of having it automatically choose your carrier setting just pick your carrier option. I couldnt even get to carrier beforehand so that was my goal. ANyways I took my SIM card out of my new phone (that I was set on taking back in the next week regardless cause I have had enough of apple) and placed it back in my old phone ... it again said no SIM. I uploaded my cloud stuff ... no pics/music but my contacts were still there ... then I shut my phone off and then on again .. and guess what ... the phone began to work... it no longer said edge network or no service or searching ... I don't care what anyone says... it def. is some sort of software issue .. do yourself a favour and persist because apple is making a ton of money off people who think their phones are done ... once this iphone6 is done for good I am never buying another apple product again!!!!!!!!I strongly believe they do rediculous stuff and have glitches with updates on some phones to make customers think their phone is broken. Could you imagine if I didn't keep trying? Ridiculous!

• too soon..i HAD service for about 5 min...now it says no service again