Fixing ‘Cellular Issue Detected’ Error on iPhone: Causes and Possible Solutions

Have you recently encountered the Cellular Issue Detected message on your iPhone, especially after installing an iOS update? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. I personally faced the same problem, and you might not need to repair your phone or change anything at all because fixing this error isn’t what you might expect.

Cellular Issue Detected Problem Details

The issue of the network completely disappearing on my iPhone 13 Pro Max began when I updated to the iOS 18 beta. A few days after installing the beta version, I was surprised that my phone had restarted itself after several hours and then returned to the system, but without any network at all. A new notification appeared at the bottom of the screen, which was:

There’s an issue with your iPhone’s ability to access cellular data. Go to Settings for more information.

Trying the ‘Usual’ Official Solutions

In the previous image, when I clicked on the ‘Learn More’ button, the phone opened a page on Apple’s website related to this issue. It contained several steps you could follow to try to fix it, which are general troubleshooting steps that you can perform yourself. I actually tried all of them, and I’ll quickly list them for you in case they help solve your problem:

1. Turn on Airplane Mode for 15 seconds, then turn it off again.
2. Restart your iPhone:
   • Press and release the Volume Up button
   • Press and release the Volume Down button
   • Hold down the Power button until the screen goes dark and the Apple logo appears
3. Check for any available iOS updates and install them if there are any.
4. Contact your carrier to ensure there’s no issue with the network.
5. Make sure there are no updates available for your carrier settings.
6. The last step is to remove the SIM card, reinsert it, and then restart the iPhone.

Try any of these steps; one of them might be the solution to your problem. However, I personally tried all of these steps, and none of them worked! At that point, I thought that this issue was probably related to the iOS 18 Beta I recently updated to. So, I wanted to contact Apple’s official support, which required me to download the Apple Support app from the App Store in order to reach them, and that’s what I did.

Contact Apple Support to Understand and Fix the Error

When I described the problem to the technician I spoke with, he told me that since I’m on the iOS 18 beta version, he wouldn’t be able to assist me. He advised me to submit a report of the issue to the development team responsible for the beta versions of iOS. He also mentioned that in order for him to help me, I would first need to follow the steps to revert to the stable version, which in my case was iOS 17.6 (this version might differ on your device if you’re facing the same issue).

And so I did, I followed the steps and downgraded my phone back to the stable iOS 17.6 version, but things got even worse! When the phone rebooted into the system after installing the latest stable version, I selected the language, connected the phone to my Wi-Fi network, and then encountered another message: ‘Unable to Activate – An update is required to activate this iPhone,’ with the only option to Shutdown the phone!

At that point, I went back to speaking with Apple Support, but this time from my computer since I couldn’t activate my iPhone at all. Fortunately, I had saved the case number from the first conversation, so I wouldn’t have to explain everything again to the Apple technician I spoke with. After providing the case number and describing the new issue, they still couldn’t assist me.

They advised me to visit an Apple Authorized Service Provider so that a technician could diagnose the problem directly from the phone. They then sent me the addresses of the authorized Apple service centers.

Visiting an Apple Authorized Service Provider to Fix the Problem

The closest authorized center to me was in another town. So, I decided to drive my car and arrived at the Apple Authorized Service Center in the morning. I explained the issue to the technician and handed over the phone. What they specifically did was remove the SIM card from the phone, take it inside to install the latest stable OS, which took about 15 minutes. Then they returned with the phone, asked for the SIM card again, and put it back in the phone. To my surprise, the network started working again!

I told him that it didn’t make sense for the issue to be that simple, and he responded that he had run a diagnostic on the phone and found no internal hardware problems. He said the phone was now working without any issues. I accepted this, asked about the repair cost, and he informed me that it was 450EGP (approximately $10) simply for installing an operating system update! I paid the amount requested, drove back to my town, which took a little over an hour, and the phone was working perfectly without any problems.

But as soon as I got home, the phone restarted itself, went back to the system, and the network disappeared completely again. The same problem reappeared!

I immediately called the authorized center again and informed them that I was the person who came in the morning with the network disappearance issue, and that it had disappeared again. They asked me to return to the center with the phone and the invoice.

At this point, I was convinced that my iPhone had an internal hardware defect, either an issue with the part responsible for the network itself being unstable or with the part responsible for reading the SIM card data.

I didn’t return to the Apple Authorized Service Center because I knew what would happen. It’s a very frustrating issue with Apple service centers in general – they don’t actually repair the iPhone even if it has a minor defect. Instead, they replace the entire motherboard and battery and charge a very high amount, which can reach up to $600 (or 30,000EGP in the case of my iPhone 13 Pro Max).

Either this, or you have one other option: go to another ‘non-authorized’ service center in your area, explain the problem to the technician, and hope that they are skilled enough to repair the issue with the motherboard. Keep in mind that in this case, you will lose the phone’s warranty if it’s still valid, and the phone will no longer be water-resistant. Additionally, there’s a risk of encountering another issue while the technician is working on the phone, as you’re dealing with someone not officially trained by Apple, unlike the authorized centers.

There is a temporary Fix!

After dealing with all the previous issues for three consecutive days, I discovered a way to fix the problem that might be temporary but is still effective. This way, I wouldn’t have to pay a very high amount to an Apple service center, nor would I need to hand over the phone to an unknown technician without a guarantee that another issue might arise while he work on it.

Ironically, the solution is very simple and you can implement it yourself right now. All you need to do is the following:

1. Remove the SIM card from the phone.
2. Restart the phone:
   • Press and release the Volume Up button quickly
   • Press and release the Volume Down button quickly
   • Continue holding the Power button until the screen goes dark and the Apple logo appears
3. Once the phone restarts, reinsert the SIM card.

You may need to repeat this process several times throughout the day, so I recommend keeping the SIM card eject tool close to you at all times (for example, in the phone’s case) so you can perform this operation wherever you are.

What if you encounter the ‘Unable to Activate’ Error?

I faced this issue as well before discovering this temporary solution. The fix here will be using the official Apple iTunes tool, not any external tools like 3uTools. To resolve this issue, follow these instructions:

1. Remove the SIM card from the phone.
2. Download iTunes if you’re using Windows; if you’re on a Mac, you can use Finder.
3. Connect the iPhone to the PC or laptop using a USB cable.
4. Put your iPhone into Recovery Mode (DFU Mode):
   • Press and quickly release the Volume Up button.
   • Press and quickly release the Volume Down button.
   • Continue holding the Power button until the screen goes dark and the Apple logo appears.
   • Do not release the Power button until a laptop and cable icon appear on the display.
5. Now, on the computer, open iTunes and you will see the following screen:
6. All you need to do here is click the ‘Restore‘ button and keep the phone connected to iTunes until it finishes downloading the latest stable software for your phone and restoring your system. In fact, this is exactly what the software technician at the Apple service center did.
7. What if you press the ‘Cancel’ button when the message ‘There is a problem with the iPhone‘ appears? In that case, you should press the ‘Restore’ button again on the next screen in front of you.
8. After the tool completes, your phone will restart automatically. You will then need to set it up again with the initial settings. Note that you will need the PIN code you previously used on the phone or your Apple ID and password.

In the end…

After performing these steps, the network started working normally again. Sometimes, the issue would reappear, and all I had to do was restart the phone for the network to return. This might happen several times throughout the day. Later on, an update for the iPhone was released, which was iOS 17.6.1. I downloaded and installed it immediately, hoping it would resolve this annoying issue.

What I noticed after installing the update is that the frequency of the network disappearing has decreased, to just once a day, and it returns after a restart.

In fact, when I researched the issue, I was surprised to find that thousands of people are experiencing it, without their phones having fallen from a high place or being misused. The problem appears suddenly without any prior warning.

You can verify this in the Apple user forums here, here, here, here, or here, and there are hundreds of other complaints about the same issue. The frustrating thing is that when someone goes to an Apple service center to fix the problem, they are told that they need to replace the entire motherboard of the iPhone at a high cost, which could reach $600 or $700, especially if you are using a relatively new iPhone model!