iOS 10 Airplane Mode could lead the phone never to get phone signal again, reports claim
Apple is said to be investigating the claims, though some may be fixed just by restarting the handset
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Your support makes all the difference.Turning on Airplane Mode might mean never getting it back on again, according to people suffering from a new bug.
People switching on the mode – meant as a temporary way – appear to be finding that it stops them getting signal back. Some report that the problem is fixed by restarting their phone, but others are finding that they have to swap their phone for a new one at the Apple Store.
The exact cause of the issue isn’t clear, and so it isn’t possible to say how many people may suffer from it – though it seems to be very few – or whether it’s possible to stop it from happening. It also isn’t clear whether it is an issue with the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus specifically, or if the problem is iOS 10.
Apple has told authorised repair businesses that they should tell customers to restart the affected phone, according to documents seen by MacRumors. And if that doesn’t work, people are advised to remove and then re-insert the phone’s SIM card.
Videos online show the problem – and the fact that it just leads affected devices to show a message reading “no service”, as if they are out of signal, even if they definitely aren’t.
“All of a sudden today my iPhone 7 Jet Black model started not getting internet service – can’t make outbound calls or receive calls – even though it showed 4 bars,” wrote one YouTube poster, who showed the affected phone next to a working iPhone 6s. “I then put it in Airplane Mode, and back off, then it showed no service. It got pretty warm in the top right hand corner.”
The YouTube user, Yasser El-Haggan, said that he had taken the phone to the Genius Bar and had it swapped for a new one.
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